Clarence (UK TV series) 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 series,
Ronnie Barker he did not tell Barker. His first radio appearance was in 1956, playing Lord Russett in "Floggit's". He went on to play multiple characters, but primarily the put-upon Able Seaman 'Fatso' Johnson and Lieutenant-Commander Stanton in "The Navy Lark", a navy based sitcom on the BBC Light Programme, which ran from 1959-77, with Barker featuring in some 300 episodes. He also featured in the show's radio spin-off "The TV Lark", in which his character, Fatso, was now a camera operator after the main characters were drummed out of the service, and as a trainee chef in "Crowther's Crowd" in 1963,