Author Description

During the 1960s and 1970s, Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise were Britain's most popular double act. Their hit television series The Morecambe and Wise Show quickly became a part of British national culture. Before television, however, the pair played live shows for nearly a quarter century starting in the early 1940s. This is the story of their early years, when the duo was a live act first and foremost, playing pantomime and summer season, variety theatres and seaside piers.?You're making us look like a cheap music hall act,” Ernie used to complain.?Well, we are a cheap music hall act,” Eric would reply. These early shows and their years of on-stage experience would eventually exert a huge influence on the shape of their later comedy.