Eric Morecambe’s son reacts to recovered The Morecambe and Wise Show episode: "It’s absolutely hilarious"

This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine.

There’s always a fever of excitement when a slice of classic television is miraculously returned to the archives, and this time no one is more chuffed than Gary Morecambe. A long-thought-lost 1968 edition of The Morecambe and Wise Show provides another chance to see his father Eric in his heyday with his comedy partner Ernie. The duo were watched and adored by record-breaking millions in the 1960s and 70s.

“And what timing!” says Gary. “Fantastic that it should happen right now, this being his centenary year.” Indeed, it has been found almost to the week. Eric was born on 14 May 1926, and with Ernie having been born in November 1925, it’s almost a double centenary. “How can you not celebrate 100 years!” says Gary cheerfully. “My sister and I have a whole week planned up in Morecambe of unveilings, attendances and Q&As.” (Eric’s real surname was Bartholomew and he took his stage name from the seaside town of his birth.)

“It’s really amazing,” says Gary. “I mean, how do they find these things? It’s usually me who finds them.” He’s referring to a happy day five years ago when he was clearing the attic in his old family home and stumbled upon a missing 1970 edition of Morecambe and Wise. It was cleaned up and shown on BBC Two on Christmas Day 2021. “I thought that would mark the end of anything turning up, but now I just don’t know. What next?”

The latest recovery has been meticulously managed by Film Is Fabulous, the same charitable trust and repository for rare film collections that recently returned to the BBC two long-lost Doctor Who episodes. This gem hails from the collection of a deceased “industry professional”, whose estate has requested anonymity. It first aired on BBC Two in colour on 16 September 1968, was then repeated in 1969 on BBC One in black and white – and has never been seen since. “I would’ve been 12 then and probably caught this one,” says Gary.

Eric and Ernie’s 1968 series marked the pair’s triumphant return to the BBC after a long spell at ITV and was heralded on the cover of Radio Times. By then, they’d already been a comedy duo for 28 years – in fact, since their teens – and Eric joked with RT, “I’m thinking of divorcing him – he talks too much.”

Several editions of that initial colour series remain lost. This latest find is actually a monochrome “telerecording” on film. As FIF head John Franklin explains, “This is a ‘cutting copy’ made for technical review within the BBC, and was probably later stored in cupboards by staff – just like the recent Doctor Whos. These aren’t items that have come back from overseas sales.” He’s delighted with the episode. “There’s a stand-out sketch at the end set in a nudist camp. It’s absolutely hilarious.”

Structured as a half-hour variety show, it also features a vocal trio, the Paper Dolls, and actresses Jenny Lee-Wright and Ann Hamilton, who were regular foils for Eric and Ernie. The show’s writers were Sid Green and Dick Hills, “so that’s very embryonic in terms of what they later did with Eddie Braben,” observes Gary.

Though Eric died in 1984 and Ernie in 1999, their appeal is undiminished. And Morecambe’s comedic influence should gain new currency later this year. His children’s book The Reluctant Vampire has been filmed by the BBC. “We’ve got the wonderful Lenny Rush starring in it,” says Gary, “and the Gibbons brothers, Neil and Rob, who’ve done a lot of Alan Partridge, came in and wrote their own scripts but they did it without ‘losing Eric’ – which is a fantastic achievement.”

John Franklin promises further announcements from Film Is Fabulous in the coming months. So stay tuned…

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