Morecambe
and Wise, a comic duo who developed their act in variety shows in
provincial theaters, became the popular stars of a long-running
series which had a major influence on the development of British
television comedy. Born Eric Bartholomew and Ernest Wiseman, they
adopted their stage names when they first teamed up in 1941, making
their debut as a double act at the Liverpool Empire. They were both
fifteen and had already gained experience working separately on
the music hall circuit. Eric took his new name from the Lancashire
seaside town where he was born and, since Ernie came from Yorkshire,
their northern working-class origins remained a clear but unobtrusive
part of their appeal.
After
a break for national service, the act was reconstituted in 1947
and went through a number of changes before developing the format
which made them stars. They started out by imitating comic routines
from the films of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, with fake American
accents and Eric in the role of the straight man. It was not until
they reversed their roles that their ability to create characters
out of the traditional roles of comedian and straight man began
to bring them recognition.
A
few radio engagements preceded their first attempt to break into
the emerging television field. Their first television series, called
Running Wild, was broadcast by the BBC in 1954 but was a
short-lived failure. The Morecambe and Wise Show first appeared
on ATV in 1961 and transferred to BBC2 in 1968. Scripts were written
by Sid Green and Dick Hills, who often appeared in small parts in
the sketches. The series was briefly interrupted when Eric suffered
a heart attack in 1969 but returned to renewed acclaim, with Eddie
Braben as the new scriptwriter.
Their success led to several invitations to appear at Royal Command
Performances, and they also made a number of guest appearances in
the United States on The Ed Sullivan Show. Their three feature
films, The Intelligence Men (1965), That Riviera Touch
(1966), and The Magnificent Two (1967), were often funny
but failed to achieve either the inspiration or the popular success
of the television series.
The
originality of their show stemmed ironically from its refusal to
deny its theatrical origins. The two stars appeared on stage, introduced
their guests (who often appeared with them in short comic sketches),
ended the show with a song and dance number, and then returned for
a curtain call. The jokes were usually old or dependent on excruciating
puns and double entendres. Their impact came from the contrast between
the apparent weakness of the material and the valiant efforts of
the comedians to make it funny. The show provided the pleasures
of familiarity amid the rapid social and cultural changes of the
1960s and 1970s; yet the familiar was always somehow skewed because
of the performers' evident desire to succeed in the contemporary
world.
The comic personae of Morecambe and Wise also reflected this tension
between the familiar and the modern. Their appearance was mined
for recurring jokes about Eric's horn-rimmed spectacles and Ernie's
alleged wig and "short fat hairy legs." Gestures and catch-phrases
were also repeated, as when Eric expressed aggression by placing
the flat of his hand under Ernie's chin and challenging him to "get
out of that." Yet their relationship offered an unfamiliar twist
on the conventional double act. Predictably Ernie was the one with
aspirations, in his case a desire to become a serious writer, while
Eric was slow on the uptake, constantly exasperating his partner
through his failure to understand or refusal to take things seriously.
However, Eric was also quite cunning and clearly had the ultimate
authority, slyly deflating all pretensions.
Although
there had been many double acts in the British music hall tradition,
they have been a rarity in British television, with only Peter Cook
and Dudley Moore achieving a success at all comparable to Morecambe
and Wise in a show, Not Only But Also..., clearly indebted
to their predecessors. The blend of stand-up comedy and sketches
in The Morecambe and Wise Show was probably influenced by
the American Burns and Allen Show, which relied more heavily
on situation comedy, and may have in turn influenced the zanier
and more fragmented comedy of Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In.
-Jim
Leach
Midwinter, Eric. Make 'Em Laugh: Famous Comedians and their Worlds.
London: George Allen and Unwin, 1979.
Morecambe, Eric, and Ernie Wise. Eric and Ernie: The Autobiography
of Morecambe and Wise. London: W.H. Allen, 1972.
Tynan,
Kenneth. The Sound of Two Hands Clapping. New York: Holt,
Rinehart and Winston, 1975.
