Sunshine and Laughter: The Story of Morecambe & Wise by Louis Barfe

Author:Louis Barfe [Barfe, Louis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Entertainment & Performing Arts, history, Europe, Great Britain, 20th Century
ISBN: 9781838933395
Google: 5Z7KDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Head of Zeus
Published: 2021-07-08T23:26:28.051109+00:00

a There was also a persistent rumour within the BBC that Young Bill and Michael Hurll were half-brothers, as a result of an affair between Old Bill and Hurll’s mother.

b Hardy’s nickname.

c This might be heresy, but your author must admit to preferring ‘Positive Thinking’ to any of the other songs associated with Eric and Ernie.

d Which had itself gone into colour on 15 November 1969. Nonetheless, the series continued to be premiered on BBC2 for a couple more years.

e Webb was only in her mid-thirties at the time.

f The award in question later fell apart. Eric and Ernie would have been permitted a moment of disquiet before they realised the invasion was friendly. Less than five months before, at the Royal Albert Hall, where the awards were held, Bob Hope had been pelted with bags of flour as he tried to entertain the audience at the 1970 Miss World contest.

g Nina van Pallandt (b. 1932) had been part of the pop duo Nina and Frederik with her then husband, Frederik, Baron van Pallandt, before going solo.

h The ‘fixer’ was the musician who booked the other musicians. Trombonist Nobby Clarke was the fixer for the Parnell band at ATV, but this was a rare exception to the rule that the job tended to be the province of senior violinists. Throughout Morecambe and Wise’s BBC career, the fixer was Jack Mandel.

i A venue flattened by bombs in 1940.

j The voices were overdubbed by the Mike Sammes Singers.

k Of which more later.

l Charles Hill, Baron Hill of Luton, was the chairman of the BBC from 1967 to 1972. During the war, he had become famous for his medical broadcasts as ‘the Radio Doctor’, before becoming a Conservative MP and, from 1963 to 1967, chairman of the Independent Television Authority.

m Pro rata, Emery is the best paid artist in the show, receiving £75 for a few seconds on screen.

n Prompting Eric to say ‘Sing Home Town and see what happens’.

o This sketch includes a callback to the Memory Man sketch, when Morecambe shouts ‘Arsenal’. It gets no response, as the famous sketch had been recorded but not yet transmitted.

p Son-in-law of Stan Laurel.

q Coincidentally, where Stewart had seen Strike a New Note in 1943, and met Eric and Ernie when he went backstage after.

r David Whiting.

s Which had been on BBC1 on 21 April 1972.

t Worse, when Hancock saw the BBC recording of his Royal Festival Hall show, one particularly unforgiving close-up made him respond: ‘I look like a fucking frog.’

u As a child, I went with my family to see Cannon and Ball at the Fairfield Halls, at the height of their television fame. Their tremendous warmth meant that they got at least as far as row M of the stalls, where we were. However, I also saw them at the Opera House in Blackpool around the same time, and it was obvious where they worked best.

v The cleverness of Mancunian comedian Les Dawson’s (1931–1993) out-of-tune piano playing was in his choice of wrong notes.

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