The Authorised Biography of Ronnie Barker

Barker had been a leading comic writer and actor for over 30 years and created some of the most memorable characters seen on British television. The man behind Fletcher, Arkwright, and dozens of others comes across as a shy, self-contained and un-showbizzy man, who nevertheless knew the scale of his own talent. David Jason provides a touching introduction--he always called Barker "guv'nor" and was particularly moved that Barker said when he retired, "you're the guv'nor now"--and Ronnie Corbett recalls his sadness at the ending of their partnership. "But I'd done everything I wanted to do", said Barker, "I had no ambition left". And while this gently absorbing book reminds us of what we are missing, it equally depicts a man enjoying a tranquil retirement, a simple pleasure denied to so many other comic heroes.--Nick Wroe

Reader Reviews:

great for fans (0/0 people found this helpful)

There's a lot of depth in this and ronnie has clearly let the author speak to all his friends and supporters. My only criticism: there are maybe a few too many friends and supporters to balance it out? but still a great read and great to get so much colour on the early days of performers and theatre - a sort of bygone age which is wonderful to read about.

difficult ... (0/0 people found this helpful)

Is the problem with authorised books that they only speak to the subject's friends and that they only say squeaky clean things about them? We don't want our heros trashed, but maybe this is a bit too soft for comfort?

A good read (0/1 people found this helpful)

Reading this book makes you realise that Ronnie retired too early, even though he did retire early he still packed a lot into a career that didn't really have any low points, he did come out of retirement for the odd project but there was so much more he could have done, that said you can't begrudge him the work free days of retirement as he more than earned them.

A great comedy actor...a poor read (4/4 people found this helpful)

Having bought this book a little while ago, I started to read it about 1 week before the legendary Ronnie Barker died. I have always been a fan of his and was keen to know more about his career. The book certainly does explain about Ronnie's upbringing and career, but the writer (Bob McCabe) has a thankfully unique writing style. He repeats lines over and over again (I lost count of the number of times he told us that Clarence was the last sit com Ronnie wrote) and his general style is quite painful at times, especially when describing dialogue. If you want to remember Ronnie - watch some of his old TV programmes or films...don't rely on this biography.

Not recommended (20/22 people found this helpful)

Badly written and badly edited. The book teaches us nothing about Ronnie Barker except that he's a gifted actor and a lovely fellow; but these things we already knew or we wouldn't be buying the book. There are no interviews with his family so as to protect his private life and most of the lauded contributors comment only on his career, not the man. Indeed, the book as a whole is merely a chronology of his career and more of a biography of each project than of Ronnie himself. The author contradicts himself (his ambition was to be in movies/he was never bothered with movies, he didn't really learn from other actors, just enjoyed being entertained/he watched them and learned from them); the content is jumbled and out of sequence; and many (albeit amusing) anecdotes are squashed in with no point to them. At one point the author lifted a whole block of text from one chapter and repeated it a couple of chapters later (when telling us that the Ronnies upped and offed to Australia for a year). I can, at a stretch, forgive the writer for repeating himself, but this, and many other flaws, should have been picked up and resolved in the editing process.

I've given it an extra star because it included the text of the "Four Candles/Fork Handles sketch" otherwise it's only worthy of one star.

The Authorised Biography of Ronnie Barker

Bob McCabe

Editorial Review: