Introduction by Dame Thora Hird

Someone once said "Take your work very seriously and yourself not at all". They were wise words and ones I have tried to follow throughout my career in the theatre - they always come back to me whenever I open a new Giles Annual. Giles took his work very seriously and the world he created laughed all traces of our famous British self importance out of the window!

You know, what I love most about a Giles cartoon is it's richness. There is so much going on! Once you have laughed at the main punchline - always so witty and cleverly observed - there are all the other hilarious things in the background. No wonder we can look at his pictures over and over again without growing tired of them.

Most important to me though, as a Northerner who likes to speak as she finds, is the clever way that Giles pokes fun at our way of life. He shows things how they really are, not how we are told they are and that is so refreshing, especially as it is always done with such affection and humour.

Being in the cast of "Last of the Summer Wine", the longest running sitcom in the history of television, I know what it is like to be part of a comic institution. Now having been asked to introduce this latest collection of classic cartoons, I feel part of another great one and it makes me proud. Thank you, Giles, for making me laugh for as long as I can remember - and that's a very long time!