I was all but seven months old when this classic first aired on UK TV. Nowadays, in 2023, I am 49 years old and LOVING the look back at the history of the Two Ronnies. May they both rest in eternal peace. Thank you from him, and from him ❤❤❤
Ronnie Barker always will be my favourite comedic actor/writer, who just happens to be one of the best, never to be replaced. It's such a shame that hardly anyone has a sense of humour anymore.
Benny Hill wrote a lot of great comedy His songs were just as good as Ronnie's And his material was just as good Just a different genre ..... You can't forget ronnie Corbett just as valuable in this series ... The two were a double act just like Laurel and Hardy.....
...and now all we have is the diabolical Mrs Brown's Boys...as an Irish person I'm thoroughly mortified about that silly man in a dress. I never understood the appeal...seems to me that the only joke in that series is that there is no joke, they are just making a laughing stock of all the people who continue to watch it.
Ronnie Barker ( aka Gerald Wiley) knew how to entertain the masses, Ronnie Corbett knew how to entertain an audience with his repartee..... the only agenda they had was to make comedies for everybody and not pander to a tiny minority who shriek about being 'persecuted' every time they don't personally find something entertaining. THAT'S why the BBc and ITV have got it so wrong over the past few years.
Thanks for posting this. I was born in '73 and didn't discover them until a couple of years ago. I find myself re-watching all their skits over and over. Great humor!
My sentiments entirely! We have produced such amazing comedy talents over the decades. True comic genius! To be able to laugh at ourselves is the greatest human quality we have! Isn't it the most AMAZING feeling EVER to laugh so much, that your ribs ache and you have tears of laughter running down your face!?! Bravo to anyone who has the 'British' sense of humour! It is unique, you can't buy it or be taught it, you are born with it! Keep laughing! 😂 x x x
Such a talented duo, a shame we'll never see their like again, I naively thought comedy would always be this good, and then the eighties happened. So pleased my TV is permanently off.
.....and that Ladies and Gents was peak time viewing in the UK when i was a 12 yr old on Christmas Day 1973. Remember we all only had 3 channels BBC1,BB2 & ITV ( nearly another 10 years till Ch4 started) and the viewing stats must have been 15 million or more for this one show alone which i guess was after the Queens speech. Why did it all seem simpler then and more fun and family focused? Excellent memories and thanks to the 2 ronnies.
I have never seen a more exciting cancan dance. These exquisite ladies are now in their late sixties or early seventies. I wonder if there is even one to whom I could now offer a fee in exchange for her reprising this performance.
40:03 - and I'm watching 50 years on from broadcast 21:35 Boxing day 1973 - within 4.5 hours. I imagine in another 50 years people will still be watching these . .
Totally agree. With the namby pamby Pc brigade running things today your almost made to feel guilty laughing. Sad reflection on the “better”times we endure today.
This Two Ronnies Christmas Special was their first ever proper Christmas Special, and it aired on Boxing Day, Wednesday 26th December 1973 on BBC One from 9.35pm until 10.35pm. The first Christmas special attracted over 13 million viewers.
@@johnking5174I'm going by Ronnie C's biography of the Two Ronnies (and I think also recounted by Ronnie C on TV). However I suppose it's possible that he revealed his identity to his colleagues on The Frost Report but it wasn't made public until after he retired.
"Speculation began about Wiley's identity, with Tom Stoppard, Frank Muir, Alan Bennett and Noël Coward all rumoured. After the second series of Frost on Sunday, the cast and crew were invited to a Chinese restaurant, while Wiley said that he would reveal himself. Barker, who had told Corbett earlier in the day, stood up and announced he was Wiley, although initially nobody believed him." Wikipedia, sourced from "And It's Goodnight From Him.... The Autobiography of The Two Ronnies" (2007) Page 73
@@RJSRdg Ronnie Barker said he was at a dinner to celebrate the end of the Two Ronnies on the BBC, and he said he told them then that he was Gerald Wiley, as he set the rumour that Mr Wiley would be attending that dinner. That is what he said in the interview.
Thank God we can still watch things like this on the net. You won't see cancan girls on TV nowadays, shame really, because the whole show was absolutely outstanding, from costumes to the singing, an amazing production as I'd come to expect, although this was the Christmas of the year or was born, 1973, thank the starts they were still around as I was growing up. True British, Sorry English Comedy Genius, Comedy Gold.
Just so entertaining! We loved the two Ronnies. I no longer watch TV.It’s all rubbish really. We watch U Tube and DVS…….old comedies with talented actors,and wonderful scripts.
Pity that laying and the distribution of those square tiles on the floor at 4:11 was not the work of a true craftsman! The two Ronnies and other staff are great as usual.
The sketch starting at 21 minutes and a bit, seems to be a rewrite of a sketch from How To Irritate People, written by John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Tim Brooke-Taylor and Marty Feldman in 1968; the show itself essentially being a showcase for John Cleese's talents. He performed the 'Am I Fussing You Too Much?' sketch with Connie Booth.
It's amazing to think that, when this Christmas special was made, the UK was in the middle of an energy crisis. Even so, the BBC (& the larger ITV companies) were still producing top-quality specials just like this. And the BBC wonders why it's being criticised by the public today. Compare this to the cheap, poor quality crap that they masqueraded as family entertainment this Christmas. Having to repeat the Christmas Day episode of Doctor Who 3 times on Boxing Day, various times on BBC ONE, TWO & THREE. Abysmal compared to 50 years ago
Written by Gerald Whiley....otherwise known as Ronnie Barker! He was so insecure about his writing, he didn't dare submit scripts under his own name. It was only many years later that his pseudonym was discovered. I remember watching this as an 18 year old.
It wasn't that he was insecure - it was that he didn't want his scripts to get "special treatment" just because he'd written them. He actually revealed his identity relatively early on (before The Two Ronnies series started) - IIRC it was at a dinner following the final episode of The Frost Report.
There was a while when theyh were doing the Sullivan and Gilbert songs I was sure that head in the background was a Toby Jug on the mantlepiece. Then I realised it was the head of one of the waiters. Particularly at 53:16.
Not canned laughter - the studio scenes would almost certainly have been recorded in front of a live audience (as the regular TV series was, and as the BBC did and still does for many other series). The only bits where laughter would have been added in would be the location shots, and they would have been shown to the studio audience at the relevant points in the recording (so that the "storyline" made sense) and the audience reaction added in for consistency with the studio scenes.
1973 with many years later, same old routines from those two Dell Boys, surely variety could have changed away from those dull two crowd pullers at the stuffy BBC.
![The Two Ronnies Night [incomplete]](/img/1.gif)
I was all but seven months old when this classic first aired on UK TV. Nowadays, in 2023, I am 49 years old and LOVING the look back at the history of the Two Ronnies. May they both rest in eternal peace. Thank you from him, and from him ❤❤❤
Ronnie Barker always will be my favourite comedic actor/writer, who just happens to be one of the best, never to be replaced. It's such a shame that hardly anyone has a sense of humour anymore.
Benny Hill wrote a lot of great comedy
His songs were just as good as Ronnie's
And his material was just as good
Just a different genre .....
You can't forget ronnie Corbett just as valuable in this series ...
The two were a double act just like Laurel and Hardy.....
And my opinion a great actor. 😀
They have got a sense of humour. They’re just not allowed to express it for fear of “offending” someone.
@@GradKat You are absolutely right. Society and people's willingness to conform has pushed 'PC' to the extreme.
so ture
This is a true, rewarding and memorable part of British comedy genius. Where has it all gone, and why?
people die and other people get their jobs.
Still love this today...I was 10 years old in 1973...
...and now all we have is the diabolical Mrs Brown's Boys...as an Irish person I'm thoroughly mortified about that silly man in a dress. I never understood the appeal...seems to me that the only joke in that series is that there is no joke, they are just making a laughing stock of all the people who continue to watch it.
Ronnie Barker ( aka Gerald Wiley) knew how to entertain the masses, Ronnie Corbett knew how to entertain an audience with his repartee..... the only agenda they had was to make comedies for everybody and not pander to a tiny minority who shriek about being 'persecuted' every time they don't personally find something entertaining. THAT'S why the BBc and ITV have got it so wrong over the past few years.
@@TF80s thank for making me laugh with your comment. I agree with you. The humor these days is not funny
I like the unique of treating the viewer as a guest. Creative way of breaking the 4th wall.
Thanks for posting this. I was born in '73 and didn't discover them until a couple of years ago. I find myself re-watching all their skits over and over. Great humor!
My sentiments entirely! We have produced such amazing comedy talents over the decades. True comic genius! To be able to laugh at ourselves is the greatest human quality we have! Isn't it the most AMAZING feeling EVER to laugh so much, that your ribs ache and you have tears of laughter running down your face!?! Bravo to anyone who has the 'British' sense of humour! It is unique, you can't buy it or be taught it, you are born with it! Keep laughing! 😂 x x x
Such a talented duo, a shame we'll never see their like again, I naively thought comedy would always be this good, and then the eighties happened. So pleased my TV is permanently off.
Probably went downhill when ‘The Simpsons’ started!
youtube is tv.
TV is shit now on every channel
Thank goodness for old tv in these crazy times.
.....and that Ladies and Gents was peak time viewing in the UK when i was a 12 yr old on Christmas Day 1973. Remember we all only had 3 channels BBC1,BB2 & ITV ( nearly another 10 years till Ch4 started) and the viewing stats must have been 15 million or more for this one show alone which i guess was after the Queens speech. Why did it all seem simpler then and more fun and family focused? Excellent memories and thanks to the 2 ronnies.
The chef was incredible. What a great program. Thank you for posting.
I gave him a round of applause after watching him just now!
31:36 I love the fact that the whole family was watching this on a Christmas afternoon in 1973.
I noticed that this was cut from the recent showing on Gold. Rather pathetic
When you compare this to Mrs Brown's boys it beggars belief...it's like the difference between class & crass.
@@user-yt4ts2rq3n A great cancan! 30:30
When tv at Christmas was worth watching
@@TF80s absolutely spot on
I have never seen a more exciting cancan dance. These exquisite ladies are now in their late sixties or early seventies. I wonder if there is even one to whom I could now offer a fee in exchange for her reprising this performance.
38:40 The Maid's cancan was excellent!
40:03 - and I'm watching 50 years on from broadcast 21:35 Boxing day 1973 - within 4.5 hours. I imagine in another 50 years people will still be watching these . .
Ronnie Barker was in fact a great actor. He was similar to a blank canvas that could be painted with colours of characters.
BLOODY 😢funny the 2 Ron's r absolutely 💯
C u 2 on another video
Thank u 2 Ron's u r absolutely fantastic ❤🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉😢
Brilliant, absolutely brilliant. Thank you.
How comedy was and how it should still be......funny!
Unforgettable comedians the best of the best. No PC then and it was a whole lot funnier than the boring crap we have now.
You are so right! Golly I miss them - wonderful both of them, bless their hearts.
Totally agree. With the namby pamby Pc brigade running things today your almost made to feel guilty laughing. Sad reflection on the “better”times we endure today.
For 1973 the sound quality is very good.
creative totally good 'bad taste' genius! (especially the dances , so beautifully choreographed and performed) ; an all time great special ! 😀 Guy x
This Two Ronnies Christmas Special was their first ever proper Christmas Special, and it aired on Boxing Day, Wednesday 26th December 1973 on BBC One from 9.35pm until 10.35pm. The first Christmas special attracted over 13 million viewers.
Days when BBC was not woke!
@@tods503 The days when they gladly allowed a paedophile to host entertainment shows on their main channel - Jimmy Savile, Rolf Harris, Jonathan King.
@@johnking5174 Thanks - to did not know that.
@@tods503here, here
0:35 - "Gerald Wiley" also known as a Mr Ronnie Barker, which we only ever found out after Ronnie Barker retired, that he was Gerald Wiley.
No, he revealed his identity relatively early on - when The Frost Report finished IIRC.
@@RJSRdg Well that is not how Ronnie Barker recalled it when he was interviewed
@@johnking5174I'm going by Ronnie C's biography of the Two Ronnies (and I think also recounted by Ronnie C on TV). However I suppose it's possible that he revealed his identity to his colleagues on The Frost Report but it wasn't made public until after he retired.
"Speculation began about Wiley's identity, with Tom Stoppard, Frank Muir, Alan Bennett and Noël Coward all rumoured. After the second series of Frost on Sunday, the cast and crew were invited to a Chinese restaurant, while Wiley said that he would reveal himself. Barker, who had told Corbett earlier in the day, stood up and announced he was Wiley, although initially nobody believed him."
Wikipedia, sourced from "And It's Goodnight From Him.... The Autobiography of The Two Ronnies" (2007) Page 73
@@RJSRdg Ronnie Barker said he was at a dinner to celebrate the end of the Two Ronnies on the BBC, and he said he told them then that he was Gerald Wiley, as he set the rumour that Mr Wiley would be attending that dinner. That is what he said in the interview.
Thank you so much! I haven't seen this in years! A great blast from the past.
You can`t beat a good pair of heavy duty suspenders and black stockings time we had some more on the television today.
comedy as it once was and should before the world went mad ..
i say, what a remarkable show old chap
A Tour de Farce!
I left England in the April so i never saw this. Marvelous
Gabrielle Drake can come to my Christmas party, anytime.
Thank God we can still watch things like this on the net.
You won't see cancan girls on TV nowadays, shame really, because the whole show was absolutely outstanding, from costumes to the singing, an amazing production as I'd come to expect, although this was the Christmas of the year or was born, 1973, thank the starts they were still around as I was growing up.
True British, Sorry English Comedy Genius, Comedy Gold.
Just so entertaining! We loved the two Ronnies. I no longer watch TV.It’s all rubbish really. We watch U Tube and DVS…….old comedies with talented actors,and wonderful scripts.
Great comedy from the days when everybody didn't get offended at the least mention of anything
People are told to be offended so they are. The Government has now got total control over the people
watching boxing day 2018 happy christmas
I like the idea of Sedan Chair Racing!
Great for village local Events.
These days comedy can't be done without f words and all other obscene phrases and rudeness.
Forever Brilliant
Thank you ~~~ Wow!
Watching in Japan late Christmas Eve evening. 2022
"Ladles and jellyspoons,
I come before you, to stand behind you,
To tell you something I know nothing about." -- Author unknown
I was looking out for Sarah Brightman among the dancers. You could get away with a lot more in the name of humour in those days.
Includes the gorgeous Gabrielle Drake
In the future "the wogs will begin at Dover". Hmmm.
😂 "Blinding! 💛👍🏽
Not their best Christmas show but still infinitely better than any of the Morecambe and Wise shows.
These two very very clever
I like the part where they talked right into the camera.
Dont wait untill christmass to laugh.
Pity that laying and the distribution of those square tiles on the floor at 4:11 was not the work of a true craftsman! The two Ronnies and other staff are great as usual.
Oh really is that all you can find fault with...
Looks alright to me!
Classic
The sketch starting at 21 minutes and a bit, seems to be a rewrite of a sketch from How To Irritate People, written by John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Tim Brooke-Taylor and Marty Feldman in 1968; the show itself essentially being a showcase for John Cleese's talents. He performed the 'Am I Fussing You Too Much?' sketch with Connie Booth.
Happy as a sandboy ....not so pc these days...Love it.
Brilliant
Based on a story by M.R. James. (Just kidding)
It's amazing to think that, when this Christmas special was made, the UK was in the middle of an energy crisis. Even so, the BBC (& the larger ITV companies) were still producing top-quality specials just like this.
And the BBC wonders why it's being criticised by the public today. Compare this to the cheap, poor quality crap that they masqueraded as family entertainment this Christmas. Having to repeat the Christmas Day episode of Doctor Who 3 times on Boxing Day, various times on BBC ONE, TWO & THREE.
Abysmal compared to 50 years ago
Genius'
oh was a butler standing there :)
genius.
24.51 Ronnie sounds like a modern politician
Written by Gerald Whiley....otherwise known as Ronnie Barker! He was so insecure about his writing, he didn't dare submit scripts under his own name. It was only many years later that his pseudonym was discovered. I remember watching this as an 18 year old.
It wasn't that he was insecure - it was that he didn't want his scripts to get "special treatment" just because he'd written them.
He actually revealed his identity relatively early on (before The Two Ronnies series started) - IIRC it was at a dinner following the final episode of The Frost Report.
That's some clever choreography, and who was that blonde with the little boy telling a story? She was introduced with a thick accent.
Cheryl Kennedy.
18;45, Is that a pre-tiswas Sally James? I saw her name fly past the credits & was like,,,wot?
Yeh, she was still doing Saturday Scene in '73.
Beat that!
One of the best can cans that I have ever seen. Extraordinary - and amazingly erotic!
There was a while when theyh were doing the Sullivan and Gilbert songs I was sure that head in the background was a Toby Jug on the mantlepiece. Then I realised it was the head of one of the waiters. Particularly at 53:16.
I wonder whom the dancers who played the cancan dancing "French Maids" married? They're lucky blokes.
why was there a severed head on the mantle piece behind them?
I think Barker must have had an allergic reaction to that fake nose.
Someone has pinched the turkey 8:01
30:45
9:15 - 11:40 would be quite impressive without camera breaks.
I think it was pretty bloody impressive as it was! ;-)
I was entranced ...
This one is best forgotten
I don’t think this was made in 1973 looks like the 80s
First aired December 26 1973.
Are they Irish?
No
Absolutely NOT.
Definately not - too funny
Money 💰 you pay for what you get
Tv has declined to almost zero because they can't afford to build quality entertainment
Maybe they could afford better quality entertainment if we went back to having four or five channels rather than hundreds....
Sorry, but if they put "canned laughters|" maybe the show is not that good.
Not canned laughter - the studio scenes would almost certainly have been recorded in front of a live audience (as the regular TV series was, and as the BBC did and still does for many other series). The only bits where laughter would have been added in would be the location shots, and they would have been shown to the studio audience at the relevant points in the recording (so that the "storyline" made sense) and the audience reaction added in for consistency with the studio scenes.
Back when you could be racist on TV
1973 with many years later, same old routines from those two Dell Boys, surely variety could have changed away from those dull two crowd pullers at the stuffy BBC.
You seem the sort that likes stuffy.
Miserable sod!