Here is our little tribute to one of the best double acts we've ever had.

Accidental partners
The celebrated partnership of The Two Ronnies, Barker and Corbett, lasted for 12 series and numerous one-off specials, and was beloved around the world. It ran from 1971 to 1986 - but the duo came together largely by accident.

Though they had both worked on The Frost Report, their first outing as a duo was when they were paired up one time to present an award at the BAFTAs only for a technical problem to force them to ad-lib. The show's producers were so impressed that they offered Barker and Corbett their own show. The rest is history.

Kings of the sketch
Both Barker and Corbett were exceptional comic actors and shared a great gift for delivery and timing. Their innate comic talents were bolstered on a team of consistently good writers, including One Foot In The Grave creator David Renwick and Only Fools And Horses scribe John Sullivan, as well as Barry Cryer, Michael Palin, John Cleese, and the legendary Spike Milligan.

They were also joined by Barker himself, modestly submitting his own material under the pen name Gerald Wiley. Between them all they wrote and performed some truly ingenious sketches, crammed with spoonerisms, puns and other clever word play. For example take this excerpt, in which Ronnie B is posing as a doctor and talking to Ronnie C's patient:

"Please choose one of the following options. Do you suffer from any of the following:
A - A bleeding nose
B - Getting out of bed in the morning,
C - Terry Wogan,
Or D - all three: Terry Wogan getting up your bleeding nose every morning."

Other unforgettable sketches include the classic 'Fork Handles' routine; the blisteringly clever Mastermind skit, where Ronnie C's specialist subject is 'replying the question with the answer to the previous question'; or Ronnie B's fantastic monologue as a "representative from the Society for the Pismonuciation of Worms, speaking on behalf of all those who can't pronounce their worms properly".

They also gave us some timeless mock serials, such as "The Phantom Rasberry Blower Of Old London Town" - written by Milligan - and "The Worm That Turned", an alternate reality where women were the dominant sex on the planet.

"And the main news tonight..."
Master wordsmiths, both Ronnies excelled at delivering cheesy gags and puns while pretending to be reading headlines on a news programme. This would bookend every show and remains one of the most treasured parts of their routine. Here are a few cracking one-liners from the Two Ronnies archive:

"On a packed show tonight, we'll be talking to an out-of-work contortionist who can no longer make ends meet."

"The man who invented the zip fastener was today honoured with a lifetime peerage. He'll now be known as the Lord of the Flies."

"The toilets at a local police station have been stolen. Police say they have nothing to go on."

"Tomorrow we will be talking to women who like Nicholas Parsons. And also to a parson who likes knickerless women."

"A cement mixer collided with a prison van on the Kingston Pass. Motorists are asked to be on the lookout for 16 hardened criminals."

"The search for the man who terrorises nudist camps with a bacon slicer goes on. Inspector Lemuel Jones had a tip-off this morning, but hopes to be back on duty tomorrow."

"Tonight, we'll be asking: should all married couples be frank and earnest, or should one of them be a woman..."

"...And we will be speaking to the scientist who crossed a yard of ale beer glass with a Chinese vase and a chamber pot, to get a ping-pong-piddle-high-po."

Sadly this partnership has ended due to Barker's death but at least we'll always have the joy of knowing that their best moments are safely stored in the BBC archive - each one a cherished reminder of just how good they really were and a guarantee that when they tell us that it's goodnight from them, we know that it's never really the case!