Robert Ross pays tribute to Ronnie Barker, the much-loved British comedian who was the master of pyrotechnic puns, innuendo and surreal humour...

RONNIE BARKER (1929-2005)

Ajolly, rotund character comedian of exquisite dexterity, Ronnie Barker was as equally at home in broad, outlandish variety as he was in intricate, crystal cut glass situation comedy. Even within the environs of SitCom he could morph from creation to creation, like a comedic lycanthrope: his habitual criminal Fletch in prison-based comedy classic Porridge, being as subtly different to stuttering, tight-fisted shopkeeper Arkwright in Open All Hours as could possibly be. That both characters emerged within seven days of each other, in Seven of One, Ronnie’s very own playground for potential series pilots, is nothing short of miraculous.

On BBC Television for that Spring of 1973, Ronnie’s deep roots in Repertory Theatre were clear. His chameleon-like genius for disguise and his seamless shifts in mannerisms quite simply made him the nation’s favourite comedy actor of the seventies.

It had been Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire where young Ronald William George Barker had first trod the boards, with the Manchester Repertory Company in 1948: ramifications of war damage had dictated their relocation. Seventy-five years on, the town still honours this comedic association. Ronnie’s painted likeness, as Fletch, greets the weary traveller outside Aylesbury Railway Station; while the Martin Jennings statue of Ronnie, again in character as the beloved convict, gazes determinedly towards the entrance of the Waterside Theatre.