Last of the Summer Wine (TV Series) The Kink in Foggy's Niblick (1976) User Reviews

A round with Foggy

[Prismark10 · 7/10 · 4 July 2016]

The episode starts with a rare event, out trio playing football. Writer Roy Clarke featured little of it throughout the years but when Foggy feels the force of Comp's welly he remarks that he used to be a golfer and would had taken it up professionally if it was not for the war. Sid issues him a challenge to a round of golf if he could sneak away from the cafe that is.

We see Foggy rummaging round the attic for his old golf clubs. They are old alright and crooked. Also Foggy mentions something about having a landlady, in which case what were they doing in the attic for all these years? He has only recently returned after being away for numerous years, surely these golf clubs were not following around during his army days!

So Foggy dressed up in old golfing gear and bent clubs attempts to play golf and it is evident that he cannot play. In fact as Sid observes it would be a miracle if he ever hit the ball. Compo sees a chance to make money by retrieving lost golf balls for money.

A very simple episode with lots of laughs with Foggy's inept stroke play and Compo's enterprising way of getting hold of golf balls.

After a 30 year break Foggie's back on the course.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 8/10 · 25 February 2016]

Compo, Cleggy and Foggy go up onto the hills for football practice and exercise. Foggy isn't at his peak fitness moaning about the game, insisting he's a golfer (gorf.) Foggy's not played in thirty years but classes himself as a golfer, he's challenged to see how good he really is. Sid makes an excuse to get away from Ivy and battle commences.

It's another classic episode in a purple patch of Summer wine. The production values are particularly high. It's a really funny episode, from Foggy's outfit, to Compo's boredom around the course, to Foggy's altercation with the golfer. Poor Foggy's attempts at hitting the ball with those clubs.

Just wonderful, especially Foggy's soakings.

8/10.

Foggy golfs

[keysam-02610 · 8/10 · 13 July 2022]

One of the "set piece" type episodes, in which the trio are in a specific setting more than wandering around from countryside to cafe to library &c.

Foggy tries to show what a great golfer he is - despite it being 1939 last time he played - but his clubs have deteriorated somewhat in the intervening years. They resemble bananas!

Clegg, Compo & Sid find it all highly entertaining, especially when Compo discovers a way to make a bit of money!

"You've Forgotten Your Balls, Sir!"

[ShadeGrenade · 10/10 · 3 October 2008]

Whenever 'Last Of The Summer Wine' comes on television now, I cannot change channels fast enough ( If I see Howard and Marina riding about on bikes yet again, I will chuck a chair at the screen ). It was very different back in 1976, though. The show had been running for three seasons, successfully replacing Michael Bates' 'Cyril Blamire' with Brian Wilde's 'Foggy Dewhurst'. No offence to Bates, but with Wilde the show seemed much funnier. Another great asset was John Comer as the henpecked 'Sid'.

'The Kink In Foggy's Niblick' begins with our heroes trying to keep fit by playing football. Foggy gets one of Compo's wellies in the stomach when it comes off during a particularly strenuous kick. He then decides football is not really his game after all, and challenges Sid the cafe owner to a round of golf, even though he admits he has not played since 1939.

Following a rummage round Foggy's dusty attic to hunt for some crooked golf clubs, they head for the course, Foggy looking ridiculous in traditional golfing gear.

While the game gets underway, Compo sets about retrieving other players' lost balls - cue some nice visual gags - so he can sell the things back to them...

The idea behind this episode is simplicity itself, almost like something out of the 'Sykes' show, and that is why it works. The humour is natural, not forced, and benefits from having a smaller cast. Recent 'Summer Wine' episodes have featured almost as many characters as 'Gone With The Wind', with some doing little more than popping up, saying a line or two, and disappearing.

There is also a predictable air about the newer shows. It is as though Roy Clarke presses a button on his computer marked 'Script For 'Last Of The Summer Wine' and then goes off to mow the lawn while the printer spews out the pages.

This was made before the show came to rely heavily on 'Some Mothers Do Ave Em' style stunts, another nail in its coffin. Are we really expected to believe three old men could really roll down hill in barrels or fall off rooftops without sustaining serious injury? In my view, the B.B.C. should put the show out of its misery, and repeat the older editions. They are a thousand times funnier.

Funniest moment - Foggy's ball has landed in what appears to be a small stream. As he wades into the water and prepares to hit it, two cars shoot past, drenching him!