Still Open All Hours is a British sitcom (2013–2019) created for the BBC by Roy Clarke, and starring David Jason and James Baxter.
[1] The sitcom's premise focuses on the life of a much older Granville, who now runs his late uncle's grocery shop with the assistance of his son, continuing to sell products at higher prices alongside seeking to be with his love interest.
Both are regular customers of the shop, alongside others from the neighbourhood onto whom Granville tries to offload products which he has bought and had little success selling on under their original identity and price.
Since Open All Hours, having lived his youth as a nice but shy and awkward man who struggled with shop life, but in his old age Granville has changed into a more toned-down version of his uncle Arkwright.
Thanks to his uncle's training, he now exhibits a similar habit of selling goods at inflated prices, fabricating stories to sell useless and/or unsaleable items to hapless customers, and keeping a close watch on the money he spends – often through employing the use of a special money belt that causes slight issues and embarrassment at times.
During his uncle's training, Granville engaged in relationships with several girlfriends, in which a fling in Blackpool resulted in the procreation of his son Leroy, whom he was left in charge of by the boy's mother.
Following his uncle's death, Granville inherited the shop, which he runs alongside Leroy, often teasing his son over the identity of his mother (thus mirroring the original plot of Open All Hours where Arkwright teased Granville over his alleged Hungarian parentage) – whilst secretly concealing the fact that he knows who she is – while subjecting him to practical jokes and teaching him some of the tricks that Arkwright taught him.
As Arkwright did in the original series, Granville concludes every episode with an internal monologue where he reflects on the day's events as he closes the shop in the evening.
Unlike his uncle, Granville must struggle to be with Mavis since the end of her previous marriage, due to her sister Madge desiring to keep them apart.
The show began airing on 26 December 2013 with an anniversary special of original series, Open All Hours All episodes had a running time of 30 minutes.
The new one-off episode written by Clarke showed Granville now running the shop with his son Leroy (played by James Baxter), after inheriting it from Arkwright.
A 30-minute documentary accompanying the show's return, entitled Open All Hours: A Celebration, aired on 27 December 2013, the day after the new episode was broadcast, on BBC One.
[7][8] The controller of BBC comedy commissioning, Shane Allen, said: "The resounding success of the Christmas revival showed the huge and enduring audience affection for this much-loved classic.
Series 4 was, by contrast, filmed on a closed set and screened to an audience for recording of a laughter track, due to cast availability problems.
Will Dean of The Independent, referencing Arkwright's trademark stutter, called it "a w-w-worthy effort" but criticised the attempt to revive the show without Ronnie Barker,[27] who had died in 2005.
[28] Jacob Mason, writing on the Radio Times website, described the show as "warmly nostalgic", whilst others noted it as "a fitting tribute to Ronnie Barker".
[2] In December 2024 David Jason revealed that the script had been written by Roy Clarke and he hoped it would be commissioned in order to properly end the series.