Ronnie Barker's timing...

[kalowski]

...in Porridge is incredibly.

I know it's obvious, but by hell he's good.

[Norton Canes]

...in Porridge is incredibly

I feel there should be some way to leverage a great joke out of an unfinished sentence in a thread about timing, but I can't quite figure out how.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

Immaculate, I'd say.


( NB: This post would work better if I could post in as Naomi Woolf- Campbell Paul Eddington.)

[Alberon]

His main reputation was as a comedian and it does overshadow his abilities as an actor.

There aren't many who would have had the range to deliver both Arkwright and Fletcher.

[lankyguy95]

Porridge and, more pertinently, Open All Hours wouldn't be good shows with a different actor. His abilities were at once breathtaking yet seemingly effortless.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

It's one of the best pieces of comic acting I have ever seen. Barker fully inhabits that character, Fletch feels like a fully-rounded human being. The impeccable scripts have a lot to do with that, of course, but Barker elevates them. That's how good he was.

His decision - I'm presuming it was his decision - to be chewing gum at all times is such a perfect little touch. It adds an extra 'fuck you' frisson to his encounters with MacKay.

[Gurke and Hare]

Presumably at least some of you are also watching the repeats on Gold during working from home lunch hours? It's a mystery to me why  "What, with these feet?" never got picked up as one of the great comedy lines that people quote all the time. It's magnificent, in both writing and delivery.

[Glebe]

He was a master. Incredible. Sorry, nothing more to add. As you were.

[tinner777]

so many lines, so much fun,
"you do know this job is a privilege?"
"for the pigs"

[Twonty Gostelow]

I feel there should be some way to leverage a great joke out of an unfinished sentence in a thread about timing, but I can't quite figure out how.

What are the two finest Orien...
Thai, Ming.




^{_{Fuck off.}}

[kalowski]

Presumably at least some of you are also watching the repeats on Gold during working from home lunch hours? It's a mystery to me why  "What, with these feet?" never got picked up as one of the great comedy lines that people quote all the time. It's magnificent, in both writing and delivery.

I was watching an episode last night, which is why I was inspired to start the thread.

And I agree about the utterly perfect, "What, with these feet?"
Perhaps overshadowed by "Beautiful Babs. I forget her name."

[metaltax]

"My house reflects my wife"
"Big is it?"
"Spotless"

Beautiful. For all that Barker's performance is a tour de force on its own, its on another level when you put him up against Mr Mackay.

[timebug]

Watching the original 'Open All Hours' simply proves that without Ronnie, 'Still Open All Hours' was a pointless and pathetic attempt to find work for David Jason; who I am sure, did not particularly need it?

[kalowski]

My dad was fascinated by Ronnie Barker's hair. Whenever we watched Porridge he'd always talk about how good the dye must be.

[Glebe]

His main reputation was as a comedian and it does overshadow his abilities as an actor.

There aren't many who would have had the range to deliver both Arkwright and Fletcher.

Yeah, he could completely transform himself.

[vainsharpdad]

Paul Whitehouse is the only person I can think of who comes close.

[Tony Tony Tony]

His timing is absolutely....


incredible

[Twonty Gostelow]

Ronnie B was great, but he wasn't perfect.

I have a clear memory of him doing a piece to camera where he was mispronouncing his words throughout. Not sure if he was sick or drunk or what, but it definitely made me think less of him.

[Brundle-Fly]

Ronnie Barker and Fulton Mackay in the first (almost) two-hander episode of the Porridge sequel, Going Straight . A master class in writing and acting. To act convincingly drunk like this for a start. Brilliant.

Pt 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G45052_u2BU

Pt 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_aN9bv58gk

[Glebe]

I have a clear memory of him doing a piece to camera where he was pisspronouncing his worms throughout.

[Sherman Krank]

I have a clear mammary of him doing a piece to camera where he was pisspronouncing his worms throughout.

[thenoise]

By the time he made Open all Hours he could barely make it through a scene without stumbling over his lines. Sad ...

[TheMonk]

Not to mention his heartwarming performance as Fatbelly Jones.

[badaids]

By the time he made Open all Hours he could barely make it through a scene without stumbling over his lines. Sad ...

And he didn't have the stage manner to handle props properly, he ballses up every scene where the till is involved.

[pigamus]

"What, from here?"

[The Bumlord]

And he didn't have the stage manner to handle props properly, he ballses up every scene where the till is involved.

I think that's unfair, seems like a bad BBC prop to me. Nearly takes his fingers off, they really should have changed it.

[lankyguy95]

Could see it was affecting his mental health. He started sexually harassing that nurse on the cast.

[evilcommiedictator]

His timing is a terr, tterr, tteer, tter, tterr....not bad in the grand scheme of things, and finishing up my sch-sch-scheme will hopefully end up with me and the undergarments of Nurse Gladys in close proximity

[El Unicornio, mang]

His main reputation was as a comedian and it does overshadow his abilities as an actor.

There aren't many who would have had the range to deliver both Arkwright and Fletcher.

And also the fact that neither are anything like his real life personality. One of my top 10 favourite actors. I remember him saying after he retired that he'd only act again if he could do a film with Pacino, De Niro and Brando. Would have loved to see him in a big meaty movie role.

[jobotic]

By the time he made Open all Hours he could barely make it through a scene without stumbling over his lines. Sad ...

forgot the name of David Jason's character every time.