Eric and Ernie

For the comics themselves, see Morecambe and Wise.
Eric and Ernie
Format Drama
Created by Piers Wenger,
Beth Willis,
Victoria Wood
(executive producers)
Directed by Jonny Campbell
Produced by Tim Bricknell
Written by Peter Bowker
Starring Daniel Rigby
Bryan Dick
Victoria Wood
Reece Shearsmith
Jim Moir
Emer Kenny
Music by Jessica Dannheisser (orchestrator)
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Original channel BBC Two
Release date 1 January 2011
Running time 89 minutes

Eric and Ernie is a 2011 television film produced by BBC Wales on the early career of the British comic double-act Morecambe and Wise. It completed production in 2010 and premiered on BBC Two on 1 January 2011. It was watched by 6.65 million viewers.

Plotline

Several years before World War II, Ernie Wiseman, a precocious and confident child performer, is signed up by influential impresario Jack Hylton. In Morecambe, pushy stage mother, Sadie Bartholomew, drags her slightly reluctant son Eric, an eccentric dancer, from one audition to the next until he too becomes a client of Hylton. At first glance the boys do not initially get on but Sadie sees a way to use their cross-talk and they form a bantering double act as Morecambe and Wise.

After war service they become successful on stage and on radio but their attempt to crack the new medium of television is a disaster because they have been forced to accept a script which will make their Northernness acceptable to Southern viewers. As a result, the duo go their own ways and split up. However Sadie knows the formula that once worked and pushes Eric, now married to dancer Joan, into contacting Ernie, who is married to dancer Doreen. They decide to reform, on their own terms, into the act that would become one of the most successful performing duos ever in British comedy.

Cast

In credits order:

Filming locations

Amongst the locations used for filming include:-

Awards

Daniel Rigby won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor at the 2011 BAFTAs for his performance as Eric Morecambe.

References

  1. ↑ Vic Reeves real name

External links