Yorkshire born Last of the Summer Wine creator Roy Clarke to be knighted
As the creator of beloved sitcoms Last Of The Summer Wine, Keeping Up Appearances and Open All Hours, Roy Clarke was one of the most significant figures in British TV comedy in the 20th century
Last updated 30th Dec 2025
Roy Clarke, a writer, who was born in 1930 in Austerfield in Yorkshire, is knighted in the New Year Honours for services to entertainment.
He created some of the most indelible characters on television, including Hyacinth Bucket and her long-suffering husband Richard, as well as Compo, Clegg and Nora Batty, as his shows frequently feature on lists of the best British sitcoms.
Before he became a writer, Sir Roy had a number of jobs, including as a taxi driver and a teacher. Then in the 1960s, he wrote a number of thrillers for BBC radio, including The 17-Jewelled Shockproof Swiss-Made Bomb, which featured Peter Coke, Sir Ben Kingsley and Bob Grant.
The Last Of The Summer Wine began on the BBC in 1973 and followed the misadventures of the elderly residents of a Yorkshire village.
It enjoyed a record-breaking run on UK television, airing 31 seasons and at its peak had an audience of more than 18 million viewers.
Sir Roy was the sole writer and he penned the role of Clegg with Peter Sallis in mind.
Also among the cast were Bill Owen as Compo, Brian Wilde as Foggy, Kathy Staff as Nora Batty and Dame Thora Hird as Edie Pegden.
Open All Hours ran for 26 episodes over four series, which aired in 1976, 1981, 1982 and 1985, and starred Ronnie Barker and David Jason.
Set in a small Yorkshire grocer's shop, Barker played Albert Arkwright, a middle-aged miser with a stammer and a knack for selling, while Jason played Granville, his put-upon errand boy who blames his work schedule for his lacklustre social life.
Sir Roy also wrote the sequel, Still Open All Hours, featuring original cast members including Jason Lynda Baron, Stephanie Cole and Maggie Ollerenshaw. It aired from 2013 to 2019.
Keeping Up Appearances ran from 1990 to 1995, including a number of Christmas specials, and starred Patricia Routledge as the socially aspirational snob Hyacinth Bucket, who famously insisted her surname was pronounced Bouquet.
She always answered the phone: "The Bouquet residence, the lady of the house speaking," and was often inviting neighbours over to "executive candlelit suppers".
Hyacinth frequently scolded husband Richard, played by Clive Swift, for inadvertently undermining her upper-class ambitions, and she spent most episodes frantically trying to stop the truth about her family from hampering her social credibility.
Sir Roy's other writing credits include TV series The Misfit, starring Ronald Fraser; The Wanderer, starring Bryan Brown; the 1988 film Hawks; and the 1993 film A Foreign Field.
In 2002, he was made an OBE for his contribution to British comedy and he was awarded the lifetime achievement award at the 2010 British Comedy Awards.