Editing Ronnie Barker (section)

===Move to the BBC and ''The Two Ronnies''===
Soon after, Barker, Corbett and [[Josephine Tewson]] performed a sketch about [[Henry VIII]] at the 1971 [[British Academy Television Awards|BAFTAs]], with Barker playing Henry. The three also had to keep the audience entertained for around eight minutes as the show was stopped because of technical difficulties. Their performance at the award show impressed the BBC's Head of Light Entertainment [[Bill Cotton]] and Controller of [[BBC One|BBC1]], [[Paul Fox (television executive)|Paul Fox]], who were sitting in the audience. Not knowing they were both essentially unemployed, although still contracted to Paradine, Cotton signed the duo up for their own show together, and a series each on their own; he later joked he "must have offered them too much money."<ref name=indobit/><ref>{{harvnb|Corbett|Nobbs|2007|pp=74–75}}</ref> Barker and Corbett wished to avoid being remembered primarily as a duo, and felt they could not work in the same way as a conventional double act like [[Morecambe and Wise]], and so each maintained their solo careers as well.<ref>{{harvnb|Corbett|Nobbs|2007|p=77}}</ref> They each were given a one-off variety special; Barker's, called ''The Ronnie Barker Yearbook'', featured a sketch for each month of the year although, because of time constraints, the first two had to be cut.<ref>{{harvnb|Corbett|Nobbs|2007|p=84}}</ref> Barker also reprised his character Lord Rustless in the sitcom ''[[His Lordship Entertains]]'' in 1972.<ref name=indobit/> Barker wrote all seven episodes, now using the pseudonym Jonathan Cobbald.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/articles/h/hislordshipenter_66600370.shtml |title=His Lordship Entertains|publisher=BBC|author=Mark Lewisohn|access-date=13 April 2010 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20040522160514/http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/articles/h/hislordshipenter_66600370.shtml |archive-date = 22 May 2004}}</ref>
[[File:Susie Silvey and Ronnie Barker.jpg|thumb|right|Barker during filming of ''The Two Ronnies'' (with [[Susie Silvey]])]]
Their show together was ''[[The Two Ronnies]]'', a sketch show which aired for twelve series and eight specials between 1971 and 1987, to immediate success.<ref name=bbcobit/> The show, as described by [[Anthony Hayward]] of ''[[The Independent]]'', was "a cocktail of comedy sketches, playlets, songs and parodies, a long-winded Corbett monologue and a singing star, sandwiched between the opening and closing news summaries."<ref name=indobit/> The usual format consisted of many sketches between the two, an ongoing filmed serial, a solo character sketch from Barker, Corbett's monologue, a musical number, a special guest, bookended by joke news items, delivered from a desk by the two in the style of [[News presenter|newsreader]]s, before ending with the catchphrase "It's good night from me – and it's good night from him."<ref name=timesobit/>

This was a set format which was used for almost the entirety of the show's run.<ref>{{harvnb|Corbett|Nobbs|2007|pp=86–89}}</ref> The end catchphrase and newsreader characters were devised because Barker found it difficult to appear as himself: Corbett explained that Barker "was a very private man, a quiet man ... He found it almost impossible to talk directly, as himself, to an audience."<ref name=C78>{{harvnb|Corbett|Nobbs|2007|p=78}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Corbett|Nobbs|2007|p=80}}</ref> Each also had their own solo segments to help ensure they were not totally associated as a double act.<ref>{{harvnb|Corbett|Nobbs|2007|p=79}}</ref> Filming took place over four months of each year.<ref>{{harvnb|Corbett|Nobbs|2007|p=95}}</ref> After outdoor and serial sketches were filmed on location, the studio material was filmed on Sunday evenings at [[Television Centre, London|BBC Television Centre]] in front of a live audience; the musical finale was filmed the day before without the audience.<ref>{{harvnb|Corbett|Nobbs|2007|p=123}}</ref>

Barker wrote much of the show's material, roughly three-quarters, again under the name Gerald Wiley.<ref name=indobit/> He was heavily involved with the show's production, especially the serial. Corbett explained that Barker was a "perfectionist" and "as he wrote it Ronnie knew how he wanted every shot to look."<ref name=C98>{{harvnb|Corbett|Nobbs|2007|pp=98–99}}</ref> After filming the show all day, he spent the evenings helping technician Jim Franklin to edit it.<ref name=C98/> While filming on location Barker and Corbett would look through all of the potential material for the studio recording of the rest of the show's content and decide on the running order.<ref>{{harvnb|Corbett|Nobbs|2007|pp=109–111}}</ref> He and Corbett always got on, with Barker noting "People refuse to believe that we don't have rows, tensions, private wars. It's a strange thing after so many years but we never have. Actually, it's even more amicable than a marriage – wedlock without the bad patches. Our sense of humour and perception of what's good and what's rubbish are uncommonly in tune."<ref name=indobit/> They took turns to play the parts which had the "good lines".<ref name=timesobit/> One of the show's other writers, [[Barry Cryer]], said: "You could write almost anything knowing these two would do it brilliantly. Because they weren't a double act; they were two men who worked together and had their own careers."<ref name=indobit/>

Barker's material included the sketch which came to be known as "[[Four Candles]]", airing in 1976, although in the original script it was titled "Annie Finkhouse".<ref name=four/> It sees a customer (Barker) ask for a series of items in a hardware store. The sketch's humour derives from similarities in word pronunciation, leading to confusion on the part of the store owner (Corbett). These misunderstandings include the confusion between "four candles" and "fork handles".<ref name=four/> The idea for the sketch came from the owners of a hardware shop in [[Hayes, Hillingdon|Hayes]] who wrote in to ''The Two Ronnies'' to describe some of the amusing events and misunderstandings in their store.<ref>{{harvnb|Corbett|Nobbs|2007|p=179}}</ref> Barker was never happy with the sketch's final line (a male assistant asking "What sort of billhooks did you want?") and changed it (to a female assistant asking "What sort of knockers were you looking for?") for the stage version of ''The Two Ronnies'', although he was still not totally satisfied with it.<ref>{{harvnb|Corbett|Nobbs|2007|p=183}}</ref> Nevertheless, the sketch is considered the show's most famous one and was voted as the show's best in a TV special,<ref name=four>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7155024.stm|title=Fork handles script makes £48,500|work=BBC News|access-date=13 April 2010|date=20 December 2007}}</ref> while also placing fifth on [[Channel 4]]'s ''50 Greatest Comedy Sketches''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/G/greatest/comedy_sketches/results.html|title=50 Greatest Comedy Sketches|publisher=[[Channel 4]]|access-date=13 April 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080527085445/http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/G/greatest/comedy_sketches/results.html |archive-date=27 May 2008}}</ref> The original script, handwritten by Barker, was sold for £48,500 at auction in 2007 after featuring in an episode of ''[[Antiques Roadshow]]'' the previous year.<ref name=four/>

The show was considered a "national institution" with audiences of between 15 and 20 million regularly tuning in to its 93 episodes.<ref name=timesobit/><ref name=indobit/><ref name=bbcobit/><ref name="Corbett 2006 94">{{harvnb|Corbett|Nobbs|2007|p=94}}</ref> Barker won the [[British Academy of Film and Television Arts|BAFTA]] for Best Light Entertainment Performance in 1971 and 1977 for the show.<ref name=bafta/> ''The Two Ronnies'' ended with the 1987 Christmas special.<ref name=c244/> In 1978 the two performed a stage version of the show at the [[London Palladium]]; lasting for three months, it followed the same format as the show, with old sketches and some new material, supported by variety acts. Barker's unease with appearing as himself in the stage show led him to create a fictionalised version of himself to play instead.<ref>{{harvnb|Corbett|Nobbs|2007|pp=189–190}}</ref> A second stage series took place in 1983.<ref>{{harvnb|Corbett|Nobbs|2007|p=203}}</ref> Barker was reportedly offended by a sketch called "The Two Ninnies" on the BBC's ''[[Not the Nine O'Clock News]]'', which mocked their act as being based on dated innuendo-based humour.<ref name="Remembering Ronnie Barker">{{cite book|last1=Webber|first1=Richard|title=Remembering Ronnie Barker|date=7 October 2010|isbn=978-1407089355|page=196|publisher=Random House }}</ref><ref name="Remembering Ronnie Barker, by Richard Webber">{{cite web|last1=Bennett|first1=Steve|title=Remembering Ronnie Barker, by Richard Webber|url=http://www.chortle.co.uk/books/2010/11/03/12075/remembering_ronnie_barker,_by_richard_webber|website=Chortle|access-date=16 October 2015}}</ref><ref name="It's like being in a marriage - except that you always end up in bed together">{{cite web|last1=Rhys-Jones|first1=Griff|title=It's like being in a marriage – except that you always end up in bed together|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3620242/Its-like-being-in-a-marriage-except-that-you-always-end-up-in-bed-together.html|website=[[Daily Telegraph]]|date=9 October 2005 |access-date=16 October 2015}}</ref><ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A6359556 "Ronnie Barker OBE – Comic Actor and Writer"]</ref>

After a tip-off from [[Dick Clement]] and [[Ian La Frenais]], Barker and Corbett opted to move with their families to Sydney, Australia, in 1979 for the year to exploit a tax loophole and avoid paying the year's income tax. They performed their stage show for four weeks in Sydney and a further four in Melbourne; because of their existing popularity in Australia and what Corbett termed the Australian audiences' "[comedic] soul that still related to the UK", they made no changes to the routine. Barker made no other appearances that year and spent his time writing and engaging in recreational activities.<ref>{{harvnb|Corbett|Nobbs|2007|pp=193–201}}</ref> Following the show's success, [[Kerry Packer]] commissioned a six-episode TV series of ''The Two Ronnies in Australia'' for [[Nine Network]]. The show comprised material not yet shown in Australia from ''The Two Ronnies'' and new content targeted more towards an Australian audience.<ref>{{harvnb|Corbett|Nobbs|2007|pp=203–206}}</ref> They returned for a second series in 1986.<ref>{{harvnb|Corbett|Nobbs|2007|p=240}}</ref>

Barker and Corbett also starred in the short, mostly silent, films ''[[The Picnic (1976 film)|The Picnic]]'' (1976) and ''[[By the Sea (1982 film)|By the Sea]]'' (1982), both written by Barker as "David Huggett and Larry Keith".<ref name=indobit/> ''By the Sea'' was Barker's tribute to the seaside-postcard humour of [[Donald McGill]] and his most "personal" work.<ref>{{harvnb|Corbett|Nobbs|2007|p=217}}</ref> The show was also widely syndicated in North America by PBS and CBC, and in 1980 they appeared in the short-lived NBC variety show ''[[The Big Show (TV series)|The Big Show]]''; the two were glad the show did not last as they objected to the use of [[canned laughter]] by the American networks.<ref>{{harvnb|Corbett|Nobbs|2007|pp=133–134}}</ref>