The longest running comedy series in the world started out, as many British comedy successes did, with a 1973 episode of the BBC series "Comedy Playhouse". The basis was simple but complex at the same time. It tells us the stories of three old men, who in all essence couldn't be more young at heart. The original trio consisted of Bill Owen, as Compo Simmonite, the scruffiest man in Yorkshire, with only two passions in life: his ferrets and Nora Batty (Kathy Staff). The second man of the group, Norman Clegg, played by Peter Sallis, was from the beginning shown as the most timid of the group, and also the one who gets carried away by the crazy ideas and schemes of his companions, which always seem to get him in trouble. Initially the third man of the group was Blamire, played by Michael Bates, but he was soon replaced by Foggy Dewhurst (Brian Wilde) who always seems to have a scheme or a story that somehow leads to his old days as a war hero... or so he says. In 1986 Bri