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.

Morecambe and Wise's final show together was the 1983 Christmas special for ITV.

Morecambe and Wise's partnership began in 1941 when they were each booked separately to appear in Jack Hylton's revue, Youth Takes a Bow at the Nottingham Empire Theatre.

Morecambe and Wise's comic style varied subtly throughout their career, depending on their writers.

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.

In December 2007, viewers of satellite channel Gold voted the sketch the best moment of Morecambe and Wise's shows.

In series one he sang Morecambe and Wise's " Bring Me Sunshine " with that week's star guest, while in series two he sang Andy Williams ' " It's So Easy ".

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

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.

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.

Morecambe and Wise became so popular that their annual BBC Christmas shows were almost mandatory viewing in the United Kingdom from 1968 to 1977.

Five months after the Christmas special, Morecambe took part in a show hosted by close friend and comedian Stan Stennett at the Roses Theatre in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire on a Sunday evening.

* 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 totally different vein, he appeared in the 1981 Morecambe and Wise Christmas Show, having been offered the part of Disraeli in a play what Ernie Wise had written.

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.

* The concerto was used in a sketch by the British comedians Morecambe and Wise in their 1971 Christmas show.

* The Morecambe & Wise Show ( Thames Television, 1978 until their final show together at Christmas 1983.

Maxin, who won a BAFTA for the Best Light Entertainment Show for the Morecambe and Wise 1977 Christmas Show, was also responsible for devising and choreographing many of their great musical comedy routines including " The Breakfast Sketch ", " Singin ' in the Rain ", and the homage to South Pacific, " There is nothing like a dame " featuring BBC newsreaders in an acrobatic dance routine.

Braben would comment that people judged the quality of their Christmas experience on the quality of the Morecambe and Wise Christmas Special.

One of the famous Morecambe and Wise routines was their 1976 Christmas Show parody of the scene from the film Singin ' in the Rain, where Gene Kelly dances in the rain, and sings the song " Singin ' in the Rain ".

Thames secured British entertainers Morecambe & Wise, the stars of the BBC1 Christmas schedules which overshadowed ITV programmes with 27 million viewers.

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.

The Mike Yarwood Christmas Show, which immediately preceded Morecambe and Wise on Christmas Day 1977, actually received a slightly larger audience.

In 1977, Bough was memorably a guest on the Morecambe and Wise Christmas special, performing a song and dance routine in a sailor's outfit with the likes of Eddie Waring and Barry Norman, among others.

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.

*' Morecambe and Wise Christmas Show ' 1976 sketch.

He also appeared in the 1973 Christmas Special of the BBC's Morecambe and Wise Show in which he sang " Stout-Hearted Men ".

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.

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 first series of The Morecambe and Wise Show was a success before Morecambe's heart attack.

Other notable sketch-based series include Morecambe and Wise, The Two Ronnies, The Goodies, French and Saunders, Absolutely, Little Britain, The Catherine Tate Show and The Fast Show.

Amongst other TV programmes, Greene was in A Man For Loving, The Doctors, The Morecambe and Wise Show, Dixon of Dock Green, Scarf Jack, The Professionals episode Everest Was Also Conquered and the Tales of the Unexpected episode Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat.

He also played washboard on an episode of the Morecambe and Wise Show.

His other early appearances included Dixon of Dock Green ( 1962 ), The Morecambe & Wise Show, The Seven Faces of Jim ( 1961 ) with Jimmy Edwards, a production of Noël Coward's Hay Fever ( 1968 ) and the storyteller in several episodes of Jackanory ( 1969 ).

She appeared on the Morecambe and Wise Show in 1971, playing Cleopatra in a comedy sketch.

Healey is the only Chancellor to have appeared on BBC One's Morecambe and Wise Show.

In a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes drawn up by the British Film Institute in 2000, voted for by industry professionals, The Morecambe and Wise Show was placed 14th.

* The Morecambe & Wise Show ( BBC, 1968 – 1977.

* The Morecambe & Wise Show ( 1968 – 1977 )

* The Morecambe & Wise Show ( 1978 – 1983 )

On television he appeared as a guest performer on The Morecambe and Wise Show ( 1977 ), alongside Richard Briers in a series of Ben Travers farces for the BBC, as the pompous Dr Maxwell in the ITV comedy Doctor at Large ( 1971 ), and as Redvers Bodkin, a snooty, old-fashioned butler in the short-lived sitcom The Last of the Baskets ( 1971 – 72 ).