Location pictures: Is it Arkwright or has Del Boy got a new motor?

A CASUAL passer-by in a South Yorkshire village this morning could have been forgiven for thinking David Jason had pitched up on the wrong show.
David Jason and co-star Maggie Ollerenshaw, on the set of Still Open All Hours, in Balby, Doncaster. Picture: Ross Parry AgencyDavid Jason and co-star Maggie Ollerenshaw, on the set of Still Open All Hours, in Balby, Doncaster. Picture: Ross Parry Agency
David Jason and co-star Maggie Ollerenshaw, on the set of Still Open All Hours, in Balby, Doncaster. Picture: Ross Parry Agency

Set dressers had spent the weekend once again transforming the Beautique hairdressing salon in Balby, near Doncaster, into the familiar frontage of Arkwright’s general store, for the return of the BBC comedy Still Open All Hours.

But as location filming began today, the props inventory included a motor that might have looked more at home on Only Fools and Horses.

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An old orange Mini Estate bore a passing similarity to Del Trotter’s three-wheeled Reliant, famously driven around south London in Sir David’s other hit series.

David Jason and co-star Maggie Ollerenshaw, on the set of Still Open All Hours, in Balby, Doncaster. Picture: Ross Parry AgencyDavid Jason and co-star Maggie Ollerenshaw, on the set of Still Open All Hours, in Balby, Doncaster. Picture: Ross Parry Agency
David Jason and co-star Maggie Ollerenshaw, on the set of Still Open All Hours, in Balby, Doncaster. Picture: Ross Parry Agency

Spectators expecting to see Arkwright’s bike with a basket on the handlebars instead watched the Mini arrive on a low-loader, with Jason later taking the wheel.

The third series of the revived sitcom, which will once again see Sir David as Granville, returning to run his uncle’s corner shop, will air on BBC One later this year.

The new series has again been written by veteran South Yorkshire comedy writer Roy Clarke, who devised the original Open All Hours series for Ronnie Barker, as well as creating and writing the long-running Last Of The Summer Wine.

Exterior filming for the new show traditionally takes place in and around the traditional Balby shopfront, before moving into a TV studio for the main dialogue scenes.