The Two Ronnies

The Two Ronnies' 50th birthday

What are the ingredients that turned the sketch show into a long-running comedy classic? To find out, we asked those who contributed to some of Corbett and Barker's most famous routines.

Comedy Greats appear on Royal Mail stamps

Spike Milligan, The Two Ronnies, Billy Connolly, Morecambe & Wise, Norman Wisdom, Lenny Henry, Peter Cook & Dudley Moore, Monty Python, French & Saunders and Victoria Wood feature on ten special Royal Mail stamps.

First class! The Two Ronnies get their own stamps

Comedians Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett among those honoured in the latest series of stamps from the Royal Mail.

Video: Bill Bailey: My Comedy Hero... Les Dawson

Bill Bailey reveals that Morecambe & Wise, The Two Ronnies and Billy Connolly had a lasting impact on him growing up, but adds that one of his earliest comedy memories was watching Les Dawson with his parents.

Ronnie Corbett on The Two Ronnies Spectacle

The well-loved comedian talks to us about the G.O.L.D. retrospective, being an inspiration to modern comics and still having the razzle dazzle.

As proven by this amiable documentary, hallowed practitioners of the musical spoof include acts as diverse as Bill Bailey, The Two Ronnies, Tom Lehrer, Monty Python and Victoria Wood, who's breathlessly funny Let's Do It is one of the greatest comedy songs ever written, and I'll mud-wrestle anyone who says otherwise.

All of which poses the question: why can't all channels be as good as this?

There's almost no difference between these new compilations and the ubiquitous Twenty Years of The Two Ronnies - plus its various numerological offspring - which lumbered through the schedules during the 1980s. In fact, those earlier offerings went further than this latest effort by not only screening, yes, the sketches in full, but topping and tailing them with new material.

The Two Ronnies (BBC1) tried hard. Apart from the regular Piggy Malone number - which never works, but gives the boys a chance to grope a scantily clad damsel - the show was reasonably diverting, and for a wonder it was not until the last item that the stars appeared in female attire.