"Have you got a frozen Zoom?"

Ronnie Barker was a legend, with a number of very successful series under his belt, he was just not a fine comedy actor but a fine actor all around, I recently purchased 12 disc Ronnie Barker set, so over the coming weeks look for little reviews and notes popping up...

Seven of One, was a BBC television series that aired in 1973. The show was seven individual episodes each kind of serving as a potential pilot for a series (though I reckon some if most where planned as one offs from the beginning). The legendary Barker was the only actor to appear in all 7 episodes, two of the pilots went onto two successful shows (more on that in a bit). Here is the episodes one by one

• Open All Hours: Also starred David Jason. Of course this would eventually go on for four series. I like this sit-com because of it's simplicity: A man runs a corner shop and his nephew works for him, the show works obviously because of Barker and Jason (who's know slouch when it comes to great comedy).
• Prisoner and Escort: Would go onto become the series Porridge (which lasted 3 series, have 2 christmas specials and a spin-off series), what's different to this then the Porridge series is the fact Fletcher (Barker) only gets to prison at the end of the episode. Funny stuff, I should note only two episodes in and Barker as already proved he's convincing at more then one type of character.
• My Old Man: Another fine character from Barker, there's a lot of funny moments here as an old man forced to movie in with his upper class wannabe son and family (Hey they could have almost sued the makers of Frasier). Not my favourite episode in the set but still very good.
• Football Blues: Probably the weakest episode, but I still laughed out loud a couple of times particulary the match footage and the attempt to scare the other team at the end of the episode.
• Another Fine Mess: Barker as somebody remarkabley like Oliver Hardy and Roy Castle as somebody remarkably like Stan Laurel in the funniest episode of the series. One gag involving a carpet and a piano leg had me in stitches for ages. This really is a wonderful tribute to Laurel and Hardy and they get the characters down perfect.
• One Man's Meat: Barker plays a man forced by his wife to go on a crash diet -which means taking all the food out of the house etc.- and he's home alone going crazy with hunger. One racist moment aside a great episode with Barker carrying most of the episode. Joan Simms and Prunella Scales are also in this episode.
• Flying for a Quid: It's all about a father and son obsessed with getting a winning betting slip for a lot of money the grandad had before he died, funny episode, again there's an whole bunch of laugh out loud moments within the episode.

It's just a shame, there was only ever one series of this, I laughed a lot. Ronnie Barker is excellent as every character he plays here (8 characters over the series, he plays 2 in the final episode. Recommended for fans of Barker or British Comedy.