Ronnie Corbett

[poliphilo]

Little chap, bouncy but not cocky, sweet-natured and naturally funny. Working with Ronnie Barker meant wigs and accents, but he didn't need them- and the most reliably funny section of their show was the bit where he sat- as himself- in a huge leather chair and told shaggy dog stories. Not everything he did was first rate but- in a career that stretched from the post-war comedy clubs to a self-subverting cameo in Ricky Gervais's Extras- he did movies, sitcoms, sketches and stand up- and the best of his clips are going to go on being recycled for as long anyone continues to take an interest in 20th century British comedy. 

Comments

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

A real loss, absolutely. And, perhaps due to where its roots lay, their comedy spanned just about all ages and classes - not out of being mindfully "child safe" or anything like that, but simply having innately broad appeal, whomever they might be riffing on at the time.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Barker and Corbett's career coincided with a time when there were only two or three TV channels and families sat down together to watch the big shows- of which theirs was one. They reached more people at any given time than is possible now. It was a sort of a golden age.