Top sitcom writer Bob Larbey has died

Friday 4th April 2014, 8:47pm

Bob Larbey

Bob Larbey, one of Britain's most prolific sitcom writers, has died aged 79.

With his life-long friend John Esmonde, he created classic comedy series including The Good Life, Please Sir!, Ever Decreasing Circles, Brush Strokes and Mulberry.

With a career spanning over 30 years, he also worked on a number of solo sitcom projects, most notably A Fine Romance and As Time Goes By.

Many of the sitcoms penned were big ratings winners, with The Good Life perhaps the best known of the formats. In a major TV poll in 2004 it was voted one of Britain's top 10 best sitcoms of all time.

Robert Edward John Larbey was born on the 24th June 1934 in Lambeth. He and Esmonde met at the Henry Thornton School in Clapham and, after National Service in the Army, the pair were soon writing comedy scripts together in their spare time. By the 1960s they had found jobs working on BBC radio, contributing to programmes such as I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again.

Their first sitcom was 1965's Spare A Copper for BBC Radio, which featured Kenneth Connor as an inept policeman. The duo went on to develop a number of sitcoms for the wireless, whilst also gaining their first TV credits by contributing sketches to the likes of The Dick Emery Show.

Their first major TV show was Please Sir! for LWT in 1968. The school-based sitcom was soon scoring 20 million viewers for the ITV network, allowing the writers to use it as their calling card and pick their own high profile TV projects.

Together they'd go on to create further hit shows such as the Please Sir! spin-off The Fenn Street Gang and, in turn, Bowler; plus Ever Decreasing Circles, Brush Strokes and Mulberry.

Esmonde & Larbey's last major project together was the 1995 BBC One sitcom Down To Earth in which Richard Briers played a character trying to set up a landscape gardening business. John Esmonde died three years later, in August 2008, at his retirement home in Spain.

The Good Life. Image shows from L to R: Tom Good (Richard Briers), Barbara Good (Felicity Kendal), Jerry Leadbetter (Paul Eddington), Margo Leadbetter (Penelope Keith). Copyright: BBC

The duo's script work has a number of very high profile admirers, with Queen Elizabeth II said to be a particular fan of The Good Life (pictured). In fact, the head of state attended the recording of the sitcom's final episode in 1978.

Modern comedy writers and performers also hold the duo's scripts in very high regard. Last year, Ricky Gervais tweeted "Dear BBC, I'll let you repeat The Office for free if you repeat Ever Decreasing Circles this year."

Larbey and Esmonde teamed up a number of times with Richard Briers. As well as Ever Decreasing Circles, The Good Life and Down To Earth, they also wrote 1970s sitcom The Other One for the actor.

Many of Larbey's shows are still big hits in America. As Time Goes By, the sitcom starring Judi Dench and Geoffrey Palmer, which Larbey wrote as a solo effort from 1992 to 2002, is still regularly repeated on PBS stations.

Meanwhile, GOLD is currently repeating Ever Decreasing Circles and BBC Four has just completed showing the first two series of the sitcom. The UKTV network channel Drama begins repeating Brush Strokes from this coming Monday, 7th April.

Larbey died on Monday, 31st March 2014. He was married to Trish Marshall until her death in 2006, whom he met at LWT where she was working as a script reader. They have a son who survives them.

See Also:

Bob Larbey interview

Jason Hazeley's tribute

Julian Dutton's tribute

The Telegraph's obituary

Video Clips:

Here is a classic scene from The Good Life scripted by Esmonde & Larbey:

And, in the below video, filmed in 2011 for a documentary on PBS television in America, Larbey discusses the end of Mulberry:

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