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Esmonde and Larbey
Esmonde and Larbey were a British television screenwriting duo, consisting of John Gilbert Esmonde (21 March 1937 – 10 August 2008) and Robert Edward Larbey (24 June 1934 – 31 March 2014), who created popular sitcoms from the mid-1960s until the mid-1990s such as Please Sir!, The Good Life, Get Some In!, Ever Decreasing Circles, and Brush Strokes.
Bob Larbey made his writing debut for BBC radio, before contributing a film adaptation, Mrs Silly, starring Maggie Smith. Larbey met his future writing partner when they were pupils at Henry Thornton School, South Side, Clapham Common. He was born in Clapham, South London and died in London aged 79 in March 2014.
John Esmonde served a couple of years in the Royal Air Force in Air Ambulance before realising that his budding writing partnership with Larbey might prove more fruitful. Three years of after-hours writing yielded a BBC joint fee of two guineas for the pair in 1965, as they began to have sketches accepted on shows such as I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again and The Dick Emery Show. Born in Battersea, South West London, Esmonde was married to Georgina Barton from 1960 until his death in Spain in August 2008, aged 71.
Esmonde and Larbey's first sitcom as a writing team came in 1966 with Room at the Bottom for the BBC. This followed the exploits of a group of maintenance men working for Saracens Manufacturing Company. Starting out as a pilot in the BBC's Comedy Playhouse programme, it lasted for one series the next year, starring Kenneth Connor, Deryck Guyler and Francis Matthews.
The BBC radio comedy You're Only Old Once, also starring Deryck Guyler who appeared alongside Clive Dunn and Joan Sanderson, was broadcast between February 1968 and July 1969.
Also in 1968, Esmonde and Larbey created Please Sir!, a situation comedy which starred John Alderton as a naive teacher thrown in at the deep end in a tough south London school. Rejected by the BBC, the series was accepted by London Weekend Television, whose head of comedy was then Frank Muir.
The success of Please Sir! led to Esmonde and Larbey being commissioned to write a sequel – The Fenn Street Gang – which followed the former school pupils as they tried to make their way in the harsh world outside. This starred David Barry, Peter Cleall and Carol Hawkins. Making his debut in series 1, George Baker made such an impression as a wide-boy villain that the prequel Bowler was launched in 1973. This lasted for one series and co-starred Fred Beauman, Renny Lister and Gretchen Franklin.
In the early to mid-1970s, Esmonde and Larbey produced several lesser-known comedies, sometimes lasting no longer than a pilot. These include ITV's Cosmo And Thingy, set in prehistoric times featuring a cast of cavemen and cavewomen (based on a series of sketches they wrote for I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again), and Football Crazy (also for ITV) which was a children's sitcom about the football team Wormwood Rovers.
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Esmonde and Larbey
Esmonde and Larbey were a British television screenwriting duo, consisting of John Gilbert Esmonde (21 March 1937 – 10 August 2008) and Robert Edward Larbey (24 June 1934 – 31 March 2014), who created popular sitcoms from the mid-1960s until the mid-1990s such as Please Sir!, The Good Life, Get Some In!, Ever Decreasing Circles, and Brush Strokes.
Bob Larbey made his writing debut for BBC radio, before contributing a film adaptation, Mrs Silly, starring Maggie Smith. Larbey met his future writing partner when they were pupils at Henry Thornton School, South Side, Clapham Common. He was born in Clapham, South London and died in London aged 79 in March 2014.
John Esmonde served a couple of years in the Royal Air Force in Air Ambulance before realising that his budding writing partnership with Larbey might prove more fruitful. Three years of after-hours writing yielded a BBC joint fee of two guineas for the pair in 1965, as they began to have sketches accepted on shows such as I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again and The Dick Emery Show. Born in Battersea, South West London, Esmonde was married to Georgina Barton from 1960 until his death in Spain in August 2008, aged 71.
Esmonde and Larbey's first sitcom as a writing team came in 1966 with Room at the Bottom for the BBC. This followed the exploits of a group of maintenance men working for Saracens Manufacturing Company. Starting out as a pilot in the BBC's Comedy Playhouse programme, it lasted for one series the next year, starring Kenneth Connor, Deryck Guyler and Francis Matthews.
The BBC radio comedy You're Only Old Once, also starring Deryck Guyler who appeared alongside Clive Dunn and Joan Sanderson, was broadcast between February 1968 and July 1969.
Also in 1968, Esmonde and Larbey created Please Sir!, a situation comedy which starred John Alderton as a naive teacher thrown in at the deep end in a tough south London school. Rejected by the BBC, the series was accepted by London Weekend Television, whose head of comedy was then Frank Muir.
The success of Please Sir! led to Esmonde and Larbey being commissioned to write a sequel – The Fenn Street Gang – which followed the former school pupils as they tried to make their way in the harsh world outside. This starred David Barry, Peter Cleall and Carol Hawkins. Making his debut in series 1, George Baker made such an impression as a wide-boy villain that the prequel Bowler was launched in 1973. This lasted for one series and co-starred Fred Beauman, Renny Lister and Gretchen Franklin.
In the early to mid-1970s, Esmonde and Larbey produced several lesser-known comedies, sometimes lasting no longer than a pilot. These include ITV's Cosmo And Thingy, set in prehistoric times featuring a cast of cavemen and cavewomen (based on a series of sketches they wrote for I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again), and Football Crazy (also for ITV) which was a children's sitcom about the football team Wormwood Rovers.