Sentence:  Messrs Barker and Corbett were now seen as a pair. They were never a <WSD>double act</WSD>, never totally reliant on one another in the traditional sense of a <WSD>double act</WSD>, the kind that television loved so much. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  A comic pairing in which humor is derived from the uneven relationship between two partners, usually of the same gender, age, ethnic origin and profession, but often with drastically different personalities or behavior, maybe with a stooge or "straight man".