Another outing sees further material re-used; the opening spot on-stage is however largely new and sees Eric presenting Ernie with a life-sized monogrammed wallet which he is at times. duly trapped inside; following this Mick McManus replaces Henry Cooper in a re-worked sketch, Jill Gascoigne visits the duo for dinner (previously Ann Hamilton had appeared in this sketch), a new Rolf Harris sketch also features, Alec Guinness is the doctor who sees two as one, and Peter Barkworth provides the butt for jokes in the Ernie Wise's Hamlet skit at the end.
Content: the sketch featuring Terry Wogan is largely a re-hash of a routine done with Cliff Richard some years earlier although there are updates, and the production number at the end is different. However, Morecambe appears to be in good health and he is clearly relishing the opportunity to be performing again. A good start to a fine series.
Content: the sequence that features Hannah Gordon re-uses material from her previous appearance on a BBC show, only the song at the end changes, and the sketch with Hugh Paddick as the "fellow writer" is directly copied from a previous BBC incarnation too. Only the nature of the comedy in this sketch have dated it somewhat, with stereotypical allusions to homosexuality – although Morecambe's jibes are good natured and largely inoffensive. Frank Coda also features.
Contents: the opening scene sees Dave Prowse as Ernie's bodyguard "Cosmo" fresh from his fame as Darth Vader in the Star Wars films, and also features a new sketch set in a Chinese Restaurant which is something of a return to form; Anthony Chinn, Raymond Mason and Fiesta Mei Ling also star.
Contents: Deryck Guyler appears in a flat scene as a local vicar who turns out to be a champion spoon and washboard champion; one suspects this routine was re-worked and written especially for Guyler who was himself a keen washboard player and percussionist. Gerald Case also stars and, in line with other programmes in this series, Guyler performs the signature tune Bring Me Sunshine with Wise, whilst Morecambe "goes and waits for the bus" only to disturb the song.
Contents: With further reworkings from the BBC era Suzanne Danielle appears as a budding writer (the BBC routine featured a character that Morecambe refers to as "Miss Flanagan & Allen", and there's also a travel agent sketch featuring Valerie Minfie as Morecambe's largely mute wife. The pay-off to the flat-based sketch sees sit-com star Tessa Wyatt appear and she also performs the final song with Wise, whilst Morecambe again disappears only to re-appear and disrupt the proceedings.
Contents: In another re-working of a popular BBC routine, Morecambe appears as a "Hell's Grandad" complete with three-wheeled bike. This had previously been a feature showing him as "Spick Sparkle" (the new singing sensation) and is re-used here to good effect. Harking back to the glory days of the BBC, Gemma Craven joins Little Ern in another Gene Kelly recreation, this time to a clever arrangement of "Bring Me Sunshine" whilst Morecambe interrupts the proceedings in usual riotous style.
Opening Spot, Army Reunion, Art Gallery, Marriage Guidance, Are We Past It?, Eric's Plaster Cast, Springtime In The Park, End Song
Opening Spot (Novelty Bicycle), The Connoisseurs discuss the finer points of British Rail catering, the pair discuss splitting up followed by attempts by Max Bygraves to sings (reusing material previously directed famously at Des O'Connor, and he joins them to perform Bring Me Sunshine to close
Opening Spot, Mad Morecambe The Wrestler, Pet Shop, Ernie's Female Doctor, The Travel Song, End Song
The Opening Spot features a previously used BBC sketch entitled Miracle Hair Restorer with some popular culture reference updates, The Connoisseurs then discuss object d'art followed by a further re-used BBC sketch featuring bathtime for Ern, closing with the usual end song.
The usual opening spot sees Morecambe using the latest in technology to videotape Wise; a reused BBC sketch featuring a disappearing doctors' patient is followed by a new beekeeper sketch, then a flat routine centred around Ernie's Book Of Health, Suzanne Danielle performers her rendition of "All That Jazz" with the pair, followed by the traditional closing song
Opening Spot, Eric The Gypsy, Boots In The Hall, Legionnaires Sketch, Acting Advice, End Song
Opening Spot (Pickpocket), The Connoisseurs return to discuss the merits of motorway service station food and Joanna Lumley appears in the play The Barretts Of Wimpole Street which concludes with the three performing Thoroughly Modern Millie before the closing song.
An opening sketch parodies Ernie's newly-grown moustache, then Benefits For Sixteen Children and Varsity Drag before Richard Briars features in the play what Ern wrote, a pirate ship parody entitled Captain Blood and Diana Dors joining Ernie for the end song Bring Me Sunshine. An extract of the play can be found on YouTube and was screened as part of a tribute to Briers following his death in February 2013.
The opening spot is an update of a BBC routine entitled Hands Off Little Ern, here updated to Save Little Ern here, the popular dancer Wayne Sleep then features in the Hollywood Ballet with the duo, followed by an update of a BBC play which had featured Keith Michell in Legion Of The Lost here changed to Beau Jest and now starring Trevor Eve, at the time famous as Eddie Shoestring, leading into the end song Bring Me Sunshine with Jimmy Young.
Opening Spot, Food Trolley, another doctors' surgerys sketch in which the patient (Eric) isn't feeling himself; the Copacabana dance routine features Roy Castle in a return performance; a Guinness Book Of Records skit precedes Bring Me Sunshine as the end song, again featuring Roy Castle. An extract from this programme is available in low resolution on YouTube, showing the musical number at the centre of the show.
Starting with an updated BBC sketch version of This Is Ern's Life with Eric substituting for Eammon Andrews and into a country and western musical number; another BBC sketch is reused when a famous writer visits the duo in their flat with Hugh Paddick playing the part originally performed by Michael Ward, before closing with Bring Me Sunshine where Isla St. Clair, at the time Larry Grayson's hostess on the Generation Game duets with Ernie.
The opening spot features Eric's enormous guard dog and is another skit reused from an earlier BBC show, this is followed by a visit to a shop for Ernie's new desk and typewriter with Royce Mills as the shop assistant; an update of the Ten Years Hence... sketch from an earlier BBC show leads into the boys in top hat and tails for Me & My Shadow before the closing song (Bring Me Sunshine) which Ernie performs with Ruth Madoc, fresh from her success in Hi-De-Hi!, the end credits advise that she appears by arrangement with the BBC.
In an updated BBC opening Spot The Great Nosmo appears as a mind-reader, followed by an Informative Neighbour quickie and Do I Feel High? performed by Marian Monto; the closing sketch is entitled Burgled & Conned and features Alan Dobie who was known to audiences for his recent performance in the BBC drama Kessler the previous year, with the end song Bring Me Sunshine as usual for this series.
In the opening spot it is Ern's Birthday, followed by an update of the BBC sketch Lost In The Desert, a foreign legion parody; a Good Neighbours skit is followed by the Facts Of Life and a doctor routine with Valerie Minfie subtitled Just Not Myself, a guillotine quickie and the closing play, The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes with Nigel Hawthorne as Moriarty and Patricia Breke as Bertha the maid; the end song is again Bring Me Sunshine
The opening spot is followed by a quickie entitled A Good Ending, with a further BBC sketch reworked into Ghandi Morecambe; then Honeymoon Hotel and the song and dance routine The Waiter, The Porter & The Upstairs Maid featuring Maggie Moone. The show also features Margaret Courtenay who would go on to star in the pair's final film Night Train To Murder the next year. an antique renovations skit is followed by No Time For...Jolson
The usual opening spot is followed by a flat-based sketch revolving around the repairing of an electric blanket; a short Sacked By Mail skit is followed by the Swiss Slapping Dance (part of the duo's earliest routines revised and updated) leading into a Tyrolean Extravaganza and a return to the flat for repairs, closing with No Time For...Hunchback Of Notre Dame
Following the usual opening spot, a flat sketch about warming up the bed features, then the Great Basket Escape and the language of birds which is reincarnated from a BBC sketch that featured Percy Edwards. The Chinese Musical is a song and dance number featuring the Stutz Bear Cats, this is followed by Eric's coin tricks and another re-used flat sketch themed around there being nudists next door, closing with No Time For...Robin Hood
After the opening spot, another new flat sketch features Eric's bedroom telescope, which is followed by a re-working of Ern's scrapbook from a BBC show; an unnamed star guest then chickens out and a Gypsy Dance song a dance number precedes the classic Old Men's Memories. A quickie entitled A Brush With The Law is followed by No Time For...Long John Silver
The opening spot is followed by a hand-bell players skit using The Bells Of St. Mary, a rehashed BBC sketch in a record shop is followed by a Frankie & Johnny routine; Mr. Bartholomew the Pigeon Man is a new sketch (featured later in video compilations) and the close features No Time For...Peter Pan
For their final regular show the opening spot is followed by a flat-based sketch where the duo attempt to fix the bed, Eric then appears as a one-man band; a further re-used BBC sketch featuring the male nannies in the park follows. An impresario requesting Ern is a re-used BBC sketch that featured a spoof telephone call from Alfred Hitchcock (suitably updated following Hitchcock's death in 1980), a department store song and dance routing features Puttin' On The Ritz(part of the duo's earliest routines revised and updated) and the show closes with No Time For...Elvis
No series was made in 1978 in an effort to make the Christmas Show stronger, but there was one hour-long offering (the same length as the BBC shows had been, but with adverts. This opened with an amusing sequence whereby a lorry with a BBC logo emblazoned on its side, appears at Thames Television's studios, the back doors are flung open, and Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise are thrown out, in a direct nod to the bad feeling that was present at the time the partnership had departed their previous employers. The format remained reasonably faithful to that used previously although Eddie Braben did not join them immediately. There's the familiar end-of-show play "What Ern Wrote", this time it is a pastiche of Dr Jekyll & Mrs Hyde: however, there is a more cinematic feel to the parody and it moves beyond the confines of being a single set stage piece. There is also a brilliant pet shop sketch with the memorable will he come out for a bit of kit kat? line, itself a nod to the fact the duo were now on commercial television.
The eyes of nation were waiting for their favourite double-act to deliver the goods having defected from the BBC and they were not disappointed. With a strong line-up of guest stars, notably Leonard Rossiter fresh from success in The Fall & Rise Of Reginald Perrin who provided the third Andrews Sister (!) in a Fabulous Forties segment and a spoof This Is Your Life' with the Royal Family opening the show the only let down was the fact that the press had leaked the fact that recently-resigned Prime Minister Harold Wilson was to appear. The show was a success nonetheless but would have been more so if the appearance of the ex-premier had been kept quiet. There is one particularly amusing incident when Wilson manages to upset Morecambe who disappears to the back of the flat, returning with a Maggie Rules O.K. banner, a reference to Margaret Thatcher who would soon become Prime Minister the following year.
This was the only television programme the duo made in this year, with Morecambe's heart attack ensuing a lull in their activities. To a certain extent, the duo's output was seen to be "playing it safe" by bringing back safe and established guest stars and this edition saw the return of actress Glenda Jackson and the inevitable Des O'Connor as well as newcomer to the show, David Frost who interviewed the duo about their long career. The show was more of an interview on the whole, but there was some newly-made material, the stand-out section being a mimed version of the novelty song I Tawt I Taw A Puddy Tat with Morecambe as the mischievous Sylvester the cat and Wise as Tweety Pie. Harking back to the duo's previous incarnation at the BBC the programme also featured Arthur Tolcher (not now, Arthur!) and Janet Webb who had appeared at the end of their show ten years previously as "the lady who comes down at the end. The show played heavily on the pair's previous success with their festive programmes, and further cemented their relationship with the viewing public by appearing despite Morecambe's poor health. As a joke on his recent heart by-pass operation, Morecambe was not permitted to descend the staircase in the studio and this duty was performed by Garfield Morgan. However, when Morecambe did appear, he ran up and down the same staircase several times to prove his fitness. When united with Wise the pair embraced and stated how good it was to be back together again.
This show marked in some ways the fact that Morecambe & Wise were no longer a prime asset; it was the first time in their television careers that their festive offering had not been broadcast on Christmas Night, the schedulers opting instead for 23 December. This was also because, until 1982, Thames Television only operated from Monday at 9.25am until Friday at 7pm; as Christmas Day fell on a Friday, London Weekend Television (LWT) held the franchise to broadcast that evening. The guest list was nonetheless impressive with Ralph Richardson heading up a stellar list, Suzanne Danielle doing a Razzle Dazzle routine with the boys, a re-hash of the BBC health food shop routine, now featuring Valerie Minfie, and the obligatory play, which was Julius Caesar, a thinly covered remake of the popular BBC sketch Antony & Cleopatra from ten years earlier. This show saw M&W use technology more to gain laughs with blue screen techniques being used in some sketches.
Returning from the previous seasonal show was All Creatures Great & Small star Robert Hardy, joined by both Rula Lenska, Richard Vernon who had appeared in previous shows; the opening routine perhaps prophetically discussed the retiring of the double act but this in itself was a further reworking of BBC material but somehow the pace of the dialogue was becoming lost. In an update of several older sketches, the Video Shop was offered as well as a Lingere Shop and a Chatanooga Choo Choo routine. Notable of this and many other shows was the absence of the favourite signature tune over the end credits. It was a very small omission but one that did not go unnoticed by the viewing public. Again, this show was not broadcast on Christmas Night but two evenings later.
What was to be the duo's final festive offering was billed once again as Eric & Ernie's Xmas Show and some re-hashed material from earlier BBC shows despite Eddie Braben's continued input. The most notable re-used ideas was the Harpenden Hot-Shots and the final play "What Ern Wrote" was entitled The Planter's Wife and featured Nanette Newman in the titular role. This sketch set in Malaysia has some good moments but the musical ending is done by some poorly realised puppets, perhaps a sign that Morecambe was no longer fit enough for an extended dance routine. The sketch that had aired originally in the 1976 seasonal show with Elton John ("sounds like an exit on the motorway...") was thinly re-worked here with Peter Skellern in the same role – although the timing here is off and Morecambe looks to be going through the motions. A song-and-dance number of 'Swinging Down The Lane' closes the proceedings but there's no signature tune to be heard.
