Morecambe & Wise In America. Image shows from L to R: Ernie Wise, Eric Morecambe
Morecambe & Wise In America

Morecambe & Wise In America

  • TV documentary
  • Gold
  • 2018 - 2019
  • 3 episodes (1 series)

Jonathan Ross presents this three-part documentary series telling the story of how Eric and Ernie attempted to break America. Also features Glenda Jackson, Nicholas Parsons, Millicent Martin, Diana Rigg, Shaparak Khorsandi and more.

Episode menu

Series 1, Episode 2

Morecambe & Wise In America. Image shows from L to R: Ernie Wise, Eric Morecambe
After their first performances on America's top rated Sunday night broadcast The Ed Sullivan Show in 1963, Eric and Ernie are invited back to New York the following year and appear on the same night as The Beatles and are seen by over 70 million viewers.

Further details

After their first performances on America's top rated Sunday night broadcast The Ed Sullivan Show in 1963, Eric and Ernie are invited back to New York the following year and appear on the same night as The Beatles, being seen by over 70 million viewers.

Morecambe & Wise also realise that to appeal to the huge American viewing audience they need to concentrate on their more visual comedy rather than the 'cross talk' so loved by their British fans, so present routines that do just that.

They also get the opportunity to become movie stars when they are offered a three-film deal in Britain - might this be their fast track to Hollywood?

Broadcast details

Date
Thursday 3rd January 2019
Time
8pm
Channel
Gold
Length
60 minutes

Repeats

Show past repeats

Date Time Channel
Sunday 6th January 2019 8:00pm Gold
Tuesday 8th January 2019 6:00pm Gold
Saturday 11th May 2019 1:10pm Gold
Sunday 15th September 2019 7:00pm Yesterday
Sunday 20th October 2019 7:00pm Yesterday
Sunday 29th December 2019 12:00am Gold
Monday 30th December 2019 1:20am Gold
Sunday 24th May 2020 7:00pm Yesterday
Friday 2nd October 2020 11:40pm Gold
Sunday 4th October 2020 12:40am Gold
Sunday 18th April 2021 10:20pm Gold
Monday 19th April 2021 2:45am Gold
Saturday 24th April 2021 7:45am Gold
Sunday 24th September 2023 2:30am Gold
Monday 25th September 2023 1:20am Gold

Cast & crew

Cast
Jonathan Ross Host / Presenter
Nicholas Parsons Self
Diana Rigg (as Dame Diana Rigg) Self
Shaparak Khorsandi (as Shappi Khorsandi) Self
Gina Yashere Self
Penn Jillette (as Penn & Teller) Self
Teller (as Penn & Teller) Self
Michele Lee Self
Michael Grade Self
Gary Morecambe Self
Graham McCann Self
Joan Morecambe (as Joan Morecambe OBE) Self
Gail Morecambe Self
Debra Supnik Self
Steve Punt Self
Barry Cryer Self
Jon Culshaw Self
William Cook Self
Eric Morecambe Self (Archive Material)
Ernie Wise Self (Archive Material)
Guest cast
Fiona Castle Self
Production team
Simon Lloyd Series Director
Simon Lloyd Series Producer
Mark Wells Executive Producer
Andrew Solt Executive Producer
Joe McVey Executive Producer
Helen Nightingale Executive Producer
Greg Vines US Producer
James Norton Edit Producer
Catherine Arend Editor
Paul King Director of Photography

Press

Jonathan Ross continues his series on Eric and Ernie's attempts to break into the US market in the early 1960s. It includes members of the Morecambe family seeing some of the duo's Ed Sullivan Show appearances for the first time, while also touching on their early steps into film and colour TV.

Graeme Virtue, The Guardian, 3rd January 2019

Share this page