The Morecambe & Wise Show (1968)

Morecambe and Wise - comedy duo brilliance

The immense popularity of Eric Morcambe and Ernie Wise is evidenced by a December 1963 appearance by The Beatles (broadcast in April 1964) where they performed This Boy, All My Loving and I Want to Hold Your Hand ending with a classic performance of Moonlight Bay joined by Eric and Ernie.

Angela Rippon to re-enact Morecambe and Wise dance

Former newsreader Angela Rippon is to re-enact one of TV's most famous moments for Children In Need, the BBC has announced.

Doreen Wise reveals how she sacrificed having children

Growing up with a comic legend

Gary Morecambe has spent his life analysing his father, Eric Morecambe, whose death 25 years ago ended Britain's best-loved double act, Morecambe and Wise. Even now, Gary is no closer to knowing what made him tick.

How Eric Morecambe saved Ernie from an unwise break-up

They were one of the nation's most enduring comedy double-acts, their sketches tickling audiences for more than four decades and catapulting them from music halls to some of the highest audiences ever recorded on British television. But the emergence of a long-lost letter reveals that Morecambe and Wise almost broke up long before their TV debut.

Penelope Keith was the guest. Eddie Braben's script invited her to mistake Ernie for Kermit the Frog. Angie Rippon danced through. Every component of the show was triple-tested. The sense of adventure was consequently lacking. Eric was twice as funny busking with Dickie Davies on ITV's World of Sport on Christmas Eve.

Parkinson Takes a Christmas Look at Morecambe and Wise (BBC1) did something to restore the spirits, even though we'd seen most of the stuff before. Sketches like the Cleopatra number are now on the limit of how much exposure they can take, but Parky fronted the compilation pretty well. It's nice to be able to toss him a bun, after his recent abominations.

Morecambe and Wise, The Royals of Northern humour, have also started a new series on BBC1. People point with pride to the stage knights and dames who are now delighted to be guests on the show. Never the last to point the finger I must mention that Tony Snowden does the sets. You will see a specimen of his work in this week's Radio Times.

Morecambe and Wise give freshness to very venerable material indeed. They got a lot of mileage last night out of knickers, bloomers, and, incredibly, drawers. If a joke doesn't work. they work at it until it does.