10 Reasons Why Open All Hours Is Fantastically Funny

10. Political Correctness Gone Mad

Open All Hours sets its stall out pretty quickly when it comes to political correctness. Midway through the first episode Arkwright says:

"Things were so hard in my day that people from Bradford used to go looking for work in Pakistan."

That sort of comment would land you in hot water nowadays, but it gives us a window into the world of the 1970s when the show was first screened. When it came to minding his Ps and Qs writer Roy Clarke ripped up the rulebook and simply wrote what was funny. You'll find no better examples of this than in much later episodes when a boy is seen smoking outside Arkwright's shop well underage, and the time when Granville blacks up! Our working class heroes do not exactly adopt a PC attitude towards women either in the show. Nurse Gladys has to keep a constant vigil when around engaged partner Arkwright lest he try to steal a quick kiss and grope behind the shelves. Granville meanwhile falls in love with the milk-woman, played by Barbara Flynn. Sexual frustration is a source of comedy gold mined for every ounce by Clarke here. Open All Hours is thus completely uninhibited when it comes to political correctness, and is all the better for it.