The mummy’s curse
Mum was the word as sitcom Sorry! first screened 40 years ago, says MARION McMULLEN
THE joke was on Ronnie Corbett in Sorry! as he played a fortysomething bachelor firmly tied to his mother’s apron strings and still living at home with his parents.
The popular comedy series was created and written for Ronnie by Ian Davidson and Peter Vincent, who had also worked on The Two Ronnies. It saw the comedy favourite as mildmannered and sheltered librarian Timothy Lumsden who dreamed of escaping his domineering mother and finding a girlfriend and a place of his own.
The BBC comedy began on March 12, 1981 and ran for 42 episodes. It regularly attracted around 10 million viewers a week.
The opening episode set the scene with Timothy having to go on a date wearing a cat costume after his mother throws all his trousers into the wash to scupper his romantic plans.
Barbara Lott was superb as Timothy’s domineering mother Phyllis Lumsden and William Moore was long-suffering dad Sidney, who tried his best to keep the peace between his overbearing wife and frustrated son.
Barbara was in reality only 10 years older than her on-screen son, Ronnie was 52 when he began playing Timothy. It was not the first time he had played a henpecked son. Madge Ryan was his first domineering TV mother in 1971 sitcom Now
Look Here! which was written by Barry Cryer and Monty Python’s Graham Chapman.
Sorry! finally came to an end in 1988 with the episode Up, Up And Away? which saw Timothy finally escaping his mother’s apron strings and setting up home with his new love, Pippa.
The self-deprecating comedy great once said of his befuddled performance style: “Part of my style was getting into a muddle. Audiences think that’s part of the act.
“Sometimes it might be, but you have to guess which bits.”
Barbara Lott was in reality only 10 years older than her onscreen son, who was 52...