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PostPosted: Mon Jun 03, 2013 7:22 pm 
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Jon wrote:
wattsit wrote:
The shop in question was called S&S Hardware in Pump Lane, at the top next to the corrugated iron Labour Hall. I think mention of it is in Ronnie Barker's autobiography.

The TV producer says he doesn't name the shop in his book. Barry Raymond has emailed to say he thinks it was Goodrich. Also, the Gazette have emailed to say they'd like to do a story on this.

A number of people i've spoken to agree it's S@S in Pump Lane.


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PostPosted: Mon Jun 03, 2013 7:58 pm 
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I think that of all the hardware shops mentioned so far, Goodriches and Mottersheads are closest to that used in the sketch.
I remember Goodriches had a wooden floor, not parquet or anthing fancy like that - just narrow planks that might have been varnished once upon a time. The men who worked in the shop even wore those ubiquitous brown overalls (like brown lab coats).

Phil
:idea:


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PostPosted: Tue Jun 04, 2013 8:58 am 
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Location: Western Australia
Dagley's had a wooden floor and was there before the war. There was also a feed & grain store in Coldharbour Lane near the "Jew" (toy) shop, can't remember the name of it though.

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PostPosted: Tue Jun 04, 2013 11:34 pm 
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Things have changed, I always knew them as Ironmongers.


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PostPosted: Sat Jun 15, 2013 8:26 am 
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I think I know this one. As a lad in the late 60s/early 70s my dad sent me to the local hardware shop for parafin to fire the heater he had to warm his workshop. He was a carpenter working for Nestles at the time. I can still remember the shop. It had boxes and shelves everywhere and looked exactly like the shop in the sketch. Even the shop owner was the spitting image of Ronnie C's character, right down to the brown labcoat he wore. My dad later left Nestles and went to work for the BBC. It became family lore soon after that my local hardware shop was the inspiration for the Four Candles sketch (maybe he heard this from one of the Ronnies). Years later I too worked at Television Centre rigging and setting the lighting in the studios. One day I was working on the 1985 Two Ronnies Christmas Special and during a break in rehearsals decided to find out if family lore was correct. I asked Ronnie B if my hardware shop was the inspiration for the sketch. He smiled and said "Do you know? I think it was". The shop was called Coopers and was on Kingshill
Parade in Kingshill Avenue, the other end from the Brook House. True story........


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PostPosted: Sat Jun 15, 2013 10:22 am 
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Oh wow, that is fascinating!!


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PostPosted: Sat Jun 15, 2013 11:34 am 
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Is this the end of the mystery I wonder?

Is Coopers still there?


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PostPosted: Sat Jun 15, 2013 4:23 pm 
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Sadly the shop has long gone. It had closed by the time I left Mellow Lane (1979). I remember dear old Mr. Cooper helping me out of the shop with my gallon of parafin and telling me to be careful crossing Kingshill Ave. I must have been about 10 or 11 at the time. The shop looked like a magical emporium to me. While I was waiting for the parafin I can remember hearing customers asking for strange things like Os and Pumps and somehow Mr. Cooper knew exactly which box to find them in. There must be records of the shop somewhere. I have waited many years to tell my story. I hope Mr. Cooper is looking down laughing.


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PostPosted: Sat Jun 15, 2013 8:41 pm 
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Jon wrote:
A TV company has been in touch to say they're urgently trying to trace anyone who knows anything of the Hayes hardware shop that was the inspiration behind the famous Two Ronnies "Fork Handles/Four Candles" sketch.


Sergeant Bilko wrote:
One day I was working on the 1985 Two Ronnies Christmas Special and during a break in rehearsals decided to find out if family lore was correct. I asked Ronnie B if my hardware shop was the inspiration for the sketch. He smiled and said "Do you know? I think it was". The shop was called Coopers and was on Kingshill
Parade in Kingshill Avenue, the other end from the Brook House. True story........

Interesting. A TV company that has access to various research facilities fails when all he should've done is check with a mere rigging and lighting bod who happened to have "interviewed" the great man himself.

Sergeant Bilko wrote:
....I can remember hearing customers asking for strange things like Os and Pumps and somehow Mr. Cooper knew exactly which box to find them in.


Sounds like you were in the shop when they recorded the actual sketch.
Don't tell me he actually asked for a pinch of salt as well.

Seems funny you joined this forum 4 days ago and made only 2 posts and both of them about this real gem.

Is there any significance in the name "Sergeant Bilko" (a well known bluffer), incidentally one of my all time heroes?

Phil
:roll: :roll: :roll:


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PostPosted: Sat Jun 15, 2013 10:01 pm 
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I think you're being rather harsh Festive. Several people have joined as a result of the Two Ronnies question and I've had a number of emails too. And quite a number of Hayes people worked at TVC...myself included...so there's no reason to doubt this account.


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