Goodnight from him

[altariel]

Ronnie Barker has died :-(

ETA: Surfing around, there are various links to best lines and memories, but this made me cry laughing: "Still remember my father's horrified face as Ronnie Barker and Corbett, dressed as Mandarins, sang "Over China, over China, over China - Town". I was JUST old enough to realised that this was very naughty indeed."

Comments

[communicator.livejournal.com]

He was a wonderful actor. I feel genuinely saddened by this. I am glad they got that last season of the Two Ronnies.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I'm saddened too. I keep thinking of Fork Handles.

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

That's sad and unexpected news. I didn't think that he was all that old.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

76... which I don't think of as particularly old.

[trixieleitz]

:(

[altariel.livejournal.com]

:-(

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

So sad... he was so wonderful in Porridge especially, one of the great comedies.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I think I liked him best in that. He was a brilliant comedian, and also a great character actor. I'm sorry he's gone.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Fletch was an amazing creation.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

He was. I bought the Porridge DVDs a while back. It's genius.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Nearly all the Porridge team are dead now... is Brian Wilde still alive? And now I'm feeling upset over Richard Beckinsale all over again.

Yes, a sad loss. My impression was of a very hardworking craftsman of an actor. And he looked lovely in drag.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Nearly all the Porridge team are dead now... is Brian Wilde still alive?

I can't find a date of death online for him. Peter Vaughan is still going strong.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Some of the Porridge team are stil around; at least they were last year. When I was in the UK after Star One, I managed to catch a special one-off following them up in which Fletcher ends up running a pub. Ronnie Barker wasn't in it much (Fletch's daughter Ingrid was the main character as we followed what had happened to Fletch and the others) but they got some of the old lags back again. The illiterate one he used to write letters for was a road marker who couldn't spell 'STOP'. :-) I saw Peter Vaughan in something just last week; he hasn't changed at all.

Ronnie Barker looked amazing in drag. It must have been the body language, but I could totally accept him as a woman; Ronnie Corbett didn't have whatever it was. I watched a lot of those old (and very sexist) Two Ronnies shows last year and marvelled at Barker's talent.

[glitterboy1.livejournal.com]

That's sad news. He figures large in my TV memories from when I was growing up, and I think he would figure large in any history of British comedy. I'm sad that we've lost him.

[hafren.livejournal.com]

My pet favourite was Open All Hours but frankly he did so much good work, both as writer and performer. Not to mention, as too many don't, that he was one of the greatest character actors of his time, straight or comic.

[edge-of-ruin.livejournal.com]

I hadn't realised that he wrote so much material himself. "I look up to him ...." ;-)

[edge-of-ruin.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I just remembered that hilarious Morris Dance. ;-D

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I hadn't realized that he wrote so much until very recently.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

"G Wilder (I think it was) and A Gentleman" was him on The Two Ronnies. He felt embarrassed about having his name in the credits as a writer.

[temeres.livejournal.com]

I particularly remember one item on The Two Ronnies where he was blacked up playing some boogie-woogie number on the piano. It was one of those occasions where the audience fell dead silent throughout, and then unleashed an avalanche of applause at the end. Rather like the One Minute's Noise for John Peel on the Now Show last year. Just stops you dead in your tracks.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

One Minute's Noise?

[temeres.livejournal.com]

A minute of silence was felt to be inappropriate, so they had a minute of punky noise instead. And it was brilliant.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

:-)

[glitterboy1.livejournal.com]

I love the ETA. I don't remember that one, but I remember a similar experience with their line, "A Pu, A Pu, A Pu, A Puritan am I", and trying not to laugh in front of my parents, because I probably wasn't supposed to understand it.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Ah, the Saturday evening schedule that brought families together!