Theatrical career Barker failed to get into the
Young Vic School, He appeared in stage adaptations of
Treasure Island and
Red Riding Hood before getting his first leading role in
The Guinea Pig as a working-class boy at a public school. He made his way back to Oxford and then worked in
Bramhall for the Famous Players. Barker joined the
Oxford Playhouse in 1951 and worked there for three years, appearing in plays such as
He Who Gets Slapped as Polly.
Peter Hall worked with Barker at Oxford and gave him his break, casting him as the Chantyman and Joe Silva in his production of
Mourning Becomes Electra at the
Arts Theatre in
London's West End in 1955. His other roles included Mr. Thwaites in
Double Image in 1956 (with Olivier),
Camino Real (directed by Hall) in 1957, Barker also featured in the show's radio spin-off
The TV Lark, in which his character, Fatso, was now a camera operator after the main characters were drummed out of the service, and as a trainee chef in ''Crowther's Crowd'' in 1963, Barker soon began working in film and television. His first acting job on television was in Melvyn's show ''I'm Not Bothered
. He appeared in various roles in the comedy series The Seven Faces of Jim from 1962, alongside Jimmy Edwards and June Whitfield, as well as parts in Bold as Brass
and Foreign Affairs'' (as Russian embassy worker Grischa Petrovitch). Barker had an uncredited role in the 1958 film
Wonderful Things!. In 1964 he appeared in
Galton & Simpson's gentle comedy
The Bargee, as 'Ronnie', the
illiterate cousin of
Harry H. Corbett's rascally 'Hemmel Pike'. He did his first bit of on-screen 'porridge' as fellow convict to
Charlie Drake in
The Cracksman (1963). Other film work at that time included:
Doctor in Distress (1963),
Father Came Too! (1963) and
A Home of Your Own (1965). In 1966, Barker got his break with the satirical sketch series
The Frost Report, having been recommended for the show by producer
James Gilbert. Corbett stated in his autobiography that the two had gravitated towards each other because of their similar backgrounds; neither had attended university, while many of the other cast and writers on
The Frost Report had. Barker starred alongside Cleese and Corbett in
The Frost Reports best-known sketch, which satirised the
British class system, with Barker representing the middle class. After the first series, the special
Frost Over England was produced, winning the
Golden Rose at the Montreux Television Festival. With a second series of the show announced, Frost, recognising their potential, signed both Barker and Corbett up to his production company
David Paradine Productions. As part of the deal Barker was given his own show in 1968,
The Ronnie Barker Playhouse, which comprised six separate, thirty-minute plays. Barker starred in each piece as a different character. After two series of
The Frost Report on the
BBC, totalling 26 half-hour episodes, Frost moved to
ITV after helping to set up
London Weekend Television. There, Frost hosted
Frost on Sunday, with Barker and Corbett following and again performing sketches on the programme. Barker began writing sketches for the programme under the pseudonym Gerald Wiley. Barker began using the pseudonym Gerald Wiley when writing sketches because he wished the pieces to be accepted on merit and not just because he, as a star of the programme, had written them; he continued this tradition with the material he wrote later in his career, using a variety of pseudonyms. In 1969, Barker wrote, produced and starred as Sir Giles Futtock in the film ''
Futtock's End'' which featured little dialogue and only "grumble[s] and grunt[s]".
Move to the BBC and The Two Ronnies Soon after, Barker, Corbett and
Josephine Tewson performed a sketch about
Henry VIII at the 1971
BAFTAs, with Barker playing Henry. The three also had to keep the audience entertained for around eight minutes as the show was stopped because of technical difficulties. Their performance at the award show impressed the BBC's Head of Light Entertainment
Bill Cotton and Controller of
BBC1,
Paul Fox, who were sitting in the audience. Not knowing they were both essentially unemployed, although still contracted to Paradine, Cotton signed the duo up for their own show together, and a series each on their own; he later joked he "must have offered them too much money." Barker and Corbett wished to avoid being remembered primarily as a duo, and felt they could not work in the same way as a conventional double act like
Morecambe and Wise, and so each maintained their solo careers as well. They each were given a one-off variety special; Barker's, called
The Ronnie Barker Yearbook, featured a sketch for each month of the year although, because of time constraints, the first two had to be cut. Barker also reprised his character Lord Rustless in the sitcom
His Lordship Entertains in 1972. ) Their show together was
The Two Ronnies, a sketch show which aired for twelve series and eight specials between 1971 and 1987, to immediate success. The end catchphrase and newsreader characters were devised because Barker found it difficult to appear as himself: Corbett explained that Barker "was a very private man, a quiet man ... He found it almost impossible to talk directly, as himself, to an audience." Each also had their own solo segments to help ensure they were not totally associated as a double act. Filming took place over four months of each year. After outdoor and serial sketches were filmed on location, the studio material was filmed on Sunday evenings at
BBC Television Centre in front of a live audience; the musical finale was filmed the day before without the audience. Barker wrote much of the show's material, roughly three-quarters, again under the name Gerald Wiley. After filming the show all day, he spent the evenings helping technician Jim Franklin to edit it. He and Corbett always got on, with Barker noting "People refuse to believe that we don't have rows, tensions, private wars. It's a strange thing after so many years but we never have. Actually, it's even more amicable than a marriage – wedlock without the bad patches. Our sense of humour and perception of what's good and what's rubbish are uncommonly in tune." Barker was never happy with the sketch's final line (a male assistant asking "What sort of billhooks did you want?") and changed it (to a female assistant asking "What sort of knockers were you looking for?") for the stage version of
The Two Ronnies, although he was still not totally satisfied with it. Nevertheless, the sketch is considered the show's most famous one and was voted as the show's best in a TV special, while also placing fifth on
Channel 4's
50 Greatest Comedy Sketches. The original script, handwritten by Barker, was sold for £48,500 at auction in 2007 after featuring in an episode of
Antiques Roadshow the previous year. Barker won the
BAFTA for Best Light Entertainment Performance in 1971 and 1977 for the show. A second stage series took place in 1983. Barker was reportedly offended by a sketch called "The Two Ninnies" on the BBC's ''
Not the Nine O'Clock News'', which mocked their act as being based on dated innuendo-based humour. After a tip-off from
Dick Clement and
Ian La Frenais, Barker and Corbett opted to move with their families to Sydney, Australia, in 1979 for the year to exploit a tax loophole and avoid paying the year's income tax. They performed their stage show for four weeks in Sydney and a further four in Melbourne; because of their existing popularity in Australia and what Corbett termed the Australian audiences' "[comedic] soul that still related to the UK", they made no changes to the routine. Barker made no other appearances that year and spent his time writing and engaging in recreational activities. Following the show's success,
Kerry Packer commissioned a six-episode TV series of
The Two Ronnies in Australia for
Nine Network. The show comprised material not yet shown in Australia from
The Two Ronnies and new content targeted more towards an Australian audience. They returned for a second series in 1986. Barker and Corbett also starred in the short, mostly silent, films
The Picnic (1976) and
By the Sea (1982), both written by Barker as "David Huggett and Larry Keith". The show was also widely syndicated in North America by PBS and CBC, and in 1980 they appeared in the short-lived NBC variety show
The Big Show; the two were glad the show did not last as they objected to the use of
canned laughter by the American networks.
Porridge, Open All Hours and other work Following the success of
The Two Ronnies, the BBC let Barker decide what he wanted to do. Barker opted to produce some sitcom pilots shown as part of 1973's
Seven of One. Two of these pilots,
Open All Hours (written by
Roy Clarke) and
Prisoner and Escort (written by
Dick Clement and
Ian La Frenais) became series.
Prisoner and Escort became
Porridge, airing from 1974 to 1977, with Barker starring as the cynical and cunning prisoner
Norman Stanley Fletcher.
Porridge was the first sitcom to take place in a prison;
The Times said the show "was about what it took to survive in prison, the little day-to-day triumphs over the system that kept the prisoners sane."
The Times called "Fletcher" Barker's "finest creation," Further plans for the show were ended when Barker's co-star
Richard Beckinsale died of a heart attack in 1979, aged 31. with another two made as well as the show continued its ratings success. Barker was the first actor considered for the role of Frank Spencer in ''
Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em'', but turned it down, so
Michael Crawford was cast instead. Barker's next sitcom,
The Magnificent Evans, which was about a Welsh photographer and aired in 1984, was not successful. before
Clarence aired and after rejecting Hall's offer of the part of
Falstaff in a
Royal National Theatre production of
Henry IV, Part 1 & 2, He had decided to retire in 1985 but his decision was kept secret for two years, Corbett being the only one knowing about it. Once retired from acting, Barker opened and ran an antiques shop called The Emporium in
Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, and resisted all calls to come out of retirement from then onwards. He joked: "I lose money every week, but it's a hobby. It's cheaper than skiing and safer at my age." and in 1999 he was reunited with Corbett for
Two Ronnies Night on BBC One, and the following year for
A Tribute to the Two Ronnies. In the same year, he briefly reprised his role as Norman Stanley Fletcher in the spoof documentary
Life Beyond the Box. Barker received several lifetime achievement awards. He won the
Royal Television Society's award for Outstanding Creative Achievement in 1975. In 2004, he was given a special
BAFTA lifetime achievement award at
Ronnie Barker: A BAFTA Tribute, a televised celebratory tribute evening. Previous awards included the
Variety Club of Great Britain Award in 1969, 1974 and 1980, the Radio Industry Club Award in 1973, 1974, 1977 and 1981. The project, when announced, met with "some derision among the professional critics", but after the first episode drew eight million viewers, they had to "eat their words". ==Acting and writing style==