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........