Ronnie Barker

But Ronnie Barker did more, many things that are not remembered that, I suppose, might be described as failures.

There was the follow up to Porridge, called Going Straight. A series about a short sighted removal man called Clarence, and a series about a Welsh photographer called The Magnificent Evans.

He kept his hand in on radio too. One of my favourite shows is something that appeared for a couple of series on BBC Radio 4 on Friday evenings, filling the slot normally occupied by Week Ending. It is Lines from my Grandfather’s Forehead.

There was a small cast: Barker, Pauline Yates, Terence Brady and Gordon Langford on the piano, but with special guests when required. And just sixteen episodes in total, plus a special or two.

It was billed as “a sequential entertainment for radio”. I took this to mean that the sketches would flow to some extent, they could be connected by a theme, like train travel. There was no audience and not really any jokes. It was designed to amuse rather more than laugh out loud.

The list of writers was impressive. Harold Pinter, Barker himself, Spike Milligan, Ted Dicks…

BBC Radio 4 Extra still plays them from time to time. Definitely worth a listen, if you can.

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