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Last of the Summer Wine is a British sitcom written by Roy Clarke that first aired on BBC One. It premièred as an episode of Comedy Playhouse on 4 January 1973, and the first series of episodes followed on 12 November 1973. The 31st and final series was broadcast in 2010, making it the longest-running comedy programme in Britain and the longest-running sitcom in the world. The series is set and filmed in and around Holmfirth, West Yorkshire, and centres around a trio of old men, originally Bill Owen, Peter Sallis and Michael Bates, and since has included Brian Wilde, Michael Aldridge, Frank Thornton, and Brian Murphy. The men never seem to grow up, and develop a unique perspective on their equally eccentric fellow townspeople through their youthful stunts. The cast has grown to include a variety of supporting characters, each contributing their own subplots to the show and often becoming unwillingly involved in the schemes of the trio. The series continues to garner a large audience for the BBC and has been praised for its positive portrayal of older people and family-friendly humour. The show won the National Television Award for Most Popular Comedy Programme in 1999, and many holiday specials, two television films, a documentary film, novelisations, and a stage adaptation about the series have been made.