Eric Morecambe

Morecambe and Wise statue unveiled in Blackpool

A statue of legendary comedy duo Morecambe & Wise has been unveiled at a ceremony in Blackpool.

New exhibit shows archive pictures of BBC comedians

Compton Verney exhibition charts 60 years of comedy, from Hancock's Half Hour to Miranda Hart.

Eric Morecambe's Jensen Interceptor for sale at £150,00

A sports car bought by comedian Eric Morecambe for £4,500 has been put up for sale for £150,000.

Radio Times review

Once upon a time the highlight of Christmas was settling down to watch Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise's sketch show. You can see in this compilation that the roll call of stars who were prepared to be humiliated by the duo was legendary: Glenda Jackson, Peter Cushing, Shirley Bassey, Des O'Connor and Angela Rippon among them.

The running gags were brilliant and even if you can recite the words of their sketches verbatim, they still make you laugh. Eric's assertion to "Andrew Preview" that "I'm playing all the right notes - but not necessarily in the right order" is as funny today as it was way back in 1971.

Great comedians can make anything funny. Eric Morecambe bleeding a radiator or Les Dawson reading out AutoTrader would be hilarious by default, but could modern standups work that same magic when, say, eating an entire watermelon or emptying a bathtub? Dave's new panel show hinges precariously on that premise, with a quintet of comics - this week including Frank Skinner, Tim Key and Roisin Conaty - performing acts at the behest of titular taskmaster Greg Davies. In practice, a premise unlikely to tickle the titter glands of many.

Eric Morecambe sculptor puts the boot in

The latest work from the man who created the Eric Morecambe Statue is quite a feat...or rather, a foot. Graham Ibbeson will cast the Eric statue's boot in bronze and sell it to raise money for a new Morecambe and Wise landmark in our town.

Comic Relief: 'Eric Morecambe' fun run to be held

A fun run inspired by Eric Morecambe will be held in his Lancashire hometown for Comic Relief on 14 March.

So, Miranda's over, and leaves us in a fine tradition - Fawlty Towers, The Office - of going on just long enough and no longer, and creating a newly Hollywood-bound personality. Some fusspot critics adopted airs of frenetic postmodern sophistication towards what was, after all, a comedy show. I loved it, every bit, not least for allowing me to finally "get" - albeit only a bit - slapstick. I especially loved it for every reason the detractors resented: its retro nature, its channelling of Eric Morecambe (she even managed, along with his trademark deadpans to camera, to slap Stevie's cheeks) and its big, warm, sexy lunk of a star.

It ended rightly on a high (she married Gary, needless to say) and included bits of girly fun (meh), sharp observation (yay!) and, actually, a twitch more seriousness than has been usual. "That is not being a child," she says at one stage, grown strangely grave. "Sometime the world just needs to be... jollied." Indeed it does, and I raise my glass to Miranda Hart, producer Sarah Fraser, director Mandie Fletcher and all the other splendid women involved: 2015 deserves to be their brilliant year.

How Ernie Wise (almost) made the UK's first mobile call

This week marks the 30th anniversary of the first ever (civilian) mobile phone call made in the UK. The call was made from London's St Katharine Docks on 1 January 1985, via the Vodafone network, by comedian Ernie Wise. The patronage of Little Ern may seem a little incongruous, but Wise had already done an ad for Atari with Eric Morecambe earlier that decade, and was already well-versed in hawking grey, clunky pieces of tech, for presumably a neat little pay packet.