The Morecambe & Wise shows 1970 & 1971: A world of which we have no conception
BBC2 aired the 1971 Morecambe and Wise Christmas Special and a lost episode from 1970 on Christmas Day.
A lot of comedy from that era, 50 years ago, has dated badly, not least because of racist and sexist lines and routines that were thought unremarkable (by many) then but are not acceptable to most now.
Morecambe and Wise stand out in this respect in the sense that the shows, while containing some sexist lines and jokes were generally not something about which anyone could be outraged.
Eric Morecambe died aged 58 in 1983 so actual memory of the programmes being broadcast is almost two generations ago now.
The duo had been in the variety theatres and had made a successful transition to TV. They didn’t write the lines-Eddie Brabin did. They certainly ad-libbed a fair bit, sometimes rehearsed, but their comic genius lay in their timing. Hence you could often see them laughing at tweaks they’d made on their own lines.
Anyone much under 60 would probably needed to have googled who the guest performers were and indeed some of the references. This was comedy as social history. In that sense some references in the 1970 episode were of particular interest. At that time the Tory Government of Edward Heath was in Office and there was a large amount of industrial unrest coming, with outcomes often favourable to organised labour.
Ernie Wise was found reading (in bed) the poems of Mary Wilson (the wife of Labour leader Harold Wilson), while the voice of Wilson himself was heard on a radio ‘mystery voice’ competition (with his ‘pound in your pocket devaluation of the pound lines). Meanwhile Eric Morecambe was heard making favourable references to the TGWU (now part of Unite).
It was the first episode in which Eric and Ernie had shared a double bed, and no comment was made. Homosexuality had only recently been made legal-not that the comic duo were gay.
Wilson himself appeared as a guest on the 1978 Christmas Special(he had stepped down as PM by then) and it is reputed that he thought Morecambe and Wise could help to sort out ‘The Troubles’ in Northern Ireland with their ‘Bring Me Sunshine’ approach to matters in the early 1970s. Very Wilsonian.
It is in 2021 a world of which we have no conception. Can you imagine the furore if the most popular comedy show of today made favourable references to the Labour Party and the TUC?
Nonetheless I’ve read that Eric Morecambe was a supporter of the Tories. To quote from the Wikipedia page”Morecambe was sympathetic to the Conservative Party and sent a message of support (along with various celebrities) to Margaret Thatcher after she won the 1979 general election, wishing her luck during the 1979 European election campaign.[13] His message ended, “God bless you, Maggie, and good luck in the European Campaign and it is your round next”.