Tommy Cooper made him laugh, as did Morecambe and Wise and the television show " Dad's Army ".

Eschewing the alternative comedy style prevalent at the time, both versions of the show were indebted to early ' 70s comedians such as Dick Emery and Morecambe and Wise.

At Christmas 1978, Wilson appeared on the Morecambe and Wise Christmas Special.

Yehudi Menuhin was also ' meant ' to appear on The Morecambe and Wise Show but could not do so as he was ' opening at the Argyl Theatre, Birkenhead in Old King Cole.

" Barker and Corbett wished to avoid being remembered primarily as a duo, and felt they could not work in the same way as a conventional double act like Morecambe and Wise, and so each maintained their solo careers as well.

Cryer has written for many noted performers, including Dave Allen, Stanley Baxter, Jack Benny, Rory Bremner, George Burns, Jasper Carrott, Tommy Cooper, Les Dawson, Dick Emery, Kenny Everett, Bruce Forsyth, David Frost, Bob Hope, Frankie Howerd, Richard Pryor, Mike Yarwood, The Two Ronnies and Morecambe and Wise.

Category: Morecambe and Wise

In 1955 Sykes wrote and performed in a BBC Christmas spectacular, a spoof pantomime called Pantomania, which featured many well-known BBC personalities of the era ; it was directed by Ernest Maxin, who went on to produce some of the most famous comedy routines for Morecambe & Wise.

John Eric Bartholomew OBE ( 14 May 1926 – 28 May 1984 ), known by his stage name Eric Morecambe, was an English comedian who together with Ernie Wise formed the award-winning double act Morecambe and Wise.

He is best remembered for the television series The Morecambe & Wise Show, which for some of its Christmas episodes gained UK viewing figures of over twenty-eight million people.

After the war — and a chance reunion in London, where Sadie once again encouraged them to work together — Morecambe and Wise began to make a name for themselves on stage and radio, before managing to secure a contract with the BBC to make a television show.

One reviewer gave a definition of television as " the box they buried Morecambe and Wise in ".

Early episodes saw Hills and Green writing for the comedians as if Morecambe and Wise were alter egos of the writers.

Morecambe and Wise were not bound to participate in the strike.

From then on, Morecambe and Wise got their way.

Morecambe and Wise were very popular in Blackpool, and while starring in Show Time, at the North Pier in Blackpool in 1963, Eric's portrait was sculpted by Victor Heyfron, MA.

The sixth Morecambe and Wise series for ATV was planned from the start to be aired in the United Kingdom as well as exported to the United States and Canada.

In 1968, as a result of problems with contract negotiations with Lew Grade ( they were not offered enough money or allowed to continue making their shows in colour ), Morecambe and Wise left ATV to return to the BBC.

In one diary entry from 17 August 1967, when Morecambe and Wise were appearing in Great Yarmouth as part of a summer season, Morecambe noted, " I have a slight pain on the left side around my heart.

Morecambe had been appearing with Wise during a week of midnight performances at the Variety Club in Batley, Yorkshire.

Morecambe and Wise appeared there in December 1967 for a week, making £ 4, 000.

Morecambe headed back to his hotel, and recounted in an interview with Michael Parkinson in November 1972 that, as the pains spread to his chest, he became unable to drive.

With Braben as chief writer, Morecambe and Wise became the most successful comedy duo the country had ever seen.

The humour had always been largely derived from their on-stage relationship, but whereas Hills and Green had cast Morecambe as the comic and Wise as the straight man, Braben inverted the relationship ; as theatre critic Kenneth Tynan noted, Braben made Wise's character a comic who was not funny, while Morecambe became a straight man who was funny.

Ernest Wiseman OBE ( 27 November 1925 – 21 March 1999 ), known by his stage name Ernie Wise, was an English comedian, best known as one half of the comedy duo Morecambe and Wise, who became an institution on British television, especially for their Christmas specials.

Wise's character would write a play, complete with cheap props, shaky scenery and appallingly clumsy writing (" the play what I wrote " became a catchphrase ), which would then be acted out by Morecambe, Wise and the show's guest star.

Following the departure of Morecambe and Wise from the BBC in 1978, The Two Ronnies became the BBC's flagship light entertainment programme, regularly gaining the top viewing figures in the critical Christmas Day audience battle.

He became a staple on ' 60s and ' 70s variety shows, performing on The Ed Sullivan Show, The Andy Williams Show, The Dick Cavett Show, The Hollywood Palace, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, The Jerry Lewis Show, American Bandstand, This is Tom Jones, The Dean Martin Show, The Judy Garland Show, Playboy After Dark, The Jack Benny Program, The Steve Allen Show, and The Morecambe and Wise Show in Britain.

The Morecambe and Wise Show became one of the best-loved British TV institutions ever between 1969 and 1977, and the Curran era also saw the development of Michael Parkinson's hugely-popular Saturday-night chat show, which has become a major force again since its revival in 1998.

Though retaining his love of money, Wise became more naive and his egotism more innocent and less self-aware-while Morecambe became more worldly-wise and even protective of his friend, though still retaining a childlike innocence himself.

On television, she appeared in Doctor Who ( Destiny of the Daleks ), Morecambe and Wise and Tales of the Unexpected and became a frequent contributor to the Mike Yarwood series on ITV during the early 1980s, portraying Diana, Princess of Wales, opposite Yarwood's impersonation of Prince Charles.

Locations and lines served by through trains or through coaches from London in 1947 but no longer so served include: Windermere ; Barrow-in-Furness, Whitehaven and Workington ; Huddersfield and Halifax ( via Stockport ); Blackpool ; Colne ( via Stockport ); Morecambe and Heysham ; Southport ( via ); and Stranraer Harbour.

Morecambe said later that whenever Luton Town were playing away and he happened to be in the director's box, if Luton were behind at half-time the home fans would shout, " What do you think of it so far ?".

The song formed the basis for a Morecambe and Wise sketch, where Eric Morecambe started with " A you're adorable, B you're so beautiful " and then randomly chose letters such as J, Q or Z to fox Ernie Wise.

Though now a popular television star, Morecambe felt himself to be placed under a great deal of pressure.

Originally Morecambe and Wise objected to sharing a bed ( which would become one of their most popular and fondly remembered character traits ), but Braben countered that if it was good enough for Laurel and Hardy it was surely good enough for Morecambe and Wise.

However, once more the stress of being such a popular entertainer affected Morecambe and his health.

Commercially available newspapers include The Lancaster Guardian ( a popular tabloid, having changed from broadsheet in May 2011 ) and The Visitor ( a tabloid newspaper mainly targeted at residents of Morecambe ).

* The troupe were given one of the top accolades on British TV in 1975 when they were asked to perform alongside Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise on their BBC1 Christmas Day TV Show, one of the most popular TV shows in the UK.

In the mid-1970s, Eric and Ernie recorded a tribute album, Morecambe and Wise Sing Flanagan and Allen ( Phillips 6382 095 ), in which they performed some of the earlier team's more popular songs in their own style, without attempting to imitate the originals.

It is a long-held popular myth that the 1977 Morecambe and Wise Christmas Show, which attracted 28 million viewers ( around half of the total UK population at the time ) was a record for a single light entertainment broadcast in Britain.

Morecambe relied on the bay for many years, as a popular seaside holiday destination, whilst Barrow still relies on the seas for a large percentage of its economy-Ship and Submarine building.

The town developed in the Victorian era from a small fishing village and the arrival of the railway made it a popular seaside resort on the north side of Morecambe Bay, across the sands from Morecambe.

In this position, Cotton was responsible for overseeing the production of a whole series of popular and iconic comedy programmes, including The Morecambe and Wise Show ( 1968 ), Monty Python's Flying Circus ( 1969 ), The Two Ronnies ( 1971 ) and Bruce Forsyth's Generation Game ( 1971 ).

Cotton's era was generally seen as the most popular in the history of BBC Light Entertainment, with programmes such as Morecambe and Wise becoming icons of British popular culture and drawing huge audiences, while the more subversive Monty Python provided a more cutting-edge, contemporary and daring complement.

A man of somewhat liberal views for his time, Hesketh believed that the sheltered harbour and views over Morecambe Bay gave the area the makings of a busy sea port and popular resort for the less-affluent.

Perhaps aiming for the establishment of new Christmas institutions are the UK's seasonal specials, most notably with shows like Top of the Pops ( from 1960s-present ), Morecambe and Wise ( popular in the 1970s ), The Two Ronnies ( 1980s ), Only Fools and Horses ( 1990s ), and more recently, Doctor Who and Top Gear ( 2000s ).

The later comedy team Morecambe and Wise, who often expressed their admiration for Flanagan and Allen, recorded a tribute album, Morecambe and Wise Sing Flanagan and Allen ( Phillips 6382 095 ), in which they performed some of the earlier team's more popular songs in their own style, without attempting to imitate the originals.