Clarence is a BBC2 sitcom which concerns the relationship between Clarence Sale (Ronnie Barker), a myopic furniture lifter, and Jane Travers (Josephine Tewson), a temporary maid who he meets up with whilst lifting furniture during the Coronation Day of King George VI. Clarence is instantly smitten with the woman and proposes marriage, but Travers is warier and goes for a trial run of living together but sleeping separately. Luckily, an opportunity arises when her dead aunt gives her a cottage in the Oxfordshire countryside, giving her the chance to ensure whether this extremely short-sighted and trouble-causing man is really the right partner for her.
Expanded from an episode from his previous work Six Dates with Barker called "1937: The Removals Person", this work proved to be the final sitcom for Barker before he retired for the most part from showbusiness - even then, it was under a pen name of Bob Ferris (a Shout-Out to the character from The Likely Lads) and was only made because, as the writer of the series, he could set it in his native Oxfordshire home.
The show lasted for one series in 1988.
Tropes in this episode:
- Accidental Proposal: At the end of the episode, Clarence decides to propose to Travers. However, due to his blindness, he ends up proposing to Angela instead. She gives him a Dope Slap for his trouble.
- Adaptational Name Change: In "1937: The Removals Person", Ronnie Barker's character was named Fred. Here in this expanded series, he has been renamed Clarence.
- An Arm and a Leg: Mrs Titheridge, who Clarence happily talks to in Episode 6, only has one leg, with the other leg being artificial.
- Arcadia: Clarence and Travers's countryside house in an Oxfordshire village, the beauty of which is punctuated by the occasional drawings in the episode
- Blind Mistake: Despite wearing glasses, Clarence has difficulty seeing and has a tendency to screw up because of this, such as mistaking a postbox for a person, stepping on porcelain, and mistaking the toilet for a lift.
- Blind Without Them: Subverted. Clarence claims to be unable to see without his glasses, but in fact, he's pretty much blind with them as well.
- British Brevity: Only one series of 6 episodes was ever made.
- Character Title: The show is named for its main protagonist, Clarence Sale.
- Drives Like Crazy: In all fairness, Clarence is not a person who should be legally cleared to drive and it shows, with him struggling to stay on the road and ultimately driving into a ditch.
- Eek, a Mouse!!: When Travers thinks that there is a mouse living in their new cottage, she freaks, launches herself onto the lap of Clarence, and asks him to get rid of it.
- Fourth-Date Marriage: Only one meeting with Travers and by the end of it, Clarence is asking her to marry him.
- The Great Depression: The series takes place in 1937, with Clarence starting the series by clearing out the house of a Upper-Class Twit during the Coronation Day of King George VI.
- Happily Ever After: The series ends with Travers and Clarence happily heading off to get married.
- How Many Fingers?: Travers when Clarence claims that he can actually see better without his glasses in Episode 3 - whilst Flipping the Bird at him.Travers: You lying devil. How many fingers am I holding up?Clarence: I don't know, but I can guess.
- Malaproper: In Episode 4, Clarence confuses "celebration" with "celibacy".Clarence: They're condemned, ain't they, to a life of complete celebration.Travers: Celibacy.Clarence: Yes exactly. That and all that, yeah.
- Mistaken Identity: Thanks to Clarence's near blindness, he frequently mistakes people for other people. The standout example is when he proposes to Angela in Episode 1 under the belief that she's actually Travers.
- Never Bareheaded: Clarence is never seen without his cap - his explanation for this is that if he took it off, he'll never be able to find it again.
- New Job Episode: In Episode 5, Clarence manages to get a job working for the Sewage Works, although the resulting stench from it is horrific enough that Travers asks him to give in his notice by episode's end.
- Previously on…: Travers usually provides narration catching the viewer up to speed on what is happening in the series at the start of each episode after the first.
- Priceless Ming Vase: In the first episode, whilst showing Clarence what to do, Vaile puts attention on several pieces of porcelain, some of which were owned by the Duke of Wellington. Of course, Clarence is practically blind, so he ends up stepping on one of them.
- Rich Bitch: Mrs Vaile is a fancy upper-class woman who admonishes and criticizes her daughter Angela for her feelings over her broken engagement and has a poor opinion of maids.
- Strong Family Resemblance: According to Episode 2, a lot of people think that Clarence looks like his father. He personally can't see the resemblance, even though he mistakes his reflection in the mirror for a picture of his father.
- Wilting Odor: The horrific stench that comes off Clarence's sewage-covered shoes, which is enough to both bar him from the bus and to lead to an evacuation of a mass of people (and a dog) from a building. Even a pig flees in horror at the stench.
