Ronnie Corbett

For an example of what the Beeb's production values can do to enhance mediocre material, there was, or were, The Two Ronnies (BBC1). Ronnie Barker has a very good news number, full of information to help make the Common Market more confusing. 'Here is a graph. Here is another graph. Here is the first graph upside-down.' But generally the show's level of verbal invention was somewhere between pun and innuendo, with words like 'commitments' being employed to mean 'balls.'

The Two Ronnies (BBC1) tried hard. Apart from the regular Piggy Malone number - which never works, but gives the boys a chance to grope a scantily clad damsel - the show was reasonably diverting, and for a wonder it was not until the last item that the stars appeared in female attire.