Arkwright (Open All Hours) to be too small for the act. Arkwright and Gladys apparently never got married before Arkwright's death; Gladys claims he died to save the cost of the church. Arkwright (Open All Hours) Albert E. Arkwright, usually referred to simply as Arkwright, is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the British sitcom, "Open All Hours", played by Ronnie Barker. Arkwright is the uncle of Granville and the proprietor of an old fashioned Yorkshire corner shop, which in the era of the programme (1970s and 1980s) was a product of a bygone age. Arkwright's signature characteristic is his stutter, which
Ronnie Barker opened and ran an antiques shop called The Emporium in Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire and resisted all calls to come out of retirement from then onwards. He joked: "I lose money every week, but it's a hobby. It's cheaper than skiing and safer at my age." Because of its unprofitability, the shop was sold after ten years. He wrote his autobiography, "Dancing in the Moonlight: My Early Years on Stage" in 1993 and released "All I Ever Wrote", his complete scripts, in 1999. He wrote the play "Mum" for his daughter Charlotte Barker in 1998, which was performed at The