'Seven Of One' was Ronnie Barker's third anthology sitcom. His first was the Rediffusion show 'The Ronnie Barker Playhouse' ( much of which is sadly missing from the archives ), second was a six part LWT series entitled 'Six Dates With Barker', which each week would not only see him as a different character but also was set in a different period each week. 'Seven Of One' was the most successful and best remembered of the three - mainly because it saw the birth of two of Barker's most successful sitcoms - 'Porridge' ( titled here 'Prisoner & Escort' ) and 'Open All Hours'.
I feel there is no point saying what the previous two mentioned shows are about but the rest are described as follows. 'My Old Man', written by Gerald Frow, saw pensioner Sam Cobbett being forced to move out of his old house and move in with his daughter and snobbish husband. It was successful enough to become a sitcom for ITV but Clive Dunn was cast this time as Sam. Roy Clarke's 'Spanner's Eleven' was a slight but amusing story of a man taking charge of a failing football team. Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais' 'I'll Fly You For A Quid' was all about gambling mad Welsh family. Best of all was 'One Man's Meat' ( written by Ronnie Barker under the name Jack Goetz ) in which he was an overweight man who resorts to desperate measures to fight his hunger after his wife forces him to go on a diet. One edition which fell on stony ground was Hugh Leonard's 'Another Fine Mess' in which Barker and Roy Castle played 'Laurel & Hardy' impersonators.
There was to be a six part follow up series entitled 'Half A Dozen Of The Other' but as 'Porridge' was proving such a hit, that project was dropped. Not Barker at his best but entertaining enough and worth watching alone to see 'Porridge' in the making.
I feel there is no point saying what the previous two mentioned shows are about but the rest are described as follows. 'My Old Man', written by Gerald Frow, saw pensioner Sam Cobbett being forced to move out of his old house and move in with his daughter and snobbish husband. It was successful enough to become a sitcom for ITV but Clive Dunn was cast this time as Sam. Roy Clarke's 'Spanner's Eleven' was a slight but amusing story of a man taking charge of a failing football team. Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais' 'I'll Fly You For A Quid' was all about gambling mad Welsh family. Best of all was 'One Man's Meat' ( written by Ronnie Barker under the name Jack Goetz ) in which he was an overweight man who resorts to desperate measures to fight his hunger after his wife forces him to go on a diet. One edition which fell on stony ground was Hugh Leonard's 'Another Fine Mess' in which Barker and Roy Castle played 'Laurel & Hardy' impersonators.
There was to be a six part follow up series entitled 'Half A Dozen Of The Other' but as 'Porridge' was proving such a hit, that project was dropped. Not Barker at his best but entertaining enough and worth watching alone to see 'Porridge' in the making.