There Goes the Groom

"There Goes The Groom" is an episode of the BBC sitcom "Last of the Summer Wine" first shown on 29 December 1997. It was the first to feature Frank Thornton as Herbert "Truly" Truelove.

ynopsis

Compo and Clegg are off to a stag night where they meet Truly, who is an old school friend of Compo and Clegg, Truly has retired from the police force after 25 years service. The men, including the groom, Ronnie, and Barry, have had too much to drink and Truly rings Wesley (Gordon Wharmby) for a lift. At Clegg's house, Truly recalls his married life to the former Mrs. Truelove he mentions her a lot in his first series of the show. The picture being far from rosy puts Ronnie off getting married, and the next morning he does a bunk in a milk float.

Foggy, meanwhile still worse for wear from the stag night, has been taken in by the post lady who offers to look after him. Smiler can't work out what to buy for a wedding present and ends up with a vase from Auntie Wainwright's- which he promptly gets his hand stuck in.

Compo, Clegg and Truly eventually catch up with Ronnie, who has chained himself to a road sign in the hills. They carry him and the sign into Wesley's Land Rover but are stopped by the police for stealing the sign. Barry Mike Grady begins to panic because he can't find the wedding ring. He remembers giving it to Foggy, but he's disappeared. A neighbour tells Barry the post lady took Foggy away in her car. Collecting Ronnie from the police station, Truly handcuffs Ronnie to himself and they go to Compo's to show him what a bachelor pad can look like in the hope it will encourage him to get married. Ronnie rather likes it!

Next they enlist the help of Marina Jean Ferguson, who poses as a gypsy and warns Ronnie of the bad life he'll have if he doesn't get married. He finally succumbs. as the ceremony is about to begin, Clegg gets a phone call from Foggy saying he has been kidnapped by the post lady and taken to Blackpool.

Trivia

Originally Truly's dialogue had been originally written for Brian Wilde's Foggy Dewhirst.

Although the Christmas special was the first feature Frank Thornton's Truly it wasn't the fact was that Frank had already recorded half of the new series before filming had even started on the Christmas episode, this was to allow writer Roy Clarke to give the opportunity to write an explanation about the disappearance of Foggy and the appearance of Truly.

The original idea for series 19 was to have Foggy appear in fewer and fewer episodes. In the end it was agreed that Foggy would appear in only occasional episodes. Six shows were built around the trio with the remaining four featuring the Foggy character in very brief intro and outro moments. Unfortunately these plans had to be abandoned as Brian Wilde had left the show due to ill heath.

former British athlete Kriss Akabusi makes a guest appearance in this episode as as disgruntled milkman.
Brian Wilde was not involved in the filming of the 1997 Christmas special which saw his beloved character disappear into the back of Wesley Pegden's Land Rover slightly the worse for drink after a stag night celebration a double was used in the scene where Foggy was being driven away in the Land Rover only his legs were visible to the viewers.

References

30 years of Last of the Summer Wine by Morris Bright & Robert Ross