Like most British people of a certain age, I was brought up on Morecambe & Wise. They were there for as long as I can remember, as a school-kid making me laugh through boring Christmas Days after the Queen had successfully negotiated her autocue for another year. Strangely I didn’t appreciate the value of Ernie Wise until I was in show business myself. He was ‘the stooge’, the straight man without whom Eric couldn’t fire his bullets of hilarity and the man who held the timing together. I met Ernie when he was doing a gardening programme and treasured the opportunity to be in the presence of a comedy genius, half of the greatest duo the world has ever seen. They made me laugh more than Abbott and Costello and Laurel and Hardy, and as a young kid growing up in the East End I loved them as much as Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters.
Did I ever meet them both? Yes, but only on a few occasions and I only worked with them the once at a charity show, which I seem to remember being at a nightclub in Luton in the shadows of the M1. Jim Davidson told me that night I would never meet any others more professional or alluring to an audience, and he was absolutely right. It will always remain an honour.