Clarence | |
---|---|
Series title card |
|
Format | Comedy |
Created by | Ronnie Barker |
Written by | Bob Ferris |
Starring | Ronnie Barker Josephine Tewson |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
No. of episodes | 6 |
Production | |
Running time | 30 minutes per episode |
Broadcast | |
Original channel | BBC1 |
Original run | 4 January 1988 | – 8 February 1988
Clarence is a 1988 BBC situation comedy starring Ronnie Barker and Josephine Tewson, written by Ronnie Barker under the pseudonym "Bob Ferris". It was Barker's final sitcom appearance before his retirement.
Barker had previously faced criticism over his employment of a stammer for comedic effect in Open All Hours. However, the slapstick potential of a short-sighted furniture shifter must have seemed irresistible. The series was inspired by The Removals Person by Hugh Leonard,[1] an earlier programme in the 1971 LWT comedy series, Six Dates With Barker.
Only one series of Clarence was made, which is now available on DVD. The series is also available in Region 4 Australia with the same cover art. The house of Jane Travers, which inspired the opening titles, is located on Malvern Road in Cheltenham [2]
In 1937, on the day of King George VI's coronation, Clarence Sale, a myopic removal man is clearing the house of a snooty upper-class lady who is moving abroad. There, he meets Jane Travers, her maid. The pair are mutually attracted and soon Clarence proposes to her. Jane decides that they should have a trial period of living together in a small cottage she has been given in an inheritance to see if they are compatible, with a bolster in the bed to preserve her chasteness. The series followed this unconventional relationship, as well as Clarence's attempts at his furniture-moving profession.