I still look up to him because although I have money, I am vulgar

Among a host of mismatched fellow birthday celebrants including Pedro Almodóvar, Felicity Kendal, Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta-Jones [bizarrely, spouses who share a birthday], Juliet Prowse, Dmitri Shostakovich, Mark Hamill, Sir Colin Davis, Christopher Reeve, Mark Rothko, Aldo Ray and - ahem - Heather Locklear, the "national treasure" that was Mr Ronnie Barker would have been 90 years old today.

Here are just a few of his shining comedy moments:

Porridge: Fletcher knows best (BBC)

The Two Ronnies: TV Symbols (BBC)

There'll never be another...

Ronald William George Barker OBE (25th September 1929 – 3rd October 2005)

For the legendary "Four Candles" sketch, see my tribute to Mr Barker's "Ronnie-in-crime", Mr Corbett.

The No Ronnies

RIP Ronnie Corbett, one of the most popular entertainers in UK television history.

Two Ronnies - Fork Handles

Unashamed populist

85 years ago, a television legend was born.

Sir Bill Cotton (son of the famous bandleader Billy Cotton), as the BBC's Head of Light Entertainment in its 1970s heyday was always determined to promote British stars for British television, and during his time such transatlantic imports as Lucille Ball, Dick Van Dyke and Perry Como were replaced with the likes of Cilla Black, Des O'Connor, Russ Conway, Val Doonican and Bruce Forsyth.

He introduced and nurtured the production of many of the most famous of the BBC's light entertainment classic programmes - including Porridge, Dave Allen At Large, Dad’s Army, Morecambe and Wise, Till Death Do Us Part, Steptoe and Son, The Liver Birds, The Generation Game, Parkinson, The Two Ronnies, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, Last of the Summer Wine, The Likely Lads and The Good Life.

"I am and always have been an unashamed populist," was his famous mantra.

Unsurprisingly his legacy has never been matched, and, in this era of reality/celebrity-dominated television, we mourn the demise of BBC light entertainment to this day.

A perfect excuse, methinks, to show a few reasons why...

Two Ronnies - Your Nuts, Milord

Dave Allen on Death

Monty Python - Spam

Dad's Army - Don't Tell Him, Pike

Morecambe & Wise - Shirley Bassey:

Sir William Frederick "Bill" Cotton CBE (23rd April 1928 – 11th August 2008)

It's big and it's black and it's furry, and I be afraid of it

How terribly glamorous! I share a birthday with the fantastic Kate O'Mara...

She's been in everything camp, has our Kate - Dynasty, Ab Fab, Dr Who, The Avengers, Jason King, The Protectors, The Persuaders, The Return of the Saint, and of course that ill-fated "soap" Triangle - and we love her in all of them!

Here is one of my all-time favourite scenes featuring this marvellously vampy lady:

The Two Ronnies Season 6 Episode 2

Kate O'Mara on IMDB