RON, LEGEND WHO TROD ON MY TOES

DAVID NOBBS was one of the sketch writers for The Two Ronnies television show, and he admired Ronnie Barker’s brilliant comedy writing and acting, including his famous ‘Four Candles’ skit.

Barker started writing under the pseudonym Gerald Wiley so that no one would know of his involvement and give him preferential treatment.

The sketches were so well received that everyone started asking who Gerald Wiley was, and Barker was finally forced to admit it was him.

His discovery did not stop him from continuing to write more and more sketches.

David felt this was unfair, and that it wasn’t ‘a level playing field’ for the show’s writers any more.

He also complained that Barker pinched his ideas and developed them into other sketches.

Nobbs, for example, wrote a sketch called ‘Pispronunciation’, a monologue about a man who couldn’t pronounce his ‘ worms’ correctly. Barker promptly wrote at least two sequels to it, mining David’s idea.

Nor was Nobbs the only one to complain. Another writer, Dick Vosburgh, said Barker did the same with his sketches.

Vosburgh had written the ‘ Dr Spooner’ sketch for the Two Ronnies, where words were mixed up to comic effect; for example, ‘You’re much too titty to be a preacher’, instead of, ‘You’re much too pretty to be a teacher’.

Barker quickly came up with his own Dr Spooner sketches.

Nobbs and Vosburgh felt they owned the copyright of these ideas, and that Barker had ignored this.

‘Ronnie Barker, the actor, was great and we thought how wonderful he was, but Ronnie Barker, the writer, did slightly step on our toes,’ said Nobbs, who felt Barker ‘took advantage’ of his status as star of the show.

Barker claimed he only wrote the extra ‘Pispronunciation’ sketches after consulting Nobbs — but Nobbs said that wasn’t the case.

Dick Vosburgh’s widow, Beryl, remembered her husband’s reaction when he discovered that Barker had written more Dr Spooner sketches: ‘He sent Ronnie a postcard or a telegram, which said: “Ronnie Parker, you’re a brick.”’