Eric Barker

One of the most familiar faces in British comedy, Eric Barker got his start in show business during World War II, when he was part of the armed forces radio show "Merry Go Round". After the war the show continued, though renamed "The Waterlogged Spa", with Barker and his wife, Pearl Hackney. The show's success led to Barker's starring in other radio shows, where he achieved a rather sizable following due to his versatility at doing voices. By the mid-1950s Barker had made the move to films, and found his niche in playing variations on the busybody sticking his nose in everyone's business, or, in the case of the "Carry On" comedies, the gang's boss or some other authority figure who was usually on the receiving end of their shenanigans, most memorably in Carry on Constable (1960).