Mr Varney played the perky Cockney survivor making life hell for the lugubrious Blakey, the bus-inspector, a Hitler lookalike who swore at the end of every episode to get even with him, and never did.
Besides making it difficult as hell to walk in the vineyards, these stones serve to retain the heat of the day and reflect it back to the vines well into the evening, as well as to retain moisture.
The fumes could be smelt throughout Cornwall and with the bombers flying low making their runs to the wreck site one could be forgiven for thinking that a version of black hell had arrived.