Nothing's Too Much Trouble

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Nothing's Too Much Trouble is a sketch featuring The Two Ronnies, i.e. Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett. Like many of their sketches - though not all - it was written by Ronnie Barker himself. It is arguably one of their best sketches, although it has not been included in any of the videos or DVDs which have been published to date.

The scene is an old-fashioned sweet shop. Barker, as shopkeeper, is serving an old lady, pointing out that, as a sign on the wall says, "Nothing is too much trouble" in his shop. Presently Corbett enters. It turns out that he is obviously trying to test Barker's slogan by unnerving him in a number of highly exaggerated ways. Among other things he wants him to sort out liquorice allsorts because he only likes the pink ones, he actually insists on finding out whether certain chocolates "melt in your mouth but not in your hand", and he asks him to unroll liquorice rolls because he wants to know how long they are. Eventually Barker goes completely berserk, thus showing that he was wrong when he claimed (towards the middle of the sketch) that "nothing is too much trouble, sir, not even you."

[edit] Trivia

When Corbett says, "I want some gobstoppers.", the following line, which did not appear in the original text, is added in the sketch itself: (Barker:) "Big gob or little gob?"
The original line, "Anything else, sir, while we're waiting?" (they both suck their gobstoppers) was changed into "... while we're on the suck, sir?"
Note the expression on Ronnie Corbett's face at the very end of the sketch; also the way the hundreds and thousands are falling off the brim of his hat when he slightly moves his head several times

[edit] Bibliography

Ronnie Barker, All I Ever Wrote: The Complete Works (1999)
And It's Goodnight from Him...: The Autobiography of the "Two Ronnies" (Hardcover) by Ronnie Corbett (soon to be published)