Morecambe & Wise - Tribute Site

Eric and Ernie had been sharing lodgings with Eric's mother Sadie for some

months when she suggested they form a partnership.

It was decided between them that it didn't matter who got the laughs - as long as

they got them - and that all the money would be split fifty-fifty. They shook hands on

it and that was the only contract they ever had between them.

They first performed as a double act at the Liverpool Empire on August 28th

1941, after the two of them had been solo performers in the same revue entitled

Youth Takes a Bow. Then in 1943 they had bit parts in the hugely successful

West End production called Strike a New Note. Appearing alongside the

multi-talented comic Sid Field.

By this time, they had also started making records: 'Were the Guys' was the first in

1961, followed by 'Boom Oo Yata-ta-ta' and many others.

They also made three feature films: 'The Intelligence Men', 'That Riviera Touch'

and 'The Magnificent Two'. A fourth film 'Night Train to Murder' was made for

TV in the nineteen eighties.

Meanwhile back at the BBC, Eric and Ernie had just finished their first series when

there was a hiccup, Eric had a heart attack. Writers Hills and Green thought that

was the finish of Morecambe and Wise and promptly departed. When Eric had

recovered the Beeb drafted in Liverpool-born writer Eddie Braben to do their

scripts. And thanks to him and producers John Ammonds and Ernest Maxin,

Eric and Ernie went into superstardom with the British public They made nine

series in total for the BBC, culminating in their 1977 Christmas show which was watched by an audience of 28,835,000.

The pair left the BBC for Thames TV were they made three specials and four TV series - never reaching the dizzy heights of their supreme BBC shows again. Then Eric sadly died of a heart attack in May 1984 and the great comedy double act of Morecambe and Wise was no more. They have left a legacy of hundreds of hours of laughter for generations to enjoy.

During World War II Eric worked as a BevIn boy down the coal mines and Ernie joined the Merchant Navy.

After Bartholomew and Wise failed to draw in crowds, Eric decided upon a stage name. Choosing the name of his hometown, Morecambe.

They developed their act in the dying days of the Music Hall and Variety Theatre and times were sometimes hard, but they persevered and eventually began to make headway.

By the mid nineteen forties they were regulars on the radio and this carried on until the late sixties when TV proved to be the duo's forte. In 1953 they had their first television show called 'Running Wild', and it was very nearly their last!! It was slated by the critics, one of them defining a TV set as "The box they buried Morecambe and Wise". Eric was very upset and vowed never to do another series. They eventually realised what they had done wrong: they had let others dictate to them what the shows should be like rather than follow their own instincts. So when they got another crack at TV work they said that they do it but only on their terms. They brought in two scriptwriters - Dick Hills and Sid Green and this time the shows were a great success. 'Two of a Kind' which became the 'Morecambe And Wise Show' ran on ATV for six series (1961 - 1967), then Bill Cotton offered them a contract at the BBC and things really took off.