Morecambe and Wise
Comedy double act
Morecambe and Wise (also known as Eric and Ernie), were an English comic double act, consisting of Eric Morecambe (1926–1984) and Ernie Wise (1925–1999), who worked in variety, radio, film and most successfully in television. Their partnership lasted from 1941 until Morecambe's sudden death in 1984. They have been described as "the most illustrious, and the best-loved, double-act that Britain has ever produced".
On a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes drawn up by the British Film Institute in 2000, voted for by industry professionals, The Morecambe and Wise Show was placed 14th. In September 2006, they were voted by the general public as number 2 in a poll of TV's 50 Greatest Stars. Their early career was the subject of the 2011 television biopic Eric and Ernie, and their 1970s career was the subject of the television biopic Eric, Ernie and Me in 2017.
In 1976, Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise were both appointed OBE. In 1999, they were posthumously awarded the BAFTA Fellowship. In 2013, they were honoured with a blue plaque at Teddington Studios, where the last four series of The Morecambe and Wise Show were recorded.
History
Morecambe and Wise's friendship began in 1940 when they were each booked separately to appear in Jack Hylton's revue Youth Takes a Bow at the Nottingham Empire Theatre. At the suggestion of Eric's mother, Sadie, they worked on a double act.
The public source identifies “Morecambe and Wise” as comedy double act. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Morecambe, Wise and Comedy.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2748714. VIAF identifies the subject as 121294725. The Library of Congress control number is nr2006004244. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1926, 1984, 1925 and 1999.
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This entry incorporates text from “Morecambe and Wise” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.