Bob Larbey
| Esmonde and Larbey | |
|---|---|
| Born |
John Gilbert Esmonde 21 March 1937 Battersea, London, England Robert Edward Larbey 24 June 1934 Clapham, London, England |
| Died |
John Gilbert Esmonde 10 August 2008 (aged 71) Spain Robert Edward Larbey 31 March 2014 (aged 79) London, England |
| Medium | Scriptwriters |
| Years active | 1965–2005 |
| Genres | Television |
John Gilbert Esmonde (21 March 1937 – 10 August 2008) and Robert Edward "Bob" Larbey (24 June 1934 – 31 March 2014), better known as Esmonde and Larbey, were a successful British television comedy scriptwriting duo from the 1960s to the 1990s, creating popular sitcoms and hit comedy shows, such as Please Sir! (1968–72), The Good Life (1975–78), Get Some In! (1975–78), Ever Decreasing Circles (1984-89) and Brush Strokes (1986–91).
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. He died aged 79 in 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.
Their 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.
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