10 Reasons Why Open All Hours Is Fantastically Funny

by Jamie Clark

1. Exactly What It Says On The Tin

Our most compelling reason why Open All Hours is a fantastically funny sitcom is the situation itself. Like the show title suggests, Arkwright is up and ready for business before dawn and does not close the shop until 9pm in the evening.

Granville certainly feels trapped by this routine €“ and it is in this that whole premise of great comedy rests. Put people in close proximity to another with no prospect of escape, and what do you get? Both characters are no closer to getting what they desire because they are stuck in the shop! Arkwright must wait for change, namely Nurse Gladys's elderly mother to die, before he can get married. Granville meanwhile will never be free and able to pursue the glamorous young woman of his dreams until his uncle retires or drops dead in his overall. Open All Hours is not the only sitcom starring Barker to tap this fundamental comedy vein. Porridge also has its characters trapped in a prison. Again the result is fabulously funny TV. Throw two of Britain's best comic actors ever together in a pokey old shop in Doncaster, give them a deliciously simple and witty script written by Clarke, and you've got comic gold. Still Open All Hours airs on BBC 1 on Boxing Day at 19:45 GMT. Tell us why you love this classic show below.
Contributor
Contributor

Jamie Clark is a qualified Web Journalist after undergoing professional training at the University of Sheffield. A prolific and accredited sports writer, he also enjoys classic comedy, historic fiction, 80s music and heritage.