A comic genius who also helped the next generationBidding goodbye to a powerful comic talent inevitably inspires nostalgia,and the death of Ronnie Corbett has opened a floodgate. Torrents of affection for a whole era of television – an era that has recently spent time helping the police with their inquiries – have suddenly been released. Corbett’s heyday has been justly celebrated as unembarrassedly foolish and all-embracing. It might be technically correct to point out that when The Two Ronnies were drawing 18 million viewers on a Saturday night there were not many channels on offer, but whether their expose had not if warmth and laughter, and the nation would have switched off.
The family audience was a broad club back then. There was an assumption of shared taste that may have alienated some significant groups,and yet to become that unglamorous-sounding thing “a prime-time staple” the Ronnies’ double act had to be open and welcoming. Attempts to appeal on this scale nowadays can look strained. Even the successful expose Miranda is archly retro, while the brash Mrs Brown’s Boys smacks of a clever commissioning calculation.
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Source: theguardian.com