Say what you will about BBC Drama, they do a very nice line in showbusiness biography. Written by Peter Bowker and based upon an idea by Victoria Wood, Eric and Ernie, exploring Morecambe and Wise's formative years, was one of the best I've seen.

The casting was spot on. Daniel Rigby and Bryan Dick were not just vocally and visually uncanny as the duo, they captured every mannerism and even reproduced their comic timing. Most remarkable of all, their recreation of Eric and Ernie's stage act came over as fresh and genuinely funny.

To see the two great comedians resurrected so comprehensively was almost sufficiently thrilling, but it would be a shame to allow the virtuosity of Rigby and Dick's performances to obscure a beautifully crafted, poignant, witty and gentle drama about friendship, family and showbusiness struggle.

"Big head, short legs" was the young Eric's initial reaction on meeting Ernie Wiseman, already a star on the West End stage and celebrated as "Britain's Mickey Rooney". But from inauspicious beginnings a firm friendship grew, out of which sprang their double act.

Victoria Wood played Eric's pushy mum Sadie, vicariously revelling in her son's onstage success, with Jim Moir - you know, Vic Reeves - as her long suffering and overlooked husband George.

As the untold story of the formative years of Morecambe and Wise, Eric and Ernie (BBC2, New Year's Day) ran the risk of telling you more than you ever wanted to know, or of drawing too heavily on the national stockpile of affection for the famous double act. And it came sandwiched in the schedule between the duo's 1976 Christmas special and a documentary about them, so that, even if you'd never heard of Morecambe and Wise, you were guaranteed to be sick of the sight of them by bedtime.

Under the circumstances, Eric and Ernie proved a small triumph - a standalone drama that was never hidebound by its subject. It was by turns charming, moving and disturbing. There is something distinctly creepy about child performers, and Eric and Ernie's partnership stretched back to boyhood, when they toured together during the war, staying in digs during blackouts and, yes, sharing a bed.

Daniel Rigby managed to portray the young Eric Morecambe in a way that was more embodiment than impersonation - occasionally it was a little bit freaky - while Bryan Dick deserves credit for finding the grim application behind Ernie's bland sunniness. Victoria Wood was marvellous as Eric's pushy stage mum; and Vic Reeves (here billed as Jim Moir), who always bore more than a passing resemblance to the adult Morecambe, was an inspired choice to play his dad.

I can't imagine anyone's enjoyment of this being coloured by prior knowledge of the facts, although I can only speak on behalf of the utterly ignorant. The untold story of Morecambe and Wise turns out to be well worth the telling. A clever script illuminated the contrast between the compulsively wise-cracking Eric and the more sober Wise. They were even, when necessary, plausibly funny. I wouldn't go so far as to call this dark, but it was by no means uniformly light-hearted, and the manginess of the postwar variety circuit was nicely evoked, as was the late-50s BBC hierarchy that spawned the pair's first, dismal, and nearly career-terminating small-screen venture, Running Wild. One review contained the line, "Definition of the week: TV set - the box in which they buried Morecambe and Wise." Whoever came up with that has a cheek calling anyone else unfunny, but that's a risk TV reviewers occasionally run.

Eric & Ernie: A minute with Jim Moir

Jim Moir, aka Vic Reeves, plays George Bartholomew, father of Eric Morecambe, in Eric & Ernie.

The lovable, manic hosts of the revived 90s panel show are doing their bit to promote festive cheer. How? By presenting a special episode. They're on fire. And so is the studio Christmas tree, thanks to Bob's dodgy wiring job. In other hot stuff news, booked guests include Hollywood beauty Thandie Newton. She's likely to be the first choice recipient of Vic Reeves's lady fawning, but Gavin & Stacey star Joanna Page serves as a useful backup. And there are male guests, too: Ricky Tomlinson and pineapple-haired Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood. In the final challenge, Ronnie and Ricky race. That has to be worth a look. Also tonight, expect sketches from the folk duo Mulligan and O'Hare, and a visit from the people's scorekeeper, Angelos Epithemiou.

Video: Behind the scenes of Morecambe and Wise TV drama

Morecambe and Wise are to return to our screens in a TV drama about how the comedians became famous.

Eric and Ernie stars the likes of Victoria Wood and Vic Reeves.

The BBC's David Sillito went behind the scenes to meet some of the cast.

Interview: Vic Reeves

"I loved George on paper," Vic Reeves says of Peter Bowker's script, "and I loved him even more when I got to put on his clobber and speak his words."

Vic Reeves cast in Morecambe and Wise BBC drama

He has long been compared with Eric Morecambe - particularly in the spectacles department - so it seems fitting that Jim Moir, better known as Vic Reeves, has been cast in the BBC's new drama about Morecambe and Wise.

But Moir will not play Morecambe in the feature-length BBC2 drama, instead taking the role of Eric's father George, while Victoria Wood - who also conceived the project - appears as his pushy mother Sadie.

Victoria Wood to star in Morecambe and Wise film

Comedians Victoria Wood and Vic Reeves have signed up to star in a feature-length film about the comic duo Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise.

Even at its height in the Nineties, Shooting Stars was an acquired taste: some found it gloriously surreal, others thought it annoyingly puerile. Nowadays, though, it feels dated and superfluous. Still there are some enjoyable moments, mainly involving the lugubrious scorekeeper Angelos Epithemiou. Tonight, hosts Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer and captains "Ulri-ka-ka-ka" Jonsson and Jack Dee are joined by Strictly dancer Brendan Cole, cultishly incompetent football pundit Chris Kamara, war reporter John Simpson and Tulisa from pop group N-Dubz.

Vic and Bob interview

Around 20 years after first working together Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer, aka Vic and Bob, are still going strong...