Eric Morecambe

There must be dozens of photos of people posed as my husband Bari is here with the fantastic statue of Eric Morecambe on the seafront of the town of the same name! Not many, though are as tall as Bari and can lean on Eric’s shoulder in such a nonchalant way!

Eric must be one of the best-loved British comedians ever,, not just liked because he was so really, really, naturally funny, but actually liked. He was born in 1926 and is most famously known for his long partnership with Ernie Wise, a partnership which lasted more than forty years until Eric’s death at the age of  fifty-eight.

Their show was so popular that at the height of their game they had an audience of over 28,000,000, yes over  twenty-eight million people! Their humour was so off-the wall, and sometimes ludicrous and yet often set in the most mundane domestic situation. One of the joys of their show was their celebrity guests who were certainly put through some strange but hilarious experiences as they gamely took part in the sketches. Who can forget poor Shirley Bassey, descending the stairs in boots:

… or Elton John wandering the empty studio looking for the show, he was called Elephant John by Eric! André Previn was also misnamed as Andrew Preview, and I can never think of him as anything else now!