William Simmonite, better known by his nickname of Compo (from unemployment compensation, as in the phrase "he's on the compo", according to series writer Roy Clarke), was a character in the world's longest-running sitcom, Last of the Summer Wine.
Fictional character biography
Early life
Compo was born into a poor, lower-class family in Holmfirth. He claims that his mother, a rag-and-bone woman, said that after he was born the sun began to shine and that a swallow began to sing. Mentions of his father suggest Compo was born illegitimate from a brief liaison; Foggy states of Compo's father that "he was away before you got a good look at him... in fact, he was away before your mother got a good look at him". Having rigged Compo up to look like a kamikaze pilot, and impressed with the likeness, Clegg jokingly suggests Compo's father to have been Japanese, to which Compo replies "Japanese? With a name like Withenshaw?" indicating this to have been his father's surname and that the Simmonites are his mother's family. He mentions that, according to his mother, his father was from Chesterfield. The Simmonite family was and is a large one. He had several encounters in his schooldays, which he remembers fondly – with the exception of one with Aggie Duckett who, he claims, "used to make his nose bleed". This was due to the fact that she was always thumping him because he laughed at her boots, not knowing they were her father's. His school friends included Norman "Cleggy" Clegg (Peter Sallis), Cyril Blamire (Michael Bates), Walter "Foggy" Dewhurst (Brian Wilde), Seymour Utterthwaite (Michael Aldridge) and Herbert "Truly" Truelove (Frank Thornton)
Love life
Compo married soon after the war, but the marriage did not last long and he does not remember her, as she "ran off with a chuffin' Pole!" in 1947. He had several flings in his youth, one of which went to the next level and resulted in the birth of his son, Tom. Tom tracked his father down and wrote to him (mentioning Compo's two grandchildren, who "went off in search of truth and wisdom with bits of metal through their nose"), but he arrives in Holmfirth just after his father's funeral. Out of loneliness, he once hired a housekeeper (Liz Smith). He takes her out for a meal at Sid's Café and tries to start a relationship. However, she does a moonlight flit with all his newly-bought possessions.
Nora Batty
Despite never actually divorcing his wife, he has an unrequited love for his neighbour of many a year, Nora Batty (Kathy Staff). He even photographs her when she is least expecting it. Despite constant reminders that it would never happen or, in earlier days, that she was married, Compo persisted in his attempts to elope with Nora. However, he may only like Nora because he knows it won't progress further. When he thought that Nora's downtrodden husband, Wally (Joe Gladwin), had left her and emigrated to New Zealand, he was originally going around in Wally's old clothes and tidying up. But when Clegg and Blamire tricked him into believing that Nora was intent on marriage, he panicked and tried his hardest to remove Nora from the dinner to which he had invited her (Wally had in fact gone to his mother's for a couple of days, and Compo knew that he was coming back after all.)
Although Nora often gives Compo the hard end of her broomstick, she does often display concern or kindness towards him. When he cleans himself up during Wally's escape, she dresses up for a meal with him; when he disappears off a cliff on one of Foggy's wild schemes, she shows concern; when he is caught in one of Wesley Pegden's (Gordon Wharmby) exploding vehicles, she rushes forwards and tries to comfort him with a showing of her leg.
Nora feels guilty when Compo dies in hospital with a smile on his face after suffering a heart attack when seeing her in unwrinkled stockings. She and Ivy sit up for the rest of the night, reminiscing about his various exploits. When Nora and Ivy go to visit Compo before his funeral in the Chapel Of Rest, Nora is horrified that he still has the smile on his face much to Ivy's amusement.
Bill Owen said in an interview that Compo sees Nora as the Elizabeth Taylor of Holmfirth.
Ivy
Although his main aim in life was Nora, he also played his luck with the formidable owner of Sid's Café, Ivy (Jane Freeman). Although Ivy rejected his advances, her lumbering, coarse husband Sid (John Comer) doesn't try to stop him as he knows Compo doesn't mean anything by it. Whenever he tries to make advances to Ivy, the result is that he and his companions are thrown out of the café or hit on the head with Ivy's metal tray. Said Compo in one episode, "I'm just goin' to get me 'ead bashed with a tray."
