John Comer (Sid) was suffering from throat cancer and could not speak properly so Tony Melody dubbed his voice. Tony Melody would appear 20 years later in episode The Second Husband and the Showgirls (2003)
The final episode to feature John Comer (Sid), who died on February 11, 1984, 6 weeks after the broadcast.
After the death of John Comer's wife, Mollie, in 2010, his estate was finalized in 2013 and the Comer family donated £245,000 to the hospice in Blackpool where John Comer was treated before his death.
Christmas Eve 2023 saw BBC4 transmit the film in high definition for the first time, the original 16mm negatives having been scanned and graded specially. The broadcast was dedicated to Alan J.W. Bell.
The episode is based on author Roy Clarke's 1974 novel "Last of the Summer Wine", published by Hodder & Stoughton Ltd's Coronet Books. It actually featured Compo, Clegg and original co-lead Blamire as the central trio.