Ronnie Barker - The Ultimate Ronnie Barker DVD Collection (Box Set) (DVD)

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Story	Outstanding
Characters / Performances	Outstanding
Special Effects	Good
How does it compare to similar films?	Not applicable

Advantages:	Contains 2 entire multiple disc series
Disadvantages:	Not everyone favourites included, most of these repeated on satellite

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

First, it is the ultimate shame that Britain and the world was robbed of one of the greatest comedy performers with the untimely death of Ronnie Barker. After introducing their comedic chemistry and archaic sketches from The Two Ronnies to a new generation, and his brief re-introduction to TV, Ronnie left us to reflect and watch umpteen repeats of his work that will never bore or cease to crease our faces.

Right then, enough of dwelling, you want to know what this is like. Well......... its a DVD box set!! Seriously, 12 discs of Ronnie in various series mainly on the BBC.

Contents
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Porridge Series 1,2,3 and the Christmas Specials (4 discs)
Going Straight (1 disc)
Open All Hours Series 1 - 4 (4 discs)
Seven of One (1 disc)
The Magnificent Evans (1 disc)
Clarence (1 disc)

As you can see, most of the above is staple fare on satellite, so why bother investing in this set? In investing in this set, you can watch whatever you please whenever, there are no annoying breaks and some extras on some of the DVDs.

Porridge
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Every one somewhere must know the name Norman Stanley Fletcher, arguably Ronnie Barker's most famous character. I won't dwell too much here just to say it was et in Slade prision following the batle between 'them and us' with plenty of laughs on the way. My personal favourite occurs in the first episode when they receive their medicals. Remember the flasks?
This set presents you with all the episodes and the Christmas specials. These specials are 40 minutes long but there are only two of them, although to make the disc worth buying, they have included Johnny Vaughn praising off Porridge as part of the BBC's Great British Sitcom thing of a few years back.
Also, on the first series disc they include the pilot episode, shame because............

Seven Of One
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Pilot episodes or one off pieces specially written for Ronnie by some of the country's finest comedy writers of the time. Ronnie even wrote one himself under a pseudonym. Included are one that eventually became the Magnificent Evans, the Open All Hours pilot with a different shop and Nurse Gladys, and Prisoner and Escort (Porridge).
Some of the ones not made into series include one where Ronnie plays an old man moving out of his condemned home into a modern tower block with his daughter and son in law. It is easy to see, even in the seveties, why these were not considered. Must add though, if all seven became series, Ronnie would have been very rich and very dead due to all the work they would require.

Open All Hours
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My p.p.personal favourite! A classic standing the test of time, just like Roy Clarkes other creations such as Keeping Up Appearances and Last Of The Summer Wine.
The st.st.stuttering shopkeeper by the name of Albert Arkwright, always lusting after Nurse Gladys Emmanuel and barraking and harming his nephew Granville. Filmed on location in the Balby area of Doncaster, you really get a sense of old fashioned British shopping habits before the big boom of supermarkets. If you watch the series back to back, you will see obvious changes including new signs and new scales, although that vicious spring clip just seemed to get more vicious!
The first scene always tended to be outside the shop and encompassed the opening credits. My favourite sees Arkwright painting an advert in whitewash on his window, thoughts of Nurse Gladys and the word food, need I go into detail!?! Needless to say, Granville peers out of the window perfectly framed by the word and makes Arkwright jump. A close second was Arkwright asking Granville 'How many P's are there in p.p.p.p.pepper? Its it 6 p's or 7?'

The Magnificent Evans.
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My least favourite of them all if the pilot is to be watched. Although Ronnie passes off perfectly with the accent, I just find it incredibly hard to find this one funny. At the timeof the pilots of Seven of One, this is the one they most wanted to do, but when it was done, they found it not quite right and only one series was created.
The Welsh scenery is breathtaking and helps take my mind off what is happening, so much that I can't remember really what goes on!!!

Going Straight
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The follow on to Porridge seeing Fletch released and adjusting to life outside. As if to seal the join, the first episode concentrates on the journey home with Officer Mackay turning up on the train after being forced into early retirement. Temptation rears up aswell and you can see the sheer acting ability of Ronnie in portraying two sides of Fletch in just one or two scenes, not one episode. To help the series along, Richard Beckinsale made a reappearance as Lennie Godber, and he did infact get engaged with Fletch's daughter Ingrid (Patricia Brake). Look out for a young Nicholas Lyndhurst as the youngest son Raymond. Again, only one series but more to do with misfortune than ratings I would think. To say the series won a Bafta award says something. Just two days (or so) before receiving the award, Richard Beckinsale suffered a fatal heart attack. To see Ronnie's acceptance speech in the extras just says it all, really.

Clarance
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Ronnies last major series before he announced his retirement from television, therefore consinging Clarence to just one series, originally aired on BBC2. Clarance is a removals man with one slight problem, short sightedness! Event with thick rimmed jam jar glasses, he still bumps into things and messes things up. This for me is more physical comedy than we would come to expect from Mr Barker, although it is enjoyable.

Anything to add?
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In fact, yes, I would. The above does celebrate the works of Ronnie Barker and quite rightly earns the title Ultimate Collection. BUT, he also made some one hour silent comedies based on seaside humour. Not everyones cup of tea and nowadays may be deemed politically incorrect. I can remember seeing them on the BBC and think that, being Ronnie's creation from his love of Seaside Postcards, should be included, not just to celebrate the acting ability of the man, but to commemorate the writing side that so many of us tended to ignore with Ronnie shying away from the limelight and using pseudonyms.

The extras on the discs do include biographys of the three main actors in Porridge but the other series, especially Open All Hours, just have the episodes, shame really.

Any true Barker fan needs this in there collection, although most are available individually.
May the works of Ronnie Barker be celebrated for decades to come.
Thanks for reading.