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-Well, hello, everyone! -He's been on our screen for over 60 years. | 0:00:02 | 0:00:06 | |
Sometimes in the most unexpected places. | 0:00:06 | 0:00:09 | |
Corbett! | 0:00:09 | 0:00:10 | |
Unforgettable, as Ronnie in The Two Ronnies. | 0:00:12 | 0:00:15 | |
One of the funniest things that has ever been on television. | 0:00:15 | 0:00:18 | |
Yes, absolutely correct. | 0:00:18 | 0:00:21 | |
They had a fantastic formula. | 0:00:21 | 0:00:24 | |
He mastered the art of stand up, sitting down. | 0:00:24 | 0:00:27 | |
I know what you're thinking. I know what you're thinking. | 0:00:27 | 0:00:30 | |
That's the first time I've seen a garden mole wearing glasses. | 0:00:30 | 0:00:34 | |
He spent an awful lot of his career in dresses. | 0:00:34 | 0:00:37 | |
I mean, who wasn't a fan of The Two Ronnies? | 0:00:39 | 0:00:43 | |
He could shuffle a bit. Didn't mind a little dance, | 0:00:43 | 0:00:46 | |
which was great. | 0:00:46 | 0:00:48 | |
You just want to stroke him, put him in a little pouch and take him home. | 0:00:50 | 0:00:54 | |
He won the adoration of a new comedy generation. | 0:00:54 | 0:00:57 | |
One of the true greats. | 0:00:57 | 0:01:00 | |
People genuinely love him. | 0:01:00 | 0:01:02 | |
Ronnie Corbett unquestionably is a national treasure. | 0:01:02 | 0:01:05 | |
The man is a born, brilliant reactor. | 0:01:05 | 0:01:09 | |
All-singing, all-dancing. He's Britain's smallest big star. | 0:01:09 | 0:01:16 | |
A bit of confetti hit me in the back of the head... | 0:01:16 | 0:01:18 | |
An icon of British TV and comedy. | 0:01:18 | 0:01:22 | |
I was rushed to hospital with concussion. | 0:01:22 | 0:01:25 | |
These are the many faces of Ronnie Corbett. | 0:01:25 | 0:01:29 | |
"How did you start in the business?" they say. | 0:01:45 | 0:01:48 | |
"What made you decide to become a comedian?" | 0:01:48 | 0:01:51 | |
Which is what I am. | 0:01:51 | 0:01:54 | |
-And... -LAUGHTER | 0:01:54 | 0:01:56 | |
I always mention that. Always mention that very early, you know. | 0:01:56 | 0:01:59 | |
Just in case! | 0:01:59 | 0:02:01 | |
You know, there might be some foreigners in the audience | 0:02:01 | 0:02:04 | |
who think I'm a glove puppet. | 0:02:04 | 0:02:06 | |
Ronnie was born in Edinburgh in 1930. | 0:02:09 | 0:02:12 | |
The family were keen churchgoers and it was on a pantomime | 0:02:12 | 0:02:15 | |
stage in the local church hall that Ronnie first got the acting bug. | 0:02:15 | 0:02:20 | |
I was in this youth club, this church youth club, | 0:02:20 | 0:02:23 | |
cos our life was built very much round the church. | 0:02:23 | 0:02:25 | |
Church of Scotland. | 0:02:25 | 0:02:27 | |
And I did this youth club pantomime and I played the wicked aunt. | 0:02:27 | 0:02:30 | |
I was in drag straightaway. | 0:02:30 | 0:02:32 | |
And... | 0:02:32 | 0:02:33 | |
And it was just a revelation to me cos I hadn't been any | 0:02:33 | 0:02:37 | |
good at anything and suddenly, I just felt this immediate comfort. | 0:02:37 | 0:02:41 | |
But the comforting applause was soon a memory. | 0:02:41 | 0:02:44 | |
After the Second World War, | 0:02:44 | 0:02:46 | |
young men were obliged to enter National Service. | 0:02:46 | 0:02:49 | |
At only 5ft 1 inch, Ronnie was reputedly the shortest | 0:02:49 | 0:02:53 | |
commissioned officer in the Royal Air Force. | 0:02:53 | 0:02:55 | |
Back in Civvy Street after his regulation 18 months, | 0:02:59 | 0:03:02 | |
his diminutive stature opened the door to small parts in films. | 0:03:02 | 0:03:07 | |
He found a niche, playing boys and young men. | 0:03:07 | 0:03:09 | |
You're Only Young Twice! | 0:03:12 | 0:03:14 | |
was a 1952 British film shot mainly around the University of Glasgow. | 0:03:14 | 0:03:18 | |
Are you staying here long? | 0:03:18 | 0:03:21 | |
-I don't know. Yes, perhaps. -Oh, good! I think you'll like it here. | 0:03:21 | 0:03:25 | |
It's a bit cold at first, of course, | 0:03:25 | 0:03:26 | |
but I always find that after a week or two, I never notice the cold. | 0:03:26 | 0:03:29 | |
Come on, we'll be late. | 0:03:29 | 0:03:31 | |
Being awkward around women would become | 0:03:31 | 0:03:33 | |
something of a trademark in years ahead. | 0:03:33 | 0:03:36 | |
-Au revoir then. -Au revoir. I have enjoyed our little chat. | 0:03:36 | 0:03:39 | |
Quiet! | 0:03:41 | 0:03:42 | |
Have to raise my voice. | 0:03:44 | 0:03:46 | |
Ronnie was big on ambition, but in the '50s, | 0:03:46 | 0:03:50 | |
his boyish looks kept dragging him back to the classroom. | 0:03:50 | 0:03:53 | |
'Ere, Titch. What you going to do in the school concert tomorrow night? | 0:03:53 | 0:03:56 | |
-Nothing. -Nothing? I thought you were going to be a comic. -A comic?! | 0:03:56 | 0:04:00 | |
Yes, you know, a wit. | 0:04:00 | 0:04:01 | |
I don't know a wit. I know a couple of halfwits though. | 0:04:01 | 0:04:04 | |
-You and who else? -Get out of it! | 0:04:04 | 0:04:05 | |
He does a lot of schoolboy parts. | 0:04:05 | 0:04:08 | |
He's in a film called Fun At St Fanny's, | 0:04:08 | 0:04:10 | |
which is set in one of those schools where everybody looks | 0:04:10 | 0:04:13 | |
a bit...rather older than they should be. | 0:04:13 | 0:04:16 | |
All of these middle aged men in short trousers. | 0:04:16 | 0:04:19 | |
Cardew. | 0:04:19 | 0:04:21 | |
This is going to hurt me far more than it's going to hurt you. | 0:04:21 | 0:04:24 | |
-Oh! Oh! -Think of it, 16 years at St Fanny's | 0:04:24 | 0:04:27 | |
and you don't know anything about William the Conqueror. | 0:04:27 | 0:04:31 | |
Fun At St Fanny's was a bizarre 1956 concoction with all | 0:04:31 | 0:04:35 | |
the ingredients to be a totally forgettable moment in British film. | 0:04:35 | 0:04:39 | |
We think we've found an improvement on the hydrogen bomb. | 0:04:39 | 0:04:42 | |
Never mind that. Will someone get me out of here? | 0:04:42 | 0:04:44 | |
EXPLOSION | 0:04:44 | 0:04:49 | |
Thank you. | 0:04:50 | 0:04:53 | |
Ronnie had had enough. | 0:04:54 | 0:04:56 | |
Ronnie was also getting regular television work | 0:05:00 | 0:05:03 | |
on account of his height, or lack of it. | 0:05:03 | 0:05:06 | |
Crackerjack was a children's show, hosted by Eamonn Andrews | 0:05:06 | 0:05:09 | |
and performed before a live audience of excitable youngsters. | 0:05:09 | 0:05:13 | |
Yes, it's Crackerjack! | 0:05:13 | 0:05:16 | |
THEY CHEER EXCITEDLY | 0:05:16 | 0:05:20 | |
-Ronnie... -Yes. -Ronnie... | 0:05:20 | 0:05:22 | |
-Have you ever made a record? -No. | 0:05:22 | 0:05:25 | |
-No? Would you like to? -I'd love to, yes! | 0:05:25 | 0:05:29 | |
One of the things that I suffered from a bit in my early days | 0:05:29 | 0:05:32 | |
was that being small, people thought I was sort of more constructed | 0:05:32 | 0:05:38 | |
to do the knockabout stuff, hit on the head, little comedian. | 0:05:38 | 0:05:42 | |
So they would say - now we're going to cover you with flour | 0:05:42 | 0:05:44 | |
and water and then hit you in the head, | 0:05:44 | 0:05:47 | |
but really, I wasn't that kind of performer at all. | 0:05:47 | 0:05:50 | |
-Do you want to record? -Well, stand up. Oh, you are standing up. | 0:05:50 | 0:05:53 | |
'Although I was little, I worked tall.' | 0:05:53 | 0:05:56 | |
I didn't go on working in television.' | 0:05:56 | 0:05:59 | |
It was a little spat of... And then nothing happened afterwards. | 0:05:59 | 0:06:03 | |
It didn't lead to anything because I wasn't really truly right for it. | 0:06:03 | 0:06:07 | |
After almost ten years on the fringe of an acting career, | 0:06:09 | 0:06:12 | |
Ronnie Corbett was struggling and he was being typecast. | 0:06:12 | 0:06:16 | |
Being short meant being the butt of the wrong kind of jokes. | 0:06:16 | 0:06:19 | |
Terry Thomas promised another film part, but Operation Snatch | 0:06:19 | 0:06:24 | |
cast Ronnie as a diminutive soldier impersonating a monkey. | 0:06:24 | 0:06:28 | |
Something had to change. | 0:06:28 | 0:06:29 | |
It was now the '60s and London was in full swing. | 0:06:32 | 0:06:36 | |
Ronnie did television by day, worked in a bar in the evening, | 0:06:36 | 0:06:39 | |
and performed cabaret late into the night. | 0:06:39 | 0:06:42 | |
But he struggled to be more than a support act for newer stars. | 0:06:42 | 0:06:47 | |
The younger comedians of the day, Jimmy Tarbuck for example, | 0:06:47 | 0:06:50 | |
had come up with the kind of Liverpool, Beatles, | 0:06:50 | 0:06:53 | |
people couldn't get enough of the Scousers. | 0:06:53 | 0:06:55 | |
Ronnie didn't fit any particular... | 0:06:55 | 0:06:58 | |
Any particular box that you could put him in and it... | 0:06:58 | 0:07:03 | |
I think that held him back quite a bit. | 0:07:03 | 0:07:06 | |
But eventually, talent will out. | 0:07:06 | 0:07:08 | |
Ronnie's cabaret comedy talent was being noticed. | 0:07:09 | 0:07:12 | |
He made regular appearances supporting Jimmy Tarbuck in the '60s. | 0:07:12 | 0:07:16 | |
-I recognise you, don't I? -You can't prove a thing. | 0:07:19 | 0:07:23 | |
Just a moment, that little chin, that same little nose, | 0:07:23 | 0:07:26 | |
that hint of mascara around the eyes... | 0:07:26 | 0:07:29 | |
I know you. Conrad from Carnaby Street. | 0:07:29 | 0:07:32 | |
Call me Connie. | 0:07:32 | 0:07:35 | |
And even in those days, he had class. | 0:07:35 | 0:07:39 | |
I thought - he does well, this fella, and he's funny | 0:07:39 | 0:07:41 | |
and did sketches and all that and did what we call quickies. | 0:07:41 | 0:07:45 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:07:45 | 0:07:48 | |
He's away changing, | 0:07:48 | 0:07:49 | |
time for a quick rhyme from Mr Fuller of Rickmansworth. | 0:07:49 | 0:07:52 | |
There was a young girl called Cilla... | 0:07:52 | 0:07:54 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:07:54 | 0:07:55 | |
..who looked as if nothing could fill her | 0:07:55 | 0:07:58 | |
To make her look plumper | 0:07:58 | 0:07:59 | |
She stuffed up her jumper | 0:07:59 | 0:08:00 | |
-Two melons wrapped in a pillar. -HONKS HORN | 0:08:00 | 0:08:03 | |
-Ho-ho! -And he was a joy to work with. | 0:08:03 | 0:08:06 | |
Solid as a rock when he was working, cos he'd worked with lots of people. | 0:08:06 | 0:08:11 | |
Ronnie was busy, if not big time. | 0:08:11 | 0:08:14 | |
He had been in films, he'd been in cabaret and on television. | 0:08:14 | 0:08:17 | |
He even had a growing career on stage. | 0:08:17 | 0:08:20 | |
In 1963, he appeared with Bob Monkhouse in The Boys From Syracuse. | 0:08:23 | 0:08:29 | |
that led to a part in a much anticipated new musical - Twang. | 0:08:29 | 0:08:33 | |
Maybe this would be his big break. | 0:08:33 | 0:08:36 | |
If you saw the running order | 0:08:37 | 0:08:40 | |
and the credits of Twang, you'd go, | 0:08:40 | 0:08:44 | |
"Well, this has got to be a huge success." | 0:08:44 | 0:08:47 | |
The hand of fate was hovering. | 0:08:51 | 0:08:54 | |
But while the West End beckoned, Ronnie still felt most comfortable | 0:08:54 | 0:08:57 | |
doing comedy in clubs, particularly the cabaret stage at Danny La Rue's. | 0:08:57 | 0:09:02 | |
My earliest memory of Ronnie was seeing him | 0:09:03 | 0:09:06 | |
stooging at Danny La Rue's club in the West End, in Hannover Square. | 0:09:06 | 0:09:11 | |
And he was on and off all night long. | 0:09:11 | 0:09:14 | |
And what a funny man. | 0:09:14 | 0:09:17 | |
The 17th edition of our cabaret, devised | 0:09:17 | 0:09:20 | |
and produced by Danny La Rue, written by Barry Cryer, | 0:09:20 | 0:09:23 | |
starring Jenny Logan, Ronnie Corbett, Tony Farmer, | 0:09:23 | 0:09:27 | |
and Danny, who says - keep it moving! | 0:09:27 | 0:09:31 | |
Come to me, my little sugar plum. | 0:09:31 | 0:09:35 | |
-Sugar plum's a fairy! -Any questions? -LAUGHTER | 0:09:35 | 0:09:40 | |
'The fun was that there was this glamorous, statuesque lady,' | 0:09:40 | 0:09:46 | |
who was Dan, and this busy bee of a little soul with short | 0:09:46 | 0:09:49 | |
legs like me, buzzing about, playing all heroes to his heroines. | 0:09:49 | 0:09:54 | |
It worked very well because you see on stage, in all the gear, | 0:09:54 | 0:10:00 | |
I can be anything from 6ft 2 to 7ft. | 0:10:00 | 0:10:04 | |
# Happy feet, we've got those happy feet... # | 0:10:04 | 0:10:08 | |
Danny was sophisticated, glamorous, | 0:10:08 | 0:10:11 | |
rather than a sort of pantomime dame type, which we'd been used to. | 0:10:11 | 0:10:15 | |
And he had this little company of players, | 0:10:15 | 0:10:17 | |
who he fed off and who did gags. And it was the place in London. | 0:10:17 | 0:10:22 | |
Everybody went to Danny La Rue's club. | 0:10:22 | 0:10:25 | |
It was the place to go, the place to be seen, | 0:10:25 | 0:10:28 | |
and the place to have a bloody good laugh. | 0:10:28 | 0:10:30 | |
-I leapt over the fence, I was caught by the Cossacks. -Oh, my goodness! | 0:10:30 | 0:10:36 | |
He had a wonderful crew around him, feeding him | 0:10:36 | 0:10:40 | |
and that and he, Corbett, the little guy, and the difference with Danny | 0:10:40 | 0:10:44 | |
with the huge knockers on and the little fella who came up to them... | 0:10:44 | 0:10:49 | |
I mean, it was funny for a start. | 0:10:49 | 0:10:52 | |
# Up on point, we're always up on point | 0:10:52 | 0:10:54 | |
# And straight in... # | 0:10:54 | 0:10:56 | |
I can't make it! I can't make it! | 0:10:56 | 0:10:58 | |
That's where Ronnie, along with the other clubs, | 0:10:58 | 0:11:02 | |
served his apprenticeship. | 0:11:02 | 0:11:04 | |
I mean, you could go in and be sat in the dark | 0:11:04 | 0:11:07 | |
and you'd look who was sat there, it might be Princess Margaret or | 0:11:07 | 0:11:11 | |
Laurence Olivier, or people of that ilk, you know... | 0:11:11 | 0:11:15 | |
The grandees of this life. They'd be in there, roaring laughing at Danny. | 0:11:15 | 0:11:21 | |
And certainly at the little guy. Yeah. | 0:11:21 | 0:11:24 | |
The people who came, and Ron was in it and a whole gang of us, | 0:11:24 | 0:11:28 | |
and I was in it and wrote the shows, | 0:11:28 | 0:11:31 | |
and Danny was a great mentor. | 0:11:31 | 0:11:33 | |
The gang. We were the gang. | 0:11:33 | 0:11:35 | |
He really looked after us and we all united against opposition. | 0:11:35 | 0:11:40 | |
It was hard not to be discovered there, if you were any good, | 0:11:40 | 0:11:44 | |
because everybody in the business went there, every TV boss, | 0:11:44 | 0:11:47 | |
every theatre boss, booker... Everybody went there. | 0:11:47 | 0:11:51 | |
And Ronnie was absolutely a standout. | 0:11:51 | 0:11:54 | |
David Frost came in one night and had a drink with me and Ronnie. | 0:11:54 | 0:11:58 | |
David Frost was a rising star, but his cult television satire, | 0:12:01 | 0:12:05 | |
That Was The Week That Was, had come and gone. | 0:12:05 | 0:12:09 | |
# That was the week that was | 0:12:09 | 0:12:12 | |
# It's over, let it go... # | 0:12:12 | 0:12:15 | |
David Frost had said - | 0:12:15 | 0:12:17 | |
if Twang runs, you won't be able to do this, but in | 0:12:17 | 0:12:22 | |
six weeks, I am starting recording a series called The Frost Report. | 0:12:22 | 0:12:29 | |
Twang was the biggest flop in West End history. | 0:12:29 | 0:12:33 | |
It sank Ronnie's hopes of a future in musical theatre after | 0:12:33 | 0:12:36 | |
only 43 performances. | 0:12:36 | 0:12:38 | |
In life, there's a thing, isn't there? | 0:12:40 | 0:12:43 | |
One door closes and another door opens | 0:12:43 | 0:12:47 | |
and that might have been the case in the Twang thing cos it | 0:12:47 | 0:12:51 | |
came off and Ronnie was available to do other things. | 0:12:51 | 0:12:55 | |
That was a major, major turning point in my life really. | 0:12:57 | 0:13:02 | |
David Frost's topical weekly show took the edgy | 0:13:02 | 0:13:05 | |
atmosphere of late night revue and put it on television. | 0:13:05 | 0:13:09 | |
Live. | 0:13:09 | 0:13:10 | |
Thank you very much indeed. | 0:13:10 | 0:13:12 | |
He had recruited university talent who wanted everything to be | 0:13:12 | 0:13:16 | |
something completely different | 0:13:16 | 0:13:17 | |
and stage talent who had the discipline to pull it together. | 0:13:17 | 0:13:21 | |
The stage talent was Ronnie Corbett | 0:13:23 | 0:13:25 | |
and a newcomer from repertory theatre, Ronnie Barker. | 0:13:25 | 0:13:29 | |
The chemistry between the two Ronnies happened very early on. | 0:13:29 | 0:13:33 | |
There's a classic police station sketch, written by Mike Palin | 0:13:33 | 0:13:37 | |
and Terry Jones and they only use the first two lines. | 0:13:37 | 0:13:40 | |
-Good morning, Super. -Morning, wonderful. | 0:13:40 | 0:13:44 | |
And that's all it was. And you sensed at the time... | 0:13:48 | 0:13:52 | |
We got the impression - we've got something here. | 0:13:52 | 0:13:56 | |
A nine second exchange brought Ronnie Corbett | 0:13:56 | 0:13:58 | |
and Ronnie Barker together for the very first time. | 0:13:58 | 0:14:01 | |
Although it would be another five years before the two Ronnies | 0:14:01 | 0:14:04 | |
starred in their own show, their unique comedy chemistry is | 0:14:04 | 0:14:08 | |
there in The Frost Report from day one. | 0:14:08 | 0:14:10 | |
I'd never worked with Ron before that, but I'd met him | 0:14:10 | 0:14:13 | |
because I used to work in a bar called The Buxton Club, | 0:14:13 | 0:14:17 | |
which is an actors' club off Haymarket. | 0:14:17 | 0:14:21 | |
And Ron always reckoned the first time I served him | 0:14:21 | 0:14:24 | |
behind the bar, I was standing on a beer crate. | 0:14:24 | 0:14:27 | |
No, that was wrong. | 0:14:27 | 0:14:29 | |
Both he and Ronnie Barker, | 0:14:29 | 0:14:30 | |
having done all these last minute jobs | 0:14:30 | 0:14:33 | |
and last minute line learning, running from place to place, | 0:14:33 | 0:14:36 | |
doing a bit of cabaret, filling in for people, | 0:14:36 | 0:14:39 | |
Ronnie Barker had had a long career in rep, | 0:14:39 | 0:14:41 | |
they knew about learning lines right at the last minute, | 0:14:41 | 0:14:44 | |
but some of those other people, those Cambridge people, they didn't | 0:14:44 | 0:14:47 | |
have a clue about that, | 0:14:47 | 0:14:48 | |
so if we look back at footage of those shows, I think if you look | 0:14:48 | 0:14:52 | |
carefully, you can see that the two Ronnies are rather at ease with this | 0:14:52 | 0:14:58 | |
kind of stuff, but I think you can see the fear in John Cleese's eyes. | 0:14:58 | 0:15:01 | |
Now, what exactly were you doing on the night of the 14th of October? | 0:15:01 | 0:15:05 | |
Well, we pulled some birds, slapped them back to the Drum, | 0:15:05 | 0:15:08 | |
you know, bit of a giggle, all down to Larkin, and all that carry on... | 0:15:08 | 0:15:11 | |
Now, look here! | 0:15:11 | 0:15:13 | |
It was a ground-breaking show and won the coveted | 0:15:13 | 0:15:17 | |
Golden Rose at the Montreaux Television festival in 1967. | 0:15:17 | 0:15:21 | |
Ronnie was at the cutting edge of the comedy of the day. | 0:15:21 | 0:15:25 | |
I think people forget that he was effectively an alternative | 0:15:26 | 0:15:30 | |
comedian in his day. I mean, he was... He was at some... | 0:15:30 | 0:15:33 | |
Involved in what was definitely cutting edge comedy... | 0:15:33 | 0:15:37 | |
The Frost Report, was connected with That Was The Week That Was, | 0:15:37 | 0:15:40 | |
that had come before it, and the very famous three class sketch. | 0:15:40 | 0:15:45 | |
I look down on him because I am upper class. | 0:15:45 | 0:15:49 | |
I look up to him because he is upper class. | 0:15:49 | 0:15:53 | |
But I look down on him because he is lower class. | 0:15:53 | 0:15:56 | |
I am middle class. | 0:15:58 | 0:15:59 | |
I know my place. | 0:16:02 | 0:16:04 | |
It's clever that the short man | 0:16:05 | 0:16:08 | |
is playing, you know, | 0:16:08 | 0:16:11 | |
the working class man | 0:16:11 | 0:16:13 | |
because you might think that being working class, | 0:16:13 | 0:16:17 | |
he'd be a manual labourer and so therefore big, or whatever, | 0:16:17 | 0:16:22 | |
but they work the height thing really brilliantly. | 0:16:22 | 0:16:26 | |
I look up to them both, but I don't look up to him | 0:16:26 | 0:16:30 | |
as much as I look up to him. | 0:16:30 | 0:16:32 | |
I think it's a sketch that pervades the British consciousness, that one. | 0:16:32 | 0:16:38 | |
We're still obsessed with class. | 0:16:38 | 0:16:41 | |
I have got innate breeding, but I have not got any money. | 0:16:41 | 0:16:44 | |
So sometimes, I look up...to him. | 0:16:44 | 0:16:47 | |
It was seen as a template of the development of satire | 0:16:49 | 0:16:53 | |
and I think it's quite interesting to think that Ronnie, who is... | 0:16:53 | 0:16:58 | |
Because he's at the heart of mainstream light entertainment and | 0:16:58 | 0:17:02 | |
it's interesting that he played his role in what was | 0:17:02 | 0:17:05 | |
seen as a more edgy part of the industry as well. | 0:17:05 | 0:17:07 | |
David Frost moved to ITV in 1968 and took his A Team of stars | 0:17:10 | 0:17:15 | |
and writers with him. | 0:17:15 | 0:17:18 | |
He packaged shows, he put performers under contract, | 0:17:18 | 0:17:23 | |
he was a real entrepreneur, year ahead of his time. | 0:17:23 | 0:17:28 | |
And for Ronnie Corbett, it was great for him | 0:17:28 | 0:17:31 | |
to be part of that cos David had a lot of clout. | 0:17:31 | 0:17:34 | |
Frost was more than a frontman. | 0:17:34 | 0:17:37 | |
He was a producer who kept his talent busy. | 0:17:37 | 0:17:40 | |
He had faith in both Ronnies and created new TV shows for them | 0:17:40 | 0:17:44 | |
as individuals. | 0:17:44 | 0:17:45 | |
The sitcom No That's Me Over Here was Ronnie Corbett's first | 0:17:47 | 0:17:52 | |
starring role. It ran from 1967 to 1970. | 0:17:52 | 0:17:56 | |
David Frost, a practising catalyst, had put me | 0:17:58 | 0:18:02 | |
and Graham Chapman together and we wrote Ronnie Corbett's first sitcom. | 0:18:02 | 0:18:06 | |
The first series, I think it was me and Graham and Eric Idle. | 0:18:06 | 0:18:10 | |
Taking his real name for the lead character, | 0:18:10 | 0:18:13 | |
the action is split between Ronnie's home life and office politics. | 0:18:13 | 0:18:16 | |
It's fast-moving and often unexpected. | 0:18:16 | 0:18:19 | |
Yes, we had some surreal moments. | 0:18:19 | 0:18:21 | |
Ronnie would be discovered IN a filing cabinet. | 0:18:21 | 0:18:25 | |
If you examine that, there's no logic in that at all. | 0:18:25 | 0:18:27 | |
How did he get in there?! | 0:18:27 | 0:18:29 | |
Ronnie would get even smaller and his boss, played by Ivor Dean, | 0:18:29 | 0:18:33 | |
would become a giant looming over him. | 0:18:33 | 0:18:35 | |
-I was on my way to see if you were in. -Well, I'm out here now. | 0:18:35 | 0:18:39 | |
-What did you want to see me about? -But we had a great time doing that. | 0:18:39 | 0:18:43 | |
It's a prolific time for both Ronnies, as producers | 0:18:43 | 0:18:46 | |
and broadcasters test their appeal in different formats. | 0:18:46 | 0:18:50 | |
Corbett went on to another sitcom, Now Look Here. | 0:18:50 | 0:18:53 | |
Barker made the Ronnie Barker Playhouse, Hark At Barker | 0:18:53 | 0:18:57 | |
and Six Dates With Barker. | 0:18:57 | 0:18:58 | |
While Corbett got his own named shows - The Corbett Follies | 0:18:58 | 0:19:02 | |
and Ronnie Corbett In Bed. | 0:19:02 | 0:19:04 | |
All of this and another two series of sketches in Frost On Sunday. | 0:19:04 | 0:19:08 | |
In just five years, Ronnie had become a very familiar face. | 0:19:08 | 0:19:12 | |
-Ronnie Corbett, this is your life. -Oh, my God! | 0:19:14 | 0:19:17 | |
By 1970, Ronnie Corbett was so well known, | 0:19:21 | 0:19:25 | |
he was big enough to feature in the star tribute show This Is Your Life. | 0:19:25 | 0:19:29 | |
Both Ronnies had served their time, but at 40 years of age, | 0:19:33 | 0:19:37 | |
Ronnie's television career was only just beginning. | 0:19:37 | 0:19:40 | |
In 1971, the BBC created The Two Ronnies. | 0:19:50 | 0:19:54 | |
The Two Ronnies became required family entertainment for 16 years. | 0:19:54 | 0:19:58 | |
I just remember certain things that were on telly | 0:20:00 | 0:20:04 | |
and that you watched and The Two Ronnies was one of them. | 0:20:04 | 0:20:07 | |
Good evening. It's nice to be with you again, isn't it, Ronnie? | 0:20:07 | 0:20:10 | |
Yes, it is. Very nice indeed. | 0:20:10 | 0:20:11 | |
You would have the audience all | 0:20:11 | 0:20:13 | |
watching at the same time, which | 0:20:13 | 0:20:15 | |
they don't do now, | 0:20:15 | 0:20:16 | |
and watching in great numbers, so it became a shared experience. | 0:20:16 | 0:20:20 | |
So the next day, there was | 0:20:20 | 0:20:21 | |
a fair chance you could talk to your friend and they'd seen it. | 0:20:21 | 0:20:25 | |
THEY PLAY TUNE | 0:20:25 | 0:20:30 | |
You just knew it was a guaranteed time of the weekend where | 0:20:42 | 0:20:47 | |
you were going to have a bloody good laugh with the whole family. | 0:20:47 | 0:20:51 | |
Wonderful! | 0:20:51 | 0:20:53 | |
-Hello, George. Nice to see you. -Hello. | 0:20:55 | 0:20:57 | |
-Have a sausage roll. -Uh... Ah-ah-atchoo! | 0:20:57 | 0:21:00 | |
Oh, I'm sorry. A cheese straw? | 0:21:00 | 0:21:03 | |
Oh... | 0:21:03 | 0:21:04 | |
Uh-atchoo! | 0:21:04 | 0:21:05 | |
-Oh, bless you. -I'm awfully sorry. Awfully sorry. | 0:21:05 | 0:21:08 | |
Just that whenever anyone mentions food, I sneeze, you see? | 0:21:08 | 0:21:11 | |
-Oh, dear. I am sorry about that. -Sorry. -Have a little drink. | 0:21:11 | 0:21:13 | |
-Thanks very much. -Drink to your better health. | 0:21:13 | 0:21:16 | |
-Yes. -A little toast. | 0:21:16 | 0:21:17 | |
Atchoo! | 0:21:17 | 0:21:18 | |
Sorry! | 0:21:18 | 0:21:20 | |
-I'm sorry! -Oh, dear. | 0:21:20 | 0:21:22 | |
The Two Ronnies were a double act created for television. | 0:21:22 | 0:21:26 | |
Both Ronnies were equal comedy partners. | 0:21:26 | 0:21:29 | |
Classic double acts, | 0:21:29 | 0:21:30 | |
generally tend to have something physical going on between them. | 0:21:30 | 0:21:34 | |
Obviously, Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello as well, | 0:21:34 | 0:21:37 | |
Morecambe and Wise as well... | 0:21:37 | 0:21:39 | |
You know, the tall one and the short one. | 0:21:39 | 0:21:42 | |
And that's happening too with The Two Ronnies. | 0:21:42 | 0:21:45 | |
What's interesting about The Two Ronnies, | 0:21:45 | 0:21:47 | |
from that point of view, is it's not straight man and funny man. | 0:21:47 | 0:21:52 | |
Ah, thank you, Groucho. | 0:21:52 | 0:21:54 | |
Oh, that's good! Oh, that's very, very good! | 0:21:54 | 0:21:57 | |
Yes, I don't think we've got a Sooty. | 0:21:57 | 0:21:59 | |
I beg your pardon! I haven't come as Sooty! | 0:22:01 | 0:22:04 | |
-Oh, haven't you? -No. | 0:22:04 | 0:22:05 | |
-Certainly not. -It's just as well, isn't it, really? | 0:22:05 | 0:22:08 | |
You don't want to spend the rest of the party with someone's hand | 0:22:08 | 0:22:10 | |
up your jumper all night, do you? | 0:22:10 | 0:22:13 | |
For me, The Two Ronnies were deeply formative. Um... | 0:22:13 | 0:22:18 | |
I don't think Ronnie's going to mind | 0:22:18 | 0:22:21 | |
when I say that my personal all-time personal heroes of comedy | 0:22:21 | 0:22:24 | |
were Morecambe and Wise, but then Morecambe and Wise were much more | 0:22:24 | 0:22:28 | |
specific than talents like Ronnie and Ronnie because Ronnie and Ronnie | 0:22:28 | 0:22:31 | |
did sitcoms, they worked apart, they worked together, | 0:22:31 | 0:22:34 | |
The Two Ronnies was part of their lives, | 0:22:34 | 0:22:36 | |
but they weren't a double act in the way that Morecambe and Wise were. | 0:22:36 | 0:22:39 | |
Ronnie always went along with Ronnie Barker's opinions on shape | 0:22:39 | 0:22:43 | |
and form and whatever. And it did evolve a format. | 0:22:43 | 0:22:47 | |
They've got the news items at the beginning and then there'd be | 0:22:47 | 0:22:50 | |
a sketch where they're both at a party or dinner or in a bar. | 0:22:50 | 0:22:54 | |
And there would always be a song medley at the end. | 0:22:54 | 0:22:57 | |
It was a solid formula that hardly ever changed. | 0:22:57 | 0:23:00 | |
And worked. | 0:23:00 | 0:23:02 | |
We knew that we couldn't do an opening thing in front of an | 0:23:02 | 0:23:06 | |
audience with Ron and I talking to each other and to the audience. | 0:23:06 | 0:23:11 | |
So we knew that there had to be a device whereby we could both talk to | 0:23:11 | 0:23:14 | |
the audience separately and have a little passing glance between us, | 0:23:14 | 0:23:18 | |
so what developed out of that was the news items. | 0:23:18 | 0:23:22 | |
And we'll be demonstrating the very latest brassiere. | 0:23:22 | 0:23:25 | |
It's called the Sheepdog. | 0:23:25 | 0:23:27 | |
It rounds them up and points them in the right direction. | 0:23:27 | 0:23:30 | |
Towards the end of every show, Ronnie Corbett takes to | 0:23:34 | 0:23:38 | |
a chair for a rambling monologue, leading to a simple joke. | 0:23:38 | 0:23:41 | |
I was doing some decorating. | 0:23:41 | 0:23:43 | |
I fell off a ladder while painting the skirting board. | 0:23:43 | 0:23:46 | |
He's kind of the first stand up comedian my generation ever | 0:23:46 | 0:23:51 | |
saw, even though he was sitting down. | 0:23:51 | 0:23:54 | |
Because people then didn't | 0:23:54 | 0:23:57 | |
really come on telly | 0:23:57 | 0:24:00 | |
and do a comic monologue. | 0:24:00 | 0:24:02 | |
Tonight, I would like, | 0:24:02 | 0:24:05 | |
if I may, to relate a very funny story that I heard when I... | 0:24:05 | 0:24:10 | |
BANG | 0:24:10 | 0:24:12 | |
Sorry, what's that? I think the producer's just shot himself. | 0:24:17 | 0:24:20 | |
Plenty of time for that when we get to the joke. | 0:24:26 | 0:24:29 | |
I remember standing watching him rehearsing one afternoon | 0:24:29 | 0:24:32 | |
and Ronnie Barker was standing next to me. | 0:24:32 | 0:24:34 | |
And Ronnie Barker was watching his friend in the chair | 0:24:34 | 0:24:37 | |
and he turned to me and said, "How does he do that?" | 0:24:37 | 0:24:41 | |
Cos Ronnie was ostensibly playing himself | 0:24:41 | 0:24:44 | |
and Ronnie Barker was always a character. | 0:24:44 | 0:24:47 | |
He said, "I want to smell the spirit gum on my upper lip, | 0:24:47 | 0:24:50 | |
"part my hair, I'll wear a wig." But it was mutual admiration society. | 0:24:50 | 0:24:54 | |
I mean, Ronnie admired Ronnie Barker very much, | 0:24:54 | 0:24:57 | |
but always remember Ronnie Barker saying that, "How's he do that?" | 0:24:57 | 0:25:01 | |
Sitting in that chair, waffling away, | 0:25:01 | 0:25:03 | |
written by the great Spike Mullins. | 0:25:03 | 0:25:06 | |
Ronnie's chair monologues grew out of his natural improvising skills, | 0:25:06 | 0:25:10 | |
but they became a wholly scripted routine. | 0:25:10 | 0:25:13 | |
When Spike's scripts used to come at the beginning of the week, for that | 0:25:13 | 0:25:18 | |
week's show, I always knew they'd arrived because he'd have his cup of | 0:25:18 | 0:25:23 | |
tea in bed and he'd start laughing and I could hear him laughing. | 0:25:23 | 0:25:26 | |
The words were just there, you know. | 0:25:26 | 0:25:29 | |
Sheer... You know, affection. Sounding like me. | 0:25:29 | 0:25:33 | |
The fact is that it's a popular | 0:25:33 | 0:25:34 | |
fallacy that men of my diminutive stature don't make great lovers. | 0:25:34 | 0:25:38 | |
As I pointed out in my recent book on the subject - | 0:25:38 | 0:25:41 | |
How To Make A Little Go A Long Way. | 0:25:41 | 0:25:43 | |
Over the 16 year run, there were many great sketches, | 0:25:45 | 0:25:49 | |
and one particular classic moment. | 0:25:49 | 0:25:52 | |
Fork handles. | 0:25:54 | 0:25:57 | |
Four candles? | 0:25:57 | 0:25:59 | |
If you look at that sketch carefully with | 0:25:59 | 0:26:02 | |
a sort of semi-professional eye, what makes that sketch | 0:26:02 | 0:26:08 | |
work in three dimensions is Ronnie Corbett's acting in that sketch. | 0:26:08 | 0:26:15 | |
Fork handles... | 0:26:15 | 0:26:18 | |
Got any plugs? | 0:26:18 | 0:26:20 | |
Plugs? | 0:26:20 | 0:26:22 | |
-Yeah. -What kind of plugs? | 0:26:22 | 0:26:23 | |
A rubber one, bathroom. | 0:26:23 | 0:26:26 | |
Who is the straight man in Fork Handles? Because it's... | 0:26:27 | 0:26:32 | |
Well, it is Ronnie Corbett, isn't it? It's Ronnie Corbett | 0:26:32 | 0:26:35 | |
because Ronnie Corbett is playing the shopkeeper who is getting angry. | 0:26:35 | 0:26:40 | |
What size? | 0:26:40 | 0:26:42 | |
13 amp. | 0:26:42 | 0:26:44 | |
You just watch the way the man is reacting. | 0:26:51 | 0:26:54 | |
Every nuance, every touch, brilliant. | 0:26:54 | 0:26:57 | |
-Got an 'ose? -Os? | 0:26:57 | 0:26:58 | |
'Ose. | 0:26:58 | 0:27:00 | |
It's beautiful. It's just beautiful. And it never ages. | 0:27:02 | 0:27:06 | |
You can watch it again and again. Even though you know what's coming. | 0:27:06 | 0:27:10 | |
And I suppose a lot of that is just to do with the rhythm. | 0:27:10 | 0:27:13 | |
And it's two masters, you know, playing it just perfectly. | 0:27:13 | 0:27:19 | |
-Many do you want? -Two. -Two. | 0:27:34 | 0:27:37 | |
All right? | 0:27:40 | 0:27:41 | |
Yes? | 0:28:03 | 0:28:04 | |
Got any Ps? | 0:28:04 | 0:28:05 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:28:05 | 0:28:06 | |
Gawd's sake, why didn't you bleedin' tell me | 0:28:09 | 0:28:11 | |
that when I'm up there, then? | 0:28:11 | 0:28:13 | |
I'm up and down the shop already, | 0:28:13 | 0:28:15 | |
it's up and down the shop all the time. | 0:28:15 | 0:28:17 | |
Honestly, I've got all this shop, up and down here... | 0:28:19 | 0:28:22 | |
That background activity | 0:28:22 | 0:28:25 | |
of him going to get stuff and Ronnie Barker waiting for it, | 0:28:25 | 0:28:28 | |
and then you just know it's going to be still wrong, | 0:28:28 | 0:28:30 | |
it's still going to be a pun, gets funnier and funnier. | 0:28:30 | 0:28:33 | |
How many do you want? | 0:28:38 | 0:28:39 | |
No, tins of peas! | 0:28:41 | 0:28:43 | |
UPROARIOUS LAUGHTER | 0:28:43 | 0:28:45 | |
Three tins of peas. | 0:28:49 | 0:28:51 | |
Of course, the words are brilliant. | 0:28:53 | 0:28:56 | |
But, to bring that sketch to life, | 0:28:56 | 0:28:59 | |
Ronnie Corbett's performance in that sketch | 0:28:59 | 0:29:03 | |
is a masterclass in comic...comic genius. | 0:29:03 | 0:29:06 | |
Through the 16 years of Two Ronnies, | 0:29:09 | 0:29:11 | |
there were mini form series, parodies that ran from week to week. | 0:29:11 | 0:29:15 | |
One of the great landmarks in Ronnie Corbett's career, | 0:29:19 | 0:29:22 | |
The Worm That Turned. | 0:29:22 | 0:29:23 | |
It's a brilliant insight into the gender politics of that period, | 0:29:28 | 0:29:32 | |
because you've got this picture of this England, turned upside down... | 0:29:32 | 0:29:36 | |
The dateline is 2012. | 0:29:38 | 0:29:39 | |
England is in the grip of a new and terrifying regime. | 0:29:39 | 0:29:42 | |
The country is being run by women. | 0:29:42 | 0:29:45 | |
The secret police are everywhere. | 0:29:48 | 0:29:49 | |
Ruled by women. Terrifying idea! | 0:29:49 | 0:29:53 | |
Men, downtrodden and subjugated, | 0:29:53 | 0:29:55 | |
are forced to wear dresses | 0:29:55 | 0:29:57 | |
and to have only feminine lives. | 0:29:57 | 0:29:59 | |
Ruled, in fact, by Diana Dors in a kind of commandant's uniform, | 0:29:59 | 0:30:05 | |
which, I dare say, excited an awful lot of people. | 0:30:05 | 0:30:09 | |
What the hell do you think you're doing? | 0:30:09 | 0:30:11 | |
I'm dusting the desk. | 0:30:11 | 0:30:13 | |
Sitting down?! | 0:30:13 | 0:30:15 | |
Dusting the chair. | 0:30:15 | 0:30:16 | |
It's a new directive from the Efficiency Department. | 0:30:16 | 0:30:20 | |
There's something rather gripping about this. | 0:30:20 | 0:30:22 | |
Just a minute. | 0:30:22 | 0:30:23 | |
Name? | 0:30:23 | 0:30:24 | |
DRAMATIC MUSIC | 0:30:24 | 0:30:25 | |
It's utterly bizarre, | 0:30:28 | 0:30:29 | |
but I can remember being totally beguiled by this world. | 0:30:29 | 0:30:33 | |
Julie. | 0:30:34 | 0:30:36 | |
Julie Andrews. | 0:30:36 | 0:30:37 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:30:37 | 0:30:38 | |
Sounds familiar. | 0:30:39 | 0:30:41 | |
And almost seeing what they were doing in it as a version of, | 0:30:41 | 0:30:43 | |
you know, I used to watch Secret Army. | 0:30:43 | 0:30:45 | |
My great-grandmother was very, very famous in showbusiness. | 0:30:45 | 0:30:48 | |
Really? | 0:30:48 | 0:30:49 | |
Yes. Eamonn Andrews. | 0:30:49 | 0:30:51 | |
Andrews? | 0:30:51 | 0:30:52 | |
You will report to this office nine o'clock on Monday | 0:30:54 | 0:30:56 | |
when you will be disciplined. | 0:30:56 | 0:30:58 | |
And, actually, I think The Worm That Turned | 0:30:58 | 0:31:00 | |
in its own way, was as gripping as Secret Army. | 0:31:00 | 0:31:02 | |
HARP GLISSANDO | 0:31:02 | 0:31:04 | |
And, as the programme's success soared, so did the budgets, | 0:31:07 | 0:31:11 | |
with ever more elaborate sets and high production values. | 0:31:11 | 0:31:15 | |
It was a golden age for television entertainment. | 0:31:15 | 0:31:18 | |
-# I'm the Hare -# He's the Hare | 0:31:20 | 0:31:21 | |
# He's the Hatter | 0:31:21 | 0:31:23 | |
# And the former is as loony as the latter | 0:31:23 | 0:31:26 | |
# Your hat is on fire | 0:31:26 | 0:31:28 | |
# I'm smouldering with desire for Alice in her winter underwear... # | 0:31:28 | 0:31:32 | |
-Winter Wonderland! -Didn't I say that? | 0:31:32 | 0:31:34 | |
-You said underwear. -Under where? | 0:31:34 | 0:31:37 | |
No, no, no, underwear, ladies' lingerie, peek-a-boo bras, | 0:31:37 | 0:31:40 | |
garters and bodices. | 0:31:40 | 0:31:41 | |
-Did I say all that? -Well, you had that in mind. | 0:31:41 | 0:31:44 | |
Well, I'm not as mad as I look! Ha-ha! | 0:31:44 | 0:31:46 | |
I think it was a golden age of television. | 0:31:46 | 0:31:48 | |
Money was plentiful, the BBC had lots of money, | 0:31:48 | 0:31:52 | |
ITV had a monopoly, had lots of money. | 0:31:52 | 0:31:54 | |
# There's the duke. | 0:31:54 | 0:31:56 | |
# And there's the duchess | 0:31:56 | 0:31:58 | |
# Praying hard to fall into some fella's clutches | 0:31:58 | 0:32:01 | |
# I don't fancy yours | 0:32:01 | 0:32:03 | |
# No, I'd sooner be indoors | 0:32:03 | 0:32:04 | |
# With Alice in her winter underwear | 0:32:04 | 0:32:07 | |
Wonderland! | 0:32:07 | 0:32:08 | |
# With Alice in a winter wonderland. # | 0:32:08 | 0:32:10 | |
Say goodbye, Angelique. | 0:32:11 | 0:32:13 | |
The Two Ronnies are remembered as a family-friendly show, | 0:32:15 | 0:32:19 | |
but the comedy often has a more adult appeal. | 0:32:19 | 0:32:22 | |
Cheeky innuendo was popular at the time. | 0:32:25 | 0:32:28 | |
Have you seen my pair of spectacles? | 0:32:29 | 0:32:32 | |
Yes, they're very, very nice indeed. | 0:32:32 | 0:32:33 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:32:33 | 0:32:35 | |
By the way, you know you left your glasses, Professor? | 0:32:35 | 0:32:38 | |
Thanks! | 0:32:38 | 0:32:39 | |
The Two Ronnies were offered to us as family entertainment. | 0:32:39 | 0:32:42 | |
That's what they were. I used to watch it with my mum and dad. | 0:32:42 | 0:32:45 | |
At Ascot, the water will only be turned on on Ladies' Day | 0:32:45 | 0:32:48 | |
but we hope the ladies will be turned on every day. | 0:32:48 | 0:32:52 | |
A lot of it is quite dirty. | 0:32:52 | 0:32:54 | |
My big end's blown. | 0:32:54 | 0:32:57 | |
A lot of it is quietly filthy, I think. | 0:32:57 | 0:32:59 | |
We've got two bottles of elixir. | 0:33:01 | 0:33:03 | |
Why don't we wake her up and give her one? | 0:33:03 | 0:33:06 | |
What, at a time like this? | 0:33:07 | 0:33:09 | |
There were what you might call adult jokes slipped in there, | 0:33:10 | 0:33:15 | |
that went over their heads of the children watching, and that's fine. | 0:33:15 | 0:33:19 | |
That's like if you go to see a really good pantomime, there | 0:33:19 | 0:33:22 | |
are adult jokes in there, but they don't get in the way of the show. | 0:33:22 | 0:33:25 | |
The children aren't aware of them. | 0:33:25 | 0:33:27 | |
It's, you know, testament to the skill of writers. | 0:33:27 | 0:33:29 | |
Allow me to introduce you to Snivelling and Gragg's | 0:33:29 | 0:33:33 | |
Extract of Rhinosahaurus. | 0:33:33 | 0:33:35 | |
Puts lead back in your quill pen, as they say. | 0:33:37 | 0:33:40 | |
-I can't wait! -Don't worry, you won't have time. | 0:33:41 | 0:33:44 | |
But by the early '80s, a new generation of television viewers | 0:33:48 | 0:33:52 | |
was beginning to find that style of comedy past its sell-by date. | 0:33:52 | 0:33:56 | |
Attack, attack! | 0:33:56 | 0:33:58 | |
The Two Ronnies continue, but gradually, | 0:34:05 | 0:34:08 | |
they lose the mantle of being entertainment for the whole family. | 0:34:08 | 0:34:11 | |
Younger audiences are drifting off to new channels and new faces. | 0:34:11 | 0:34:15 | |
What happens at the end of the '70s, beginning of the '80s, | 0:34:17 | 0:34:20 | |
you get a generation of comedians | 0:34:20 | 0:34:23 | |
who were influenced by things other than the cabaret, | 0:34:23 | 0:34:28 | |
the satire boom and that broader end-of-the-pier, | 0:34:28 | 0:34:32 | |
Palladium kind of light entertainment. | 0:34:32 | 0:34:35 | |
You get comedians who are university comedians, | 0:34:35 | 0:34:38 | |
but they've been influenced by things like punk | 0:34:38 | 0:34:40 | |
and they want to kind of shake things up, rather. | 0:34:40 | 0:34:44 | |
"Alternative". I think the word was coined by journalist. | 0:34:44 | 0:34:47 | |
It's sort of meaningless, really. | 0:34:47 | 0:34:50 | |
And you had Ben Elton sounding off about Margaret Thatcher, | 0:34:50 | 0:34:53 | |
and there was a political flavour creeping in. | 0:34:53 | 0:34:56 | |
But the old pillars, | 0:34:56 | 0:35:00 | |
the Frankie Howerds and Two Ronnies, sort of survived that. | 0:35:00 | 0:35:03 | |
Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones | 0:35:03 | 0:35:05 | |
did a very funny parody of the Two Ronnies. | 0:35:05 | 0:35:09 | |
# We like birds, we're ornithologists | 0:35:10 | 0:35:13 | |
# 'Orny, porno-thologists | 0:35:13 | 0:35:16 | |
# I've got a nice pair of binaculocul-ars | 0:35:16 | 0:35:19 | |
# You can stick them up...on the tripod... # | 0:35:19 | 0:35:22 | |
The main object of the attack was the fact that, in those songs, | 0:35:22 | 0:35:27 | |
there would always be a rhyme, and the rhyme would always be rude, | 0:35:27 | 0:35:30 | |
and at the last minute, that rude word would be avoided, | 0:35:30 | 0:35:33 | |
and they made much of that on the Not The Nine O'clock News | 0:35:33 | 0:35:36 | |
sketch, and that is funny, to parody that. | 0:35:36 | 0:35:39 | |
And I think, you know, I see that sketch now, maybe you wouldn't be | 0:35:39 | 0:35:43 | |
able to see it at the time, but I see it now as essentially homage. | 0:35:43 | 0:35:47 | |
What was called alternative comedy, | 0:35:47 | 0:35:49 | |
which I suppose was effectively The Young Ones, Saturday Live, | 0:35:49 | 0:35:53 | |
the show I hosted, which gave a platform to new variety performers, | 0:35:53 | 0:35:56 | |
and the Comic Strip series, was somehow, | 0:35:56 | 0:35:59 | |
was being presented by us | 0:35:59 | 0:36:02 | |
as some kind of attack on traditional stand-up | 0:36:02 | 0:36:05 | |
and this really is a heinous lie. | 0:36:05 | 0:36:08 | |
# We're marching up and down on the spot, spot, spot | 0:36:08 | 0:36:11 | |
# Cos the sodding choreographer's a twot, twot, twot | 0:36:11 | 0:36:14 | |
# Couldn't care a jot if we've never been there or not | 0:36:14 | 0:36:16 | |
-# With a bum -Tit | 0:36:16 | 0:36:17 | |
-# How's your father -Oop -Tiddly aye-doh!... # | 0:36:17 | 0:36:20 | |
Every single person I've ever met in what you might call | 0:36:20 | 0:36:22 | |
"my" generation of performers has nothing | 0:36:22 | 0:36:25 | |
but admiration for the previous generation. | 0:36:25 | 0:36:27 | |
We don't love 'em all, but, mainly, they were brilliant. | 0:36:27 | 0:36:29 | |
And Ronnie Corbett, correct me if I'm wrong, he's, | 0:36:29 | 0:36:33 | |
"What is this, what is this?" and then he started laughing. | 0:36:33 | 0:36:37 | |
Tonight, you'll be reassured to know we'll be using exactly the same sort of material... | 0:36:37 | 0:36:41 | |
As we've used for the last 20 years. | 0:36:41 | 0:36:43 | |
I shall be, I shall be talking incredibly quickly, | 0:36:43 | 0:36:45 | |
making spousands of thoonerisms and dressing up in women's clothing. | 0:36:45 | 0:36:48 | |
And I shan't be getting any laughs, because he writes | 0:36:48 | 0:36:51 | |
most of the scripts and makes sure I get all the crappy bits. | 0:36:51 | 0:36:54 | |
Ronnie Barker was furious! | 0:36:54 | 0:36:57 | |
"These two are not the Two Ronnies for their age, we are | 0:36:57 | 0:37:00 | |
"the Two Ronnies of this age. We're still here." | 0:37:00 | 0:37:02 | |
Ronnie Barker was not amused. It was very funny, actually. | 0:37:02 | 0:37:06 | |
The Two Ronnies had been together for nearly 20 years, but Ronnie Barker | 0:37:06 | 0:37:11 | |
had health concerns, and worried his writing was past its best. | 0:37:11 | 0:37:15 | |
In 1985, he decided it was time to retire. | 0:37:15 | 0:37:19 | |
Slowly... | 0:37:19 | 0:37:21 | |
Unending cries, crushing your will. | 0:37:21 | 0:37:23 | |
Breaking your soul! | 0:37:24 | 0:37:26 | |
Cries. | 0:37:28 | 0:37:29 | |
God. | 0:37:31 | 0:37:33 | |
# Chick, chick, chick, chicken | 0:37:40 | 0:37:43 | |
# Lay a little egg for me | 0:37:43 | 0:37:45 | |
# Chick, chicky chick, chicky chicken... # | 0:37:45 | 0:37:49 | |
We were aware at the time that, | 0:37:49 | 0:37:51 | |
well, probably had to be, but this is sad. It's an end of an era, | 0:37:51 | 0:37:54 | |
because it had come through the whole Frost background then | 0:37:54 | 0:37:57 | |
it was The two Ronnies in their own right and, yeah, it's a bit sad. | 0:37:57 | 0:38:04 | |
And we were losing work, of course, so that was even sadder. | 0:38:04 | 0:38:08 | |
# Let's face the music and dance... # | 0:38:08 | 0:38:12 | |
ORCHESTRA TAKES UP TUNE | 0:38:14 | 0:38:17 | |
The Two Ronnies' epic journey ended in the UK in 1986. | 0:38:19 | 0:38:24 | |
But, as the final series was aired, | 0:38:24 | 0:38:27 | |
the pair did make six more programmes on the other side of the world. | 0:38:27 | 0:38:31 | |
George? | 0:38:31 | 0:38:33 | |
Sid? | 0:38:35 | 0:38:37 | |
You still got two wishes left? | 0:38:37 | 0:38:40 | |
Yeah? | 0:38:40 | 0:38:41 | |
Better wish for a bucket and spade! | 0:38:41 | 0:38:43 | |
Eh?! | 0:38:43 | 0:38:45 | |
The Two Ronnies had been a successful export for the BBC | 0:38:54 | 0:38:57 | |
and was especially popular in Australia. | 0:38:57 | 0:38:59 | |
The Two Ronnies was cult viewing. | 0:39:01 | 0:39:05 | |
Everybody would come to our place | 0:39:05 | 0:39:06 | |
because we would be the only ones locally who had a TV. | 0:39:06 | 0:39:09 | |
So all the kids would pile in, the neighbourhood kids, the parents. | 0:39:09 | 0:39:12 | |
They would drink the home-brew that dad had made in the garage. | 0:39:12 | 0:39:16 | |
Mum passed round the lemon teas. | 0:39:16 | 0:39:17 | |
And we'd all hang onto every single word, | 0:39:17 | 0:39:20 | |
and even though, as kids, we didn't get all of the references, | 0:39:20 | 0:39:23 | |
it was just, being part of that comic camaraderie was so important, | 0:39:23 | 0:39:27 | |
and it was a definite lifeline to us. | 0:39:27 | 0:39:30 | |
In 1986, | 0:39:32 | 0:39:33 | |
the Two Ronnies recorded sketches which had not yet been | 0:39:33 | 0:39:36 | |
seen down under for the Channel 9 network. | 0:39:36 | 0:39:39 | |
# I knew a girl called Jennifer Goafer | 0:39:39 | 0:39:42 | |
# She had hips like a well-stuffed sofa | 0:39:43 | 0:39:47 | |
# If she sat on you, she'd squash you flat | 0:39:47 | 0:39:49 | |
# Boy, I sure kept outta that... # | 0:39:51 | 0:39:53 | |
Australians took Ronnie Corbett to our hearts because he's | 0:39:54 | 0:39:58 | |
so irrepressibly buoyant and optimistic. | 0:39:58 | 0:40:02 | |
You know, a lot of British people think optimism is our disease, and | 0:40:02 | 0:40:06 | |
then Ronnie Corbett, he's so bouncy he could almost be a marsupial. | 0:40:06 | 0:40:10 | |
You know, he could be in a kangaroo family. | 0:40:19 | 0:40:21 | |
And that's what we love about him, this little bonsai comic genius. | 0:40:21 | 0:40:24 | |
And he only stayed on and did his own show for a year | 0:40:24 | 0:40:26 | |
and he became an honorary Aussie. | 0:40:26 | 0:40:28 | |
We definitely wanted to put him on a postage stamp. | 0:40:28 | 0:40:31 | |
I don't think they'd been to Australia very much. | 0:40:34 | 0:40:36 | |
They just kind of threw in the odd "G'Day" | 0:40:36 | 0:40:38 | |
and a couple of local references to a few comedians, | 0:40:38 | 0:40:41 | |
but it was still pretty much their standard British fare with | 0:40:41 | 0:40:45 | |
a couple boomerangs and kangaroos chucked in for good measure. | 0:40:45 | 0:40:48 | |
We will also be talking to Angus McTavish | 0:40:48 | 0:40:51 | |
of the Sydney Caledonian Society | 0:40:51 | 0:40:54 | |
who, when asked to do something Glaswegian on Burns Night, | 0:40:54 | 0:40:57 | |
was sick in a phone box. | 0:40:57 | 0:40:59 | |
So it's goodnight from me... | 0:41:02 | 0:41:03 | |
-And it's g'day from him. -G'day! | 0:41:03 | 0:41:06 | |
Back in Britain, The Two Ronnies were parting company, | 0:41:08 | 0:41:11 | |
but Ronnie Corbett had no intention of following Barker into retirement. | 0:41:11 | 0:41:16 | |
When Ronnie Barker retired, it wasn't | 0:41:16 | 0:41:21 | |
a problem for Ronnie Corbett, because he had a career | 0:41:21 | 0:41:24 | |
as a solo performer before he teamed up with Ronnie Barker. | 0:41:24 | 0:41:28 | |
It wasn't like Morecambe and Wise, when Eric died, | 0:41:28 | 0:41:32 | |
Ernie was left really bereft. | 0:41:32 | 0:41:34 | |
Ronnie had a fabulous career. | 0:41:35 | 0:41:37 | |
He was a stand-up comedian. He was in demand. He packed theatres. | 0:41:37 | 0:41:41 | |
It wasn't a problem for him. | 0:41:41 | 0:41:43 | |
It wasn't a problem for him at all. | 0:41:43 | 0:41:46 | |
In his solo acting career, | 0:41:46 | 0:41:47 | |
Ronnie Corbett was best playing variations of the same character - | 0:41:47 | 0:41:51 | |
a man trapped by his boyish appearance, | 0:41:51 | 0:41:54 | |
struggling to assert his maturity. | 0:41:54 | 0:41:56 | |
In 1973, he had starred in a film, No Sex Please, We're British, | 0:41:59 | 0:42:05 | |
where his stuttering, red-faced embarrassment over sex | 0:42:05 | 0:42:08 | |
perfectly matched the social attitudes of the '70s. | 0:42:08 | 0:42:11 | |
No Sex Please, We're British, is a landmark in the landscape. | 0:42:12 | 0:42:16 | |
There he is in the film version of this as this rather odd | 0:42:16 | 0:42:21 | |
character who suddenly finds himself inundated with porn. | 0:42:21 | 0:42:24 | |
-A parcel for you, Penny. -Thank you. | 0:42:24 | 0:42:27 | |
It's about a mix-up of addresses. | 0:42:27 | 0:42:29 | |
A bundle of pornographic literature arrives at a flat above a bank | 0:42:29 | 0:42:35 | |
where Ron, of course, Ronnie Corbett works. | 0:42:35 | 0:42:38 | |
Oh, this knot's so tight. | 0:42:38 | 0:42:39 | |
Oh, I've got my penknife with me With me. Be prepared. Ha-ha-ha! | 0:42:39 | 0:42:44 | |
It's a farce. | 0:42:44 | 0:42:45 | |
It's a good old traditional, quintessential British farce | 0:42:45 | 0:42:50 | |
with, you know, postcard humour, end-of-the-pier humour. | 0:42:50 | 0:42:56 | |
By God, it's a dirty picture! | 0:42:58 | 0:42:59 | |
Corbett's rather interesting in this area, because, in a way, | 0:42:59 | 0:43:02 | |
what he does is the comedy embarrassment and blushing | 0:43:02 | 0:43:06 | |
and confusion and hesitation. | 0:43:06 | 0:43:08 | |
Well, you couldn't look at this. As for this, well, I mean, I daren't look myself! | 0:43:08 | 0:43:11 | |
Somehow fumbling around being embarrassed is what | 0:43:11 | 0:43:17 | |
he seems to do best, is what we love him for. | 0:43:17 | 0:43:19 | |
SHE GASPS | 0:43:19 | 0:43:20 | |
Oh, how embarrassing! | 0:43:20 | 0:43:22 | |
So, it was risque but acceptable. | 0:43:23 | 0:43:26 | |
I think that's the kind of humour. | 0:43:26 | 0:43:28 | |
I think it's in the same genre as the Carry Ons, | 0:43:28 | 0:43:31 | |
although the story is very solid with No Sex Please, We're British. | 0:43:31 | 0:43:36 | |
Then, of course, there's the typical Ronnie Corbett moment. | 0:43:36 | 0:43:39 | |
Gotcha! | 0:43:39 | 0:43:41 | |
Awkward about women, trying to escape | 0:43:41 | 0:43:43 | |
the attitudes of his parents' generation. | 0:43:43 | 0:43:46 | |
He's a little guy, having a hard time. | 0:43:46 | 0:43:48 | |
That was always his great speciality. | 0:43:48 | 0:43:51 | |
Desperately thrashing about, to get out of the situation he was in. | 0:43:51 | 0:43:55 | |
And that's what we wrote to, that quality he had. | 0:43:55 | 0:43:59 | |
He continued the frustrated mummy's boy theme | 0:44:01 | 0:44:04 | |
in his biggest sitcom success, Sorry! | 0:44:04 | 0:44:07 | |
Fantastic, even though | 0:44:11 | 0:44:13 | |
it was incredibly painful to watch at times. | 0:44:13 | 0:44:16 | |
1980s BBC sitcom from Ian Davidson and Peter Vincent. | 0:44:16 | 0:44:21 | |
-Is that you, Timothy? -Yes, Mother. | 0:44:21 | 0:44:24 | |
Sorry is the story of Timothy Lumsden, | 0:44:24 | 0:44:26 | |
a librarian in his 40s who still lives at home | 0:44:26 | 0:44:29 | |
with his domineering mother, Phyllis, and henpecked father, Sidney. | 0:44:29 | 0:44:33 | |
That was obviously a huge hit. | 0:44:33 | 0:44:35 | |
Ran for seven series throughout the 1980s. | 0:44:35 | 0:44:38 | |
It's this great sitcom with a slightly weird edge to it. | 0:44:38 | 0:44:43 | |
Look at you! Anyone would think you hadn't got a mother. | 0:44:43 | 0:44:46 | |
I think they know. | 0:44:46 | 0:44:48 | |
Who else would comb my hair and give me a lick wash in public? | 0:44:48 | 0:44:51 | |
It could be, | 0:44:51 | 0:44:52 | |
Hitchcock could have filmed that story | 0:44:52 | 0:44:54 | |
and given it a rather different vibe. | 0:44:54 | 0:44:56 | |
There's something I've never told you, Timothy. | 0:44:56 | 0:44:59 | |
I don't think you're my son! | 0:44:59 | 0:45:02 | |
Very vague in that nursing home. | 0:45:03 | 0:45:07 | |
They were always mixing up the babies. | 0:45:07 | 0:45:10 | |
And the woman in the bed next to me was tiny. | 0:45:10 | 0:45:12 | |
What are you saying, Mother? | 0:45:15 | 0:45:16 | |
And she wore glasses. | 0:45:16 | 0:45:18 | |
I loved Sorry. I used to love watching Sorry. | 0:45:19 | 0:45:23 | |
And just like the sketches in the Two Ronnies had become a thing that | 0:45:23 | 0:45:28 | |
you'd do at home, so did Sorry, you know, "Language, Timothy!" | 0:45:28 | 0:45:32 | |
Language, Timothy! | 0:45:32 | 0:45:34 | |
We used to say that round the house. | 0:45:34 | 0:45:36 | |
Timothy dreams of finding love and leaving home, | 0:45:36 | 0:45:39 | |
but his mother always finds a way to bring him back under her wings. | 0:45:39 | 0:45:43 | |
-It's her. -Ah, right, right. | 0:45:45 | 0:45:46 | |
That's the end of the party, then. | 0:45:46 | 0:45:48 | |
No, Frank, no. Different these days. Just listen. | 0:45:48 | 0:45:52 | |
Mother? Be quiet, please, be quiet. | 0:45:52 | 0:45:54 | |
Yes. | 0:45:54 | 0:45:55 | |
No, Mother, I'm staying here for my supper. | 0:45:55 | 0:45:58 | |
Yes, I'm not coming home for my supper. | 0:45:58 | 0:46:00 | |
No... Anyway, I don't like the brawn, Mother, so I'm staying here. | 0:46:00 | 0:46:05 | |
All right? | 0:46:05 | 0:46:06 | |
Yes, goodbye, Mother, goodbye. | 0:46:06 | 0:46:09 | |
My God, Tim, you did it! | 0:46:09 | 0:46:11 | |
Yes, but I think I better go. | 0:46:11 | 0:46:13 | |
Oh! Useless! | 0:46:13 | 0:46:14 | |
I vault into the saddle! | 0:46:14 | 0:46:17 | |
Sorry ran until 1988, clocking up 42 episodes before, | 0:46:17 | 0:46:23 | |
in an enigmatic ending, Timothy was finally allowed to fly the nest. | 0:46:23 | 0:46:28 | |
I'm flying! Flying at last! | 0:46:28 | 0:46:31 | |
Hang on, Timothy! | 0:46:31 | 0:46:33 | |
Bye! | 0:46:33 | 0:46:34 | |
Ronnie Corbett was 58 years old. | 0:46:36 | 0:46:40 | |
I hope there's a grown-up in charge! | 0:46:40 | 0:46:43 | |
Yes, there is. | 0:46:43 | 0:46:46 | |
It's me, Mother! | 0:46:46 | 0:46:48 | |
Goodbye. Good luck. | 0:46:48 | 0:46:50 | |
Goodbye! | 0:46:51 | 0:46:53 | |
Sorry closed a chapter on Ronnie's career. | 0:46:53 | 0:46:56 | |
Bye! | 0:46:56 | 0:46:58 | |
The Two Ronnies were a memory, | 0:46:58 | 0:47:00 | |
and this was his last starring sitcom role. | 0:47:00 | 0:47:03 | |
But Ronnie wasn't up for retirement quite yet. | 0:47:04 | 0:47:07 | |
Small Talk! And here's the man in charge... | 0:47:07 | 0:47:10 | |
..me! | 0:47:12 | 0:47:13 | |
This time, his size made him an ideal candidate | 0:47:14 | 0:47:17 | |
for a new game show challenge. | 0:47:17 | 0:47:20 | |
First of all, let's meet the children this week. | 0:47:20 | 0:47:22 | |
-Hello, boys and girls. -ALL: -Hello, Ronnie! | 0:47:22 | 0:47:26 | |
So, Sue, you have managed to match with Tammy and Caroline | 0:47:26 | 0:47:29 | |
but of course you've failed | 0:47:29 | 0:47:31 | |
to match with Anthony, Rachel and Grant. | 0:47:31 | 0:47:33 | |
A hundred! | 0:47:33 | 0:47:36 | |
Ah, that's not too bad. | 0:47:36 | 0:47:37 | |
When everything was totted up, | 0:47:37 | 0:47:39 | |
there were more than 50 episodes of Small Talk and four series, | 0:47:39 | 0:47:43 | |
taking Ronnie Corbett's run in television | 0:47:43 | 0:47:45 | |
into its fourth decade. | 0:47:45 | 0:47:46 | |
Let's see what the children have won for you this evening, Sue. | 0:47:46 | 0:47:49 | |
The good news is that you win a night on the town | 0:47:49 | 0:47:51 | |
with theatre tickets and a slap-up meal for you and your family, | 0:47:51 | 0:47:55 | |
and the sad news is, | 0:47:55 | 0:47:56 | |
of course, that the town is Wilmsley. | 0:47:56 | 0:47:58 | |
It was 1994. Ronnie had spent a lifetime in entertainment. | 0:48:01 | 0:48:06 | |
Never mind the game shows, | 0:48:06 | 0:48:08 | |
he'd been in cutting-edge satire, | 0:48:08 | 0:48:09 | |
he'd been in family entertainment | 0:48:09 | 0:48:12 | |
with more than 20 million viewers on Saturday night, | 0:48:12 | 0:48:15 | |
and he'd been a sitcom star. | 0:48:15 | 0:48:18 | |
Surely now it was time to put his feet up, | 0:48:18 | 0:48:21 | |
and see out years of retirement on the golf course. | 0:48:21 | 0:48:24 | |
But invitations to stay on our screens have kept coming | 0:48:25 | 0:48:29 | |
from some unexpected directions. | 0:48:29 | 0:48:31 | |
Ladies and gentlemen, we have a very special treat for you now. | 0:48:33 | 0:48:36 | |
This is special. | 0:48:36 | 0:48:37 | |
It's a man, I'm so happy to be working with him, | 0:48:37 | 0:48:40 | |
because he's so talented, he's brilliant, | 0:48:40 | 0:48:42 | |
he's a horizontally-challenged farty-four-eyes like myself. | 0:48:42 | 0:48:45 | |
When I invited Ronnie to grace, | 0:48:45 | 0:48:50 | |
you know, to be our guest star, | 0:48:50 | 0:48:52 | |
but obviously a wonderful, iconic figure, | 0:48:52 | 0:48:56 | |
on my show in the '90s, there was a lot of, | 0:48:56 | 0:49:00 | |
"Oh, is this some kind of play on the idea that, you know, | 0:49:00 | 0:49:03 | |
"Ben Elton is supposed to be | 0:49:03 | 0:49:04 | |
"a little bit edgy and Ronnie is supposed to be mainstream?" | 0:49:04 | 0:49:07 | |
That was not remotely in my mind. It really, really wasn't. | 0:49:07 | 0:49:11 | |
I just wanted one of my heroes, | 0:49:11 | 0:49:13 | |
a very, very funny man, | 0:49:13 | 0:49:15 | |
to appear on my show. | 0:49:15 | 0:49:18 | |
There was nothing more complicated about it than that. | 0:49:18 | 0:49:21 | |
I went along on the first recording, and of course, you know Ben, hammer, hammer... | 0:49:21 | 0:49:25 | |
..Hubba-hubba. | 0:49:25 | 0:49:26 | |
..ripple ripple... | 0:49:26 | 0:49:27 | |
-..Whoo-whoo... -Motor on, motor on... | 0:49:27 | 0:49:29 | |
And being the usual sort of Ben, | 0:49:29 | 0:49:33 | |
you know, area, rather raunchy but very funny material. | 0:49:33 | 0:49:36 | |
Copy of Fulsome Funbags, please! | 0:49:36 | 0:49:39 | |
And I was standing behind the flap with my chair side down | 0:49:39 | 0:49:41 | |
and I thought, "How can I go on and sit down and say, | 0:49:41 | 0:49:43 | |
"Good evening, this happened at the golf club, and... | 0:49:43 | 0:49:46 | |
And our twee, twee jokes. | 0:49:46 | 0:49:48 | |
Please will you welcome the wonderful, oh, | 0:49:48 | 0:49:51 | |
big respect for Ronnie Corbett! | 0:49:51 | 0:49:53 | |
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE | 0:49:53 | 0:49:54 | |
Sorry, am I getting a signal? | 0:49:59 | 0:50:02 | |
Is that the middle finger? Oh! | 0:50:02 | 0:50:05 | |
I think it means, "one minute to go". | 0:50:12 | 0:50:15 | |
Funny, it used to be two minutes in the old days! | 0:50:15 | 0:50:18 | |
If you were a young comedian today, if you knew | 0:50:18 | 0:50:21 | |
anything about the business at all, | 0:50:21 | 0:50:23 | |
you'd be honoured to be working with some of the greats | 0:50:23 | 0:50:27 | |
that are still with us. No question about it. | 0:50:27 | 0:50:29 | |
And Ronnie's one of those. | 0:50:29 | 0:50:31 | |
To celebrate his birthday, | 0:50:34 | 0:50:36 | |
a new generation of comics came together | 0:50:36 | 0:50:38 | |
to create The One Ronnie in 2010. | 0:50:38 | 0:50:41 | |
Ronnie's career had been resurrected at the age of 80. | 0:50:41 | 0:50:45 | |
CHEERING | 0:50:46 | 0:50:48 | |
It was just a sort of delight from start to finish because, | 0:50:54 | 0:50:57 | |
doing a sketch with Ronnie Corbett. | 0:50:57 | 0:51:00 | |
Sorry I'm late. Asda was heaving. | 0:51:02 | 0:51:05 | |
Got some fancy fondants for tea. | 0:51:05 | 0:51:08 | |
By the time I did that with him, I'd got to know him. | 0:51:08 | 0:51:11 | |
We've become friends, and he's someone I think of as a friend. | 0:51:11 | 0:51:14 | |
He's someone, we will phone each other up, just to chat. | 0:51:14 | 0:51:19 | |
So, there wasn't perhaps the trepidation that | 0:51:19 | 0:51:23 | |
I might have had if I didn't know him as well as I do. | 0:51:23 | 0:51:28 | |
Live! | 0:51:28 | 0:51:29 | |
Lionel Blair was in it as well, wasn't he? | 0:51:33 | 0:51:35 | |
He popped up at the end, doesn't he? | 0:51:35 | 0:51:38 | |
HE CHUCKLES | 0:51:38 | 0:51:39 | |
THUNDERCLAP | 0:51:39 | 0:51:40 | |
Behold! Pure evil! | 0:51:40 | 0:51:42 | |
THUNDERCLAP | 0:51:42 | 0:51:44 | |
It's great. | 0:51:47 | 0:51:49 | |
Oh, I love those curtains. | 0:51:49 | 0:51:52 | |
Do you? I made them myself! | 0:51:52 | 0:51:54 | |
Knitty-fingers! | 0:51:54 | 0:51:56 | |
You know what this place is crying out for? | 0:51:56 | 0:51:59 | |
-Scatter cushions. -Don't think I haven't told them. -Can you do this? | 0:51:59 | 0:52:03 | |
RAPID RHYTHM | 0:52:03 | 0:52:05 | |
RONNIE IMITATES | 0:52:05 | 0:52:07 | |
Ye Gods! What have I done?! | 0:52:07 | 0:52:10 | |
-BOTH: -Ho-ho! | 0:52:10 | 0:52:12 | |
We should get on Strictly! Ha-ha! | 0:52:13 | 0:52:15 | |
The best sketch on that show was the one that Harry Enfield did. | 0:52:16 | 0:52:19 | |
That is... | 0:52:19 | 0:52:21 | |
That sketch is up there, I think, with the Two Ronnies, | 0:52:21 | 0:52:25 | |
because of course, they were, it was a sort of homage to Four Candles. | 0:52:25 | 0:52:31 | |
It better be good, and it was. | 0:52:31 | 0:52:33 | |
I bought something from you last week, and I'm very disappointed. | 0:52:34 | 0:52:39 | |
Oh, yeah? What's the problem? | 0:52:39 | 0:52:41 | |
Well, my blackberry is not working. | 0:52:41 | 0:52:43 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:52:49 | 0:52:50 | |
SHOPKEEPER CLEARS THROAT | 0:52:50 | 0:52:51 | |
What's the matter, it run out of juice? | 0:52:51 | 0:52:53 | |
No, no, it's completely frozen. | 0:52:55 | 0:52:57 | |
Oh, yeah, I can see that. | 0:53:01 | 0:53:02 | |
That was wonderfully written and fantastically performed. | 0:53:02 | 0:53:06 | |
It was kind of perfect. | 0:53:06 | 0:53:07 | |
I tell you what, let's try it on Orange. | 0:53:09 | 0:53:11 | |
That's got a few blackspots. | 0:53:15 | 0:53:18 | |
Oh, dear, yeah, sorry about that. Yeah. | 0:53:18 | 0:53:21 | |
I think the reason he's so popular now is | 0:53:22 | 0:53:26 | |
because people genuinely love him, | 0:53:26 | 0:53:28 | |
and the people that have him on their shows genuinely love him | 0:53:28 | 0:53:31 | |
and know that he remains sharp and talented | 0:53:31 | 0:53:34 | |
and intrinsically funny, and so, he's going | 0:53:34 | 0:53:37 | |
to grace their show in his 80s, just as he would have done in his 20s. | 0:53:37 | 0:53:40 | |
That's why he still works. | 0:53:40 | 0:53:42 | |
In 2005, Corbett and Barker made one last appearance together, | 0:53:45 | 0:53:49 | |
hosting a celebration of their best sketches. | 0:53:49 | 0:53:52 | |
It would be their last ever recording together. | 0:53:54 | 0:53:57 | |
I was at the final Two Ronnies recording that they ever did | 0:53:59 | 0:54:03 | |
together, Two Ronnies Christmas Sketchbook in summer, 2005. | 0:54:03 | 0:54:08 | |
Went along to TV Centre. | 0:54:08 | 0:54:10 | |
It was quite an amazing night. | 0:54:13 | 0:54:15 | |
Thank you. Good evening. | 0:54:22 | 0:54:25 | |
It's wonderful to be back with you | 0:54:25 | 0:54:27 | |
for this special Christmas Sketchbook, isn't it, Ronnie? | 0:54:27 | 0:54:30 | |
Indeed it is. And remember, we are still The Two Ronnies. | 0:54:30 | 0:54:33 | |
We have been on your screens now for nearly 40 years. | 0:54:33 | 0:54:36 | |
To be in the presence of two, two absolute legends, masters of | 0:54:36 | 0:54:43 | |
the art of comedy, and to see just a glimmer of them working together... | 0:54:43 | 0:54:49 | |
Having to compete against various comic double acts. | 0:54:49 | 0:54:52 | |
Little and Large in the saucy '70s. | 0:54:52 | 0:54:54 | |
Smith and Jones in the elegant '80s. | 0:54:54 | 0:54:57 | |
Ant and Dec in the nifty '90s. | 0:54:57 | 0:54:59 | |
And now Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. | 0:54:59 | 0:55:01 | |
The atmosphere for both Ronnie Corbett and Ronnie Barker | 0:55:08 | 0:55:13 | |
amongst the audience was palpable. | 0:55:13 | 0:55:17 | |
So, once again, it only remains for me | 0:55:17 | 0:55:19 | |
to say a Merry Christmas from me... | 0:55:19 | 0:55:21 | |
-And a happy New Year from him. -Goodnight. Goodnight. | 0:55:21 | 0:55:24 | |
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE | 0:55:24 | 0:55:26 | |
It was... Yeah, it was incredibly emotional. | 0:55:29 | 0:55:31 | |
It was quite clear... | 0:55:31 | 0:55:33 | |
Although it was unspoken, it was clear that Ronnie Barker | 0:55:33 | 0:55:38 | |
was very frail by that point and that would be quite probably | 0:55:38 | 0:55:42 | |
the last time they ever worked together, | 0:55:42 | 0:55:45 | |
and indeed it proved to be the case. | 0:55:45 | 0:55:47 | |
Ronnie Corbett has been on our screens for more than 60 years... | 0:55:50 | 0:55:55 | |
An absolute icon. | 0:55:55 | 0:55:56 | |
He's one of the last of the great days of British variety. | 0:55:56 | 0:56:00 | |
Eric and Ernie and Frankie Howerd and Tommy Cooper. He's up there. | 0:56:00 | 0:56:04 | |
Look down, he's there with them all. | 0:56:04 | 0:56:07 | |
He's like a sort of Dead Sea Scrolls. Everything is in there. | 0:56:07 | 0:56:11 | |
By Jove, you've done well for yourself. | 0:56:11 | 0:56:14 | |
You haven't done too badly, eh? | 0:56:14 | 0:56:17 | |
People of my generation and generations that have come after me | 0:56:17 | 0:56:21 | |
have really taken him to their hearts. | 0:56:21 | 0:56:25 | |
Number one, just because he's so good. | 0:56:25 | 0:56:28 | |
I mean, that's the bottom line of it. | 0:56:28 | 0:56:30 | |
..but he will always be best remembered as one of The Two Ronnies. | 0:56:30 | 0:56:35 | |
I was a wee baby. | 0:56:36 | 0:56:37 | |
I spent the first two years of my life on a charm bracelet. | 0:56:37 | 0:56:41 | |
There is a sort of naughtiness about him which we all love and admire. | 0:56:43 | 0:56:49 | |
We know a little smirk is coming. | 0:56:49 | 0:56:51 | |
We know that if he says anything then that naughty laugh will just | 0:56:51 | 0:56:55 | |
break out in the middle of a sentence and he'll push his | 0:56:55 | 0:56:59 | |
glasses back on his nose and, you know, look at us slightly beadily. | 0:56:59 | 0:57:04 | |
-Well, we've known each other for, what, -5...? -10. 15. -20. | 0:57:04 | 0:57:09 | |
20 minutes. | 0:57:09 | 0:57:11 | |
-Months. -Months. | 0:57:11 | 0:57:13 | |
20 years. 20 years, man and boy. | 0:57:13 | 0:57:15 | |
I've known him since he was that high. | 0:57:15 | 0:57:17 | |
Sometimes things that are very, very popular do not get ranked | 0:57:17 | 0:57:21 | |
as culturally or artistically important, | 0:57:21 | 0:57:24 | |
and The Two Ronnies is like that. | 0:57:24 | 0:57:25 | |
It's like, well, it was watched by 20 million people and obviously | 0:57:25 | 0:57:28 | |
it can't be artistically or comically important, but it is. | 0:57:28 | 0:57:31 | |
The funeral took place today of Mr Spencer P Dobson, | 0:57:31 | 0:57:35 | |
the famous compiler of crossword puzzles. | 0:57:35 | 0:57:38 | |
After a short service, | 0:57:38 | 0:57:39 | |
he was buried six down and three across. | 0:57:39 | 0:57:42 | |
And it stuck out a mile he was going to be a star | 0:57:42 | 0:57:46 | |
because of one word - class. | 0:57:46 | 0:57:48 | |
He had total class. | 0:57:48 | 0:57:50 | |
Take that. | 0:57:50 | 0:57:51 | |
"Christmas time is here again | 0:57:57 | 0:57:59 | |
"And joy, this day be yours | 0:58:00 | 0:58:02 | |
"With mistletoe upon the tree | 0:58:02 | 0:58:04 | |
"And holly on the doors | 0:58:04 | 0:58:05 | |
"I wish you all you wish yourself | 0:58:05 | 0:58:07 | |
"And may your day be jolly." | 0:58:07 | 0:58:10 | |
The other side of the card. | 0:58:10 | 0:58:11 | |
"I swear to | 0:58:14 | 0:58:15 | |
"tell the truth, the whole truth | 0:58:15 | 0:58:17 | |
"and nothing but the truth. | 0:58:17 | 0:58:19 | |
"Love, Dennis and Mabel." | 0:58:19 | 0:58:21 |