Jimmy Cricket

Ronnie Corbett may have been diminutive in size, but he was huge in the world of comedy.

Jimmy Cricket devotes his latest Lancashire Evening Post column to the famous comedian.

Ronnie died almost exactly 10 years ago aged 85.

Said Jimmy: “Here is my tribute to a powerhouse of a man, whom I also had the great pleasure watching perform as Buttons alongside the wonderfully talented Clodagh Rodgers as Cinderella years ago at the #PalaceTheatre in Manchester!”

Here is Jimmy’s full column:

Hi readers, I was watching reruns recently of the classic TV comedy show, The Two Ronnies, and they made me laugh just as heartily as when I first saw them.

I couldn’t help thinking how fortunate, as viewers, we were that these two huge talents – Ronnie Corbett and Ronnie Barker – came together.

After all, they weren’t a comedy double act in the conventional sense, unlike Morecambe and Wise and Cannon and Ball, who dealt in cross-talk and honed their acts over years of live shows.

Consummate ease

Instead, both Ronnies had successful solo careers in tandem with their own TV series together.

That difference came to the fore when it came to television comedy sketches.

Whereas Eric and Ernie and Tommy and Bobby always played themselves, Ronnie C and Ronnie B were such gifted comedy actors that they glided into various characters with consummate ease.

Most of the time with hilarious results.

I must confess one of my favourite bits of their shows together is Ronnie Corbett’s Ronnie in the Chair piece, where he sits in an armchair with a nifty little sweater on, and draws the viewers and the studio audience into his confidence.

We know he’s going to finish on a golden oldie joke, with a nice big punchline, but it’s the build-up that gets us all chuckling, with its one-liners, throw-away lines and asides about the producer.

Royal Air Force

In the one I saw recently, he was bemoaning his poor childhood and emphasised the fact by saying: “I had to go to a cut-price school… it was called St Tescos!”

Great stuff!

Ronnie Corbett was born in Edinburgh, Scotland.

His dad William was a master baker and his grandfather was principal organist at St Andrew’s Church of Scotland in the early 20th century.

After three years in the Royal Air Force, he moved to London to pursue an acting career.

The famous female impersonator Danny La Rue took him on to act in sketches at his Mayfair nightclub – Winston’s.

While there, two momentous things happened to him.

He met his future wife Anne Hart, who was performing there.

Their marriage lasted 49 years! Incidentally, Anne was considerably taller than Ronnie.

It was also at Danny’s club that he was spotted by David Frost who signed him for his television sketch show called The Frost Report.

Self-deprecating one-liners

It was there he met Ronnie Barker and together they took television comedy on to new heights, winning the hearts of the nation in the process.

I loved the way Ronnie got so much fun out of his height.

The self-deprecating one-liners used to flow out of him like peas rolling off a knife.

He turned up on Terry Wogan’s TV chat show once and said: “I’m sorry I’m late, Terry. I was feeding the budgie and the cage door slammed behind me!”

Another famous quote I heard him say was: “I’m not tall enough to be the next James Bond and not small enough to be adopted by Madonna!”

I met Ronnie once backstage at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London’s West End, when we were both performing at a benefit concert for the late great British comedy actor Terry Thomas, who’d just been diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease.

The conversation hinged around the great comedy writer Eddie Braben who was a mutual friend by virtue of the fact he’d written for both of us at different times.

It was a warm encounter.

Ronnie Corbett may have been diminutive in size, but he was a giant in the world of television comedy!

Also read: LEP column pays tribute to the ‘wonderful’ Vera Lynn