What do you think?
Rate this book
Pebbles on the Beach: A Pictorial Tribute to the Seaside Girl
Another splash of sparkling fun . A frolic through Ronnie Barker's collection of Bathin' Beauties.
As Bouncy as a Beach Ball - as luscious as Ice Cream.
As Bouncy as a Beach Ball - as luscious as Ice Cream.
96 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1976
4 people want to read
About the author
Ronnie Barker
72 books7 followersRonald William George Barker, OBE was an English actor, comedian, writer, broadcaster and businessman. He was known for his roles in various British comedy television series, such as The Frost Report, Porridge, The Two Ronnies and Open All Hours.
Born in Bedford, he began his acting career in repertory theatre and decided he was best suited to performing comic roles. Barker gained his first acting successes at the Oxford Playhouse and later in various roles in the West End including Tom Stoppard's The Real Inspector Hound. During this period, he became a cast member on BBC radio and television comedy programmes such as The Navy Lark. Barker got his television break with the satirical sketch series The Frost Report in 1966 where he met future collaborator Ronnie Corbett. He joined David Frost's production company and was to star in a number ITV shows including a short film during this period.
However, it was after rejoining the BBC that he found fame with the sketch show The Two Ronnies (1971—1986) with Ronnie Corbett. After the series of pilots called Seven of One, he gained starring roles in the sitcoms Porridge, its sequel Going Straight and Open All Hours. Apart from being a performer, he was noted as a comedy writer both under his own name and the pseudonym Gerald Wiley, which Barker adopted to avoid pre-judgements of his talent. Barker won the BAFTA for Best Light Entertainment Performance four times, amongst other awards, and received an OBE in 1978.
Later television sitcoms such as The Magnificent Evans and Clarence were less successful and he decided to retire in 1987. After his retirement, he opened an antiques shop with his wife, Joy. After 1997, he appeared in a number of smaller, non-comic roles in films.
Barker's writing style was "based on precise scripts and perfect timing." It often involved playing with language, including humour involving such linguistic items as spoonerisms and double entendres. He "preferred innuendo over the crudely explicit, a restraint that demanded some imagination from the audience and was the essence of his comedy." He "never liked sex or obscenity on television, but there was no shortage of frisky gags in The Two Ronnies". Corbett said he had "a mastery of the English language".
Born in Bedford, he began his acting career in repertory theatre and decided he was best suited to performing comic roles. Barker gained his first acting successes at the Oxford Playhouse and later in various roles in the West End including Tom Stoppard's The Real Inspector Hound. During this period, he became a cast member on BBC radio and television comedy programmes such as The Navy Lark. Barker got his television break with the satirical sketch series The Frost Report in 1966 where he met future collaborator Ronnie Corbett. He joined David Frost's production company and was to star in a number ITV shows including a short film during this period.
However, it was after rejoining the BBC that he found fame with the sketch show The Two Ronnies (1971—1986) with Ronnie Corbett. After the series of pilots called Seven of One, he gained starring roles in the sitcoms Porridge, its sequel Going Straight and Open All Hours. Apart from being a performer, he was noted as a comedy writer both under his own name and the pseudonym Gerald Wiley, which Barker adopted to avoid pre-judgements of his talent. Barker won the BAFTA for Best Light Entertainment Performance four times, amongst other awards, and received an OBE in 1978.
Later television sitcoms such as The Magnificent Evans and Clarence were less successful and he decided to retire in 1987. After his retirement, he opened an antiques shop with his wife, Joy. After 1997, he appeared in a number of smaller, non-comic roles in films.
Barker's writing style was "based on precise scripts and perfect timing." It often involved playing with language, including humour involving such linguistic items as spoonerisms and double entendres. He "preferred innuendo over the crudely explicit, a restraint that demanded some imagination from the audience and was the essence of his comedy." He "never liked sex or obscenity on television, but there was no shortage of frisky gags in The Two Ronnies". Corbett said he had "a mastery of the English language".
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
October 19, 2024
Ronnie Barker was renowned for collecting bathing beauty items, both ceramics and ephemera and here he puts together a selection from his collection that presents, in his own words, 'another feast to the eye for your delight; a picture book of sun, sand and sea, in the days that used to be'.
Although there are some English comic postcards featured, for instance a hefty lady with a large tear down the side of her Edwardian bathing suit says, 'I'm having a ripping time!' as she wades through the waves, the majority of the images are French as can be seen by either the wording or the names of French artists. But Ronnie Barker has added appropriate little ditties to many of them such as, perhaps my favourite, 'A She Shanty' that accompanies a series of a lady in her one piece bathing costume making her way down to the briny ocean and begins (à la John Masefield), 'Oh I must go down to the sea again,/To the lonely shingly shores/And all I ask is a tall ship/And a girl in bathing drawers'! He continues, 'For a girl in bathing drawers, lads,/Is a thing beyond renown./She shines in this world like a beacon, lads,/Especially when bending down.' Okay, that's enough it was that first verse that tickled me but there are another three after those opening two.
A Frenchman whose name looks like AJ Puillaume has two full-pages of a little scenario where Edwardian gent meets Edwardian lady. In the first scene the gent is approaching a young lady saying, 'Dash it, Ermintrude, I love you. Let's get married, or something' to which she replies 'Let's get married, or NOTHING!' In the second a different gent, this one has a boater on, meets another young lady, complete with parasol and she says, 'Let's go Dutch tonight.' He replies, How do you mean, Mam'selle?' to which the answer is 'You pay for the dinner and the drinks, and the rest of the evening will be on me.' Hmm ...
There are plenty of interesting cartoons with amusing caption such as the older lady with newspaper sat on the sands with a bathing beauty lying on her front next to her and the beauty's servant comments, 'We're broke again, and there she lies, sunning herself, with never a thought of the outgoings.' And in colour and black and white they all make for amusing reading; Ronnie Barker must have had some collection!
Although there are some English comic postcards featured, for instance a hefty lady with a large tear down the side of her Edwardian bathing suit says, 'I'm having a ripping time!' as she wades through the waves, the majority of the images are French as can be seen by either the wording or the names of French artists. But Ronnie Barker has added appropriate little ditties to many of them such as, perhaps my favourite, 'A She Shanty' that accompanies a series of a lady in her one piece bathing costume making her way down to the briny ocean and begins (à la John Masefield), 'Oh I must go down to the sea again,/To the lonely shingly shores/And all I ask is a tall ship/And a girl in bathing drawers'! He continues, 'For a girl in bathing drawers, lads,/Is a thing beyond renown./She shines in this world like a beacon, lads,/Especially when bending down.' Okay, that's enough it was that first verse that tickled me but there are another three after those opening two.
A Frenchman whose name looks like AJ Puillaume has two full-pages of a little scenario where Edwardian gent meets Edwardian lady. In the first scene the gent is approaching a young lady saying, 'Dash it, Ermintrude, I love you. Let's get married, or something' to which she replies 'Let's get married, or NOTHING!' In the second a different gent, this one has a boater on, meets another young lady, complete with parasol and she says, 'Let's go Dutch tonight.' He replies, How do you mean, Mam'selle?' to which the answer is 'You pay for the dinner and the drinks, and the rest of the evening will be on me.' Hmm ...
There are plenty of interesting cartoons with amusing caption such as the older lady with newspaper sat on the sands with a bathing beauty lying on her front next to her and the beauty's servant comments, 'We're broke again, and there she lies, sunning herself, with never a thought of the outgoings.' And in colour and black and white they all make for amusing reading; Ronnie Barker must have had some collection!
Displaying 1 of 1 review