Open All Hours (1976) Cast THEN and NOW 2026, Who Tragically Passed Away?
When Open All Hours became a full television series in 1976, nobody could have known that a tiny grocery shop in northern England would become one of the most recognizable locations in British comedy.

There were no spectacular sets or complicated plots.

Most of the action happened behind a counter, outside the shop or across the street.

What made the programme special was its cast.

Ronnie Barker created the unforgettable Albert Arkwright, the stammering, penny-pinching shopkeeper who could turn almost any ordinary transaction into a comedy routine.

David Jason played Granville, his frustrated nephew and assistant, a young man who dreamed constantly about escaping the shop and finding romance.

Around them was an extraordinary collection of British performers.

Lynda Baron played Nurse Gladys Emmanuel.

Kathy Staff appeared as Mrs. Blewett.

Stephanie Cole became the formidable Mrs. Featherstone.

Barbara Flynn appeared as the milk woman.

Maggie Ollerenshaw played Mavis.

Together, they created a world that audiences continued watching long after the original series ended.

Now, fifty years after the first full series aired, looking back at the cast is surprisingly emotional.

Some became television legends.

Some returned decades later.

And several beloved performers sadly did not live to see the programme reach its fiftieth anniversary.

Ronnie Barker remains the face most closely associated with the original series.

Born in 1929, Barker was already an established comedy performer before Open All Hours became a regular programme.

Arkwright, however, gave him one of the defining characters of his career.

The character had originally appeared in the 1973 television anthology Seven of One.

The idea proved strong enough to become its own series.

By 1976, Arkwright’s shop had officially opened for business.

Barker transformed what could have been an unpleasant character into someone audiences loved watching.

Arkwright was greedy.

He was manipulative.

He hated losing money.

He constantly pressured customers into buying things they had never intended to purchase.

He also treated Granville as cheap labor.

Yet Barker gave Arkwright enormous warmth.

His famous stammer became part of the character’s rhythm rather than simply a joke.

Barker knew exactly when to hesitate, repeat a syllable or suddenly release a sentence.

His physical comedy was equally important.

The dangerous cash register became almost another character.

Arkwright approached it as though he were dealing with a wild animal.

Every attempt to open the drawer could become a battle.

Then there was Nurse Gladys Emmanuel.

Arkwright could aggressively sell unwanted products to customers, but Gladys could reduce him to a nervous romantic.

His pursuit of her became one of the programme’s longest-running jokes.

Barker continued playing Arkwright throughout the original run.

The programme eventually produced four series, with the final original episodes appearing in 1985.

By then, Arkwright had become one of British television’s most recognizable sitcom characters.

Barker continued working after Open All Hours, although he eventually stepped away from regular performing.

His career had already given British television several legendary characters.

Alongside Arkwright, audiences remembered him as Norman Stanley Fletcher in Porridge.

Millions also knew him as one half of The Two Ronnies alongside Ronnie Corbett.

Ronnie Barker died on October 3, 2005.

He was 76.

His death meant that any future return to Arkwright’s shop would have to happen without Arkwright himself.

At the time, few people could have imagined that the shop would eventually reopen.

David Jason’s journey was very different.

Born in 1940, Jason played Granville as a much younger man trapped inside his uncle’s world.

Granville spent much of the original programme dreaming about everything he believed existed beyond the shop.

He wanted women.

He wanted excitement.

He wanted independence.

Most importantly, he wanted to stop being ordered around by Arkwright.

The contrast between Barker and Jason was perfect.

Arkwright was always planning.

Granville was always reacting.

Sometimes Jason needed only an expression to get a laugh.

A disappointed stare or exhausted movement could communicate exactly how Granville felt about another one of his uncle’s schemes.

Jason was not yet the enormous television star he would later become.

That changed dramatically during the 1980s.

In 1981, he began playing Derek “Del Boy” Trotter in Only Fools and Horses.

The role transformed his career.

Del Boy became one of the most famous characters in British television history.

Jason continued playing him across decades of episodes and specials.

He later found another major dramatic role as Detective Inspector Jack Frost in A Touch of Frost.

By the time Jason reached old age, Granville represented only one part of an extraordinary career.

But Granville was not finished.

In 2013, nearly three decades after the original Open All Hours ended, Jason returned to the shop.

This time everything had changed.

Arkwright was gone.

Granville was old.

And Granville was now running the business.

The young assistant who once dreamed of escaping had effectively become the older shopkeeper.

The revival became Still Open All Hours.

For viewers who remembered the original programme, seeing Jason behind the counter again created an unusual connection between two different eras of television.

Granville carried memories of Arkwright with him.

The shop still felt like Arkwright’s world even though Ronnie Barker was no longer there.

Jason effectively became the bridge between the original series and the revival.

Still Open All Hours continued for six series.

It also brought several familiar performers back into Granville’s life.

One of the most important was Lynda Baron.

Born in 1939, Baron played Nurse Gladys Emmanuel.

Gladys was essential to Arkwright’s character because she revealed a side of him that customers rarely saw.

Arkwright could manipulate almost anyone who entered his shop.

Gladys was different.

She understood him.

She challenged him.

And she rarely allowed him to control the situation completely.

Their romance remained deliberately unresolved for much of the programme.

Arkwright wanted to marry her.

Gladys cared about him.

But life constantly seemed to interfere.

One obstacle was Gladys’s elderly mother.

Arkwright never managed to win her approval.

The unseen or partially unseen presence of Gladys’s mother became another recurring joke.

Baron gave Gladys a combination of warmth and strength.

She could be affectionate toward Arkwright while still refusing to tolerate his nonsense.

Her chemistry with Barker made their relationship feel genuine beneath the comedy.

Baron had a long career outside the programme.

She appeared in numerous television productions and became familiar to several generations of British viewers.

She also appeared in Doctor Who at different stages of her career.

Decades after first playing Gladys, Baron returned for Still Open All Hours.

But there was an unavoidable sadness behind the character’s return.

Arkwright was no longer there.

Granville now occupied the shop.

Gladys had grown old without the man who had spent years pursuing her.

For longtime viewers, that reality gave some scenes an emotional quality that had never existed during the original programme.

Lynda Baron died in March 2022.

She was 82.

Her death meant that both halves of the original Arkwright and Gladys relationship were gone.

Ronnie Barker had died seventeen years earlier.

Yet their television relationship remained preserved exactly as audiences remembered it.

Another familiar member of the cast was Kathy Staff.

Born in 1928, Staff played Mrs. Blewett.

She possessed the kind of instantly recognizable screen presence that made even supporting appearances memorable.

But Open All Hours was not the role for which most audiences ultimately remembered her.

That distinction belonged to Nora Batty in Last of the Summer Wine.

Nora became one of British television’s most famous comedy characters.

Her headscarf, wrinkled stockings and intimidating personality became instantly recognizable.

Staff played Nora across decades.

Her involvement in Open All Hours therefore connected two of Britain’s most beloved traditional sitcoms.

Kathy Staff died on December 13, 2008.

She was 80.

Her death came just three years after Ronnie Barker’s.

Another unforgettable performer was Stephanie Cole.

Born in 1941, Cole played Mrs. Delphine Featherstone.

Mrs. Featherstone was severe, intimidating and difficult to impress.

She was exactly the kind of customer capable of disrupting Arkwright’s usual confidence.

Cole’s comedy often came from restraint.

She did not need exaggerated movements or loud delivery.

A look could be enough.

A carefully delivered sentence could completely change the mood of a scene.

Cole went on to enjoy an extensive career across British television.

She became known for numerous comedy and dramatic roles and remained a familiar face for decades.

She also returned to the world of the shop in Still Open All Hours.

That made her another important connection between the two versions of the programme.

Maggie Ollerenshaw provided another link between generations.

She played Mavis.

Like several supporting performers, Ollerenshaw helped create the feeling that Arkwright’s shop belonged to an actual neighborhood.

Customers returned.

Relationships developed.

Characters became familiar.

The shop was not simply a location.

It felt like the center of a small community.

Ollerenshaw later returned for Still Open All Hours, allowing Mavis to appear alongside an elderly Granville.

Barbara Flynn was another memorable performer from the original programme.

She appeared as the milk woman.

Flynn would later build a substantial career in British television and film.

Looking back at her early appearances demonstrates one of the pleasures of revisiting classic television.

Familiar performers can suddenly appear decades before the roles that later made them widely recognizable.

The supporting cast changed across the years, but Barker and Jason remained the central partnership.

Their relationship gave the programme its identity.

Arkwright controlled almost every aspect of Granville’s working life.

Granville complained constantly.

But beneath the arguments was something warmer.

They were family.

Arkwright had effectively become the dominant adult figure in Granville’s life.

That relationship prevented the comedy from becoming cruel.

Granville might fantasize about leaving, but the shop remained home.

That makes his eventual transformation particularly fascinating.

In the 1970s, Granville represented youth.

Arkwright represented middle age and authority.

Granville looked outward.

Arkwright looked toward the cash register.

Granville wanted change.

Arkwright wanted customers.

Then decades passed.

Ronnie Barker died.

David Jason grew old.

When the shop reopened, Granville was suddenly the senior figure.

The transformation was almost perfect.

Granville had spent his youth terrified that he would remain trapped behind the counter forever.

Then viewers discovered that, in a way, he had.

But Still Open All Hours did not present that entirely as tragedy.

Granville had inherited more than Arkwright’s shop.

He had inherited part of Arkwright himself.

His behavior occasionally echoed his uncle.

His approach to customers carried familiar traces of the past.

Even without Ronnie Barker appearing physically, Arkwright remained present through Granville.

That gave the revival something unusual.

It was not simply a remake.

Time had actually passed.

The characters had aged.

The actors had aged.

And the audience had aged with them.

That becomes especially powerful in 2026.

Fifty years have passed since Open All Hours became a full television series.

Someone who was twenty years old watching the programme in 1976 would now be around seventy.

Children who watched Arkwright torment Granville are now grandparents themselves.

That passage of time changes the experience of watching the original episodes.

On screen, Ronnie Barker has not aged.

Arkwright is still rushing toward another customer.

He is still trying to defeat the cash register.

He is still trying to convince Gladys to marry him.

David Jason is still young.

Granville is still dreaming about women and wondering whether he will ever escape.

Lynda Baron is still standing across the road.

Kathy Staff can still walk into the shop.

Television preserves them.

Reality did not.

Ronnie Barker’s death remains the biggest loss associated with the programme because Arkwright was its defining character.

Barker was not merely performing jokes.

He controlled rhythm with extraordinary precision.

His pauses mattered.

His expressions mattered.

His physical movements mattered.

Even Arkwright’s stammer had structure.

Barker could stretch a simple sentence into a comedy routine without making the character feel artificial.

That skill helped make him one of Britain’s greatest comedy performers.

His death in 2005 ended any possibility of a genuine Arkwright return.

Yet David Jason’s later revival ensured that Barker’s character was never forgotten.

Lynda Baron’s death in 2022 carried a different kind of sadness.

Gladys had been Arkwright’s great unfinished romance.

The two characters spent years moving toward a future that always seemed just beyond reach.

Knowing that both performers are now gone gives their old scenes a new emotional quality.

They remain permanently caught in their television courtship.

Arkwright will always be trying.

Gladys will always be resisting just enough to keep him trying.

Kathy Staff’s death in 2008 represented another loss from the golden era of British sitcoms.

Staff belonged to a generation of performers who could become national institutions through recurring television characters.

Her work connected Open All Hours with the equally enduring world of Last of the Summer Wine.

These programmes were built differently from many modern television comedies.

They depended heavily on character.

There was rarely a complicated storyline.

An entire scene could revolve around a customer entering the shop.

A joke could develop around a tin of food.

The cash register could provide the conflict.

Granville could spend several minutes complaining about deliveries.

Arkwright could spend even longer trying to sell something.

The pleasure came from knowing the characters.

Audiences understood how Arkwright would react before he reacted.

They knew Granville would complain.

They knew Gladys would challenge Arkwright.

That familiarity became part of the appeal.

The programme also benefited enormously from writer Roy Clarke.

Clarke understood how to build comedy around recognizable personalities.

His characters often had exaggerated traits, but they remained human.

Arkwright was miserly, but he was not emotionless.

Granville was frustrated, but he remained loyal.

Gladys was independent, but she clearly cared about Arkwright.

Those contradictions gave the actors room to create something deeper than simple caricatures.

The success of the original programme eventually made the revival possible.

When Still Open All Hours appeared in 2013, nostalgia was certainly part of the attraction.

But nostalgia alone could not sustain multiple series.

David Jason had to transform Granville.

He could not simply imitate Ronnie Barker.

Granville needed to remain recognizable while becoming an older man with his own authority.

The result created one of British television’s most unusual character journeys.

Viewers had watched Jason as a relatively young actor playing a man desperate to escape his uncle.

Then they watched the same actor decades later occupying the same shop.

Very few sitcom characters have been allowed to age so visibly.

That makes the original episodes feel even more valuable.

They preserve the beginning.

In those early programmes, nobody knows what is coming.

Granville does not know he will still be connected to the shop decades later.

Arkwright does not know that Granville will effectively inherit his position.

The actors themselves could not know how famous they would become.

David Jason could not know that Del Boy was waiting in his future.

Ronnie Barker could not know that Arkwright would remain beloved half a century later.

Lynda Baron could not know that she would eventually return as Gladys after decades away.

And audiences certainly could not know that the little shop would eventually reopen without Barker.

By 2026, Open All Hours has become more than an old sitcom.

It is a television time capsule.

Its streets show another Britain.

Its shop reflects another style of everyday life.

Its pacing belongs to another television era.

And its performers represent generations of British entertainment that are gradually disappearing.

Some members of the cast are gone.

Others lived long enough to see the programme rediscovered.

David Jason experienced perhaps the most remarkable journey of them all.

He began as Granville, standing beside one of Britain’s biggest comedy stars.

Then Jason became one of Britain’s biggest television stars himself.

Eventually, he returned to the character that helped introduce him to millions of viewers.

But this time Ronnie Barker was absent.

That absence became part of the story.

Granville was older because Jason was older.

Arkwright was gone because Barker was gone.

Television fiction and real life had quietly merged.

That is why the “then and now” story of Open All Hours feels different from a simple list of actors and dates.

It is really a story about time.

Ronnie Barker was once the older star standing beside a younger David Jason.

Today, Barker has been gone for more than two decades.

Lynda Baron is gone.

Kathy Staff is gone.

Other performers reached ages that would have seemed distant when the original programme was being filmed.

And yet viewers can return to 1976 instantly.

Press play and Arkwright is alive again.

The bell above the shop door rings.

A customer walks inside.

Arkwright sees another opportunity to make money.

Granville looks exhausted before his uncle has even spoken.

Gladys is somewhere nearby.

The cash register is waiting to attack.

For thirty minutes, nobody has aged.

That may be the greatest gift classic television gives its audience.

The actors cannot remain with us forever.

Their performances can.

Ronnie Barker died in 2005, but Arkwright never did.

Kathy Staff died in 2008, but Mrs. Blewett can still enter the shop.

Lynda Baron died in 2022, but Nurse Gladys Emmanuel can still stand opposite Arkwright.

And David Jason’s young Granville remains permanently behind the counter, wondering when his real life is finally going to begin.

Fifty years later, we already know what Granville could not.

Life moved on.

The actors grew older.

Some became legends.

Some passed away.

The shop eventually closed and unexpectedly opened again.

But somewhere inside those original episodes, it is still 1976.

Arkwright is still counting his money.

Granville is still dreaming of escape.

And the door of Britain’s most famous little corner shop is still open.