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Ronnie Barker

Ronald William George Barker was born in Bedford in 1929. He attended school in Oxford, before studying architecture. He contemplated becoming a bank manager before realising his true calling of writing and performing. He gained the nickname Ronnie in 1956 when, during a stint in radio show The Floggits, his director thought that it sounded friendlier.

Of course, he will be most remembered as one half of the celebrated partnership of The Two Ronnies, alongside tiny comic Ronnie Corbett. The partnership ran from 1971 to 1986 and prior to that they worked with each other on The Frost Report in the late 60s. However this was not exclusively as a duo; their first outing together was when they were accidentally paired up one year to present an award at the BAFTAs only for a technical problem to force them to ad-lib. The show's producers were so impressed that they offered Barker and Corbett their own show.

For years, Ronnie hid the fact he wrote around 75 per cent of the ma... More info