I’ve become a bit obsessed with ovens in sitcoms this past week. It all started when I noticed how many ovens Arkwright got through in Open All Hours, before I began to wonder if any of those same ovens were used in other BBC shows. Logic would suggest they would have to have been.
I got it into my head that I recognised one as an oven that also appeared in The Young Ones. (No, YOU’VE watched the show too much).
This is the oven from the Bachelor Boys’ first house, in Demolition.
I got quite excited, because it does indeed bear a striking resemblance to one of Arkwright’s, but alas, it’s not the same. It’s most like this one.
But as you can see, the knobs have a different configuration, and it’s a side opening door, not a drop down one.
Once they move house, The Young Ones’ oven then looks like this.
Which is also pretty close to that one above of Arkwright’s. It doesn’t last very long though.
Weirdly, although maybe not considering the world of the show, the replacement oven is exactly the same (although missing one fewer knobs).
It’s a cartoon world, so maybe it’s the same oven. And to save you the bother, I checked every episode of the first series onwards, and it’s the same oven in every one. I’m not sure of the shooting order of the episodes, so it’s possible Oil was shot last, but I doubt it.
By the time series two comes along, Mr Balowski has replaced the oven with one that fits my memory of eighties ovens much better.
So that was that. I was wrong. The Young Ones don’t share an oven with Open All Hours.
But take a look at this one.
That’s from the pilot episode.
I was watching the Christmas Special of Get Some In, which aired in December of 1975, when I saw this.
It’s not the same one either.
Sorry for wasting your time.
