Newsdesk The Two Ronnies always opened and closed at the newsdesk, which featured the Ronnies as newsreaders, reading spoof news items. This gave rise to the famous
catchphrase at the end of each show:
Corbett: That's all we've got time for, so it's "Good night" from me.
Barker: And it's "Good night" from him.
Both: Good night!
Sketches The show featured comic sketches in which Barker and Corbett appeared both together and separately, with various additions giving the programme the feeling of a variety show. Barker liked to parody officialdom and establishment figures, as well as eccentrics. Corbett appeared quieter, more often acting as a foil for Barker, but remained an important part of the chemistry. Some of the jokes involved Corbett's height and Barker's weight:
Barker: And now, a sketch about an enormous embarrassment at a small party. Mr. Ronnie Corbett plays the small party.
Corbett (pause): And Mr. Ronnie Barker plays the enormous embarrassment! Other jokes could be playfully risqué, as found on
seaside postcards, for example:
Man (
sotto voce): Tickle your botty with a feather tonight?
Woman (outraged): I
beg your pardon?
Man: Particular grotty weather tonight. Some of the show's material contained elements of
surreal or left-field humour, in the vein of
Monty Python. This wasn't surprising, because in the early years of the show many sketches were written by members of the Python troupe themselves (John Cleese, Eric Idle, Michael Palin, and Terry Jones) and featured eccentric people being comically violent. Corbett and Barker joined forces some time after their peers, by which time the comedy world had moved toward
satire, absurdist surrealism, and the beginnings of
alternative humour. This left the field for more traditional comedy open to Corbett and Barker, who freely indulged in puns, wordplay, misunderstandings, and ridiculous situations.
Notable sketches • Swedish Made Simple (1974) – A Swedish waiter simplifies his customer's orders using subtitles where each word is translated to a letter. ("Have you any tea?" becomes "F. U. N. E. T.?") •
Four Candles (1976) – A hardware shopkeeper becomes increasingly frustrated while misunderstanding what a farmhand is requesting. • Mastermind (1980) – A contestant on the quiz show
Mastermind answers each question before last. • The Sweet Shop (1980) – A sweet-shop owner whose motto is "nothing is too much trouble" has to deal with a very fussy customer. • Crossword (1980) – On a train, a slow-witted commuter struggles aloud with his easy crossword while a serious man tries to complete his own intellectual crossword. • Inventors’ Convention (1980) - Two inventors sharing a hotel room show their invention to each other before the convention: a hair-growing lotion and an aerosol that makes invisible. • Crossed Lines (1981) – Two men next to each other at supermarket payphones have their conversations unintentionally answering each other. • Courtroom Quiz (1984) –
Patrick Troughton plays a judge overhearing a cross-examination that takes the form of quiz-show questions. • The Sheikh in the Grocery Store (1985) – An Arab man struggles to convey his shopping list to the vendor in a grocery store.
Solo sections Both Barker and Corbett had their own solo sections on each show. Barker would have his own heavily wordplay-based sketch, often as the head of a ridiculous-sounding organisation (for example, the "Anti-Shoddy Goods Committee"). Likewise, Corbett always had a discursive solo
monologue in each show, when he sat in a chair, facing the camera, attempting to tell a simple joke, but constantly distracting himself into relating other humorous incidents. The joke itself was normally deliberately corny; the humour came from Corbett's wild tangents, as well as the anticlimax when he finally reached the punchline. An example of Ronnie Corbett's humour is this short excerpt from a monologue:
Serial stories It became a tradition of the shows to have a continuing serial story which progressed through the eight episodes of a series. These were often fairly bawdy tales with special guest stars. The Two Ronnies also starred in two spin-off silent films labelled
The Two Ronnies Present...,
The Picnic and
By the Sea, written by Barker, mainly silent comedies featuring a squabbling upper-class family with a 1920s feel about them.
Hampton Wick (1971) The very first serial of
The Two Ronnies was written by Barker, and began as a pastiche of costume dramas about a governess called Henrietta Beckett, played by
Madeline Smith. Barker played a sex-starved aristocrat called Sir Geoffrey, and Corbett played his son Edward, but further into the serial, the Ronnies portrayed a wide variety of other characters, including pick-pockets and royals. At the end it is revealed to be just a dream when she wakes up in Hampton Wick Cottage Hospital after having an accident.
Done to Death (1972) Piggy Malone (Barker) and Charley Farley (Corbett) are private detectives who investigate a mystery about a murdered family, featuring
Sue Lloyd as Blanche Brimstone. As soon as Piggy finds out about the murder in the newspaper, a decision's made that means a trip to the country, and there's a second murder during an unusual gathering. Also featuring are secretary Miss Whizzer and the rest of the Brimstone family, through which the detectives narrow down the culprit. The first seven episodes of
Done to Death ended with the words "Only one thing was for certain. There would be very little sleep for anyone that night."
Death Can Be Fatal (1975) Piggy and Charley's second serial begins when a frogman delivers a note, and the duo are sent in search of the formula for the Clumsy Drug, alongside
Cyd Hayman as Madame Eloise Coqoutte. Corbett and Barker also play the two villains, the notorious Mr Greensleeves and his Japanese henchman Bobjob. In the end the mystery is solved as the formula is revealed on a pair of women's knickers. The endings for
Death Can Be Fatal were based on more, as Corbett put it, 'exaggerated
Dick Barton lines', such as "Is this the end for our two heroes? What of Madame Cocotte? Is she in some bedroom somewhere, lying in wait with a silencer? Or lying in silence with a waiter? Find out next week in another exciting episode,
Villa of Villainy."
The Phantom Raspberry Blower of Old London Town (1976) Written by
Spike Milligan and
Ronnie Barker but credited as "Spike Milligan and a Gentleman" (after the fashion of 19th-century minister
James Lord Pierpont, who credited himself on occasion as "a gentleman"). Set in
Victorian times, it is a
Jack the Ripper parody in which a mysterious figure goes around blowing
raspberries at members of the upper classes. The raspberries were done by Barker's friend
David Jason. This entire section of sketches was included in Milligan's book "I Told You I Was Ill".
''Stop! You're Killing Me'' (1977–78) Piggy and Charley return as
Devon's yokels are murdered and dumped in London, with support from
Kate O'Mara as the gypsy temptress, Lucy Lee.
Sid and Lily, George and Edie (1978-79) This is not so much a serial as a series of sketches with the same characters that spanned series 7. Sid and George enjoy pints while discussing their wives Lily and Edie.
The Worm That Turned (1980) Diana Dors guest-starred as the Commander of the State Police in this spoof piece of
dystopian fiction set in 2012 in which women rule England. Male and female gender roles are completely reversed, even down to men having women's names and vice versa. Men are
housekeepers and wear women's clothes, and law and order is managed by female guards in boots and hot pants.
Big Ben is renamed Big Brenda, the
Tower of London is renamed
Barbara Castle, and the
Union Jack becomes the Union Jill. The watching of chauvinistic films is prohibited, so the Two Ronnies (as Janet and Betty) prepare to escape to Wales.
Band of Slaves (1981–82) The last serial to include Piggy Malone and Charley Farley, in which an all-girl orchestra is sold into white slavery by a demented Chinaman.
Elizabeth Larner plays Mrs Bumstead, who notices a mysterious blind man appearing on the cruise ship. Location filmed on board P&O
SS Canberra cruise out of Southampton. This was the last of The Two Ronnies' serials.
Outside performers Apart from Corbett and Barker, several actors from television appeared multiple times in the series, most notably John Owens and
Claire Nielson, who appeared in twenty-one and seventeen episodes respectively throughout the series. Other frequent performers include
April Walker, John Rutland,
Michael Redfern,
Jenny Logan,
Alec Bregonzi,
Carol Hawkins,
Dilys Watling,
Joyce Windsor,
Julia McKenzie,
Barbara New, Ian Gray,
Johnnie Wade,
Patricia Brake (who starred with Barker in the sitcom
Porridge, which aired at the same time as the series),
Josephine Tewson (who would go on to co-star in Barker's tv series
Clarence),
Noel Dyson and
Vicki Michelle.
The Fred Tomlinson Singers appeared as background singers in twenty-five episodes. Also appearing as part of a dance group was Corbett's wife Anne. As the series gathered more popularity, the sketches began to feature more famous and well-known British actors, including
John Cleese,
Patrick Troughton,
Stratford Johns,
Joan Sims,
Patricia Routledge,
Jenny Agutter,
Lynda Baron (Ronnie Barker's co-star in
Open All Hours) and
Peter Wyngarde. Before achieving fame in the sitcom
Hi-de-Hi!,
Barry Howard appeared in several early episodes as an uncredited extra. Other actors who appeared as extras before their rise to fame include
Andrée Bernard and
John Scott Martin.
Music Another regular feature of the shows was an elaborate musical finale in which Barker and Corbett – sometimes with one or both in drag – and company would sing a medley of songs in character, in
barbershop,
music hall,
Gilbert and Sullivan,
George Formby, or other styles, with the original words altered to suit whatever comic situation they were portraying. Some of the finales had Barker and Corbett imitating other performers, like
Charles Aznavour,
Nana Mouskouri,
Dolly Parton,
Richard Burton and
Elizabeth Taylor, and
Hinge and Bracket. In the middle of the show, there would also be a
cabaret musician or group appearing as a special guest, including
The Mamas & The Papas,
New World,
Tina Charles,
Georgie Fame and
Alan Price,
Samantha Jones,
Dana,
Elkie Brooks,
Manhattan Transfer,
Pan's People,
Michel Legrand,
Barbara Dickson,
the Nolan Sisters,
Elton John,
Marti Webb,
Clodagh Rogers,
Elaine Paige, and
Phil Collins, the last of whom also took part in a few sketches. The programme's earliest episodes also featured specialty acts, usually in pantomime, by international vaudevillians like
Chaz Chase and Jo, Jac and Joni. ==Popularity==