Hark at Barker (1969)
- Genre
- sitcom
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Length
- 2 seasons, 15 episodes
- Rated
- PG
- Rating
- 6.5 of 10 from 3 voters
- Elsewhere
- IMDb
The catalogue in 3D
The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this series is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.
How it feels
Ronnie Barker plays multiple characters including the bumbling Lord Rustless who gives weekly lectures from his stately home. His staff keep causing chaos and the show keeps cutting to comedy sketches with Barker in different roles.
playfulabsurdlightheartedwhimsicalfast-pacedsillywarmtheatrical
What happens
Hark at Barker is a 1969 British comedy series combining elements of sitcom and sketch show, which starred Ronnie Barker. It was made for the ITV network by London Weekend Television. Each show began with a spoof news item read by Barker as the announcer. He would then introduce the main part of the programme, a lecture to be given by Lord Rustless (also Barker) on a different topic each week from his stately home, Chrome Hall. Helped and hindered by Rustless' secretary (Mildred) Bates, his Butler Badger, his bad-tempered Cook, his incoherent gardener Dithers and (in Series 2) his buxom, near-mute maid Effie, these lectures invariably degenerated into farce, and were frequently interrupted by comic sketches on location or in the studio which also starred Barker in differing roles. Barker reprised the role of Lord Rustless in the BBC series His Lordship Entertains, and played very similar characters in Futtock's End and the Two Ronnies specials The Picnic and By the Sea. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)
More like this
The Ronnie Barker Playhouse (1968)
Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969)
Seven of One (1973)
Two in Clover (1969)
The Dustbinmen (1969)
Faces of Jim (1961)
In Loving Memory (1969)
No – That's Me Over Here! (1967)- More like this series, on a shelf you can walk up to.It's the lit case on the top shelf.