The two Ronnies

Subject: The two Ronnies
From: ZZ chopin
Date: 30 Nov 12 - 10:22 AM

Hello everyone, I'm new here and hope to find some info in relation to Messers Barker and Corbett. Primarily does anyone know the lyrics to a parody (Gilbert & Sulliven)song. I think it came from the opera "The Gondoliers", the only line I have (which I think was the last line) is " as they plied their trade upon the far canal - fancy that!" And secondly, Ronnie Barker did a song (in black and white) dressed and made up as a black and white minstrel. The song may have been called "Syncopated Lady", the first line was (something like)"She's a syncopated lady and her middle name is Sadie and she lives at number seven but she sleeps at number nine......how I love those pounds and ounces in that sweater when it bounces.......etc"
Throughout the song Ronnie is playing a piano and singing while the furniture around starts to collapse, the song ends when the piano collapses and Ronnie falls off the stool.   Hilarious stuff - if only I could find it on video / mp3 etc again.   Probably far too non- pc for nowadays. But you never know maybe someone can help ????????
[e-mail]

Subject: RE: The two Ronnies
From: Mr Red
Date: 30 Nov 12 - 11:44 AM

I am sure I have the video of "Bold Sir John" complete with the morris dancing - PM me & I can get a DVD of it to you.
I know of the song you mention . Corbett echos the final syllables of each verse until the phrase is "far canal" so his "fancy that" is a "slide towards and just missed the obvious"

I may have videoed the "Gondoliers" parody but that would have been on VHS and looking for it (if I have it) would take far too long.

I don't advocate it but FYI

2 Ronnies Elbow Grease Youtube

more Youtube 2 Ronnies

Bold Sir John Mudcat thread

best of luck - we can't get Youtube here because people would watch it. which wastes bandwidth and we can't use the audio on air at Stroud FM because of copyright

Subject: RE: The two Ronnies
From: Long Firm Freddie
Date: 30 Nov 12 - 01:10 PM

Welcome to Mudcat, Jim!

As for the second part of your query, I remember the Syncopated Lady song and I thought at the time that it was in the style of Fats Waller.

A quick Google shows that the Victoria & Albert Museum, Department of Theatre and Performance, hold a quantity of Ronnie Barker's old scripts, including one called Fats Waller Song, which he wrote under his usual pseudonym of Gerald Wiley.

Script

V & A details

Hope this is useful!

Cheers

LFF

Subject: RE: The two Ronnies
From: Bert
Date: 30 Nov 12 - 01:46 PM

Welcome to Mudcat.

I love The Two Ronnies, but I don't remember that one, sorry.

Subject: RE: The two Ronnies
From: Gurney
Date: 30 Nov 12 - 02:24 PM

Barker often contributed songs and ideas for sketches under a pseudonym in their early days. Even Corbett didn't know it was him.

Subject: RE: The two Ronnies
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 30 Nov 12 - 03:24 PM

Sketches from the Two Ronnies' 1982 Christmas show are being broadcast on the Yesterday channel at 10pm GMT tonight (in just over an hour and a half's time)!

Kitty

Subject: RE: The two Ronnies
From: kendall
Date: 30 Nov 12 - 05:09 PM

We don't get that here, it requires an IQ over 60.

Subject: RE: The two Ronnies
From: ZZ chopin
Date: 01 Dec 12 - 11:23 AM

Thanks everyone, I'm off to check the Victoria & Albert Museum, Department of Theatre and Performance. Wish me luck !!

Subject: RE: The two Ronnies
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 01 Dec 12 - 02:07 PM

A very talented duo. Ronnie Barker, indeed, I regarded as a really great actor. I should have loved to have seen him play King Lear. Warren Mitchell did it; but not Ronnie Barker alas!.

~M~

Subject: RE: The two Ronnies
From: framus
Date: 01 Dec 12 - 10:30 PM

Great duo. Few can hold a (fork) handle to them.

Subject: RE: The two Ronnies
From: Mr Red
Date: 05 Dec 12 - 11:15 AM

saw the Yesterday broadcast. Nothing worth recording, as funny as it was.

Subject: RE: The two Ronnies
From: GUEST
Date: 25 Dec 13 - 06:13 PM

http://youtu.be/CX_3B4rcDpI

Subject: RE: The two Ronnies
From: Joe_F
Date: 25 Dec 13 - 06:19 PM

My first thought was: What does R. Gilbert have to do with R. Reagan?

Subject: RE: The two Ronnies
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 26 Dec 13 - 07:16 AM

Hello there Jim! I loved that song, (and I actually lived at number 7 in those days!) There's a super book called 'All I Ever Wrote' by Ronnie Barker, and Fats Waller Song is listed in the contents. It's published by Sidgwick and Jackson, the ISBN number is 9780283073342. This book is available on ebay, and looking at the contents list on Amazon, there's an enormous amount of material in it (as the title suggests) The song was indeed written by 'Gerald Wiley'. Hope this may be of use. Kind regards, Eliza.

Subject: RE: The two Ronnies
From: GUEST,Mark_M
Date: 22 Apr 14 - 12:50 AM

Legend! Both were brilliant but he was the best! Loved this one and I was after it for ages.

Thanks for who ever found it.

Subject: RE: The two Ronnies
From: Curious Clouseau
Date: 22 Apr 14 - 04:40 AM

The lyrics to the "Gibert and Sullivan" parody can be found here:
http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=1750

Subject: RE: The two Ronnies
From: GUEST,Al Jurenas - Canada
Date: 15 Jun 16 - 11:44 PM

The two Ronnies did a musical number that I have been trying to find for over 10 years. Ronnie Corbett was a damsel high up in a tower - he had a blond wig with braids. Ronnie Barker was on the ground. They sang (seranaded in rounds) to each other.
Does this ring a bell to anyone?
Thanks.

Subject: RE: The two Ronnies
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Jun 16 - 03:05 AM

Ronnie Corbett lived no more than 5 minutes drive from our house!

Subject: RE: The two Ronnies
From: Senoufou
Date: 16 Jun 16 - 03:16 AM

Haha! I've just read my own post above (I'm Eliza) and decided to buy the book on Amazon. They only had 3 copies left (second hand but 'good' condition) so I've just snapped one up.
It's sad to think the two of them have now passed away. They made millions of people laugh.
Quite a few of their sketches are on Youtube. (The Two Cleaning Ladies, Bold Sir John, Four Candles, the Marching Band one, and the Ladies' Choir etc) I always loved their witty songs at the end of the shows. Does anyone remember their send-up of Chas and Dave? Or Ronnie Barker as a hippy American folk/blues singer?
I always thought Ronnie Corbett made a very attractive lady when in costume!

Subject: Lyr Add; SYNCOPATED LADY (Two Ronnies)
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Jun 16 - 08:55 AM

Right, the book's just arrived!!
And here are the song lyrics requested by ZZ Chopin:-

"Syncopated Lady"

I know a gal...
I'm crazy for...
(piano arpeggio)
She hangs around...
My old back door...
(piano again)
She never will...
Belong to me...
'Cos she's too sophisticated
And syncopated...
You...
See...
1) She's a syncopated lady
And she lingers where it's shady
And I listen to her daily
As she plucks her ukulele
And her eyes are kinda flashy
And her clothes are kinda trashy
And she smokes them small havanas
And she chews them big bananas -
Teeth like pearls and lips like wine
Thump thumpy thumpy goes that heart of mine -

2) Thumpy thumpy thumpy 'cos
Her shape it is so bumpy
It's so dimply and dumpy
Kinda loose and kinda lumpy
And it has no imperfections
And it points in all directions
How I love them pounds and ounces
In that sweater when it bounces
And it makes me kinda jumpy when our arms entwine
Thumpy thumpy thumpy goes that heart of mine.

3) She's a syncopated lady
And her second name is Sadie
And I love the way she dances
With just anyone she fancies
And I love the way she washes
And she wears them big galoshes
And the way her hands meander
When she's kissed on her veranda
She lives at number seven but she sleeps at number nine
Thumpy thumpy thumpy goes that heart of mine.
(Piano collapses completely)

Subject: RE: The two Ronnies
From: GUEST,Guest Senoufou
Date: 23 Jun 16 - 10:03 AM

Sorry, the post above was me!

I've searched all through the book, and there's no record of the lyrics for A Policeman's Lot Is Not A Happy One.
They sang it at the end of their 1973 Christmas Special in a medley of Gilbert & Sullivan song parodies (which is on Youtube) but the bit about 'far canal' has been expunged! Perhaps it was considered too rude for 'family entertainment'.

Subject: RE: The two Ronnies
From: GUEST,Steve'o
Date: 30 May 18 - 01:16 AM

Does anyone remember, or is able to point me in the right direction for, a sketch with the lines:-
It wasn't the breeze, that tickled her knees,
It was not the almighty who lifted her nightie
But Roger the lodger,
The soft footed dodger
......etc

Also loved the one where they sang:-
Oh what a pity, the pubs in the city all close at half past ten
If I had the poet, they'd shut for an hour and open up agai
......etc
Thanks

Subject: RE: The two Ronnies
From: Senoufou
Date: 30 May 18 - 04:21 AM

Steve'o, if you go on Youtube and type in 'Two Ronnies Aldershot Brass Band', at 4.28 they sing Ain't it a pity... (I love that one)

The best though is the first song, "'ello 'ows yer love life Jack?"
Barker asks, "Is it still the six-foot brunette? The one with the enormous (crash! bang! crash! bang! on the cymbals) Always makes me die laughing.

Subject: RE: The two Ronnies
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 31 May 18 - 10:32 AM

For anyone with a 5-figure sum to spare, the original handwritten script for "Four Candles" is about to come up for auction. (BBC lunchtime news today!) It was thought it might make in excess of £10,000!

Subject: RE: The two Ronnies
From: Nigel Paterson
Date: 31 May 18 - 12:53 PM

Latest figure quoted on BBC news: £40,000.00. Personally, I think it will make much more.

Subject: RE: The two Ronnies
From: Nigel Paterson
Date: 01 Jun 18 - 11:44 AM

I'm very surprised, the 'Four Candles' script raised £28,000.00 at auction...really thought it would do better.

Subject: RE: The two Ronnies
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 01 Jun 18 - 02:25 PM

But not bad, eh? Of course, with the video freely available, people can just transcribe the script if they are so inclined. But thanks for the update, Nigel.

Subject: RE: The two Ronnies
From: Senoufou
Date: 01 Jun 18 - 02:34 PM

Ah, but the script is in Ronnie Barker's own handwriting (it was a rough draft, in red ink, and with his pseudonym G Riley at the top.)
It's sad to think they are both gone now. I loved their shows, very witty.