Ronnie Barker

Ten comedians who have played Shakespeare

Including Catherine Tate, Benny Hill and Ken Dodd.

Peter Kay is a natural heir to Ronnie Barker

Ahead of BBC1 tribute series, Peter Kay's Comedy Shuffle, friends and collaborators Sian Gibson, Danny Baker, Reece Shearsmith and Jason Manford tell TV Times what makes Peter Kay a comedy great.

Comedy's five best sketch duos, according to Max & Ivan

The British double act pay tribute to their heroes - including Matt Lucas and David Walliams, Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse, and the late Ronnies Corbett and Barker.

Archive: Two Ronnies review, 26 May 1978

Ronnie Corbett - 'He looks like one of those shopkeepers who are continually smitten by big business'

Kevin Bishop to take on Ronnie Barker role in Porridge

Comedian/actor Kevin Bishop is to take on the lead role in a modern remake of prison sitcom Porridge, which originally starred Ronnie Barker as repeat offender Norman Stanley Fletcher.

Radio Times review

It's easy to see why Roy Clarke's revival of his much-loved Ronnie Barker comedy Open All Hours is such a blazing hit. It takes its audience back to comfortable times, when being from Yorkshire was inherently funny, when men were hapless fools, women were either battleaxes or well-upholstered sirens and when everyone loved a bit of mild smut.

There isn't a mean bone in Still Open All Hours's body as grown men have silly fun with an over-sized Christmas tree, a sinister one-eyed Santa mannequin and a trampoline. Parsimonious local shopkeeper Granville (David Jason) remains at the mercy of the supernaturally self-operating till and the terrifying women get all the best lines. "How long since you were in curlers on a Wednesday afternoon?" wonders flinty Mrs Featherstone of comely Gladys Emmanuel.

Radio Times review

No comic actor ever wrinkled their nose or pushed up their spectacles with better timing. Ronnie Corbett's gifts are lauded by a biography strand that's previously given warm tributes to Robbie Coltrane, Les Dawson, Judi Dench and indeed Ronnie Barker. Interviews and clips aim to bring out the secrets behind the success of The Two Ronnies, and Corbett's rather bleak solo sitcom, Sorry!

There's plenty to explore from the years before his TV career: when Corbett appeared on The Frost Report as a fresh-faced, talented newcomer, he was actually 36 and a veteran of the clubs. Before that were his days as a teenage organist - no, that's not the set-up for a Two Ronnies newsreader joke - and his 1952 film debut in You're Only Young Twice.

Radio Times review

The "Friend" is Joanna Lumley, who accompanies David Walliams through an inevitably uneven, but more-winners-than-losers sketch show. There's a disturbing pastiche of The Great British Bake Off with Paul Hollywood (Walliams, alarming with hedgehog hair) and Mary Berry (Lumley) unable to conceal their lust for one another.

In what feels like an updating of Ronnie Barker's classic Mispronunciation Sketch, Walliams is a party guest who invented autocorrect, and he drags up to play a passive-aggressive, glowing orange tanning salon receptionist. But maybe you'll prefer his Oscar Wilde, or the businessman dad who gives his little daughter a bedtime story in bullet points.

Quentin Letts pays tribute to Ronnie Barker

The last thing he wrote was a terribly sad play, Mum. After all the polished gaiety of the comedy material, we suddenly see a glimpse of a Ronnie Barker who was shadowed by the unhappiness in life. Perhaps it goes to confirm that theory that all the best comedians are sad.

Danny Baker reveals why he cast Peter Kay as his dad

"Peter, yes, Bolton to his boots - but he's also an actor... He always wanted to be like his hero Ronnie Barker and he has that quality - I think he's the natural heir to that sort of actor".