Ronnie Corbett Quotes

I’m always nervous. A classy comedian is full of self-doubt disguised with an air of false confidence. If there isn’t self-doubt, you seem aggressive.

We had a certain kind of material that was not dangerously esoteric.

I am happy most of the time.

We go out of fashion but can also come back into fashion. So you’ve just got to hang around long enough until you are back in style.

In the old days, if you topped the bill one evening, you’d do 22 minutes maximum, and if you overstepped and did 27 one night, you’d get a knock on the door telling you it wasn’t acceptable.

All those I admired as a young performer had a calmness to their comedy.

Dad was a baker, and Mum was tied up with church and the social club.

David Frost plucked me from the nightclubs.

Doing things like ‘Extras’ and ‘Little Britain’ keeps me in with the youngsters.

We knew what mums, dads, and children would understand and enjoy without resentment. I don’t see the requirement to upset people. You’re there to entertain and please.

People who want to do stand-up from the start – I mean that’s an extremely self-centred thing to want, isn’t it?

My father instilled attention to detail and a sense of duty and responsibility.

I’ve been lucky in that I’ve always loved my job.

I have been trapped in some posh toilets, including those in Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace, and at Victor Spinetti’s memorial at St. Paul’s Covent Garden, I got locked in the loo.

I love radio and have done a little bit for years – since ‘Workers’ Playtime’ in the 1950s. It’s also a good springboard for comedians.

There are many comics around who don’t really have a feel for comedy. They can say outrageous things, have clever thoughts, and deliver some funny angles. But they are not genuinely funny.

It is possible to have good manners and be funny at the same time. Ronnie Barker and I proved that.

The really funny moments you notice throughout your life are very seldom generated by one person telling a joke.

It is all down to ‘The Two Ronnies.’ Those years with Ronnie Barker were the spine of my career.

You get fed up watching shows with not much care and love, reality programmes where they put people in a house for a fortnight and film them doing everything, or where participants arrive after lunch and do the programme at six.

As you get older, you worry about your memory.

I have had the most spoiled golfing life.

It’s difficult to be clean and clever at the same time, but a lot of our stuff was.

I think people feel starved of nice, glamorous entertainment. They want to see costumes and gaiety and a singer; old-fashioned entertainment – it won’t die easily.

If I change car, I change car. I don’t get very fond of things.

Comedy taste changes. It only changes slightly, but there’s always a different angle, a different attitude.

I just keep jogging along, and people seem to like me. And for that I am very grateful.

Our comedy was light-hearted amusement that seemingly tripped naturally off the tongue. That’s why I don’t think it will date.

I have been in the business for 62 years. It’s a match made in heaven.

How long does it take to make ‘They Think It’s All Over?’ It’s just laughing at each other and thinking, ‘Aren’t we clever?’