 The original cast of Last of the Summer Wine also included a handful of characters with whom the trio regularly interacted . Kathy Staff was chosen to play Compo 's neighbour , Nora Batty . Gilbert was initially sceptical about casting Staff but changed his mind after she padded herself to look bigger and read from a scene between her character and Owen 's . This group was rounded out by characters at two locations frequented by the trio : John Comer and Jane Freeman as Sid and Ivy , the quarrelling husband @-@ and @-@ wife owners of the local café ; and Blake Butler and Rosemary Martin as Mr. Wainwright and Mrs. Partridge , the librarians having a not @-@ so @-@ secret affair . Butler and Martin , however , were dropped as major characters after the first series . According to Peter Sallis , Roy Clarke felt there was little more he could do with them . 
