Clarence (UK TV series) Kingdom. Clarence (UK TV series) Clarence is a 1988 BBC situation comedy starring Ronnie Barker and Josephine Tewson, written by Ronnie Barker under the pseudonym "Bob Ferris" as an acknowledgement to Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, creators of "Porridge". It was Barker's final sitcom appearance before his retirement. Barker had previously faced some criticism over his employment of a stammer for comedic effect in "Open All Hours". However, the slapstick potential of a short-sighted furniture shifter must have seemed irresistible. The series was inspired by "The Removals Person" by Hugh Leonard, an episode in the 1971 LWT comedy anthology
Ronnie Barker and crackling cross-chat". It concluded that "it says much about the decline of the British television industry that Ronnie Barker, one of its most creative comic talents, should have turned his back on it long before he died at the age of 76". In a eulogy for Barker, the Reverend Robert Wright stated that he was "undoubtedly one of the very greatest television comedy actors" and that "as a performer he made comedy look effortlessly funny". In 2006 Barker's stage play "Mum" was adapted and directed by Neil Cargill for BBC Radio 4, and broadcast as an "Afternoon Play", starring