Morecambe & Wise: Two Of A Kind
Published: Tuesday 26th December 2023
Definition of the week: TV set - the box in which they buried Morecambe and Wise.
Above is Kenneth Baily's infamous and damning review in The People of Eric and Ernie's first own TV series, the BBC comedy Running Wild, from 1954. Eric carried that newspaper clipping in his wallet until he died, so it was no wonder that after being burnt so badly on TV before, the boys were nervous about returning. They had been doing very successful guest spots on Sunday Night At The London Palladium and The Winifred Atwell Show, but when Lew Grade offered them their own show with ITV broadcaster ATV in 1961 there was bound to be some hesitancy.
The first series was titled The Morecambe And Wise Show (usually billed in listings as Bernard Delfont Presents The Morecambe And Wise Show), but for a series the following year, change was forced upon them - and Two Of A Kind was born.
We need to travel back briefly to that first series to set the scene of what became Two Of A Kind. Morecambe & Wise were naturally nervous about their names being over the door again so they insisted that the team had to be right or they wouldn't do it. They wanted writers Dick Hills & Sid Green, and Colin Clews as their producer and director, otherwise they wouldn't go ahead. Luckily all three were available, but the first few shows didn't get a great reception from the public. Sid and Dick liked to use a large cast of characters in their sketches and, as a result, Eric and Ern were somewhat lost in the action 'amid a cast of thousands', Eric would later reflect. The scenes were too busy and the boy's warmth and relationship couldn't shine through. It was the same mistake that had been made in Running Wild and they were concerned. The show needed to be about them.
Then a piece of luck came their way. A strike by actors' union Equity meant all of those extras couldn't work, which meant Sid and Dick had to simplify the sketches; Morecambe & Wise, meanwhile, were not actors but members of the Variety Artists Federation, so could continue working unaffected. These pared-down sketches meant that the boy's relationship could now be seen, and if anyone else was needed then Sid and Dick took the extra parts as stooges - plus musical guest performers similarly unaffected by Equity's action. This new format was an instant hit and would be adopted not just for their remaining seven years at ATV, but with relatively little change through the BBC and Thames for more than two further decades.
Morecambe & Wise were now firmly establishing themselves on the national conscience, attracting a growing audience across the UK. Eric and Ern were buoyant, happy with the material and production team, and of course the new name, Two Of A Kind. This title perfectly summed up both the boys themselves and the new format. It was, mostly, just the two of them - apart from a bit of Sid and Dick, or 'Sick and Did' as Eric would call them in playful moments - and the crosstalk they had honed for years on the variety circuit could now be enjoyed by the viewers at home. It also meant they could use the Johnny Mercer song of the same name as the theme tune, and it was one of their popular closing numbers (until Bring Me Sunshine took up the permanent mantle).
Sadly that 1961 series has been wiped, but both series of Two Of A Kind - and a later reversion to the original title for three more series - all survive in their entirety and are available to enjoy on DVD.
And enjoy we must for what we see in these early series are the seeds of what would become classic Eric and Ern staples. Two Of A Kind is where many of their well-known routines and catchphrases started. Here was the birth of Eric challenging Ern to 'get out of that' with his hand placed under Ernie's chin and Eric asking his partner to 'make the tea ern'. It was also the place where little asides like 'that's not nice' and 'I'll smash your face in' started to develop and be refined for TV.
It was also one of the first places where the public saw the paper bag trick. Eric always carried a brown paper bag, folded up and tucked into his pocket, just in case he was called on to do the gag. If you don't know it, where have you been? Eric unfolds the bag, throws an imaginary ball into the air then 'catches' it in the bag, flicking the paper so it sounds and looks like something has landed inside. It's a classic and kids especially love it. It was often used to end sketches that didn't have a natural punchline, such as the Boom Ooh Yata-ta-ta musical sketch, which appeared in Episode 8 of Two Of A Kind.
This sketch was a great example of Sid and Dick becoming comic sidekicks to Eric and Ern, with Eric wanting to break into the pop world as an Elvis-style singer and Ernie insisting he needs a backing group to project his personality. As each person takes a musical part Eric ends up never being the lead singer. It's one of their earlier sketches that has remained famous, partly due to them recreating it for audio and on TV in America later in the 1960s on The Ed Sullivan Show, where the host himself played one of the parts, something he never normally did.
There's a great ad-lib in it when Ern has gone a bit wrong in the song and then later asks Eric if he knows it, to which Eric replies 'No, but you don't either'. The full sketch then goes into what later became famous as another sketch in its own right: the counter-melody sketch they would perform with Elton John on the BBC.
Two Of A Kind also saw the birth of perhaps the most famous Morecambe & Wise sketch of them all, revised and revisited later on the BBC.
Yes, Greig's piano concerto was first seen in the second series of Two Of A Kind (their third overall for ATV), in 1963. The sketch became famous in the 1971 Christmas special with Andre Previn but it started life here, as a Hills & Green creation with Ernie playing the part of the conductor and Eric at the piano 'playing all the right notes but not necessarily in the right order'.
Even back in 1962, the duo had a knack for attracting high-profile guests from the entertainment world, which added a bit of glamour and variety to the show and enhanced its appeal to a wider audience. In the beginning, the guests were mostly to provide a musical interlude on the show, and although big names in their own right they didn't get involved with the sketches. Regular musical guests would include Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen, The Beverley Sisters, Teddy Johnson and Pearl Carr, The King Brothers, Susan Maughan and The Kaye Sisters.
But then, in 1963's Episode 8, Morecambe & Wise devoted a whole episode to guest star Roy Castle. This (informal) special with Roy is a wonderful programme with the three friends in their element. The premise sees Roy and Ernie planning to team up as a double act, Castle & Wise; the joke being that they keep leaving Eric out of all the numbers and fun. In reality, Roy Castle and Eric Morecambe were best friends and Eric even introduced Castle to his future wife, Fiona. (Roy would joke with Eric that if he and Fiona argued he would come and throw stones at the Morecambes' window.) This episode is an incredible showcase for Roy Castle's multitude of talents and you can see that Ernie is loving the song and dance numbers, whilst Eric is enjoying doing the hurt little boy bit for laughs when he's left out. Roy went on to guest star again with the boys both on BBC and when they went to Thames in the late 1970s.
The episodes of Two Of A Kind always ended with a door routine in which Eric and Ernie tried to leave the stage via a variety of different doors, each time being thwarted because it would either not open, was blocked, or was faulty in some way. It was a slightly surreal end to the show but provided Eric another comic device to get a final laugh. It also started a tradition of quirky endings for future shows, such as Janet Webb thanking everyone or the boys declaring 'not now Arthur' when Arthur Tolcher tried to play the mouth organ.
Between January 1999 and December 2000, all 26 episodes of Two Of A Kind were shown on BBC Two when Polygram, who owned the rights to the ATV archive at the time, offered the BBC one-off rescreening rights. The episodes aired in their entirety, apart from commercial break bumpers, marking the first time the BBC had ever shown a complete comedy series that had originally been broadcast on ITV.
Two Of A Kind is where Morecambe & Wise found their feet. It allowed their partnership to grow and develop on screen. It marked the beginning of many of their famous routines and catchphrases; and most importantly was where they fell in love with television and learnt to trust the medium again after having their fingers burnt with Running Wild. You can sense that this is the start of them crafting their act on what was soon to become the most successful medium they performed in.
Two Of A Kind is where the public started their love affair with Morecambe & Wise, and although they were still a little green and a bit raw, they were getting tremendous laughs.
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Love comedy? Find out moreMorecambe & Wise: Two Of A Kind - The Complete Series
Morecambe and Wise, undoubtedly the best-loved double act that Britain has ever produced, first achieved their phenomenal television success in the early 1960s with this long-running hit series for ATV. Showcasing their mildly anarchic humour, impeccable sense of timing and keen eye for the absurd in a feast of uproarious sketches, on-stage antics and musical entertainment, Two Of A Kind propelled Morecambe and Wise towards superstardom in no uncertain terms.
Each show features fast-moving skits and musical parodies, with Eric and Ernie giving us their inimitable versions of television favourites Supercar, Face to Face and Candid Camera - in addition to memorable interpretations of key scenes from Macbeth and Hamlet, Eric's ongoing battle to get his lines right in Samson and Delilah, and undoubtedly the most ambitious attempt ever seen to recreate the 'fight sequence' in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers! Among the many guest stars are Roy Castle, Joe Brown, Kathy Kirby, Susan Maughan, The Bachelors and Acker Bilk.
This eight disc set contains all 48 editions of Two Of A Kind (aka The Morecambe And Wise Show) alongside a wealth of special features: including an exceptionally rare early performance from 1957; several appearances on Val Parnell's Saturday Spectacular and the two surviving editions of Piccadilly Palace.
First released: Monday 5th December 2016
DVD- Distributor: Network
- Region: 2
- Discs: 8
- Minutes: 1,332
- Catalogue: 7954582
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