hoggers

Really sad to report that the great Ronnie Barker has passed away aged 76.

Obits etc will, I'm sure, follow...

Hoggers

DB7

Comedy legend Ronnie Barker dies <span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:100%">

Ronnie Barker entertained millions in his careerBritish TV comedy actor Ronnie Barker, who starred in Porridge and The Two Ronnies, has died aged 76.

One of the most respected and loved comedy performers of his generation, he was best known as one half of a double act with Ronnie Corbett.

But he also proved himself as an outstanding sitcom actor and script writer, winning four Bafta TV awards in the 1970s.

He died at home peacefully on Monday, his agent told BBC News 24.

Last year he was awarded a lifetime achivement Bafta for his TV work.

That led to a return for the Two Ronnies on BBC One, 34 years after the show first appeared on TV screens and 17 years after he had first retired from showbusiness. Barker also delivered a number of dramatic performances, most recently as Winston Churchill's manservant in the award-winning TV film The Gathering Storm and in HBO film My House in Umbria.

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Captain Casper

What a huge huge loss to the entertainment industry.

A true giant and like Tommy Cooper and Eric Morecambe - irreplaceable.

RIP Ronnie.

harryfielder

I worked with Ronnie many times and am shocked at the news.

A pleasure to have known you sir, and many thanks....RIP

Aitch,

http://www.turnipnet.com/aitch/aitch/gallery.htm

Aenima

Ronnie Barker is someone who always struck me as a genuinely nice man.
We’ve lost a true national treasure today.

I'll 'av 'arf

samkydd

I thoroughly enjoyed his Porridge character Fletcher. He also did a book on the appreciation of seaside postcard art as well, one of his passions!

"...the chairman of Littlewoods stores made a Keynote speech!"

Fellwanderer

One of the true greats of British television. We will not see his like again.

RIP

FELL

All the best
FELL

A signature is no substitute for a life

DB7

My favourite sketch after Fork 'Andles:

Q: "And so to our first contender. Good evening and can I have your name, please?"

A: "Ah...good evening."

Q: "Your chosen subject was answering questions before they were asked. This time you have chosen to answer the question before last, correct?"

A: "Charlie Smithers."

Q: "And your time starts now. What is palaeontology?"

A: "Yes, absolutely correct."

Q: "What is the name of the directory that lists members of the peerage?"

A: "A study of old fossils."

Q: "Correct. Who are Len Murray and Sir Geoffrey Howe?"

A: "Burke's."

Q: "What is the difference between a donkey and an ass?"

A: "One's a trade union leader, the other's a member of the Cabinet."

Q: "Correct. Complete the quotation ... "To be or not to be..." "

A: "They're both the same."

Q: Correct. What is Bernard Manning famous for?"

A: "That is the question."

Q: "Correct. Who is the present Archbishop of Canterbury?"

A: "He's a fat man who tells blue jokes."

Q: "Correct. What do people lean on in church?"

A: "The Right Reverend Robert Runcie."

Q: "Correct. What do tarantulas prey on?"

A: "Hassocks."

Q: "Correct. What would you use a ripcord to pull open?"

A: "Large flies."

Q: "Correct. What sort of person lived in Bedlam?"

A: "A parachute."

Q: "Correct. What is a jockstrap?"

A: "A nutcase."

Q: "For what purpose would a decorator use methylene chlorides?"

A: "A form of athletic support."

Q: "Correct. What did Henri Toulouse-Lautrec do?"

A: "Paint strippers."

Q: "Correct. Who is Dean Martin?"

A: "Erm..he's a kind of artist."

Q: "Yes...what kind of artist?"

A: "Erm...pass."

Q: "That's near enough. What make of vehicle is the standard London bus?"

A: "A Singer."

Q: "Correct. In 1892, Brandon Thomas wrote what famous long-running English farce?"

A: "British Leyland."

Q: "Correct. Complete the following quotation... (HOOTER SOUNDS TO SIGNAL THAT TIME HAS RUN OUT) I've started so I'll finish. Complete the following quotation about Mrs Thatcher... "her heart may be in the right place but her..."

A: "Charlie's Aunt."

smudge

The man truly was a genius of British comedy ; amazingly creative.

He has left us a wonderful legacy of his work, both with Ronnie C and solo. I am sure this will comtinue to be enjoyed for many years to come.

Respect.

SMUDGE

Welcome to my house. Enter freely, and of your own will...

Shadwell

Yes indeed, Ronnie Barker will be missed. A true comic giant who was quite a shy man in real life. Loved him as Norman Stanley Fletcher. Let's not forget the Phantom Raspberry Blower Of Old London Town from the Two Ronnies. Classic stuff. He will be missed.....

Time to keep your appointment with the Wicker Man...

smudge

An ironic coincidence that yesterday afternoon Mrs Smudge & meself were shopping for candles (you know what's coming....) and there was yours truly waddling round a famous retailers, quoting the sketch out loud...

An all-time great, that Mr. Barker.

SMUDGE

Welcome to my house. Enter freely, and of your own will...

Marky B

The term genius is often bandied about too much,but Ronnie Barker walked hand in hand with the word. In real life,a modest quiet gentleman,but in the lights of showbusiness,a true brilliant comedian,actor and writer,who loved to play with the English language,yet whilst having "saucy postcard" comedy,was never offensive.
I think he took the baton from Peter Sellers for being a great comedy actor,but whilst the spoils of success became a strain on the ex-Goon,Ronnie Barker's modesty prevented the same happening to him.
He was on par with Eric Morecambe,a proud family man,and a brilliant conveyor of comedy. Ronnie,on behalf of a grateful nation,thank you very much for your unique talent,yet to be surpassed.
So it's goodbye from Ronnie and a sad goodbye from all of us.
Mark

I am special. The heavens always open for me.

noglea

Heard the news today just before I was about to leave the house. He gave an invaluable contribution to British Comedy and his performance in 'Porridge' was truely amazing.

David Brent

Very sad news!
A true genius who helped British comedy remain great.
Not only a great writer of material he was also one of the very best comedic actor's ever seen on stage and screen.
From the "Navy Lark" to "Porridge" he was excellent in everything he ventured into. Thanks to him we have many comedy classic's that will always live on and be enjoyed.

"And it's goodnight from him."
Goodnight Ronnie. Thanks for the laughs. Sweet journey.

Dave.

julian_craster

From Roger

The Times Obituary
October 05, 2005

Ronnie Barker
September 25, 1929 - October 3, 2005
Comic actor and writer acclaimed for his hilarious character roles in The
Two Ronnies, Porridge and Open All Hours

RONNIE BARKER was not a comedian, he was an actor with a talent for comedy.
He made his name as one half of The Two Ronnies, the roly-poly counterpart
to the pint-sized Ronnie Corbett. He went on to make a reputation on his own
in BBC sitcoms such as Porridge and Open All Hours.
Plump and beaming, Ronnie Barker looked like an avuncular bank manager, but
in costume and make-up he slipped into characters with apparent ease. Sir
Peter Hall described him as the great actor that we lost a natural for such
roles as Falstaff and Sir Toby Belch.

Barker had come to comedy through theatre, but once he had embraced the
small screen, with all its limitations, he did not look back: I think it’s
better to make people laugh than cry, he said.

His finest creation was Norman Stanley Fletcher in Porridge, a habitual
criminal who, in the words of his sentencing judge, accepts arrest as an
occupational hazard and presumably accepts imprisonment in the same casual
manner. Snout in pocket, gum in mouth, Fletcher was the old lag who knew the
rules.

As a scriptwriter Barker loved to play with language. Sketches for The Two
Ronnies were laced with spoonerisms and doubles entendres. A luckless
character might go into a shop asking for fork handles, and be given four
candles. This was not the kind of humour which could be made up off the cuff
it was based on precise scripts and perfect timing.

Barker was the first to admit that, without a script, he was not funny. He
was in awe of Corbett’s ability to sit casually in front of an audience and
tell shaggy-dog stories. Barker enjoyed live performance but only when in
character off-stage he was a quiet family man.

He and Corbett were a uniquely independent double act. Despite the
difference in their size which provided visual jokes they had a similar
style, and both were comfortable playing the feed or the comedian. The
success of The Two Ronnies might easily have confined them to a lifelong
partnership. They were friends, too, but both wanted to maintain separate
careers and did so through their own sitcoms. While it was impossible to
imagine Eric Morecambe without Ernie Wise, it was not impossible to imagine
Barker without Corbett.

Ronald William George Barker was born in Bedford in 1929 and brought up in
Oxford, where his father had a clerical job with Shell. Educated at the City
of Oxford High School, Barker initially trained to be an architect but
abandoned the course after six months, convinced that he did not have the
necessary talent. Unenthusiastically, he joined the Westminster Bank and
dreamed of becoming an actor. He spent many adolescent hours in his room,
listening to radio comedians such as Tommy Handley. He kept his fellow
clerks amused with impersonations and plotted his escape.

The opportunity arose when he joined the Manchester Repertory Company which,
singularly, was based in Aylesbury. It was not a successful company, but
Barker was enthralled. He made his professional debut on November 15, 1948,
as Lieutenant Spicer in J. M. Barrie’s Quality Street. There was a new play
every week. Although Barker was less portly as a youth, he was evidently not
juvenile lead material, and mostly took comic roles.

In 1951 he joined the Oxford Playhouse where he spent three years. Working
alongside him was the young Maggie Smith. Barker was not impressed by her
youthful range, and ruefully remembered advising her to give up. Another
colleague was Peter Hall, who was similiarly pessimistic about Barker’s own
future. Over a pint of beer, he told Barker: You and I will never really get
on in this business, Ron. You have to be queer to get on in this business.

It was Hall who gave Barker his break. In 1955 Hall directed a production of
Mourning Becomes Electra at the Arts Theatre, London. He saw two good parts
in it for Barker, and asked his friend to join him.

In 1957 Barker married Joy Tubb, an assistant stage manager. Having acquired
a family to feed he kept himself employed in West End theatre for several
years, but it was radio which made Ronnie Barker, as he now styled himself,
known to a national audience. In 1959 he was offered the role of Able Seaman
Johnson in the BBC’s new radio comedy, The Navy Lark. The half-hour
programme was intended as a vehicle for Jon Pertwee, but Barker’s role
expanded as the show became a hit.

He also started to do film work, providing the character backbone to several
British comedies. In the early 1960s he supported Jimmy Edwards in his
television series, The Seven Faces of Jim.

Barker met Corbett in an actors’ club off Shaftesbury Avenue in 1963
standing on a crate, he joked, in order to see over the bar. Corbett was
serving drinks. He told Barker that he was a stand-up comedian from
Edinburgh, resting between jobs.

Neither thought any more of the meeting until being brought together in 1966
by David Frost, front man on That Was the Week That Was. Frost was planning
a new series of satirical sketches, and he enlisted the support of John
Cleese, Barker and Corbett. During the filming of The Frost Report, the
quartet tended to divide itself into two couples: Frost and Cleese, the
Oxbridge satirists, Barker and Corbett, the ex-grammar school comedians.

After two series the show moved to ITV as Frost on Sunday. There Barker
began to write his first scripts under the pseudonym Gerald Wiley, and also
began to toy with the idea of a dialogue-free film (what he called his
grumble and grunt film). Now sufficiently well-known to find backing, he
made Futtock’s End in 1969. It was one of the first outings for Barker’s
dotty Lord Rustless and was followed by The Picnic (1975) and By the Sea
(1982). Whimsical and rather slow, these films were not typical of Barker’s
usual comic style but they found a loyal audience among students.

In television, Barker was given his first top-billing show with The Ronnie
Barker Playhouse (1968). But however high Barker was riding on ITV, Frost
was having his own problems, and the following year his company, Paradine,
was sacked. Because Corbett and Barker were contracted to his company, they
too were sacked.

Before the news became public, the new head of light entertainment at the
BBC, Bill Cotton, saw Corbett and Barker perform a sketch at the Bafta
awards at the Palladium and offered them a contract on the spot.

The first series of The Two Ronnies was broadcast in 1971 and from the start
it was a hit. Each show began with a news desk item, progressed through
sketches, a serial such as The Phantom Raspberry Blower of Old London Town,
a monologue from Corbett, and Barker’s slot in which he appeared as a
spokesman for some eccentric society. They ended with a musical number, a
couple of late news items, and then the sign-off from Corbett It’s good
night from me and Barker And it’s good night from him.

Barker wrote about three quarters of the material. He worked hard, filming
all day, and spending his evenings in editing suites. But there was never
any animosity between him and Corbett. Barker would give his friend the good
lines in one sketch, and take them himself in the next.

Twelve series of the show were made over the next 15 years, as well as
numerous Christmas specials. With 20 million people regularly watching the
show, the BBC offered Barker a free hand at what he now wanted to do as a
solo artist. He chose to try out several new ideas for sitcoms, under the
banner Seven of One in 1973. One of the pilots was called Open All Hours,
and another Prisoner and Escort.

The prisoner idea was felt to be the strongest, and the writers Dick Clement
and Ian La Frenais (creators of The Likely Lads) got to work. The show was
about what it took to survive in prison, the little day-to-day triumphs over
the system that kept the prisoners sane.

It was obvious from the start that Porridge was something special. The
scripts and the supporting cast of Fulton Mackay and Richard Beckinsale were
perfect. But Barker was determined not to be pushed into being known only as
that prisoner fellow and asked to do only two series of Porridge.

In 1976 he appeared as his newest incarnation the stuttering Yorkshire
shopkeeper Arkwright in a sitcom about a corner shop, Open All Hours. For
this he enlisted the support of a young actor who worked as an electrician
between jobs, David Jason. The first series went almost unnoticed because of
the BBC decision to screen in on BBC2.

Disappointed, Barker was lured back to a third series of Porridge and a
follow-up series, Going Straight, also with Beckinsale playing Lenny Godber,
about Fletcher’s life after his release. It was only a modest success, and
its fate was sealed when the 31-year-old Beckinsale died of a heart attack.

Barker’s diary remained full. He won three Bafta awards. In 1978 he and
Corbett were appointed OBE. The same year they took The Two Ronnies show to
the Palladium, followed by a tour of Australia.

Every few years Barker produced a book. He had been collecting antique saucy
postcards for years, and found that editing compilations made a lucrative
sideline. His Book of Bathing Beauties (1974) was followed by such titles as
Book of Boudoir Beauties (1975), Gentlemen’s Relish (1979), Ooh La La: The
Ladies of Paris (1983) and A Pennyworth of Art (1986).

But the BBC still wanted him back in a sitcom. In 1981, with no new material
to hand, the BBC asked Barker to film another series of Open All Hours. This
time it was broadcast on BBC1, and the result was a success. Barker made a
further three series of the show.

Barker had his first taste of failure in 1984, with the flop of a sitcom
about a flamboyant Welsh photographer, The Magnificent Evans. Soon
afterwards he confided to Corbett that he was thinking of retiring. He felt
he had run out of fresh ideas, and had no ambitions left. He preferred to
quit while he was on top and enjoy retirement with his wife in the
Cotswolds. Barker made the announcement to the rest of the world in 1987,
via a message on his telephone answering machine. The profession was
stunned.

Barker embraced retirement as wholeheartedly as he had approached his
career. He and his wife moved to a converted mill and ran an antiques shop I
lose money every week, he said, but it’s a hobby. It’s cheaper than skiing
and safer at my age.

He published an autobiography, Dancing in the Moonlight: My Early Years on
the Stage (1993), and All I Ever Wrote, a compilation of all his comedy
sketches, appeared in 1999.

While Barker resisted the numerous attempts to lure him back, his fans had
to content themselves with repeats which the BBC broadcast with some
regularity. A play, Mum (King’s Head Theatre, 1998), flopped it received, he
said, the worst notices of any play in the history of the theatre.

Eventually he was persuaded to appear in a retrospective production of the
Two Ronnies, after which he played the manservant to Albert Finney’s
Churchill in the TV drama The Gathering Storm (2002). This was followed by a
role as a retired general in My House in Umbria (2003), with Maggie Smith
and Timothy Spall.

Ronnie Barker is survived by his wife, their two sons and their daughter.

Ronnie Barker, OBE, comedy actor and writer, was born on September 25, 1929.
He died on October 3, 2005, aged 76.