Ronnie Corbett, best known for The Two Ronnies, dies aged 85

Entertainer Ronnie Corbett, best known for BBC comedy sketch show The Two Ronnies, has died aged 85.

His publicist said: "Ronnie Corbett CBE, one of the nation's best-loved entertainers, passed away this morning, surrounded by his loving family.

"They have asked that their privacy is respected at this very sad time."

Corbett was one of the UK's best-loved comedians and along with Ronnie Barker; their double act was one of the most successful of the 1970s and '80s.

The entertainer had been suffering from ill-health for some time and had been in hospital in 2014 with gall bladder problems.

Following Barker's death in 2005, Corbett continued to be regular fixture on UK TV and is perhaps best-known for his armchair "shaggy dog" sketches.

His most memorable solo projects include the sitcom Sorry! and the game show Small Talk. He most recently starred in the BBC Radio 4 sitcom When the Dog Dies.

Ronnie Corbett and Ronnie Barker were a regular fixture on British TV in the 1970s and 1980s

'Huge talent'

Sir Bruce Forsyth spoke emotionally about his friend, colleague and fellow golf enthusiast, saying it was "one of the saddest days of my life".

"Ronnie was a friend, someone I admired so much. It's a very, very sad day. I'm going to miss him like crazy, I really will."

Sir Bruce said one of the first times he saw Corbett was when he was working in the cast of a Danny La Rue show in the West End.

"That was one of the wonderful things about Ronnie - he was very adaptable. He could work with anybody, even me," he said. "We always say a one-off, but he certainly was a one-off and a half. He really was."

Ronnie Corbett 'a one off and a half' - Sir Bruce Forsyth

Veteran comedian and actor John Cleese, who worked with Corbett on The Frost Report, tweeted: "Just heard about Ronnie C. So sad. He had the best timing I've ever watched. He was a great, kind mentor and a wonderfully witty companion."

Comedian Ricky Gervals, who appeared alongside Corbett in his TV show, Extras, tweeted: "RIP the lovely, funny legend Ronnie Corbett. It was an absolute honour and joy to have known him."

Little Britain star David Walliams, added: "Goodbye my friend and comedy idol Ronnie Corbett Thank you for all the laughs. It was the greatest honour to know and work with you. Goodnight."

Movie star Russell Crowe, added: "And it's good night from Ronnie Corbett. Thanks for all the laughs mate."

And comedy star Miranda Hart, said: "Having a little weep at the death of one of my heroes Ronnie Corbett."

Former BBC chairman Michael Grade also spoke of his sadness at the loss of Corbett, who he described as a "huge talent".

He told the BBC the entertainer was "one of the all-time greats of British comedy, no question - I'm so sad for [his wife] Anne and the family - and the nation, really. We've lost a great friend and entertainer.

"He learned his craft the hard way. He was a master of comedy of all kinds - TV, cabaret, variety. The most wonderful man."

BBC director general Tony Hall called Corbett "a wonderful comic and entertainer".

"A man of great charm and warmth who brought laughter and joy to millions. He was quite simply one of the true greats of British comedy."

The Two Ronnies ran on the BBC from 1971 to 1987

ANALYSIS - David Sillito, arts correspondent

It was one of the West End's great disasters. Lionel Bart's Robin Hood musical Twang closed after just 43 performances but it was a stroke of good luck for a young Ronnie Corbett.

Over cucumber sandwiches at The Ritz with David Frost he had been offered a starring role in his new satirical TV programme, The Frost Report.

Suddenly freed from his duties as Will Scarlett, it was Corbett's big break in TV and paired him up with another performer, Ronnie Barker.

And why had Frost chosen Corbett? He had seen him in a show in a London nightclub with Danny La Rue.

There, in one story, is one of the main reasons Ronnie Corbett was such a popular performer - acting, revue, the 1960s satire boom, music hall - he brought it all together at the right time and the right place in one five-foot-one performer.

Corbett was made a CBE in the 2012 New Year Honours

Scottish-born Corbett started his TV comedy career on David Frost's satirical comedy the Frost Report in 1960.

It was here he first worked with Barker, although they had met before, and formed the duo whose TV sketch show became a British TV classic, regularly cited by the public as one of their enduring favourites and by other comics as a big influence on their careers.

The Two Ronnies ran from 1971 to 1987 and saw the comedians take part in musical performances and sketches.

Speaking to The Telegraph about how well they got on in 2013 he said of Barker: "We were a real couple with matching tastes and styles.

"Of course we were quite different but somehow we fitted so well together. I think it's a more pleasant and palatable thing to see people being funny together because you're touching areas of truth. Dinner parties or falling out with people - it's the naturalness of it."

The programme won a Bafta in 1972 for best light entertainment performance and was staple viewing for much of the UK audience on a Saturday night, with more than 15 million viewers.

One of their most enduring sketches was the famous hardware shop "fork handles" skit.

When on his own, Corbett specialised in long, rambling jokes delivered from an outsize armchair with his legs dangling in the air.

Four candles: Ronnie Corbett's most famous sketch?

Former BBC chairman Michael Grade described Corbett as 'a huge talent'

Born in Edinburgh on 4 December 1930, Corbett was educated at the James Gillespie School and the Royal High School, Edinburgh.

He did not attend university after leaving school and instead joined the Ministry of Agriculture.

After two years he moved to London where his first roles were playing schoolboys due to his diminutive height of 5'1".

Corbett also started to do summer seasons, intimate revues and running the bar at the Buckstone Club off Haymarket, central London, which is where he first met Barker.

He met his wife, the actress and singer Anne Hart, while working at Danny La Rue's Club in London.

It was here he was spotted by Frost who invited him to join Barker and Monty Python star John Cleese in The Frost Report, one of the most influential TV shows of the 1960s.

The social class sketch featuring John Cleese, Ronnie Barker and Corbett was one of the best known on
The Frost Report

One of the satirical comedy series' best-known sketches featured Corbett, Barker and Cleese. The social "class" sketch saw the comedy actors ranked in height order, which also corresponded to their class.

Barker says: "I look up to him [Cleese] because he is upper class, but I look down on him [Corbett] because he is lower class."

Corbett says: "I know my place."

Following Barker's retirement in 1987, Corbett had a number of roles in the theatre, including The Seven Year Itch, Out of Order and The Dressmaker, while he also took guest roles on TV and in film.

He wrote books including Ronnie Corbett's Armchair Golf, The Small Man's Guide To Life and his autobiography High Hopes. He was also a keen and proficient golfer, and a member of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers.

He was awarded a CBE in the 2012 New Year Honours for his services to entertainment and charity.

Corbett is survived by his wife, with whom he celebrated his golden wedding anniversary last year, and the couple's two daughters, actresses Emma and Sophie Corbett.

First published at BBC News, March 31, 2016

Maurizio Pollini review – glimpses of greatness amid the gloom

by Andrew Clements

Royal Festival Hall, London

Schumann’s Fantasy lacked the usual magisterial control, but Chopin fared better and Schoenberg’s Six Little Pieces were the perfect tribute to Boulez.

Maurizio Pollini at the Royal Festival Hal, London. Photograph: Venla Shalin/Redferns

When Maurizio Pollini first established himself internationally as one of the great pianists of the age, Schumann’s C major Fantasy was a signature work, and the recording he made of the piece in 1973 remains one of his greatest achievements on disc. He has returned to the work intermittently over the last 40 years, and played it several times since in London, though without ever quite recapturing the earlier clarity, rigour and intensity.

The Fantasy was the most substantial item in this programme of Schumann and Chopin, but again Pollini’s performance seemed only an approximation of what it once was. The formal strength is still there, and also the wonderfully unsentimental treatment of the lyrical interludes, but any sense of magisterial control in the first movement and steady accumulation of intensity in the finale were missing. The closing pages of the central march were rather approximate, just as the opening cascades of Schumann’s Op 8 Allegro were not as crisp as they might have been, but then that awkward work’s rather flashy brand of bravura has never seemed a perfect fit with Pollini’s approach.

The Chopin group generally fared better, though everything remained rather subfusc. The Polonaise-Fantaisie Op 61 was stripped of its ceremonial overtones, and became restrained and inward-looking, while the C sharp minor Scherzo seemed to go through the motions in a safety-first sort of way. 

Best of all were the two sharply contrasted Nocturnes of the Op 55 set, the first all F-minor introspection, the second flowing E-flat major expansiveness, while the work that Pollini had added at the beginning of the programme in memory of Pierre Boulez - Schoenberg’s Six Little Pieces Op 19, had been the perfect tribute, each miniature chiselled with immense care.

First published at The Guardian, March 4, 2016

Article: Aussie antiques lover sets up shop in Belper

Friday March 4, 2016

by Dan Hayes

An Australian antiques lover has set up shop in Belper and is hoping his new business venture hits the ground running. 

Charles Collins, 56, of Derby, came to this county with his first wife in 1989 and found work in radio journalism.

However, after a long stint working at Radio Derby as a sports producer came to an end in 2014, he decided to go it alone in a field he had long been passionate about. 

He said: “I found it difficult to find work after the BBC and spent about a year volunteering at food banks and things like that. 

“I was in my mid-50s and had heart and back problems but I just thought, ‘I would employ me’, so I employed myself."

Charles managed to secure the lease on a unit at The Gatehouse at De Bradelei House on Chapel Street and decided to keep the tea room that came with it. 

“I’ve had to do some courses in hygiene and Diane who runs it has been fantastic, but I’ve begun to get some compliments about the quality of my cappuccinos and lattes, which is nice.” 

The shop is a veritable treasure trove of beautiful and interesting objects, from a Pye phonograph to fearsome military memorabilia and everything in between.

There are stunning African masks which have been picked out by Charles’ current wife, who originally hails from South Africa, and exquisite hand-painted porcelain by art-deco artist Clarice Cliff that was once, astonishingly, sold in Woolworths. 

Twelve dealers in total will show their wares at the shop eventually, with the priciest items arranged in glass vitrines which seemingly add to their desirability. 

There are even a few reminders of Charles’ native Australia dotted around in the form of the maps which adorn the walls and a wonderful Australia-shaped coffee table. 

Val and Charles, wedding day 1988

Charles’ love of antiques came from his first wife, the Prisoner Cell Block H actress, Val Lehman.

“I used to find it really boring but she got me into it and eventually I developed and interest in porcelain and maps,” he explained. “We then set up an antiques centre but as she wasn’t a businesswoman it didn’t succeed. I do remember thinking, however, ‘I could do that’.”

Charles next step will be to open the upstairs of the shop in readiness for Monday’s official opening when TV antiques expert, Charles Hanson, and pop legend Dave Berry will be coming along to cut the ribbon. 

Breaking news and ‘Neighbours’:

After returning to Australia with his first wife in 1996, Charles again found work in journalism. 

One of the most amazing tales he has to tell was his experience of breaking the news of a coup in Fiji.

“I pretended to be a senior Fijian official in order to get through to the head of their army,” he said. 

“When I got through to him I admitted I wasn’t who I said I was, but the only thing he was interested in was in getting a message to the rugby team that they should continue their tour of Australia!” 

Charles, now a committed Christian, says he couldn’t do the same now. 

On top of that Charles also had a couple of small parts in Prisoner himself, courtesy of his then wife who played Bea Smith - Top Dog to the long-running soap’s aficionados - and even had one line in Neighbours. 

“I suppose you could say I have had an interesting life story,” says Charles.

First published in Belper News, March 4, 2016

George Kennedy: Oscar-winning star of Cool Hand Luke, Naked Gun films dies aged 91

George Kennedy won an Oscar in 1968 for his role in Cool Hand Luke. (AFP: John Mabanglo)

American actor George Kennedy, best-known for his role in Cool Hand Luke and the Naked Gun films, has died aged 91.

The Hollywood Reporter and Variety, citing a Facebook post made by Kennedy's grandson, said the actor died on Sunday morning in Boise, Idaho.

A versatile character actor, the husky six-foot-four Kennedy appeared in innumerable films and TV shows, initially playing a lot of villains.

He starred as Captain Ed Hocken in the Naked Gun comedy films, as Captain Joe Patroni in the four Airport disaster films of the 1970s, and as businessman Carter McKay in the popular TV series Dallas.

But his breakout role was as the prisoner Dragline in Cool Hand Luke, set in the US South in 1948.

George Kennedy in 1967's 'Cool Hand Luke' COURTESY OF PHOTOFEST

Kennedy won an Academy Award for the role — a hulking chain gang convict who got to pummel one of the world's biggest movie stars at the time, Paul Newman.

Fans and former co-stars have paid tribute to the late actor on social media, describing him as "a true talent”.

First published at ABC News, March 1, 2016