Mark Lawson (And it’s goodnight from him…, 1 April) suggests that for “most of the time” during the run of The Two Ronnies, Gerald Wiley’s material was chosen without Ronnie Corbett knowing that this was a pen name of Ronnie Barker’s. Not so. Gerald Wiley’s identity was revealed to all when this new and successful but strangely uncontactable writer invited David Frost and Corbett and the madly intrigued production staff of Frost on Saturday (LWT) to a Chinese meal. Ronnie Barker stepped forward to fill the empty chair. That was in 1968, The Two Ronnies began in 1971.
Ian Davidson
Script associate, Frost on Saturday; Script editor, The Two Ronnies
• While not normally a wearer of rose-tinted glasses, I find myself oddly saddened by the death of Ronnie Corbett. He seems to represent a kinder, gentler Britain in which it was possible, without a shred of malevolence or serious discrimination, to take the cheerful piss out of everyone and everything – white or black, male or female, gay or straight, fat or thin. And nobody, targets included, minded, because it was infused with affection and humanity. They certainly wouldn’t have erupted in fury, outrage or any of those other febrile nouns which are the tedious vocabulary of today’s politically correct zealots, obsessed with “safe spaces” and “no-platforming”. However corny and cosy it may seem now, the humour of The Two Ronnies was a reflection of a far more mature, well-adjusted society than the infantile, toys-out-of-the-pram one in which we now seem to live. As a fat, gay Scotsman who wears nothing under his kilt, thanks for the laughs, Ronnie.
Alan Clark
London
• Mark Lawson mentions Ronnie Corbett’s eulogy to Ronnie Barker at the latter’s memorial service in Westminster Abbey in 2006, one of the best memorial services I have attended. The Guardian headlined its report “Westminster Abbey becomes a comedy gig”. The abbey provided Corbett with a box to stand on in the pulpit so that we could see as well as hear him and, with uncharacteristic humour, the opening lines of the order of service read: “All stand to sing the hymn during which the choir, led by the beadle, and the Abbey clergy, preceded by the Cross of Westminster and four candles, move to places in the choir and sacrarium.”
Chris Birch
London
• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com
