Compo had several encounters in his schooldays, which he remembers fondly – with the exception of one with Aggie Duckett who, he claims, "used to make his nose bleed".
After his death, it is revealed that Compo went every Thursday to visit Regina "Reggie" Unsworth (Liz Fraser) to whom he left his ferrets.
[6] Despite constant reminders that it would never happen or, in earlier days, that she was married, Compo persisted in his attempts to elope with Nora.
[9] Nora feels guilty when Compo dies in hospital with a smile on his face after suffering a heart attack when seeing her in unwrinkled stockings.
Although his main aim in life was Nora, he also played his luck with the formidable owner of Sid's Café, Ivy (Jane Freeman).
Although Ivy rejected his advances, her lumbering, coarse husband Sid (John Comer) does not try to stop him as he knows Compo does not mean anything by it.
In his later life, Compo, Norman and a third man (such as Cyril or Foggy) roamed the hills around Holmfirth, getting involved with harebrained schemes to keep themselves one step ahead of boredom.
(In real life Bill Owen's and Michael Bates's political views were similar to their onscreen characters and, in turn, both conflicted.)
As a part of his schemes, Foggy also made Compo volunteer for often dangerous and ridiculous situations and, as a result, he was regularly harmed (though rarely injured) or humiliated.
(In reality Bill Owen served in the Royal Army Ordnance Corp and was injured in an explosion during a training exercise).
The trio were helping Howard transport a cast iron bath for Marina, by wheeling it on a cart through the streets.
According to Truly and Clegg, Compo died from a heart attack after catching the sight of Nora Batty in chorus girl clothes.
Clegg is disappointed at not being able to say goodbye personally, so Truly (Frank Thornton) arranges for an abundance of white painter's overalls to be laid out in a formation saying 'See Ya, Compo' on the opposite hill.
All the other main characters – Wesley, Edie (Dame Thora Hird), Glenda (Sarah Thomas), Barry (Mike Grady), Howard (Robert Fyfe), Pearl (Juliette Kaplan), Marina (Jean Fergusson), Nora and Ivy — go to view it, in their different transport modes.
He spent most of his life (presumably until he reached retirement age) in the unemployment queues[clarification needed], as the prospect of a job sent his skin white.
His lack of funds always surprises his friends[citation needed], to the point when Compo is willing to get injured as it will end up with someone, usually Foggy, buying him a drink out of guilt or remorse.