This is pure classic ‘Two Ronnies’. The ‘Four Candles’ sketch is so simple and so obvious, but it is delivered so well that even the worst puns that are thrown in get a laugh from the audience. Ronnie Corbett and Ronnie Barker performed this sketch in September 1976, on their ‘Two Ronnies’ show on BBC1.

 

The sketch was previously given the titles of ‘The Hardware Shop’ and ‘Annie Finkhouse’ and was written by Ronnie Barker, under his pseudonym, ‘Richard Whiley’. Funnily enough, the inspiration came from a hardware shop in Middlesex, where after the owners had a series of misunderstandings with one of their customers, they thought it would be a good idea to send in their experience for a theme of a sketch.

 

The skit on this real life scenario starts with Barker posing as a builder who walks into his local hardware store. Corbett is the shopkeeper:

 

Barker – “Four Candles!”*

Corbett – “Four Candles?”*

Barker – “Four Candles.”*

Corbett retrieves a box from behind the counter, takes out four candles and puts them down on the counter.

 

Barker – “No, four candles!”*

Corbett (slightly annoyed) – “Well there you are, four candles!”*

Barker – “No, fork ‘andles! ‘Andles for forks!”*

 

After the initial gag, the rest of the sketch follows the exact same pattern with different items in the shop. Barker asks for ‘plugs’, but Corbett, realising that this could mean any one of numerous objects he sells, asks, “Plugs. What kind of plugs?”* “A rubber one, bathroom”* is the reply. “What size?” he asks, to which Barker replies, “Thirteen Amp!”*

 

Barker, who is putting on a thick rural accent, then asks for “’oes!” Corbett grabs a hoe, then a hose and finally pantyhose but neither one of them is what he is looking for:

 

Barker – “No, no, ‘O’s! ‘O’s for the gate. Mon repose! ‘O’s! Letter O’s!”*

Corbett – “Letter O’s! (underneath his breath) You had me going there!”*

 

Corbett climbs up a stepladder; takes a box full of letters down from a high shelf and begins searching through it for letter O’s:

 

Corbett – “How many d’you want?”*

Barker – “Two.”*

He gets back up on the ladder and puts the box away.

Corbett – “Yes, next?”*

Barker – “Got any P’s?”*

 

The sketch ends with Barker asking for ‘billhooks’, which Corbett misinterprets as something entirely different, leaving it up to the audience’s discretion as to what it means! Ronnie Barker later changed the end of the sketch as he felt the ‘billhooks’ innuendo bit at the end spoiled it, as it was a bit too crude.

 

The ‘Four Candles’ sketch has gone down in the history books as one of the greatest sketches to be performed on UK television. It is a great example of the ‘Two Ronnies’ gift at word play, their most distinguished comic trait. A copy of the sketch, which was handwritten by Baker himself, appeared on the ‘Antiques Roadshow’ programme in 2006. He said that he may have donated the draft to charity at one point. The script recently sold for over 48,000 pounds at an auction in London.

 

* quoted from The Two Ronnies/ Four Candles sketch