Radio Times review

Once upon a time the highlight of Christmas was settling down to watch Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise's sketch show. You can see in this compilation that the roll call of stars who were prepared to be humiliated by the duo was legendary: Glenda Jackson, Peter Cushing, Shirley Bassey, Des O'Connor and Angela Rippon among them.

The running gags were brilliant and even if you can recite the words of their sketches verbatim, they still make you laugh. Eric's assertion to "Andrew Preview" that "I'm playing all the right notes - but not necessarily in the right order" is as funny today as it was way back in 1971.

TV preview: Inside No 9 - La Couchette, BBC2

The scenario did make me think of one of those old Peter Cushing portmanteau horror yarns where it turns out everyone is already dead and the train is heading to hell. I'm not saying if that is the case here. Though I will say that there is a hellish moment involving a shoebox that has put me off communal travelling for life.

Ernie Wise's terrible plays and the A-listers they attracted to 70s staple The Morecambe and Wise Show are the focus of this week's raid on the sketch cabinet. There are marvellous clips of Arthur Lowe, Peter Cushing and Penelope Keith sending themselves up, but the icing on the guest-star cake was Oscar-winning Glenda Jackson. As M&W scriptwriter Eddie Braben says, "She brought out the best in them, as they did in her."

The Eric and Ern missteps aren't glossed over, however. One film - a deal-sweetener for the pair's migration to ITV and shown only once on telly - is fascinatingly terrible. But otherwise the deluge of punchlines will leave you satisfyingly soaked.