Last night, while dodging the saturated media coverage of a certain wedding, I came across (okay, YouTube suggested….YouTube, you know me too well!) these clips of vintage Two Ronnies skits.
Just in case you are not Of A Certain Age, like me, or grew up in an area that didn’t religiously watch The Two Ronnies once a week, let me explain……
Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett were two British comedians that, after many other TV shows, teamed up to write and perform these skits. Barker went on to “Open all hours” and “Porridge”, again both loved series. I am not sure what Corbett went on to. Do you know? One of the highlights was Ronnie Corbett sitting in an armchair telling a longwinded, shaggy dog tale of a joke.
They were products of their time; we would look askance at some of the jokes today, and probably did even then. For example, Barker was never happy with the way the second skit “Four candles” ended, so in later performances he changed the tag line to use the key word of ‘knockers’. You can imagine how it would go.
However, they were also brilliant comedians, able to take on different characters and accents. Their timing was impeccable and their ability to craft a skit was amazing. There is a point, again in the second one, where Barker requests some ‘oes, and you feel confident that you know where the joke is going. And it does, and then veers off again. Wonderful stuff!
The first one made me laugh out loud.
They are short, so, take a little time out of your Sunday to watch two brilliant Ronnies at work.
And how could I resist this classic about apples and blackberries
So “It’s goodnight from me” and “It’s goodnight from him”.
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My newsletter is coming out this Thursday.
Anne Lawson Art 
9 replies on “The Two Ronnies”
they were certainly a fun pair…and the play on “word sounds” always fun…I didn’t watch the wedding either, let alone a replay. Saw a couple of photos here and there online. Hope everyone involved had a happy day…
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Bless them! They were ‘national treasures’ probably second only to Morecambe and WIse as Britain’s best loved comedy duo. I think Ronnie Corbett did a series called ‘Sorry’ where he was a grown man living at home with his Mum – not such an unusual scenario these days when most people in the U.K. can’t afford a house until they reach their late 30s anyway. I think he did some theatre work and was always cropping up here and there in various T.V. and radio programmes until he died in 2016.
Thanks for the memories this morning before I go and watch ‘the highlights’ of the wedding which my French neighbour reminded me of yesterday morning as I’d completely forgotten about it.
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Lucky you, have needed a reminder about the wedding. Here there has been little else all week. I hope you enjoyed your highlights.
They are good memories. While I was watching the clips I had memories of Dad laughing at the shows. He loved this humour too.Thanks of updating me on Ronnie C. I don’t remember “Sorry”, although I am sure it would have been shown here.
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-giggles- I’d forgotten how funny they were! I remember watching them on TV too. And how about Dave Allen?
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Oh, yes! Dave Allen, who very cheekily used to sit with a glass of whisky as well as a cigarette. Fancy that happening now. 😱 He was missing part of his (Index?) finger, which always intrigued me.
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That’s right! But back in the 60s? everyone seemed to smoke and whiskey was ‘cool’. 😀 How times change.
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They were an inspired pair…. Another favourite was Tommy Cooper, a wonderful, childlike innocent with the knack of hitting everyone’s funnybone. It was impossible to watch him without laughing.
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I don’t remember him….
I wonder why Britain was able to produce so many very talented comedians at that time. Was it the legacy of the vaudeville era? I know the universities were a breeding ground for many of the slightly later crop, like the Monty Python crew. There was point where they came together, because I remember John Cleese and Ronnie B and C all in a show together. Are there still avenues for comic talent in Britain to be fostered?
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Of course! One of the major ones being Britain’s Got Talent, but comedy nights and talent contests are big in the UK.
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