Residents of Balby, a Doncaster suburb, have reacted with outrage after a fan site described the area where Open All Hours was filmed as “fictional.”
The sitcom, starring Ronnie Barker and Sir David Jason, was filmed at a converted hairdressing salon on the corner of Scarth Avenue and Lister Avenue in Balby during the 1970s and 80s.
The show returned in the 2010s for the sequel Still Open All Hours.
The controversy began when a post on the Facebook page Vintage London Memories described Balby as an imaginary location. The post read:
“In the British sitcom Open All Hours, the shop is as much a character as the people who inhabit it. Set in the fictional Yorkshire town of Balby, the shop, run by the miserly yet endearing Arkwright, is a quintessential corner shop typical of its era. With its cluttered shelves and old-fashioned charm, it serves as the heart of the community where locals gather for their daily needs.”
The post caused immediate backlash among residents. One retorted, “Balby isn’t a fictional place – it actually exists! Get your facts right!” while another added, “Nothing fictional about it. Anything north of London they haven’t a clue.”
Others chimed in with humour: “All these people trying to pretend Balby is a real place. We’re not stupid, next thing you’ll be trying to convince us Narnia and Tickhill are real places!” One resident joked, “What an insult to Balbarians.”
Another resident offered a factual correction: “Doubly wrong. Balby is real. It isn’t a town. It’s a suburb of what was, at the time, the town of Doncaster.”
Open All Hours originally aired from 1976 to 1985, focusing on the miserly shopkeeper Arkwright (Barker) and his errand boy nephew Granville (Jason). The 2013 sequel followed Granville running the shop with his son Leroy (James Baxter) before the series concluded after six series and a Christmas special.
