Nicholas Parsons - biography

“If anybody could have been called a comic genius it was Ronnie, ...  Ronnie Barker was a true icon of situation comedy and character comedy and there was nobody to my mind to touch him.”

“There’s no doubt [Ronnie Barker] was in his own way a comic genius.  He had this wonderful warmth and humour that came right through the screen and just embraced you.”

“As I was moving around the village in my clerical clothes [whilst recording The Curse of Fenric in Surrey], a lady came up to me and asked when the next meeting of the Women’s Institute was about to take place.”

“When I was overcome by the Haemovores [in The Curse of Fenric] and trodden into the mud, it did not require much imagination or acting to feel the suffering that I experienced in the cold quagmire into which I collapsed!”

“It is my favourite job.  It is professionally most demanding, but tremendous fun.  I have to be alert and concentrate harder than in any other engagement I indertake.  It’s my responsibility to make instant decisions, generate the fun, control the show and listen to every word spoken and remember, so I can judge if a challenge is correct - especially if it is for repetition.”

“The joy of performing is that you overcome the insecurity of your nature and are reassured by the reaction of the audience.”

“Great writers and poets have been written about, but Lear, whose verse is probably enjoyed by more people of all generations, has been ignored.”

Nicholas Parsons has appeared in the following films:
To Dorothy a Son (1954)
An Alligator Named Daisy (1955)
Eyewitness (1956)
The Long Arm (1956)
Brothers in Law (1957)
Happy Is the Bride (1958)
Carlton-Browne of the F.O. (1959)
Too Many Crooks (1959)
Upstairs and Downstairs (1959)
Doctor in Love (1960)
Let’s Get Married (1960)
Carry on Regardless (1961)
Murder Ahoy (1964)
Every Day’s a Holiday (1965)
The Wrong Box (1966)
Don’t Raise the Bridge, Lower the River (1967)
Danger Point (1971)