Dancing in the Moonlight: Early Years on the Stage - Couverture rigide

From the moment that nineteen-year-old Ronald Barker threw up his steady job in an Oxford bank for life as an actor in a tatty Aylesbury repertory theatre, he knew he was where he belonged. In DANCING IN THE MOONLIGHT, he tells the droll and wickedly candid story of his years in repertory theatre, in those heady days before the advent of television, when every rep company had its regulars, and posters for a new play went up every week. This uproarious, racy and affectionate memoir of a bygone time pays homage to that vanished world.

In between making props out of papier mâché, Ronnie Barker was playing everything from a removal man (who has only three lines) to three consecutive roles in Treasure Island (in one of which he could remember only one line, and so just kept repeating it). With equal gusto, the youthful Barker was discovering the fairer sex and how acting in love scenes can lead to unforeseen consequences – whether the beginning of a passionate off-stage affair, or getting his trousers caught in the sofa springs before a live audience.

Ronnie Barker made his name on the classic television programme The Frost Report. Later, he teamed up with Ronnie Corbett for the long-running and immensely popular television series The Two Ronnies. Other successful partnerships followed – Richard Beckinsale in Porridge and David Jason in Open All Hours. His silent films The Picnic, By the Sea and Futtock’s End are comedy classics, and he was the holder of seventeen awards for his comedy performances, including three British Academy Awards.