Ronnie Barker
John Howell (Hibou)
Ronnie Barker did a sketch in the 1970s about the Rev. Spooner, ending with the line: "I’m sorry I seem to have got my words all tangled".
Talking of Ronnie Barker’s talents, he was also particularly good at mimicking the repeat echo of a PA system!
Pat Heigham
I recall ‘the little brown richard the third’ sketch.
I loved Barker’s play on words sketches – so clever!
(“Fork Handles” has passed into history, of course).
Dave Buckley
I remember a television interview with Ronnie Corbett not long after Ronnie Barker’s memorial service.
Ronnie talked about the procession down the aisle which is usually led by two servers carrying candles, but on this occasion there were (and the audience were ahead of him at this point), four candles!
Jeff Booth
I was there and laughed along with the congregation!
Great ‘sermon’ from Peter Kay!
Pat Heigham
Nice to know that there can be a bit of humour at a funeral.
I recall a story where Secombe and Milligan were practically wetting themselves at Sellers’ funeral, because Sellers’s final joke was the playing of "In the Mood" by Glenn Miller, a tune he hated.
Mike Giles
I found myself laughing more at Peter Ware’s humanist funeral, along with the rest of the congregation (?) than ever before at such an event, though I always think it sad if humour doesn’t surface during the tributes from friends and family. It firmly cements the enjoyment which has been the outcome of friendship, or even just acquaintance during the deceased’s lifetime. After all, isn’t the standard entertainers’ motto “Leave them laughing”? And it seems quite appropriate to mingle tears of joy with tears of sadness ~ they taste just the same!
I certainly hope I shall be remembered as a funny sort of bloke (please apply your own interpretation!)
Harry Rabinowitz
John Howell
Desert Island Discs: the guest this week (03 Jul 2015) is Harry Rabinowitz.
Mike Felton
He sounds amazing at 99!
He mentioned he had perfect pitch so I was puzzled when the luxury he asked for was a pitch pipe! Surely you don’t need a pitch pipe if you have perfect pitch?
Philip Tyler, David Brunt, Geoff Hawkes
Perhaps his perfect pitch is tuned to 440 but perhaps like some orchestras needs to play 444?
The “Playaway” pianist, Jonathan Cohen, a genial man, had perfect pitch which was 440. He said it excruciating to play over in Europe as they sometimes used a slightly different frequency. Just a thought.
Hugh Sheppard
Ah… But Harry said that he had had perfect pitch, which wasn’t so reliable nowadays. Hence the pitch pipe to have on standby.
Dave Plowman
No real mention of when he left the Beeb to go to LWT, though, which caused a bit of a storm at the time.
Pat Heigham
I caught a newspaper interview with him by a reporter from the Portland (Oregon) Tribune. Apparently Harry spends some time there and also Provence – but don’t know if that is so today. I e-mailed the reporter to ask him to send a note to Harry, as I wanted to remind him that he had insisted on buying me a beer in the TVC Club, as I had achieved what he considered to be a brilliant edit on a music number from several takes!
If you look at the BBC iPlayer site and find that page, the photo of Harry was undoubtedly taken in the TVT, and as there is a young Michael Hurll in shot, probably was “The Billy Cotton Band Show” – Harry used to conduct the band standing out of shot.
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Katarina Witt
Patrick Heigham
After TVC, I was working on docos for US TV.
I think it was ABC, doing a profile doc on Katarina Witt, the ice skater.
The venue was the old ice rink where she trained, in Halle, East Germany, and we went there before the wall came down. Brief was to shoot as it was when she was starting out. The Prod team suddenly announced they wanted to film another routine and to make it showbizzy and glitzy! My cameraman objected and said we hadn’t enough lights – true.
"Hire them!"
"This is East Germany – not possible!"
The Yanks didn’t have a clue!
We had a 2K Blonde and 3 redheads!
Lit the ice with the 2K and positioned the redheads with coloured filters at the back, firing toward the camera – star filter on the lens – worked magically!
When did they decide to do this? On the plane coming over…..
They brought the music tape – we had asked for Nagra pulse at 60Hz (NTSC) for the planned numbers, but the extra one arrived on a 10" NAB spool with the sync pulse on the second track. Luckily we had two stereo Nagras with us, but not the 10" adaptor. A bodge session in the hotel room until well past midnight resulted in a 7 1/2 ips copy with the pulse in the proper place!
The rather pleasant (male) PA remarked: "The Brits have got us out of the shit again!"
Better than an Oscar!
Graham Maunder
I also did several ‘profile’ shoots with Katarina Witt for ABC Sports after leaving the BBC and found her to be a huge flirt as well as an amazing skater!
On one occasion in a really small room we’d been given for an interview she spent the entire interview resting her stockinged foot in the general area of my groin!! Sexual harassment? I declined to report her!
On another occasion on her ‘comeback’ at the Lillehammer Olympics, I’d just spent a week with her in Germany a few days before flying to Norway and was in the middle of a huge TV production meeting at the foot of the ski jump where the Opening ceremony was going to take place.
Katarina appeared and heads turned and the executive producer temporarily ‘lost’ his audience. My year (career?) was then made when she looked up and shouted, "Hello Graham! Are you busy or do you have time for a drink?"
Priceless!!
