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Post by David Saunders on Jan 2, 2009 22:16:01 GMT
Does anyone know which Morecambe and Wise shows and other shows the clips originate from? and when they were transmitted?
Some included:
Eric and Ernie in the kitchen
Eric and Ernie with Nina Baroness van Pallandt
Eric and Ernie with Andre Previn
Also, there was a mystery black and white recording of I think Michael Aspel interviewing Eric and Ernie, but going by the quality, I have a feeling this was a recovered b/w recording of an originally colour broadcast?
Also, what's the survival rate of Morecambe and Wise's b/w and colour shows at the BBC and ITV?
I believe some b/w edition from 1968 was recovered a few years ago, so there are probably lots of gaps before, possibly during the 1970s of their television shows?
It was great to see another celebration of one of the UK's longest running and best ever comedy duos, including both familiar and less seen clips in b/w and colour.
PS: Due to being very busy with the Christmas and New Year period and as I'm currently in the middle of updating information on Top of the Pops, I haven't been on since 23 December but I will be back later in the month and will reply to outstanding questions in the other threads shortly.
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Post by John Wall on Jan 2, 2009 22:20:17 GMT
Andrew Preview was a Christmas Special. The kitchen/stripper was, iirc, a "standard" show. On UK GOLD it was recently voted the funniest moment.
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Post by Ian Thompson on Jan 2, 2009 22:47:00 GMT
Hi, As far as i'm aware most if not all the programmes made for ATV in the 60's exist as B/W tr's Of the BBC material only one of the first series exists as a b/w tr (and then not complete)all the rest survive on colour VT I'm not sure of the status of the later Thames series but I would think that these all exist.  By the way in addition, anyone any idea of when the BBC plans to release M & W series 5 DVD? Just been checking and apparently a one-off special was transmitted on the 8th October 1970 before a repeat run of the 4th series and this has apparently been wiped |
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Post by David Saunders on Jan 3, 2009 9:24:51 GMT
Andrew Preview was a Christmas Special. The kitchen/stripper was, iirc, a "standard" show. On UK GOLD it was recently voted the funniest moment. The "Andrew Preview" sketch is one of the funniest I've ever seen. I don't know how Andre Previn managed to keep his face straight but he and duo worked brilliantly together. |
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Post by David Saunders on Jan 3, 2009 9:28:54 GMT
Hi, As far as i'm aware most if not all the programmes made for ATV in the 60's exist as B/W tr's Of the BBC material only one of the first series exists as a b/w tr (and then not complete)all the rest survive on colour VT I'm not sure of the status of the later Thames series but I would think that these all exist. By the way in addition, anyone any idea of when the BBC plans to release M & W series 5 DVD? Just been checking and apparently a one-off special was transmitted on the 8th October 1970 before a repeat run of the 4th series and this has apparently been wiped It's a shame that most of the BBC's first series and the 8th October 1970 special have been wiped but good to know that one edition exists in b/w, albeit incomplete and most or all the duo's ATV 1960s programmes still exist. Fingers crossed that the duo's Thames series all exist, as they've brought so much joy to many viewers and it looks as though they're quite well represented in the archives from your comments. |
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Post by John Wall on Jan 3, 2009 11:27:53 GMT
I think a lot of the stuff they made after leaving Auntie exists. I recall recent repeats including a "remake" of Andrew Preview.
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Post by Peter Elliott on Jan 3, 2009 14:09:06 GMT
Andrew Preview was a Christmas Special. The kitchen/stripper was, iirc, a "standard" show. On UK GOLD it was recently voted the funniest moment. The "Andrew Preview" sketch is one of the funniest I've ever seen. I don't know how Andre Previn managed to keep his face straight but he and duo worked brilliantly together. It is truly extraordinary. That was from the Christmas 1971 show which also featured the memorable Shirley Bassey in boots routine. Previn said many years later that he was rather jet lagged having flown in to do the show and went direct to the BBC studios from the airport. He had learned the script but apparently there was no time to rehearse the sketch (Morecambe and Wise were renowned for being thoroughly rehearsed... shows how good they were since it often looked like they were adlibbing!) what you saw was the one and only time and as is obvious, Previn nailed it beautifully and resulted in one of the greatest comedy moments of all time. It is astonishing how Previn managed to keep a poker straight face but I guess that's down to professionalism! As other posters have said M+W are thankfully well preserved bar that 1st BBC series and I don't think it's ever been confirmed what the archive status of the final ATV series actually is but chances are it's complete, so from 1961 onwards it's more or less all there in the archive with the odd exceptions mentioned here. It's also worth pointing out that they made regular appearances on "The Ed Sullivan Show" during the 1960's. They all seem to have survived mostly on VT so there is a whole load of M+W material there that's never been screened in the UK. Would be nice if someday the BBC licensed that material for a compilation. So there should be early colour material from 1965 to 1967. Nobody quite knows why Ed Sullivan persisted with them since the American audiences didn't really "get" their style. One is on the set containing the 4 episodes The Beatles performed on and they appear in the final b+w show from 1965. I watched it and had a good laugh but noticed the American audience are largely quiet and uncertain. On comes Rossi and Allen, the audience is in hysterics and I'm sat here looking like Andre Preview baffled as to what was funny about them... |
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Post by David Saunders on Jan 3, 2009 17:33:13 GMT
I think a lot of the stuff they made after leaving Auntie exists. I recall recent repeats including a "remake" of Andrew Preview. This is excellent news. I once saw a grainy colour recording of a Thames show, which must be a recovered recording, but all the other Thames editions I've seen have been in perfect quality. "Andrew Preview" was a brilliant sketch. I hadn't realized it was done as a duo only sketch originally. Bringing in Andre Previn complimented the original version. |
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Post by David Saunders on Jan 3, 2009 17:41:20 GMT
The "Andrew Preview" sketch is one of the funniest I've ever seen. I don't know how Andre Previn managed to keep his face straight but he and duo worked brilliantly together. It is truly extraordinary. That was from the Christmas 1971 show which also featured the memorable Shirley Bassey in boots routine. Previn said many years later that he was rather jet lagged having flown in to do the show and went direct to the BBC studios from the airport. He had learned the script but apparently there was no time to rehearse the sketch (Morecambe and Wise were renowned for being thoroughly rehearsed... shows how good they were since it often looked like they were adlibbing!) what you saw was the one and only time and as is obvious, Previn nailed it beautifully and resulted in one of the greatest comedy moments of all time. It is astonishing how Previn managed to keep a poker straight face but I guess that's down to professionalism! As other posters have said M+W are thankfully well preserved bar that 1st BBC series and I don't think it's ever been confirmed what the archive status of the final ATV series actually is but chances are it's complete, so from 1961 onwards it's more or less all there in the archive with the odd exceptions mentioned here. It's also worth pointing out that they made regular appearances on "The Ed Sullivan Show" during the 1960's. They all seem to have survived mostly on VT so there is a whole load of M+W material there that's never been screened in the UK. Would be nice if someday the BBC licensed that material for a compilation. So there should be early colour material from 1965 to 1967. Nobody quite knows why Ed Sullivan persisted with them since the American audiences didn't really "get" their style. One is on the set containing the 4 episodes The Beatles performed on and they appear in the final b+w show from 1965. I watched it and had a good laugh but noticed the American audience are largely quiet and uncertain. On comes Rossi and Allen, the audience is in hysterics and I'm sat here looking like Andre Preview baffled as to what was funny about them... Ah, the Shirley Bassey in boots routine stems from the same show as Andre Previn! Both brilliant, and like Morecambe and Wise’s other sketches, these were brilliant sketches. Given how renowned the BBC were for junking shows, I’m amazed that only the first BBC series has been wiped and everything else has remained. Again, like the missing Top of the Pops, the Generation Game and other shows, there might even be European or other overseas recordings of some of the first series editions? We can only hope, as something from 1968 was recovered a few years ago, which I think was an ATV edition. Hopefully the Ed Sullivan Show sketches will be rebroadcast on UK television eventually, but in the meantime, while it’s a shame there’s no ATV 1950s editions in the archives, which I imagine would have once existed, it’s good that the duo is quite well represented in the archives from 1961 onwards. |
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Post by Ian Thompson on Jan 4, 2009 12:29:32 GMT
The only TV appearance by Morecambe and Wise existing from the 1950's that i'm aware of is a guest appearance on the Bob Monkhouse Hour from 1958
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Post by David Brunt on Jan 6, 2009 12:09:07 GMT
As far as I recall, when they found an incomplete edition of The Good Old Days from 1958 or so several years back it was noted that it featured Eric & Ernie.
Though it'd be sod's law that they would have been in the "incomplete" part.
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Post by Richard Moore on Jan 6, 2009 18:20:15 GMT
Yes it does feature them and a clip was used in The Story Of Light Entertainment a few years back.
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Post by David Saunders on Jan 9, 2009 20:03:30 GMT
The only TV appearance by Morecambe and Wise existing from the 1950's that i'm aware of is a guest appearance on the Bob Monkhouse Hour from 1958 This is good news. Let's hope it's repeated one day. |
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Post by David Saunders on Jan 9, 2009 20:06:10 GMT
As far as I recall, when they found an incomplete edition of The Good Old Days from 1958 or so several years back it was noted that it featured Eric & Ernie. Though it'd be sod's law that they would have been in the "incomplete" part. This is also good news. Although incomplete, more and more television, audio recordings of television and of radio programmes keep turning up, which further represents each programme in the archive. Yes it does feature them and a clip was used in The Story Of Light Entertainment a few years back. I might have seen that show that you mention. It rings a bell. It's a shame so little exists of Morecambe and Wise before the Sixties, especially as they were one of the funniest duos around whose humour still lives on, but good news that most of their archive survives from the Sixties onwards. |
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