JohnB_Toronto

I just re-read an oldie that I hope isn't about to fall into the long-lost category. It's Eric Barker's 1956 biography "Steady Barker!", published by Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd., London. It's a very pleasant and interesting read. Copies can still be found on Abebooks (there are 3 copies listed there at the moment), although the prices are starting to climb. I suggest you collectors might want to grab one while they're still available and affordable.

Another of my old favourites who lives on in his films and his writing ... One of those stalwarts who was always a welcome addition to any cast.

Windthrop

and wrote his wage demands in rhyming couplets !

stevie boy

He has one of those lovely little faces that radiate good humour, he always adds to any film that he was in and thankfully he will live on for ever.

Windthrop

And he even worried about what the 'stupefied peasants' would do for entertainment when his 'educated' humour became popular on radio. What a considerate man to be so concerned that poor, uneducated folk might be at a loose end when he was on the radio

stevie boy

He was a fine actor and in later life turned up in things like Gideons Way and Danger Man(Mr. Lovegrove) There is a seperate thread about actors who you know when you see them but not their name and Eric falls into that catergory somewhat.

Maralyn

Wasn't his daughter Petronella, once married to Anthony Hopkins?

Maralyn

Steve Crook

Yes, from 1967-72. They had one child, actress and singer Abigail Hopkins

Steve

Windthrop

Did Eric Barker write as well as perform - I mean poetry etc - theres one by a man of that name on ebay at present. I ask that because a documentary on BBC7 did mention the aforementioned rhyming couplets he used in memos to the BBC. That and the 'stupefied peasants' remark tended to put BBC executives backs up and didn't help his radio career in the long term. It is not entirely implausible that a man who wrote in couplets also wrote poetry.

Maralyn

Thanks Steve I thought so.

Maralyn