All I Ever Wrote : The Complete Works of Ronnie Barker

by Ronnie Barker

The complete works of Ronnie Barker - well as much of it as he can track down! Ronnie Barker is well known and well loved entertainer, he is remembered for his roles in Porridge, Open All Hours and The Two Ronnies. In 1987 Ronnie retired from the stage and screen, but the occasion of his 70th birthday prompted this collection of his work, which may surprise some people who were unaware of his vast talents as a writer. The collection includes his early radio and Frost on Sunday sketches to classic monologues and immortal songs, his (almost) silent films to his final situation comedy, Clarence.

Genres: Comedy, Nonfiction, Humor

750 pages, Paperback

First published September 6, 1999

About the author

Ronald William George Barker, OBE was an English actor, comedian, writer, broadcaster and businessman. He was known for his roles in various British comedy television series, such as The Frost Report, Porridge, The Two Ronnies and Open All Hours.

Born in Bedford, he began his acting career in repertory theatre and decided he was best suited to performing comic roles. Barker gained his first acting successes at the Oxford Playhouse and later in various roles in the West End including Tom Stoppard's The Real Inspector Hound. During this period, he became a cast member on BBC radio and television comedy programmes such as The Navy Lark. Barker got his television break with the satirical sketch series The Frost Report in 1966 where he met future collaborator Ronnie Corbett. He joined David Frost's production company and was to star in a number ITV shows including a short film during this period.

However, it was after rejoining the BBC that he found fame with the sketch show The Two Ronnies (1971—1986) with Ronnie Corbett. After the series of pilots called Seven of One, he gained starring roles in the sitcoms Porridge, its sequel Going Straight and Open All Hours. Apart from being a performer, he was noted as a comedy writer both under his own name and the pseudonym Gerald Wiley, which Barker adopted to avoid pre-judgements of his talent. Barker won the BAFTA for Best Light Entertainment Performance four times, amongst other awards, and received an OBE in 1978.

Later television sitcoms such as The Magnificent Evans and Clarence were less successful and he decided to retire in 1987. After his retirement, he opened an antiques shop with his wife, Joy. After 1997, he appeared in a number of smaller, non-comic roles in films.

Barker's writing style was "based on precise scripts and perfect timing." It often involved playing with language, including humour involving such linguistic items as spoonerisms and double entendres. He "preferred innuendo over the crudely explicit, a restraint that demanded some imagination from the audience and was the essence of his comedy." He "never liked sex or obscenity on television, but there was no shortage of frisky gags in The Two Ronnies". Corbett said he had "a mastery of the English language".

Reviews

[Ian Banks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Best read as a series of dips in and out because the repetitive nature of some jokes does become a little wearing after a time. Having said that, there are some brilliant pieces in here: the monologues - best read aloud for maximum effect - are usually hilarious and deceptively clever, while the longer pieces (like the serials he wrote for The Two Ronnies - have some brilliant moments in them but are sometimes weakened by being forced to include some recap moments or suffering from only being able to be five minute inserts into a larger programme. Reading them as one whole piece does expose some flaws in logic and plotting, alas. I’m not going to say Barker was a gifted comedy writer but he did know what a given audience expects and wrote brilliantly to them, giving us a range of very broad humour mixed with satire and quite erudite jokes as well.

[Stu Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful. So many childhood memories returned.