Ronnie Barker
So sorry to hear that Ronnie Barker has passed away.
Ronnie died on Monday 3rd October, after a long illness, at the age of 78.
He was, without a doubt, one of the finest portrayers of comic roles on TV, and, as has been pointed out, was a very fine actor. You need to be a fine actor to not only get the words and accents right, but most importantly get the timing right.
Ronnie Barker was well-known for three TV programmes.
“Open All Hours” featured him as the corner shopkeeper with an eye for Nurse Gladys, and with a young assistant played by David Jason.
“Porridge” saw him take the role of Fletcher, the worldly-wise prison inmate, supported by Richard Beckinsale as the young man taken under his wing, and with Brian Wilde (better known as “Foggy”) as an ineffectual warder.
And then there was “The Two Ronnies”, in which he and Ronnie Corbett shared sketches over 98 shows in 12 series. It was “The Two Ronnies” that spawned the “Fork Handles” sketch recently voted the funniest ever by viewers.
But my first memory of Ronnie Barker comes from “A Home of Your Own”, the hilarious1960s black and white short that was shown in cinemas. Ronnie played a workman who was cementing a drive. People kept walking and driving over the cement, and in frustration he ended up doing the most graceful pirouettes over it.
Ronnie Barker gave us all a huge amount of pleasure and laughs.
Posted by colin on Thursday 6th October, 2005 at 10:54pm