Eric Morecambe was as funny off stage as on, and was one off the block – an all-time great.
Eric was always generous. He took me aside one day and said: ‘Young man, you have something. No one can tell you what it is, but never ask: “Why me?”.’ In other words, be yourself and don’t try and analyse what makes you funny; if you do, you can make a terrible hash of your life.
To me, comedians come in two categories: men who say funny things, like Bob Monkhouse, and men who are funny like Tommy Cooper. Eric was the only man I have seen who could do both. When Morecambe & Wise were at their peak, with Eddie Braben writing the scripts, they were magnificent. Eric had the genius for taking good material and turning it into something out of this world, and in Ernie Wise he had the perfect foil.
Eric and Ernie always looked smart on stage, unlike some comedians today. Everyone wanted to work with them. And it was a great accolade if you got mentioned on their show.
Like a lot of people, my favourite sketch on The Morecambe & Wise Show was the Grieg Piano Concerto with André Previn. André was brilliant, especially as legend has it that he had very little time to learn his part.
I remember my first Royal Variety Performance in 1964. I shared a dressing-room with Eric and Ernie, Tommy Cooper and Denis Spicer the ventriloquist. While Eric and Ernie were rehearsing, Tommy Cooper unplugged the phone and locked it in a cupboard. I was still very much a boy in those days, and may have looked a little bit surprised. Tommy gave his confidential cough, and explained: ‘You’ve got to watch these pros,’ he said. ‘While I’m on stage, they’ll be phoning Hong Kong.’
Then it was Tommy’s turn to rehearse, and Eric and Ernie came back to the dressing-room. Eric was on it in no time. ‘Now then, Sunshine,’ he said to me. ‘Where’s the phone?’ ‘Tommy locked it in the cupboard. He said you’d be phoning Hong Kong.’
Many royal charity events pursued Eric during the 1970s, and most he was happy to involve himself with. He was a great royalist, always deeply proud of his OBE.
Give Eric a grand staircase and a princess and he was in his element. Mind you, that’s my mother closing in from behind! – GM
We had a laugh about it; then a few hours later we were all in the dressing-room waiting for the Queen to arrive. Suddenly, just down the corridor, the stage-door telephone started ringing. Eric had the answer. ‘Tommy,’ he said. ‘It’s long-distance in the cupboard!’ Well, I just couldn’t stop laughing!
That evening I was in the second half of the show. The others had been on, but I will never forget that Eric came down especially to wish me luck before I went out on the stage. It was typical of the man that he wanted to encourage a young fellow-comedian, and I have since tried to do the same for young comedians.
I recall that the Russian dancer Rudolf Nureyev appeared on Sunday Night at the London Palladium one week. Rudolf had a very, very big box, if you know what I mean! The next week Morecambe & Wise appeared and Ernie, in actual fact referring to Nureyev’s appearance the previous week, said to Eric: ‘Did you see it last week?’ And Eric, quick as a flash, replied: ‘I think we all saw IT last week!’
The Bring Me Sunshine show, staged as a tribute to Eric who had passed away in 1984, was a huge, huge night with a cast better than any Royal Variety Performance and how pleased I was to be part of it.