qwghlm.co.uk : because all the other domain names were taken

Last night I watched the BBC’s tribute to the late Ronnie Barker, which included highlights of his past work, and tributes from former colleagues.

Aside: although some of the one-liners and sketches on The Two Ronnies – four candles, answering the question before last, etc. – were classics, I think nostalgia has obscured the fact that a lot of the show’s humour was either too cosy or dated. I’m thinking of the silly music/costume numbers, or the “Britain taken over by women” sketch series – funny for its time, but not something that would be get commissioned today. For my money, Porridge, and to a lesser extent Open All Hours were much better vehicles for Barker’s talent, as much of the humour still has currency today.

Anyway, it struck me as I was watching the show that “Blimey, it’s a bit soon after he died to be showing this”. Issues of taste aside (I’m sure the BBC did clear it with his family and that they approved), it doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to realise that the programme had been recorded some time before his death, which made all the tributes from his friends, speaking in the past tense, a little weird to me. In fact, I think they thought the same, because a couple of them slipped occasionally and referred to him in the present tense. It must be awfully hard for them to have had to talk about their friend, who was still alive (and may well have been quite ill), as if he was already a goner.

While pre-writing obituaries is standard fare (as seen when they are occasionally released by accident) and fine for preparedness sake’, as they are entirely dispassionate, to pre-record tributes from his nearest and dearest makes me uncomfortable. I’d rather they just stuck on a past episode of Porridge and do a proper tribute evening six months down the line, once everyone has had time to reflect on his passing, rather than go to all the effort of a preparing a polished programme for the evening after his death.