Eric Morecambe

BBC told Morecambe to dump Wise if he wanted to make it

BBC chiefs initially believed Eric Morecambe would have a much better chance of TV stardom if he dumped Ernie Wise and went solo.

Eric & Ernie's preview of Mr Preview

Rare footage of Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise is to be aired tonight for the first time in 50 years.

Gary Morecambe interview

With new material, classic clips and observations from Eric Morecambe's family and well-known faces, Bring Me Morecambe & Wise is a heart-warming series about one of our best-loved comic duos. TV Choice spoke to Eric's son Gary, 56, about what it was like growing up chez Morecambe.

I laughed many, many times during The Sarah Millican Television Programme (BBC2). At first glance, Millican's is a warm, unthreatening world of gentle comedy about nanas, nighties and nature programmes but, in fact, she's an iron fist in a Marigold glove. Her deadpan asides and sudden glances to camera have a touch of Eric Morecambe and her sudden shut-downs ("You've got to be tolerant of all life," says Chris Packham. "No," she replies simply) are things of beauty impossible to reproduce in print. The format's not right yet, but once it is, hopefully television will become Millican's world and we can live in it.

Amid the wealth of entertainment on TV today, a reminder - if ever it were needed - of one of the great double acts of British comedy and a reminder too of a time when humour came in gentler form. These days stars are made overnight, but Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise's success was hard-earned, the result of many years of apprenticeship. Eric's wife, Joan, once said there was never a moment when her husband became famous, it was more a gradual process. The Greatest Moment runs through some of the pair's finely honed sketches, including a musical number featuring Angela Rippon.

Ernie Wise was one half of the most popular British comedy duo of the last century but rarely got his due credit, with most of the critical acclaim going to his partner Eric Morecambe. Using previously unseen footage and photos this documentary redresses the balance, revealing a man familiar with fame from an early age, for whom life off the stage was more important than the limelight.

Radio Times' pick of the week: Warhorses of Letters

Stephen Fry and Daniel Rigby (who won a BAFTA for his portrayl of Eric Morecambe on BBC2 this year) play the corresponding horses of Napoleon and Wellington. The series is written by Robert Hudson and Marie Phillips], who explain the genesis of Warhorses of Letters - PM.

Miranda Hart: I'm proud to be a middle-class comidienne

Comic Miranda Hart kept her ambition to be the "next Eric Morecambe" a secret from her parents for 20 years, she revealed yesterday.

If you have never seen Monty Python's parrot sketch, or are unfamiliar with Eric Morecambe's demolition of "Andrew Preview" ("I am playing all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order"), then this is for you. Ronnie Corbett's Comedy Britain is a handy primer for anyone who needs to work on their history of British comedy. For everyone else, it's an easy-going, if sometimes uncomfortably loose, hour of very familiar comedians talking about comedy. As Corbett is beloved of the new wave of Brit-coms - he had cameos in Extras, where he snorted cocaine from a toilet seat, and Little Britain, where he was confronted by the grotesque Bubbles DeVere - his pals are modish. So he has an odd little interlude with Miranda Hart, whom he accompanies to the Fairfield Halls in Croydon, spiritual home of Hart's beloved Morecambe and Wise. Then Corbett has lunch with Stephen Merchant, a picnic on a punt with David Mitchell and afternoon tea with John Cleese. And with Matt Lucas he tries to be Vicky Pollard, and is terrible.

He's a great stand-up and I love his sitcom, Not Going Out. So my expectations were already ridiculously high for Lee Mack's new talk show, Lee Mack's All Star Cast which made its debut on BBC 1, Friday night. I wasn't disappointed.

Despite the fact that it was all fairly shambolic and chaotic - like it had been shot and edited on a shoestring budget for Channel 5 - the strength of Lee Mack's character and his sharp Northern wit kept it entertaining and fast paced from beginning to end.

During the show guests Frank Skinner and Fern Britton were invited to guess who various audience members were supposed to look like and choose their most embarrassing stories - all very Graham Norton, though somehow much more engaging. Lee Mack was also great in his ability to take the piss out of his guests without them taking umbrage.

But without doubt the best bit of the show was the sketch which saw Mack in his bed sit trying to get Tess Daly to ditch her hubbie 'Peter Kay' and sleep with him while being serenaded by James Blunt taking off his monster hit, You're Beautiful.

It was all reminiscent of Eric Morecambe at his best (indeed there was an Eric Morecambe poster on the door of the bed sit). And Tess Daly's acting skills were a revelation. She could have found it all rather embarrassing but really went along with it.

Looking forward to the next one, though I hope they manage to sort out the editing!