Glenda Jackson

The legend of Eric and Ernie is still potent. Fronted by Lenny Henry, this series combines guests and clips to explore different aspects of their comedy. Tonight, Glenda Jackson recalls the mixture of hilarity and intense professionalism that was a feature of working with the duo. Sunshine is brought.

Morecambe & Wise in America review

It's a true Christmas treat, witnessing magical footage of the comedy nonpareils, seen for the first time in the UK. May our hearts bubble over with helpless laughter.

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.

Shirley Bassey getting into big boots, Andre Previn (or should that be Mr Preview?) watching in horror as Eric Morecambe murders Grieg's Piano Concerto in A Minor, Glenda Jackson being a remarkably convincing Ginger Rogers... We've seen these clips time and again, yet somehow they never cease to raise a smile. Penelope Keith, who took part in Morecambe and Wise's 1976 Christmas special, presents the best of the pair's musical routines from the archives.

Ernie Wise's terrible plays and the A-listers they attracted to 70s staple The Morecambe and Wise Show are the focus of this week's raid on the sketch cabinet. There are marvellous clips of Arthur Lowe, Peter Cushing and Penelope Keith sending themselves up, but the icing on the guest-star cake was Oscar-winning Glenda Jackson. As M&W scriptwriter Eddie Braben says, "She brought out the best in them, as they did in her."

The Eric and Ern missteps aren't glossed over, however. One film - a deal-sweetener for the pair's migration to ITV and shown only once on telly - is fascinatingly terrible. But otherwise the deluge of punchlines will leave you satisfyingly soaked.