Auctioneum - Bath & East Bristol Auctions
Lot 75
From The Estate Of Bill Owen (1914-1999) - Last Of The Summer Wine - a complete screen-used Compo costume, as worn by Bill Owen as the iconic character in the classic BBC sitcom. Comprising a custom-made deliberately distressed woollen jacket with label for Bryan Manning of Saville Row, an equally distressed knitted waistcoat, pyjama-type shirt, distressed suit trousers complete with rope belt, and the trademark iconic green knitted woollen hat. The trousers with original 'Stagewear Unlimited of Yorkshire' costumers label, which has 'Bill' written in ink alongside. Believed to have been worn by Owen in the series around the mid-to-late 1990s and is one of his 'final' costumes for the character. There were several versions of Compo's costume over the show's run, and each time the costume wore out the production team would have to carefully source another - the jackets ended up being purchased from a Savile Row tailor (above) and were painstakingly 'weathered' by the production team in order to maintain continuity. A note within Owen's autobiography alludes to the eventual cost of his tailor-made 'scruffy' costume being in the region of two-thousand pounds once completed. With trademark green hat, rope belt and distressed appearance, this screen-used costume represents one of the most inconic and endearing outfit's in British comedy history. Supplied with a photograph of Owen as the character, wearing this costume.
