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<blockquote data-quote="Mel O&amp;#039;Drama" data-source="post: 305304" data-attributes="member: 23">Hark At Barker came to an end yesterday, with Series Two having proved as enjoyable as the first. The little ensemble in the Lord Rustless sitcom parts proved endearing. Barker&#039;s Lord Rustless&#039;s mannerisms and speech patterns reminded me a great deal of Boris or Stanley Johnson, perhaps the less said about which the better. David Jason&#039;s Dithers had a tendency to upstage the others with his OTT antics and so was used wisely by being kept in the background and given relatively little to do, allowing him to ham to his heart&#039;s content without becoming an irritant. The addition of Effie the sexy maid in Series Two worked well. Once again, less proved more as the character deliberately spoke at an inaudible volume with Moira Foot just mouthing the words and Ronnie Barker reacting to what he heard, allowing for lots of double entendres. Speaking of which, much was made of Effie&#039;s cleavage, with Barker speaking into it half the time, or turning to see her and commenting &quot;Ah - there you all are&quot;. It&#039;s saucy postcard stuff, and it never gets old. I&#039;m surprised not to have recognised Moira Foot from more British films and shows as she has that slutty ingenue quality that was very popular around this time (à la Margaret Nolan). Turns out she went on to be Denise Laroque, leader of the communist resistance in &#039;Allo &#039;Allo. As Badger the butler, Frank Gatliff emerged as a quiet favourite. He has a reassuringly calm-but-authoritative gentlemanly quality reminiscent of Frank Thornton or Patrick Cargill. I&#039;m amazed at how right he felt, and how very familiar. Both signs of a really good character actor. Some sketches and scenarios rang bells. Barker had gone on to re-use some of the material for The Two Ronnies and other projects. For example, the &quot;Danger&quot; sign falling onto the head of the confused reader later showed up in either The Picnic or By The Sea, which I&#039;d watched less than a week ago. And the How To Build A Garden Shed would later be re-filmed almost shot-by-shot and verbatim for The Two Ronnies (I think the Hark At Barker version was a little funnier). As the series ended, I&#039;d have been happy to continue watching Rustless &amp; Co. It&#039;s no surprise, then, to find that the six main characters did indeed return the following year for His Lordship Entertains. This time they were on the BBC and it was a pure sitcom without the occasional sketches featured in Hark At Barker. It&#039;s horrifying that the Beeb in their infinite wisdom later wiped the tapes, but the one episode discovered just twelve years ago is available to watch on a certain video sharing platform. I hadn&#039;t planned to do this, but I think I&#039;ll check it out this evening.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Mel O'Drama, post: 305304, member: 23"] [I]Hark At Barker [/I]came to an end yesterday, with Series Two having proved as enjoyable as the first. The little ensemble in the Lord Rustless sitcom parts proved endearing. Barker's Lord Rustless's mannerisms and speech patterns reminded me a great deal of Boris or Stanley Johnson, perhaps the less said about which the better. David Jason's Dithers had a tendency to upstage the others with his OTT antics and so was used wisely by being kept in the background and given relatively little to do, allowing him to ham to his heart's content without becoming an irritant. The addition of Effie the sexy maid in Series Two worked well. Once again, less proved more as the character deliberately spoke at an inaudible volume with Moira Foot just mouthing the words and Ronnie Barker reacting to what he heard, allowing for lots of double entendres. Speaking of which, much was made of Effie's cleavage, with Barker speaking into it half the time, or turning to see her and commenting "Ah - there you all are". It's saucy postcard stuff, and it never gets old. I'm surprised not to have recognised Moira Foot from more British films and shows as she has that slutty ingenue quality that was very popular around this time (à la Margaret Nolan). Turns out she went on to be Denise Laroque, leader of the communist resistance in[I] 'Allo 'Allo.[/I] As Badger the butler, Frank Gatliff emerged as a quiet favourite. He has a reassuringly calm-but-authoritative gentlemanly quality reminiscent of Frank Thornton or Patrick Cargill. I'm amazed at how right he felt, and how very familiar. Both signs of a really good character actor. Some sketches and scenarios rang bells. Barker had gone on to re-use some of the material for [I]The Two Ronnies[/I] and other projects. For example, the "Danger" sign falling onto the head of the confused reader later showed up in either The Picnic or By The Sea, which I'd watched less than a week ago. And the [I]How To Build A Garden Shed [/I]would later be re-filmed almost shot-by-shot and verbatim for The Two Ronnies (I think the [I]Hark At Barker [/I]version was a little funnier). As the series ended, I'd have been happy to continue watching Rustless & Co. It's no surprise, then, to find that the six main characters did indeed return the following year for [I]His Lordship Entertains[/I]. This time they were on the BBC and it was a pure sitcom without the occasional sketches featured in [I]Hark At Barker.[/I] It's horrifying that the Beeb in their infinite wisdom later wiped the tapes, but the one episode discovered just twelve years ago is available to watch on a certain video sharing platform. I hadn't planned to do this, but I think I'll check it out this evening. [/QUOTE]

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