0:00:34 > 0:00:38The great double acts have always been at the heart of light entertainment.
0:00:38 > 0:00:42- Tap, tap.- Rock on, Tommy!
0:00:42 > 0:00:47Two names, two different personalities join together to create something magical.
0:00:47 > 0:00:49# I know why I've waited...
0:00:49 > 0:00:51- # Yeah, yeah, yeah - Know why I've been blue
0:00:51 > 0:00:55- # Yeah, yeah, yeah - Really tried for someone... - Yeah, yeah, yeah
0:00:55 > 0:00:57- # Exactly like you - Yeah, yeah, yeah... #
0:00:57 > 0:01:01There are times when I watch Morecambe And Wise and think, "You can't get better."
0:01:01 > 0:01:04They epitomise the best of light entertainment.
0:01:07 > 0:01:10When you get people like Morecambe And Wise, the Two Ronnies,
0:01:10 > 0:01:17doing the kind of shows they did, that's not light, that's heavy duty! That is really going in.
0:01:17 > 0:01:21The double acts keep coming and are still the kings of Saturday night television.
0:01:21 > 0:01:25Ant and Dec are a remarkable phenomenon
0:01:25 > 0:01:32because they are one of the very few genuine double acts.
0:01:32 > 0:01:37'The best comedy teams bring us sunshine, laughter and love, but the pressure of entertaining
0:01:37 > 0:01:40'can bring them jealousy, bullying, betrayal and pain.'
0:01:42 > 0:01:45'It was horrible, absolutely horrendous.'
0:01:45 > 0:01:47We hated one another, now we love each other.
0:01:49 > 0:01:52You always hurt the one you love, don't ya?
0:01:52 > 0:01:55You might argue with your wife and then the next day think, "Oh,
0:01:55 > 0:01:58"shouldn't have said that." Same with a double act.
0:01:58 > 0:02:01'When we disagreed, and we're both pretty volatile,'
0:02:01 > 0:02:04if Bernie had one drink too many, he'll take on Mike Tyson!
0:02:04 > 0:02:08- And might even win.- This is like the scariest ride you've ever been on.
0:02:08 > 0:02:14There was that week period when we weren't speaking, we were just speaking when we were on stage,
0:02:14 > 0:02:18which, you know, for a double act, is completely mental.
0:02:20 > 0:02:26I behaved so badly towards him that I can understand why...
0:02:26 > 0:02:28he gets cross from time to time!
0:02:28 > 0:02:35The double act has endured every twist and turn in the story of showbusiness, but behind the smiles,
0:02:35 > 0:02:42the dance routines, the jokes and the songs, there's a world of intense pressure and anxiety.
0:02:44 > 0:02:49Entertaining people is a stressful thing and it does play havoc with your health.
0:02:49 > 0:02:53I got told that I could drop dead at any minute.
0:02:53 > 0:02:56- Hey, come on, loosen up, man. - Look, please!
0:02:56 > 0:03:00'Mel would be on top of the line, so I think there was'
0:03:00 > 0:03:05that tension - "I'm doing all the work and you're the one who's coming across as being the funny one!"
0:03:05 > 0:03:07Yeah, yeah, yeah!
0:03:07 > 0:03:09Well, it's not nice to be complained about.
0:03:09 > 0:03:11But we didn't do it with any malice.
0:03:11 > 0:03:17His lips went blue, and I thought "God, what have I done to this guy?"
0:03:17 > 0:03:23They're tied together thinking, "If only this person wasn't with me, I could do better things"
0:03:23 > 0:03:26but also, "Without the other person, I'd be dead."
0:03:27 > 0:03:31The double act began in the music hall as a way for the comedians
0:03:31 > 0:03:35to get their jokes heard above the noise of the audience.
0:03:35 > 0:03:39- We didn't go away, my wife and I. - Where did you go? - We stayed at home in Battersea.
0:03:39 > 0:03:44- Battersea?- Battersea, yes. You know, the Dogs' Home!- Is it? I didn't know it had been out!
0:03:46 > 0:03:49If you had a fairly noisy audience, you want to get the joke across,
0:03:49 > 0:03:52so often the straight man would repeat it.
0:03:52 > 0:03:55The comic would say, "I went to the races yesterday."
0:03:55 > 0:03:58"I see, you went to the races yesterday",
0:03:58 > 0:04:03just to establish in the audience's mind, "Be quiet. He's gonna talk about the races now."
0:04:03 > 0:04:08- Do you mind if I ask you a conundrum?- I don't mind. I'd rather like you to ask me a conundrum.
0:04:08 > 0:04:15- If a bomb fell in a field and a bull ate it, what would it be?- If a bomb fell in a field and a bull ate it?
0:04:15 > 0:04:18- Yes.- I don't know, what would it be? - A bomb in a bull!
0:04:18 > 0:04:24Stan Laurel had learned his comedy skills in the British music hall before going to America to become
0:04:24 > 0:04:29one half of the most famous double act in the world.
0:04:29 > 0:04:33Laurel and Hardy established the first rule of the double act -
0:04:33 > 0:04:37argue with each other, but remain loyal when anybody else comes along.
0:04:37 > 0:04:43Their brand of slapstick and stupidity has influenced every double act since.
0:04:44 > 0:04:45PING!
0:04:45 > 0:04:48# Underneath the arches... #
0:04:48 > 0:04:55In Britain, the first British double act to really hit the big time were Flanagan and Allen.
0:04:55 > 0:04:57They were nostalgic and reassuring.
0:04:57 > 0:05:01They were the double act that got Britain through World War II.
0:05:03 > 0:05:06Bud Flanagan famously sang the theme tune to Dad's Army.
0:05:06 > 0:05:09They're remembered more for their songs than their comedy,
0:05:09 > 0:05:15but in their heyday, they were experts in the art of classic comedy cross-talk.
0:05:15 > 0:05:17- Now you're in the 2.30 race. - What time?- 2.30.- Yes.
0:05:17 > 0:05:20- And you'll start about ten to one. - How far is this?
0:05:20 > 0:05:24- Oh, no distance at all. - And I start at ten to one? How about the other horses?
0:05:24 > 0:05:29- They start about five to four. - The same day?- Same day, same race. - And I start at ten to one?
0:05:29 > 0:05:32- Yes.- Watch me at quarter to three, I'll show you something!
0:05:32 > 0:05:39Meanwhile, in the United States, a double act had emerged that would influence comedy for years to come.
0:05:39 > 0:05:41Abbott and Costello!
0:05:41 > 0:05:45Abbott and Costello were a more modern, savvy style of double act.
0:05:45 > 0:05:48This wasn't the cosy world of Laurel and Hardy.
0:05:48 > 0:05:52Bud Abbott and Lou Costello were argumentative and unsentimental.
0:05:52 > 0:05:56They were a double act that hated each other, on screen and off.
0:05:56 > 0:05:57Why?
0:05:57 > 0:06:01I don't know, he's not third, and I don't give a damn!
0:06:01 > 0:06:04'They could fight over stupid things.'
0:06:04 > 0:06:08One of our maids decided to go work for the Abbotts and my father just
0:06:08 > 0:06:12hit the roof on that one, and he and Bud didn't speak for a few months.
0:06:12 > 0:06:17- Now wait, don't start that! - Oh, it's got a little rough! - Now look, Lou, you know we're on...
0:06:17 > 0:06:19we're on that...never mind that!
0:06:19 > 0:06:22- I don't care about the other cameras, that's the one.- All right.
0:06:22 > 0:06:28Abbott and Costello had a huge influence on British comedians, including Morecambe and Wise.
0:06:28 > 0:06:34Eric and Ernie first got together as teenagers in 1943, when television was still a long way off,
0:06:34 > 0:06:40and spent the next ten years learning their craft on the stages of Britain's variety theatres.
0:06:40 > 0:06:41Thank you, thank you. Who's come on?
0:06:41 > 0:06:45- I don't know.- Oh, it's us! I'm getting fed up of this stage lark.
0:06:45 > 0:06:50- Fed up with it?- I could do something different, like go abroad, get a new job.
0:06:50 > 0:06:53- Who was that woman there when she was doing all that dancing? - I've got it.- What?
0:06:53 > 0:06:58- Spain.- Is that where she was?- Yes. - That's where I'd like to go, where it's hot.- That's the place for you.
0:06:58 > 0:07:02- Why?- Listen, you would make a marvellous bullfighter!
0:07:02 > 0:07:05- Me?- Yeah, you're a natural.
0:07:05 > 0:07:08Listen, I'm gonna make you the greatest bullfighter in the world.
0:07:08 > 0:07:11- You're only saying that! - No, I'm not.
0:07:11 > 0:07:14- Well, somebody just did!- Eh?
0:07:14 > 0:07:18What's extraordinary about Eric and Ernie is the way they bridge the gap
0:07:18 > 0:07:22between music hall and the television we know today.
0:07:22 > 0:07:26In a sense, they helped to create modern light entertainment TV,
0:07:26 > 0:07:32but they also acted as a kind of Noah's Ark by bringing the last of music hall into the modern age.
0:07:32 > 0:07:37In 1954, Morecambe and Wise came to the attention of the BBC.
0:07:37 > 0:07:43After success on radio, they were given their first television series, Running Wild.
0:07:43 > 0:07:49They would eventually perfect the double act for television, but they got off to a very bad start.
0:07:49 > 0:07:52Running Wild was a great disaster!
0:07:52 > 0:07:56- Merry Christmas. - Is that the best you can do?
0:07:56 > 0:08:01I think it was a challenge to Ernie, but it was "Oh!" to Eric!
0:08:01 > 0:08:03This was their first time on TV
0:08:03 > 0:08:08and they hadn't realised actually how much attraction
0:08:08 > 0:08:12that would get, particularly from the press, who absolutely slated it.
0:08:12 > 0:08:17The newspapers gave Running Wild a savage beating, saying the gags
0:08:17 > 0:08:20were weak, their sketches corny and declaring it a flop.
0:08:20 > 0:08:22Eric was crushed.
0:08:22 > 0:08:27Running Wild was really attacked and torn apart by the critics,
0:08:27 > 0:08:30and one famously wrote "Definition of the week.
0:08:30 > 0:08:34"A TV set - the box in which they buried Morecambe and Wise."
0:08:34 > 0:08:37And he kept that in his wallet for the rest of his life.
0:08:37 > 0:08:40Well, even when he was terribly successful later,
0:08:40 > 0:08:44it rankles, that first effort they had.
0:08:44 > 0:08:46Their pride was hurt.
0:08:46 > 0:08:51For six long years, Eric and Ernie were out in the cold, but it was only a matter of time
0:08:51 > 0:08:53before TV came knocking again,
0:08:53 > 0:08:59and when it did, it was in the shape of the star-maker himself, Lew Grade.
0:08:59 > 0:09:02Morecambe and Wise were offered their own series by ATV.
0:09:02 > 0:09:06This time they were ready.
0:09:06 > 0:09:08We are...
0:09:09 > 0:09:11The show was an instant hit.
0:09:11 > 0:09:15They had the right production team and they had great writers
0:09:15 > 0:09:19in Sid Green and Dick Hills, who often appeared on screen alongside them.
0:09:25 > 0:09:27Hold it, Jack!
0:09:27 > 0:09:29Just a moment.
0:09:29 > 0:09:32- You see, what's happening is I was "oohing" then...- Oohing?
0:09:32 > 0:09:35I've yatatat'd and I've oohed, I've only got a bom left!
0:09:35 > 0:09:39- LAUGHTER - I know!- He knows, at last he knows!
0:09:39 > 0:09:41You'll give us a two in!
0:09:43 > 0:09:44He was my friend!
0:09:44 > 0:09:46Let's do it.
0:09:46 > 0:09:52It goes, one, two, bom, ooh, yatattata, bom, ooh, yatattata...
0:09:52 > 0:09:56THEY SING ALONG IN RHYTHM: # Are you lonely tonight?
0:09:56 > 0:10:00# Do you miss me tonight? #
0:10:00 > 0:10:05Sid Green and Dick Hills made Eric and Ernie stars on ITV, there's no doubt about that.
0:10:05 > 0:10:08They lifted them into the big league. They really wrote
0:10:08 > 0:10:12some very eccentric stuff for Eric
0:10:12 > 0:10:13to do, slightly surreal.
0:10:13 > 0:10:16Good evening, and welcome to the show.
0:10:16 > 0:10:19You all remember Fang, don't you? Fang.
0:10:19 > 0:10:23Well, Fang this week has brought his playmate along with him, Bonzo.
0:10:23 > 0:10:25LAUGHTER
0:10:25 > 0:10:27Now where's your ballie?
0:10:27 > 0:10:29Now come on, fetch your ballie!
0:10:29 > 0:10:33Oh, no, don't bother with that. Don't go chasing after that.
0:10:33 > 0:10:37I tell you for why, if you fetch it back, he only throws it away again!
0:10:37 > 0:10:41- I don't think he wants it.- He's a good boy, aren't you? He's a good...
0:10:41 > 0:10:43- HE GROWLS - Now, now watch it!
0:10:43 > 0:10:46I'll have him. I'll have his arm one day! I'll have him.
0:10:46 > 0:10:49Pardon? ..Forgotten your lines? Oh!
0:10:49 > 0:10:56Nearly 20 years after they had first got together, Eric and Ernie had finally arrived.
0:10:56 > 0:10:59They had money, fame and a hit TV series.
0:11:01 > 0:11:05The early '60s saw the emergence of another double act on ITV,
0:11:05 > 0:11:09the brothers Mike and Bernie Winters.
0:11:09 > 0:11:12They were the nearest thing to rivals that Morecambe and Wise ever had.
0:11:12 > 0:11:15They were young, talented and everybody liked them.
0:11:15 > 0:11:18They were London's answer to Eric and Ernie.
0:11:20 > 0:11:24Imagine that this is your girlfriend.
0:11:24 > 0:11:25- What, this?- There she is.
0:11:25 > 0:11:28Yeah, well, things ain't that bad!
0:11:30 > 0:11:33- She's beautiful, she's lovely! - You like her?- Yeah.
0:11:33 > 0:11:36- Well, you have her! - I don't want her!
0:11:36 > 0:11:40Mike and Bernie took their show on the road, but for some parts of the country,
0:11:40 > 0:11:44the last thing they wanted to see was a new Cockney double act.
0:11:47 > 0:11:52Glasgow is the graveyard for British comics, and Mike and Bernie played,
0:11:52 > 0:11:55and it opened with Mike Winters, who played the clarinet,
0:11:55 > 0:11:57and at the end of the chorus,
0:11:57 > 0:12:01Bernie Winters popped his head round the curtains and went...
0:12:02 > 0:12:07A Scottish man in the audience went, "BLEEP me, there's two of 'em"!
0:12:09 > 0:12:14By 1963, Mike and Bernie were the hosts of Big Night Out,
0:12:14 > 0:12:18one of ITV's top light entertainment shows.
0:12:18 > 0:12:23A double act with two brothers allowed Mike and Bernie to exploit the sibling rivalry
0:12:23 > 0:12:28between an older, sophisticated brother and a younger, stupid one.
0:12:28 > 0:12:32- Where's that bottle of Scotch I got you?- I threw it away.- What for?
0:12:32 > 0:12:36It said it was 17 years old on the bottle, I thought it had gone stale!
0:12:36 > 0:12:39All right. Look, what have we got to drink tonight?
0:12:39 > 0:12:43- I've got some good gear.- Yeah? - I've been down the supermarket and bought wine.
0:12:43 > 0:12:46- Yeah.- It's a sort of a mixture between Muscatel and Hock.
0:12:46 > 0:12:49- What's it called?- Muck.
0:12:49 > 0:12:52On the television, we think of Bernie Winters
0:12:52 > 0:12:55with the bowler hat, and all the silliness going on.
0:12:55 > 0:13:00In life, he was singularly the most charismatic,
0:13:00 > 0:13:02and women used to dribble over him.
0:13:04 > 0:13:07You know, Bernie, I think you're the most attractive,
0:13:07 > 0:13:10the most intelligent and the funniest man I know.
0:13:10 > 0:13:12- Ah, shut up!- Yes, I do!
0:13:12 > 0:13:15I wouldn't say I was as intelligent as my brother Mike.
0:13:15 > 0:13:17- Definitely.- Yeah?- Yeah.
0:13:17 > 0:13:22He is a bit stupid, you know, but then again, I wish I was as funny as Eric Morecambe!
0:13:22 > 0:13:24No, no.
0:13:24 > 0:13:26No, mmm.
0:13:26 > 0:13:29Bernie knew that Eric Morecambe was funnier,
0:13:29 > 0:13:32but that didn't stop a rivalry emerging between the two double acts.
0:13:32 > 0:13:35Everybody I've spoken to from England who were in double acts
0:13:35 > 0:13:39say, "How did you get on with Eric and Ernie, Morecambe and Wise?"
0:13:39 > 0:13:41We were bloody rivals, weren't we?
0:13:41 > 0:13:43We were the two biggest double acts in Britain.
0:13:43 > 0:13:49Meanwhile, Eric and Ernie never passed up an opportunity to remind the brothers who was number one.
0:13:49 > 0:13:54Can I ask you both, if you hadn't been comedians - I suppose it's impossible to imagine -
0:13:54 > 0:13:58but imagine for a moment that you aren't, what would you have liked to be?
0:13:58 > 0:13:59Mike and Bernie Winters!
0:14:01 > 0:14:03Very cruel!
0:14:03 > 0:14:06As Mike and Bernie Winters and Morecambe and Wise battled it out
0:14:06 > 0:14:11for mainstream supremacy, the future of double act comedy lay elsewhere.
0:14:11 > 0:14:16At the Palladium, they have a great tradition for great double acts,
0:14:16 > 0:14:21like Flanagan and Allen, Mike and Bernie Winters, Morecambe and Wise, Nureyev and Fontaine,
0:14:21 > 0:14:25and tonight's no exception. I'm chuffed to introduce Peter Cook and Dudley Moore!
0:14:36 > 0:14:39# Red, blue, green, red blue, green, red, blue, green red, blue, green
0:14:39 > 0:14:44# Red, blue, green, red, blue green, red, blue, green red, blue, green
0:14:44 > 0:14:48# Yellow, ochre, white, yellow ochre, white, yellow, ochre white, yellow, ochre, white
0:14:48 > 0:14:51- # Red, blue, green, red blue, green... #- Tea's up, Dud.
0:14:51 > 0:14:53- What?- Tea's up.
0:14:53 > 0:14:55Oh, thanks, Pete.
0:14:55 > 0:14:58Peter Cook and Dudley Moore changed the rules.
0:14:58 > 0:15:02This was a double act with no straight man and they hadn't worked
0:15:02 > 0:15:05their way up through the theatre, they'd been to university.
0:15:05 > 0:15:08Nobody had seen anything like it before.
0:15:10 > 0:15:13The head of the BBC actually said,
0:15:13 > 0:15:16"If this is light entertainment, I'm in the wrong business!"
0:15:16 > 0:15:19Michael Peacock, who was in charge of BBC Two, said,
0:15:19 > 0:15:21"I think you're in the wrong business!"
0:15:21 > 0:15:25Peter Cook, I think, was pure genius. It's inspired all of us.
0:15:25 > 0:15:30You're allowed to be funny, but also you could treat your audience as adults.
0:15:30 > 0:15:32People were staying on at schools
0:15:32 > 0:15:37and you could talk about things that the comedians would never have dared talk about before.
0:15:37 > 0:15:40I was just about to drop off when suddenly...
0:15:40 > 0:15:45tap, tap, tap at the bloody window pane.
0:15:45 > 0:15:48I looked out. You know who it was?
0:15:48 > 0:15:51- Who?- Bloody Greta Garbo!
0:15:54 > 0:15:58It is great to watch cos it's real and you like that they're laughing,
0:15:58 > 0:16:02but there's also a bubble that's happened between them,
0:16:02 > 0:16:07out of sight of all these people watching, where all they're doing is trying to make each other laugh
0:16:07 > 0:16:10and that's always... Something brilliant about that.
0:16:10 > 0:16:15Because it does imply an affection between the two of them that overrides,
0:16:15 > 0:16:20"We gotta get the audience to laugh. We gotta get the bosses at the BBC to think this is good."
0:16:20 > 0:16:23Something else has happened which is smaller and more lovely than all that.
0:16:23 > 0:16:25Stark naked...
0:16:27 > 0:16:29..save for a shortie nightie!
0:16:29 > 0:16:32She was hanging onto the windowsill!
0:16:33 > 0:16:35And I can see...I can see...
0:16:35 > 0:16:39I can see her knuckles all white. She's...
0:16:39 > 0:16:42For some reason, it works.
0:16:42 > 0:16:45He's short and working class, I'm tall and middle class,
0:16:45 > 0:16:50he's from Dagenham, I'm from Torquay.
0:16:50 > 0:16:52And one of us is Jewish, I'm not sure which one!
0:16:52 > 0:16:58Oxbridge-educated smart-Alecs like Pete and Dud would soon dominate comedy,
0:16:58 > 0:17:03but in the late '60s, the music hall tradition of The Morecambe And Wise Show was still top of the TV ratings.
0:17:03 > 0:17:06You're a gambling man, aren't ya?
0:17:06 > 0:17:08- Yes, a gambling man.- Yeah? We'll toss for who does it, eh?
0:17:08 > 0:17:10- All right.- Shall we?- Yes, OK.
0:17:10 > 0:17:15(I've got a double-headed penny! Double-headed!)
0:17:15 > 0:17:18- What did you say then? - I'm just telling 'em.- Oh, are ya?
0:17:18 > 0:17:20- Are you ready?- Yes.- Right, then.
0:17:20 > 0:17:21Heads.
0:17:24 > 0:17:26Oh!
0:17:26 > 0:17:28They were huge, massive.
0:17:28 > 0:17:31Biggest thing that ATV had...
0:17:31 > 0:17:33at that time, The Morecambe And Wise Show.
0:17:33 > 0:17:38Morecambe and Wise were ambitious. They asked Lew Grade at ITV
0:17:38 > 0:17:41for more money, bigger budgets and a switch to colour television.
0:17:41 > 0:17:43But Lew Grade said no.
0:17:43 > 0:17:46They were always worried about getting into a rut,
0:17:46 > 0:17:49and I think they were ready for a change. They were...
0:17:51 > 0:17:54..ready to stretch, ready to stretch a bit,
0:17:54 > 0:18:00and, er, it was partly money, partly money, I think that...
0:18:00 > 0:18:02It wasn't only money, but...
0:18:03 > 0:18:06They didn't like the feeling that Lew thought he owned them
0:18:06 > 0:18:08or ATV thought they owned them.
0:18:08 > 0:18:14The BBC's Head of Light Entertainment, Bill Cotton, was alerted to the fall-out.
0:18:14 > 0:18:18I found out that Morecambe and Wise were gonna leave ATV,
0:18:18 > 0:18:21and Michael Grade,
0:18:21 > 0:18:27who was then acting as an agent,
0:18:27 > 0:18:32phoned me up and said that they'd fallen out with his Uncle Lew,
0:18:32 > 0:18:38and was I interested in discussing with them coming to the BBC?
0:18:38 > 0:18:42And we did the deal, and I said, "Bill, you've got them, that's it.
0:18:42 > 0:18:44"I'm gonna ring Lew now and tell him they've gone."
0:18:44 > 0:18:48So I rang the boys and told them what the deal was - they were very happy -
0:18:48 > 0:18:52and I rang Lew and told him that Morecambe and Wise were leaving.
0:18:54 > 0:18:58He said, "They'll be sorry!" He said, "They'll be sorry."
0:18:58 > 0:19:03The BBC gave Morecambe and Wise everything they wanted, and they sensationally jumped ship.
0:19:03 > 0:19:08In 1968, they returned to the BBC in triumph, and in colour.
0:19:08 > 0:19:13- You'll be telling me next you've heard a voice from the other side. - I have! I have!
0:19:13 > 0:19:16It was Lew Grade, but the money was no good!
0:19:16 > 0:19:19Lew understood that business was business,
0:19:19 > 0:19:22and that was it. He'd lost Morecambe and Wise. Move on.
0:19:24 > 0:19:27The series was another success, and they set off to cash in
0:19:27 > 0:19:31with a whirlwind of appearances from New York to Glasgow.
0:19:31 > 0:19:35But one night, driving home after a gruelling week of midnight shows
0:19:35 > 0:19:38at the Batley Variety Club, Eric Morecambe's luck ran out.
0:19:38 > 0:19:42He had a heart attack which nearly killed him.
0:19:42 > 0:19:48In typical form, Eric turned the whole frightening episode into a comedy routine.
0:19:48 > 0:19:51I had a Jensen in those days, and I said,
0:19:51 > 0:19:55"Do you feel you could take me to a hospital? I don't feel well."
0:19:55 > 0:19:58And Walter Butterworth - I'll never forget him -
0:19:58 > 0:20:01wasn't his real name, but I'll never forget him -
0:20:01 > 0:20:05and, um, he said, "Yes, oh, aye!
0:20:06 > 0:20:08"Hey, you're, um, um...
0:20:09 > 0:20:12"..Morton and White!"
0:20:12 > 0:20:15And I said, "Oh, Morecambe and Wise, yes".
0:20:15 > 0:20:18So he said, "Oh, well, I've never driven one of these."
0:20:18 > 0:20:23He said, "I'm in the Territorials, I've only driven a tank!" This is true, this!
0:20:23 > 0:20:28So he takes me to a hospital, and the next thing I know I'm being injected...
0:20:28 > 0:20:30This Walter Butterworth, he's sat with me.
0:20:30 > 0:20:34I said, "I'd like to say thank you for all your help and everything."
0:20:34 > 0:20:40He said, "Oh, that's all right. It's my pleasure." He says, "My mates won't believe this."
0:20:40 > 0:20:45He says - and this is the exact words he used - he says, "Will you do us a favour?"
0:20:45 > 0:20:49I said, "What?" He said, "Before you go, will you sign this?"
0:20:52 > 0:20:56At his home in Portugal, away from the pressure of showbusiness,
0:20:56 > 0:20:59Eric Morecambe tried to recover his strength,
0:20:59 > 0:21:03but back in England, his trusted writers Sid Green and Dick Hills
0:21:03 > 0:21:08had decided he was finished. They had plotted to leave the show, but kept it secret.
0:21:08 > 0:21:11Eric felt betrayed.
0:21:11 > 0:21:14Someone showed him a British newspaper that day,
0:21:14 > 0:21:16in which it said that Sid and Dick
0:21:16 > 0:21:24were leaving Morecambe and Wise to go for a contract to do their own show for ATV and Lew Grade.
0:21:24 > 0:21:28And when Eric saw it, he said, "Well, this is news to me.
0:21:28 > 0:21:31"They might have mentioned it to me before."
0:21:31 > 0:21:34Everyone thought, "Oh, Morecambe and Wise have had it now
0:21:34 > 0:21:38"because Eric's had this heart attack and things will never be the same again."
0:21:38 > 0:21:44We were going on holiday to Barbados and the stewardess came up to us
0:21:44 > 0:21:50and said, "Isn't it terrible, the fact that your scriptwriters have left you?"
0:21:50 > 0:21:52And we said, "Have they?" We didn't know.
0:21:52 > 0:21:54We felt they had written him off
0:21:54 > 0:22:00and thought, "Well, they're never gonna work again. We must find somebody else to work for."
0:22:00 > 0:22:02So he was extremely disappointed.
0:22:02 > 0:22:06With their writers gone and Eric's health still fragile,
0:22:06 > 0:22:12nobody knew whether Morecambe and Wise would ever be able to get back to their best.
0:22:12 > 0:22:18Meanwhile, waiting in the wings to take their light entertainment crown were a brand-new double act.
0:22:19 > 0:22:25Ronnie Corbett and Ronnie Barker first performed together in sketches on The Frost Report.
0:22:25 > 0:22:28It was clear they were made for each other.
0:22:28 > 0:22:33The first sketch the Two Ronnies did together was a whole sketch, written by Michael Palin
0:22:33 > 0:22:37and Terry Jones, but the opening two lines got such a laugh,
0:22:37 > 0:22:40they cut the rest, and it became what we call "a quickie".
0:22:40 > 0:22:42Good morning, Super.
0:22:42 > 0:22:43Morning, wonderful!
0:22:47 > 0:22:51And that was the first words they spoke to each other on television.
0:22:51 > 0:22:56When we first brought Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett together
0:22:56 > 0:22:59in The Frost Report in 1966,
0:22:59 > 0:23:05it was clear, immediately, that they had a chemistry.
0:23:05 > 0:23:09There was John Cleese also there, so it wasn't just the Two Ronnies,
0:23:09 > 0:23:11but they had a particular chemistry.
0:23:11 > 0:23:16That was the interesting thing. They didn't want to be Morecambe and Wise.
0:23:16 > 0:23:23They loved Morecambe and Wise, like everybody, but they wanted to be Ronnie Barker, Ronnie Corbett.
0:23:23 > 0:23:28In a packed programme, we shall be talking to a stereo expert about his favourite breakfast -
0:23:28 > 0:23:30two bowls of Rice Krispies ten feet apart!
0:23:30 > 0:23:35Then we'll have a novelty dance by Rita Mertracarter - who dresses only in three coins.
0:23:35 > 0:23:40We let her come on the show as she's down to her last penny!
0:23:40 > 0:23:47One of the abiding successes of The Two Ronnies was that there wasn't a funny man, straight man.
0:23:47 > 0:23:50They were equal...
0:23:50 > 0:23:54in the same way as Pete and Dud,
0:23:54 > 0:23:59although to a certain extent, Peter Cook was the dominant figure there.
0:23:59 > 0:24:04But you didn't really get a sense that either was the dominant figure.
0:24:06 > 0:24:07Fork 'andles?
0:24:08 > 0:24:10Four candles?
0:24:15 > 0:24:18Right, here you are - four candles.
0:24:18 > 0:24:20No, fork 'andles.
0:24:20 > 0:24:22Well, there you are, four candles.
0:24:22 > 0:24:25No, fork 'andles.
0:24:25 > 0:24:27Handles for forks!
0:24:29 > 0:24:33I think the really special thing about The Two Ronnies is that
0:24:33 > 0:24:36theirs was a genuine friendship and a genuine partnership.
0:24:36 > 0:24:39They would sort of give each other lines, they weren't vying
0:24:39 > 0:24:44- with each other for who was going to get the best laughs and the best lines.- Your name, please.
0:24:44 > 0:24:49- Good evening.- In your first heat your chosen subject was "answering questions before they were asked".
0:24:49 > 0:24:53This time, you have chosen to answer the question before last each time, is that correct?
0:24:53 > 0:24:55Charlie Smithers.
0:24:58 > 0:25:02And your time starts now. What is palaeontology?
0:25:02 > 0:25:04Yes, absolutely correct.
0:25:04 > 0:25:08What's the name of the directory that lists members of the peerage?
0:25:08 > 0:25:11- A study of old fossils. - Correct.
0:25:11 > 0:25:17They definitely set the sort of template for a lot of great comic types and situations.
0:25:17 > 0:25:21- Ready, Eric?- Ready, Ern. - Right, switch on.- Right.
0:25:21 > 0:25:27After the heart attack and being abandoned by their writers, it looked like the end of Morecambe and Wise,
0:25:27 > 0:25:33but luckily Eric recovered and a new writer was found.
0:25:33 > 0:25:35The new series began with a joke about his heart.
0:25:35 > 0:25:39Thank you, thank you very much. Keep going you fool! What?
0:25:39 > 0:25:44- Eric did that line - "Keep going, you fool." The audience went... - HE SIGHS
0:25:44 > 0:25:49They were happy. They knew everything was OK. We didn't look back from that moment.
0:25:49 > 0:25:51# Let your arms be as... #
0:25:51 > 0:25:53Morecambe and Wise were back.
0:25:55 > 0:25:59The new writer was Eddie Braben. He revitalised the double act.
0:26:00 > 0:26:03I wrote the bed sketch, I was pleased with it
0:26:03 > 0:26:08as I got them even closer, and you can't get more intimate than two men in bed.
0:26:08 > 0:26:09- Ern!- Yes?
0:26:09 > 0:26:11Just testing.
0:26:11 > 0:26:15I don't like getting into bed with strangers!
0:26:15 > 0:26:19I can remember them reading it. I remember them laughing and saying, "We can't do it."
0:26:19 > 0:26:24I was very naive. Honestly, I really was. I said, "Why?"
0:26:24 > 0:26:28They said, "It's two men together." I said, "It's Eric and Ernie." "It makes no diff...
0:26:28 > 0:26:32"It's two of us in bed," he said. "We won't get away with it."
0:26:32 > 0:26:37I said, "Look, if it's good enough for Laurel and Hardy, it's good enough for you."
0:26:37 > 0:26:39And Eric said, "We'll do it."
0:26:39 > 0:26:41SIREN WAILS
0:26:41 > 0:26:45He's not gonna sell much ice cream going at that speed.
0:26:45 > 0:26:51The Morecambe And Wise Show was now better than ever, and their Christmas shows were the biggest thing on TV,
0:26:51 > 0:26:55but once again, as the ratings increased, so did the pressure.
0:26:59 > 0:27:03Eric would start worrying about the Christmas show in about June!
0:27:03 > 0:27:06I think we used to feel enormously responsible for the fact
0:27:06 > 0:27:11that so many people were sitting there doing exactly what we were doing, watching the Christmas show.
0:27:11 > 0:27:16We were told that even the Royal Family arranged their meal
0:27:16 > 0:27:18so that they could watch The Morecambe And Wise Show!
0:27:18 > 0:27:24In the run up to the show, I was a wreck, a total wreck, no other way to describe it,
0:27:24 > 0:27:27just waiting for this programme to come out.
0:27:27 > 0:27:30It was so, so important to so many people.
0:27:30 > 0:27:36Bill Cotton and the BBC had made Morecambe and Wise the most popular double act on television.
0:27:36 > 0:27:40But Eric and Ernie had some bad news for the BBC.
0:27:41 > 0:27:47I'd got flu...and it was raining... and I was lying in this hotel
0:27:47 > 0:27:53in Los Angeles, and my secretary phoned me up and said,
0:27:53 > 0:27:57"I'm sorry to bring you bad news, but Eric and Ernie have gone."
0:27:57 > 0:28:01ITV had stolen Morecambe and Wise from the BBC.
0:28:01 > 0:28:05For Eric and Ernie, it was one last big pay day.
0:28:05 > 0:28:07For Bill Cotton, it was a traumatic loss.
0:28:07 > 0:28:09I was absolutely devastated.
0:28:09 > 0:28:12And it was just like a divorce!
0:28:14 > 0:28:17I just couldn't get over it, you know, that they'd gone.
0:28:17 > 0:28:21Eric and Ernie's first Christmas show on ITV was watched
0:28:21 > 0:28:26by a much smaller audience than the year before, and, even worse, they looked past their best.
0:28:26 > 0:28:29They were getting older but the pressure was still there.
0:28:29 > 0:28:35After just one year at ITV, Eric Morecambe suffered another heart attack.
0:28:35 > 0:28:37You've gotta take it easy for a bit?
0:28:37 > 0:28:40If I can get a bit, I'll take it easy, yes!
0:28:40 > 0:28:42LAUGHTER
0:28:42 > 0:28:46- Seriously, how are you feeling? - Great. Absolutely marvellous!
0:28:46 > 0:28:50Eric recovered from his heart attack to complete more shows for ITV,
0:28:50 > 0:28:54and whilst there were some great moments, time was catching up with them.
0:28:56 > 0:28:58Everybody reaches a peak.
0:28:58 > 0:29:03We'd reached a peak, and when you reach a peak, there's only one way to go, and that's down.
0:29:03 > 0:29:07No matter who you are, there's a time to get to the top and there's a time to leave it.
0:29:07 > 0:29:14The Christmas show of 1983 was destined to be their last ever appearance.
0:29:14 > 0:29:18A few weeks later at a charity show in a small theatre in Tewkesbury,
0:29:18 > 0:29:24Eric entertained and enthralled an audience with stories of his childhood and early career.
0:29:27 > 0:29:32As the show drew to a close, Eric couldn't resist dancing and joining in with the band.
0:29:32 > 0:29:37As he left the stage, he uttered his last words, "I'm glad that's over",
0:29:37 > 0:29:38and collapsed.
0:29:40 > 0:29:45The most loved comedian in Britain died a few hours later.
0:29:45 > 0:29:47He was only 58.
0:29:49 > 0:29:55It did for him in the end, yeah, and I think that comedy had played its part in it, if not the biggest part.
0:29:55 > 0:30:01At the funeral, his double act partner, Ernie Wise, gave the most fitting of tributes.
0:30:01 > 0:30:03Ernie recited...
0:30:03 > 0:30:09to finish his eulogy, Bring Me Sunshine, and it was really a masterstroke,
0:30:09 > 0:30:15because it was so touching, the words of Bring Me Sunshine, with Eric's coffin in front of him.
0:30:15 > 0:30:19# There should be more happiness So much more... #
0:30:19 > 0:30:23Ernie Wise would outlive Eric by 15 years, but with Eric gone,
0:30:23 > 0:30:26it was the end for television's greatest-ever double act.
0:30:26 > 0:30:29# ..Through the years... #
0:30:29 > 0:30:33The next generation would learn their craft in the Northern clubs.
0:30:33 > 0:30:39This is where Cyril Mead met Edward McGinnis and became Little and Large.
0:30:39 > 0:30:44We didn't sit down one day and say, "Right, I'm gonna do all the jokes,
0:30:44 > 0:30:49"the clowning around, the impressions, and you stand there with a straight face."
0:30:49 > 0:30:51That just evolved.
0:30:51 > 0:30:56It all started when I first met Syd. I didn't meet him. I got him with my car - he was the dipstick!
0:30:58 > 0:31:00I'd say to Syd, "Do you know this song?"
0:31:00 > 0:31:02I'd be concentrating on the chords on the guitar,
0:31:02 > 0:31:06- cos I'd only just learnt to play. - I'd just be cracking jokes,
0:31:06 > 0:31:08and people would say,
0:31:08 > 0:31:13"How can he keep his face so straight and you messing about?" We hadn't thought about it!
0:31:13 > 0:31:18Then you think, "If you keep your face straight and I'm clowning around, we might have something."
0:31:18 > 0:31:24Well, here we are at the Supersonic Syd Little Show at Thames Television.
0:31:24 > 0:31:30We have a great little battler here. He's gonna do some operandum tonight I hope, ah, er... All right?
0:31:30 > 0:31:32- Yes, yeah.- Own show, eh?- Yeah.
0:31:32 > 0:31:35I knew he would. Looking good tonight, ain't he, girls? Ah, ah...
0:31:35 > 0:31:40This was comedy for people who hadn't been to a variety theatre or university.
0:31:40 > 0:31:45They were nightclub comedians, who knew exactly what their audience wanted.
0:31:45 > 0:31:49"Yabadabadoo! How you doing, Barney?" "Oh, hello, Fred."
0:31:49 > 0:31:55'We used to do a lot of cartoons in the act. That's what made us different, I think.'
0:31:55 > 0:31:57We didn't really rehearse much.
0:31:57 > 0:32:02They should bring Popeye back. I used to love him. "Sweet Pea."
0:32:02 > 0:32:04"Oh, me gosh, Olive. Ug, ug, ug!"
0:32:04 > 0:32:09See, it's still there. It never leaves you, you just slow down!
0:32:09 > 0:32:12That's what we used to do. That's how Deputy Duck came into the act.
0:32:14 > 0:32:17Ah! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!
0:32:17 > 0:32:19Now, geez...
0:32:19 > 0:32:24When we first started TV, Eddie would come up with sketches and I'd think up sketches,
0:32:24 > 0:32:27but I'd get frustrated cos mine would never get accepted.
0:32:27 > 0:32:31If that's how he remembers it. It's not how I remember it.
0:32:32 > 0:32:35So maybe when Syd says "his ideas", maybe they were crap ideas!
0:32:35 > 0:32:39I thought it was good! Well, you try and think of one!
0:32:39 > 0:32:44- I will.- Right.- The impression I would very much like to do is the one...
0:32:44 > 0:32:47# And I painted matchstick men and matchstick cats and... #
0:32:47 > 0:32:50I've always felt bullied by Eddie.
0:32:50 > 0:32:54If I screwed up, Eddie would give me this look.
0:32:54 > 0:32:58Anyone with confidence would go and get it right, but it used to make me worse.
0:32:58 > 0:33:02Syd was nervous, and that made me nervous.
0:33:02 > 0:33:08I would be nervous that he wouldn't remember the lines, and we're on telly and... Oh, please!
0:33:08 > 0:33:12He's so good, the BBC wanted him to play the escape officer in Colditz.
0:33:12 > 0:33:16You were late for the audition. He got locked in the dressing room.
0:33:16 > 0:33:21Like I say, you only have to look, a look or a tut, and it used to scare me.
0:33:21 > 0:33:28I don't remember him complaining in '77, '78, '79, when he was making fortunes.
0:33:28 > 0:33:31I don't remember him saying it then.
0:33:31 > 0:33:33Little and Large were at the top for a long time,
0:33:33 > 0:33:38but just like Eric Morecambe, Eddie Large wasn't in the best of health.
0:33:38 > 0:33:42Many comedians have had heart problems, and I'm one of them.
0:33:42 > 0:33:48And I got told that I could drop dead at any minute.
0:33:48 > 0:33:51Didn't tell me wife, didn't tell Syd,
0:33:51 > 0:33:57which was pretty stupid, but I kept going, and then I just kept going until I couldn't go any further.
0:33:57 > 0:34:00So then they said... need a heart transplant, so...
0:34:00 > 0:34:05That's when the act had to finish. I had to phone Syd up and tell him I can't do it.
0:34:05 > 0:34:09That was it. I knew we weren't going to get back together after his illness.
0:34:09 > 0:34:11I just knew it. We just knew it.
0:34:11 > 0:34:17It was a feeling, I think, more than a... You didn't have to say anything, we just knew it was over.
0:34:17 > 0:34:20I cried me eyes out on the phone...
0:34:20 > 0:34:24cos it was the end, you know, of the double act.
0:34:24 > 0:34:28Ladies and gentlemen, it's Tommy Cannon and Bobby Ball!
0:34:28 > 0:34:35Cannon and Ball were another nightclub act which made the leap into big-time television stardom.
0:34:35 > 0:34:39In the act, Tommy Cannon bullied little Bobby Ball.
0:34:39 > 0:34:43As a result, the audience loved Bobby but hated Tommy!
0:34:43 > 0:34:48I've just got one more impression left, and I'm gonna do it on me own.
0:34:48 > 0:34:50Hey, don't get shirty with me, Tommy.
0:34:52 > 0:34:54- I've done a bit, you know.- What?
0:34:54 > 0:34:57A bit of that Typhoo!
0:34:57 > 0:35:01Certainly when we first started doing all this stuff,
0:35:01 > 0:35:04the general public really believed what was happening.
0:35:04 > 0:35:09He used to go outside clubs... Women with umbrellas used to hit him!
0:35:09 > 0:35:11They believed he were really picking on me!
0:35:11 > 0:35:15You can't get me, can you, cos you've got boxing gloves on!
0:35:18 > 0:35:24The formula worked. Tommy hit Bobby, and Cannon and Ball hit the big time.
0:35:24 > 0:35:28We had a Rolls-Royce, we had a lot of money, we had a, a boat...
0:35:28 > 0:35:30Listen, we're two lads from Oldham!
0:35:30 > 0:35:35You've gotta think about it. If we've got a grand in our pocket, blimey, you spend it!
0:35:35 > 0:35:37Thank you!
0:35:37 > 0:35:39Thank you!
0:35:39 > 0:35:42Once again, I thank you!
0:35:42 > 0:35:47We lost control as well through it, because of it all being, all of a sudden, whooof...
0:35:47 > 0:35:49All this sort of success is on top of you.
0:35:49 > 0:35:54And, you know, really, I suppose to be honest about it, we weren't...
0:35:54 > 0:35:59young kids when it happened, so... But, you know...
0:35:59 > 0:36:01- I were a lot younger than you!- Well, you were.
0:36:01 > 0:36:06- You were a year younger. - A few years!- Consequently, we lost the plot a little bit.
0:36:14 > 0:36:16Bobby Ball became a comedy superstar.
0:36:16 > 0:36:23Women loved him, money was pouring in, but the lifelong friendship with Tommy began to fall apart.
0:36:23 > 0:36:25Me and this lad here
0:36:25 > 0:36:30had come from a welding floor and worked all the way through,
0:36:30 > 0:36:32and we ended up falling out.
0:36:32 > 0:36:34Now, no fame's worth that.
0:36:34 > 0:36:36You mince morsels with me...
0:36:36 > 0:36:37You said I were a dog!
0:36:37 > 0:36:40- I never said you were a dog. - In so many words.
0:36:40 > 0:36:42- Exactly.- You instituted it!
0:36:42 > 0:36:45- Did say you were a dog?- You said... - Well, did I?- You said...
0:36:45 > 0:36:47- Did I? Well, did I?- You said...
0:36:47 > 0:36:49- Well, did I?- Listen, you...
0:36:49 > 0:36:50- Well, did I, did I?- You did...
0:36:50 > 0:36:52- Well, did I? - Tommy you...- Did I, did I?
0:36:52 > 0:36:54Did I call you a dog?
0:36:54 > 0:36:56- No, you didn't.- No, I didn't.
0:36:56 > 0:36:57Well, sit!
0:36:59 > 0:37:02I'm fed up with you now always arguing, go on, get off!
0:37:02 > 0:37:07Bournemouth was one of the worst summer seasons, I think, that we could have possibly...
0:37:07 > 0:37:12As I remember, Bournemouth backstage was a long corridor, and he had...
0:37:12 > 0:37:16Bobby had one dressing room at one bottom end, I had it at the top end.
0:37:16 > 0:37:22And if we passed in the corridor, and we literally had to turn side by side to pass one another,
0:37:22 > 0:37:25and we wouldn't even speak to one another.
0:37:25 > 0:37:28I'd go home at night and I would, I'll be honest, I used to cry.
0:37:28 > 0:37:31It was one of the worst periods of my life.
0:37:31 > 0:37:36It really was. I mean, cos, A, I couldn't understand why it was there,
0:37:36 > 0:37:43B, we're in the heart of success. We couldn't want for anything else at that particular time in our lives.
0:37:43 > 0:37:47And, for some reason, we're not getting on.
0:37:47 > 0:37:48What's brought all this on?
0:37:48 > 0:37:53- You've done it again!- I didn't, I didn't... Oh, you dirty swine!
0:37:54 > 0:37:57You coulda made me pregnant then!
0:37:57 > 0:38:00'I think it were egos took over.'
0:38:00 > 0:38:04Your ego's continually being stroked when you're on TV,
0:38:04 > 0:38:09always being stroked. I thought I was the main one, and he thought he was the main one of the act.
0:38:09 > 0:38:11He should've realised it were me!
0:38:11 > 0:38:16After four years of not speaking, Cannon and Ball were on the brink of collapse,
0:38:16 > 0:38:21but a fateful meeting would change everything.
0:38:22 > 0:38:26Met a fella called Max Wigley, who was a vicar,
0:38:26 > 0:38:31if you like, and he started talking about God and so on, and so on.
0:38:31 > 0:38:36I found it very interesting and it give me a bit of peace.
0:38:36 > 0:38:38And I started seeing...
0:38:38 > 0:38:41Tom, and I looked at him in a different light.
0:38:41 > 0:38:43I started seeing the good in him, not the bad.
0:38:43 > 0:38:46- I'm very sorry for what I've done. - You should be.
0:38:46 > 0:38:49I wouldn't spoil your act for anything, you're my hero!
0:38:49 > 0:38:52You're a leg-end to me, a leg-end, boy!
0:38:52 > 0:38:55Legend! Not a leg-end!
0:38:58 > 0:39:04Tommy Cannon also became a Christian, and they now regularly tour with their gospel shows.
0:39:04 > 0:39:09# I want to thank you, Lord... #
0:39:09 > 0:39:14Cos we know double acts that didn't get on, and went their full career not getting on,
0:39:14 > 0:39:16and the public never knew.
0:39:16 > 0:39:22We've been honest about ours, and said, "Look, we didn't get on for four years, and it's fantastic now."
0:39:22 > 0:39:25But we went in I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here together,
0:39:25 > 0:39:27and we do shows together, and we're here.
0:39:27 > 0:39:32And not as young men any more, but we've been through all that and it's great,
0:39:32 > 0:39:38at the end of your career, to say, "We went there, and came out of it." And we did, for whatever reason.
0:39:38 > 0:39:40We hated one another. Now we love each other.
0:39:41 > 0:39:45Meanwhile in a seedy strip-club in London's Soho,
0:39:45 > 0:39:50there were more double acts plotting to overthrow the established order.
0:39:50 > 0:39:54Their names were Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French, Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson.
0:39:54 > 0:39:58They called it alternative comedy.
0:39:58 > 0:40:00- What's green and hairy and goes up and down?- What?
0:40:00 > 0:40:03A gooseberry in a lift! It kills 'em.
0:40:03 > 0:40:08- Good evening! I'd like to tell the gooseberry joke.- How does a gooseberry get into a lift?
0:40:10 > 0:40:13- I beg your pardon?- How does a gooseberry get into a lift?
0:40:13 > 0:40:15How the plop do I know?
0:40:15 > 0:40:19- It just seems improbable.- Maybe somebody brought it into the lift.
0:40:19 > 0:40:21Do I have to say everything?!
0:40:21 > 0:40:26They were not a million miles away from the Bottom characters and also the Young Ones characters.
0:40:26 > 0:40:29Ade, you know, just being lovable
0:40:29 > 0:40:32and quite dangerous back then.
0:40:32 > 0:40:35And Rik just being frustrated with the world,
0:40:35 > 0:40:40convinced that surely everyone loves him, when, in fact, we always know that nobody does.
0:40:40 > 0:40:43Rik and Ade's double act was put on the back burner
0:40:43 > 0:40:46so they could reinvent the sitcom with The Young Ones.
0:40:46 > 0:40:48I'm going to write to my MP.
0:40:48 > 0:40:50But you haven't got an MP, you're an anarchist.
0:40:50 > 0:40:55Ah, well, then I shall write to the lead singer of Echo and The Bunnymen!
0:40:55 > 0:40:58Rik and Ade's next big double-act moment came
0:40:58 > 0:41:05when they merged their Young Ones characters with the Dangerous Brothers. It produced Bottom.
0:41:11 > 0:41:16French and Saunders, however, didn't need to invent new comedy characters.
0:41:16 > 0:41:21They would make a career out of playing themselves - a pair of lazy women who act like children.
0:41:21 > 0:41:23This was a perfect concept for a double act.
0:41:27 > 0:41:30How long have you been in there, Jennifer?
0:41:30 > 0:41:33She can't hear me, ladies and gentlemen.
0:41:33 > 0:41:36How long have you been in there?
0:41:36 > 0:41:38No, she still can't hear me.
0:41:41 > 0:41:45How long have you been in here? How long?
0:41:45 > 0:41:48I remember seeing French and Saunders at the Comic Strip
0:41:48 > 0:41:50and it was great because...
0:41:50 > 0:41:54I don't think we'd ever seen two women on stage. Apart from a strip club.
0:41:54 > 0:41:57- But we hadn't seen two women on stage.- It WAS a strip club!- It was!
0:41:57 > 0:42:01They're not the sort of people that, if they've got a TV series coming up
0:42:01 > 0:42:03they'll have it written by the weekend.
0:42:03 > 0:42:08You would think, "This has been carefully crafted by 200 people in Russia somewhere," but it hasn't,
0:42:08 > 0:42:14you know, it's been knocked out on the back of a fag packet, but with...you know, very diligently.
0:42:14 > 0:42:16Let's do some ideas.
0:42:16 > 0:42:21- What do you wanna write? We've gotta write something on the board because I've gotta go early.- Show Two.
0:42:21 > 0:42:23Show Two.
0:42:24 > 0:42:27- Now what's that gonna be? - Um...- What, here?
0:42:27 > 0:42:29- Just write "idea".- Idea, yeah.
0:42:29 > 0:42:35Apart from spending several days looking at Hello! magazine and Heat,
0:42:35 > 0:42:38the way they work is by bouncing ideas off each other.
0:42:38 > 0:42:42And, in a way, the person who kind of runs with the idea furthest
0:42:42 > 0:42:44gets to write it.
0:42:44 > 0:42:47- I can have 80 pints and I can still give it what for.- Can ya?
0:42:47 > 0:42:50Yeah, uncontrollably sexy, I am, when I've had 80 pints.
0:42:50 > 0:42:53I get even dirtier after 50 pints.
0:42:53 > 0:42:55I can give it, I can give it...
0:42:56 > 0:43:01Gloria, Gloria, it's your lucky night, darling, get a load of this!
0:43:03 > 0:43:05He's got a present for you, Gloria.
0:43:07 > 0:43:12Everything in the show, even when they're playing characters and they're genuinely immersed in them,
0:43:12 > 0:43:17is Dawn and Jennifer, really. So when they do those movie parodies, it's Dawn and Jennifer.
0:43:25 > 0:43:27Fandabidozi!
0:43:35 > 0:43:38Good morning.
0:43:38 > 0:43:40- Morning.- Sit down, please.
0:43:43 > 0:43:46What did the Krankies say to you?
0:43:46 > 0:43:49They said "fandabidozi".
0:43:51 > 0:43:58By the early '90s, the biggest influence on comedy wasn't other comedians at all, it was music.
0:43:58 > 0:44:03Newman and Baddiel didn't want to be Morecambe and Wise, they wanted to be Morrissey and Marr.
0:44:03 > 0:44:05Comedy was the new rock'n'roll.
0:44:05 > 0:44:11We were doing stuff that was appealing to sort of NME readers and students.
0:44:11 > 0:44:14We were the first wave of comedians to do stuff about pop music
0:44:14 > 0:44:16and just being young people.
0:44:16 > 0:44:22Rob Newman and David Baddiel's breakthrough TV show was The Mary Whitehouse Experience,
0:44:22 > 0:44:28but they had to share the spotlight with another act, Punt and Dennis, and they weren't happy about it.
0:44:28 > 0:44:31There was a sort of division at the heart of that show.
0:44:31 > 0:44:36Me and Rob were doing different stuff from what Punt and Dennis were doing at the time.
0:44:36 > 0:44:39It was like trying to make a concept album with Showaddywaddy.
0:44:39 > 0:44:41- Papa?- Nicole?
0:44:43 > 0:44:46BOTH: Out on the pull again?
0:44:46 > 0:44:49With the two double acts thrown together by the BBC,
0:44:49 > 0:44:53The Mary Whitehouse Experience were like a manufactured boy band.
0:44:53 > 0:44:59Even serious music critics like Paul Morley treated these comedians like rock stars.
0:44:59 > 0:45:02'I felt Rob was the singer'
0:45:02 > 0:45:04and Punt and Dennis were the rhythm section
0:45:04 > 0:45:06and Baddiel was the keyboard player.
0:45:06 > 0:45:08I love you.
0:45:08 > 0:45:11- You're just saying that. - No, no, I really love you.
0:45:11 > 0:45:15You know how you can really love an entertainer and it becomes like...
0:45:15 > 0:45:19And it's why you keep hoping that people like you come along, new people come along,
0:45:19 > 0:45:24cos otherwise, what would happen if nobody came along? And you came along, and I love you.
0:45:27 > 0:45:34After series one, Baddiel and Newman went to meet their adoring fans live in the flesh.
0:45:34 > 0:45:36Punt and Dennis were left behind.
0:45:36 > 0:45:37Hello, hello.
0:45:37 > 0:45:42We did one series of The Mary Whitehouse Experience and then we played at The Venue,
0:45:42 > 0:45:48which was a rock venue in London. The Venue sells out, and it's 1,500 people, and they go mental.
0:45:48 > 0:45:53And that incredible cliche about comedy being the new rock'n'roll that we started to embody,
0:45:53 > 0:45:58it had one truth about it, which was that the gigs were like rock gigs,
0:45:58 > 0:45:59they weren't like theatre gigs.
0:46:05 > 0:46:08Rob and Dave should have been happy.
0:46:08 > 0:46:10But they weren't.
0:46:10 > 0:46:12While we were there,
0:46:12 > 0:46:14it would all land upon us,
0:46:14 > 0:46:18so we would get the brunt of any kind of argument that went on,
0:46:18 > 0:46:23but once we'd gone, they'd turned on... They started arguing amongst themselves.
0:46:23 > 0:46:26"He had scurvy and rickets
0:46:26 > 0:46:31"and was covered from head to foot in festering sores.
0:46:33 > 0:46:40"All in all, he was quite the most ghastly apparition of a man I had ever seen."
0:46:40 > 0:46:43I see. And who exactly was this...
0:46:43 > 0:46:45LAUGHTER
0:46:45 > 0:46:48...poor unfortunate?
0:46:56 > 0:46:59- That's you, that is. - LAUGHTER
0:47:00 > 0:47:05Rob and Dave's popularity earned them a TV series all of their own.
0:47:07 > 0:47:11For their live shows, they were always Baddiel and Newman, but this was the big time
0:47:11 > 0:47:16and Rob now insisted his name should be first.
0:47:16 > 0:47:20It was originally Baddiel and Newman and then became Newman and Baddiel.
0:47:20 > 0:47:24- But you know,- BLEEP! - I was... I'm over it now. Trust me!
0:47:26 > 0:47:29I think the thing we mustn't underestimate about Rob Newman
0:47:29 > 0:47:35is he knows his place, and he was the leader in that relationship, he was the Morecambe.
0:47:35 > 0:47:38You know, he was Lennon, not McCartney.
0:47:38 > 0:47:44The arguments about whose name went first didn't help the atmosphere backstage
0:47:44 > 0:47:48but ON stage, the conflict gave them their finest moment -
0:47:48 > 0:47:51the squabbling professors of History Today.
0:47:52 > 0:47:54Professor Lewis, do you feel, as many do,
0:47:54 > 0:47:59that Sebastopol was indeed the birthplace of the Russian Revolution?
0:47:59 > 0:48:04- See people who talk like this... - HE RASPS
0:48:05 > 0:48:07That's you, that is.
0:48:08 > 0:48:12That's you talking your best.
0:48:12 > 0:48:16I see. You see girls running like this...
0:48:19 > 0:48:21That's you, that is.
0:48:21 > 0:48:24That's how you run.
0:48:24 > 0:48:27Rob thought that Dave was seen as the intellectual,
0:48:27 > 0:48:30I think largely due to the glasses,
0:48:30 > 0:48:35um...and I think, um, he did want to be...
0:48:35 > 0:48:40seen as, you know, as equal intellectually
0:48:40 > 0:48:43and not just the one who looks like a pop star.
0:48:43 > 0:48:46Newman and Baddiel's live shows got bigger and bigger.
0:48:46 > 0:48:49They had more money and adulation than they could handle.
0:48:49 > 0:48:52The whole thing was spinning out of control.
0:48:52 > 0:48:56I did all the stuff that you do - I split up with my girlfriend,
0:48:56 > 0:48:59I slept with quite a lot of women - not as many as Rob -
0:48:59 > 0:49:03and...I got paranoid about stuff.
0:49:03 > 0:49:09But crucially we - me and him - found it difficult to just be friends
0:49:09 > 0:49:13in the kind of easy way that we'd been friends before we were famous.
0:49:13 > 0:49:18It did happen very quickly and I think it was a bit de-stabilising for both of us.
0:49:18 > 0:49:22It meant that we were behaving kind of weirdly in some ways.
0:49:22 > 0:49:28The wheels were falling off the Newman and Baddiel bandwagon, but the audience still adored them.
0:49:28 > 0:49:3312,000 fans turned up at Wembley Arena for the biggest comedy show of all time.
0:49:33 > 0:49:41The last tour, when we were doing Wembley, and apart from that, all 4,000 and 5,000-seater venues,
0:49:41 > 0:49:46there was a period when we weren't speaking, we were just speaking when we were on stage,
0:49:46 > 0:49:51which, you know, at the end of the day, for a double act is completely mental.
0:49:51 > 0:49:54I like to think now it enhances our rock'n'roll status!
0:49:54 > 0:49:56Goodbye!
0:49:56 > 0:50:02You just wouldn't believe it that a couple of comedians so young and so seemingly down to earth
0:50:02 > 0:50:06could have accelerated so quickly into neurotic disintegration
0:50:06 > 0:50:08and that much hatred.
0:50:08 > 0:50:14David Baddiel found a new double act partner who would let him have his name first,
0:50:14 > 0:50:18and went on to huge success in Baddiel and Skinner.
0:50:20 > 0:50:23Rob Newman gave it all up to write novels.
0:50:25 > 0:50:30Meanwhile in a galaxy far, far away, a radical double act was developing
0:50:30 > 0:50:34that would confuse some, but delight many more.
0:50:34 > 0:50:3850 years of light entertainment television had entered the minds of these two young men,
0:50:38 > 0:50:41and it was looking for a way to get out.
0:50:41 > 0:50:45When it did, the result was extraordinary.
0:50:47 > 0:50:51Vic Reeves' Big Night Out was a double-act show right from the start.
0:50:51 > 0:50:56There was only ever one man who was truly on the same wavelength as Vic, and that was Bob Mortimer.
0:50:56 > 0:51:00# I go where the in crowd go!
0:51:00 > 0:51:02# I'm in with the in crowd... #
0:51:02 > 0:51:06I started off at a little pub in New Cross and it was...
0:51:06 > 0:51:10What I was doing was kind of deconstructing light entertainment.
0:51:10 > 0:51:14It was taking all those elements and making them more ridiculous than they really were.
0:51:14 > 0:51:18And Vic and Bob had a love of those old...traditional...
0:51:18 > 0:51:19light entertainment formats.
0:51:19 > 0:51:23And just thought, "It's a great thing you have all this set up
0:51:23 > 0:51:27"and then you muck about in it and do very odd, odd stuff."
0:51:32 > 0:51:37Everything they did together drew on the entire history of double-act comedy,
0:51:37 > 0:51:39from music hall to modern television.
0:51:39 > 0:51:44If you look at double acts, there's...like, one will be...
0:51:44 > 0:51:48Maybe one's in charge, but stupid, but thinks they're in charge - that'd be me.
0:51:48 > 0:51:53And the other one's a bit clever, so will say sarky things back to him.
0:51:53 > 0:51:57# Like a sardine in a hairnet and he's staring at a priest... #
0:51:57 > 0:52:04If there was one double act they clearly loved, it was Morecambe and Wise.
0:52:04 > 0:52:06The first time I saw Vic Reeves' Big Night Out
0:52:06 > 0:52:10I couldn't believe it, because they did a Morecambe and Wise routine!
0:52:10 > 0:52:13One of them's talking, while the other one goes and gets his coat
0:52:13 > 0:52:17and gets his muffler and his cap... And I thought, "Blimey!"
0:52:17 > 0:52:20# She wants to dance with me
0:52:20 > 0:52:25# Wanna hold her so close next to me She wants to dance with me... #
0:52:25 > 0:52:31He would have Eric Morecambe frames, and put them on,
0:52:31 > 0:52:33and do this business.
0:52:33 > 0:52:36It was a direct copy... of Morecambe-esque...
0:52:36 > 0:52:38kind of, malarkey.
0:52:38 > 0:52:40Way-hey!
0:52:40 > 0:52:46The way he sort of moves around Bob Mortimer, it's just like Eric did with Ernie,
0:52:46 > 0:52:49and I like it. I feel a great comfort zone with it.
0:52:49 > 0:52:54It was like, what if Morecambe and Wise had gone on for 200 years?
0:52:54 > 0:52:59And it had become so... kind of their own language
0:52:59 > 0:53:02that you had to...that you had to watch it for that 200 years
0:53:02 > 0:53:05to get to the point of understanding why it was funny.
0:53:05 > 0:53:07# I know I have waited... #
0:53:07 > 0:53:12Vic and Bob's love of Morecambe and Wise was fun, but it would also get them into a lot of trouble.
0:53:12 > 0:53:14# ..Exactly like you! #
0:53:14 > 0:53:21In the BBC tribute show, Vic and Bob recreated Morecambe and Wise's famous routine with Tom Jones.
0:53:21 > 0:53:28In the studio audience that night was double-act legend Ronnie Barker, who was not amused.
0:53:28 > 0:53:32He was furious because he thought they were unprofessional, giggling through it,
0:53:32 > 0:53:36and not really trying to entertain, first and foremost, the audience
0:53:36 > 0:53:38rather than themselves.
0:53:38 > 0:53:44And so he was very angry about that. It was a real generational and cultural clash between them.
0:53:44 > 0:53:47I didn't find out for a while afterwards.
0:53:47 > 0:53:53Well, it's not nice to be complained about, but we didn't do it with any malice.
0:53:53 > 0:53:56Vic and Bob, in a way,
0:53:56 > 0:54:00sort of revitalised the idea of the variety show,
0:54:00 > 0:54:05light entertainment double act, and twisted it for a new generation.
0:54:05 > 0:54:09They were Morecambe and Wise, Little and Large, the Two Ronnies, whatever -
0:54:09 > 0:54:15they were a classic...a classic double act playing off each other.
0:54:17 > 0:54:21Whilst Ant and Dec don't look like a traditional double act,
0:54:21 > 0:54:28if we scratch the surface, we find everything the classic double act had, including the big audiences.
0:54:30 > 0:54:33Ant and Dec are a remarkable phenomenon
0:54:33 > 0:54:37because they are one of the very few
0:54:37 > 0:54:40genuine double acts.
0:54:42 > 0:54:46- # Who'd have thought - We could be brothers
0:54:46 > 0:54:49- # He makes the bed - And he steals the covers! - That's right!
0:54:49 > 0:54:52- # He like it neat - And he makes a mess
0:54:52 > 0:54:56- # He takes it easy - And I get upset. #
0:54:56 > 0:55:00I think the thing with double acts is that you feel you know them better.
0:55:00 > 0:55:06They constantly point out flaws or they constantly break the illusion for the audience.
0:55:06 > 0:55:09I think Ant and Dec do it brilliantly, you know,
0:55:09 > 0:55:14the way that they will turn to each other and, and say, "Well, that's not what you said earlier,"
0:55:14 > 0:55:17or, "That's not what you said at rehearsal!"
0:55:17 > 0:55:19Hold on, what are these cameras doing here?
0:55:19 > 0:55:25What are ya...what are ya talking about?! It's the cameras!
0:55:25 > 0:55:29The cameras have been following me all week, and I'm sick of it! Sick of it!
0:55:29 > 0:55:32They even followed me on my skiing holiday.
0:55:32 > 0:55:34Ah, what?
0:55:34 > 0:55:38- What, on the piste? - Not when I'm skiing, no, no!
0:55:39 > 0:55:45Ant and Dec seem to have hit a vein that nobody else has locked into
0:55:45 > 0:55:47since Morecambe and Wise, really.
0:55:47 > 0:55:55What they do have is the love of a nation, and they have the skill of being themselves,
0:55:55 > 0:55:58and they've mastered it to the highest degree.
0:55:58 > 0:56:03My wife said, "I wanna go somewhere I've never been before." I said, "Why don't you try the kitchen?"
0:56:03 > 0:56:07Look, shut up, shut up! You haven't even got a wife!
0:56:07 > 0:56:11- Yeah, I have.- No, you haven't. You can't even get a girlfriend.
0:56:13 > 0:56:16What they do have is a really genuine friendship
0:56:16 > 0:56:19and lots of great double acts haven't necessarily been great friends,
0:56:19 > 0:56:25but I think if you are genuinely friends, then it can come across sometimes in what you do.
0:56:25 > 0:56:28Hey, Dec, have you heard? Tom Jones is here.
0:56:28 > 0:56:33- Oh, no, he's gonna be insufferable after the Brits the other night. - Don't worry, I'll be ready for him!
0:56:33 > 0:56:36- All right, lads?- Oh, all right, Tom?
0:56:36 > 0:56:40Did you see me get my Outstanding Contribution To Music Award the other night?
0:56:40 > 0:56:45Big deal! We got a Special Recognition award last year.
0:56:45 > 0:56:48But you were only 12 then. I got the OBE in 1999.
0:56:48 > 0:56:52- Oh, yeah?- Yeah. - TV Personalities Of The Year 2001.
0:56:52 > 0:56:56International Artist Of The Year at the Spanish Music Awards 2000. Beat that!
0:56:56 > 0:56:58Right, right.
0:56:58 > 0:57:01Butlins' Entertainers Of The Decade!
0:57:01 > 0:57:06OK, Green Grass Of Home Marketing Board Special Merit Award. I win!
0:57:06 > 0:57:10Not so fast. Miss Whitley Bay 1996!
0:57:11 > 0:57:16I think the slight pity is that there isn't such a live variety circuit
0:57:16 > 0:57:19for Ant and Dec to work with. They're a timeless act
0:57:19 > 0:57:22and I can almost see them with top hats and canes
0:57:22 > 0:57:26or straw boaters, doing the kind of front-of-curtain turns
0:57:26 > 0:57:28that Eric and Ernie did.
0:57:28 > 0:57:34I mean, they're working in a different medium now, so they're ending up doing different shows,
0:57:34 > 0:57:38but I think Ant and Dec, in a funny sort of way, are as much the inheritors of Eric and Ernie
0:57:38 > 0:57:40as Vic Reeves and Harry Hill.
0:57:43 > 0:57:45Thank you!
0:57:45 > 0:57:50The double act will always be a vital part of the world of entertainment.
0:57:50 > 0:57:56Audiences love the slapstick violence, simmering tension and the ridiculous arguments.
0:57:56 > 0:57:59For the double act themselves the rewards are great,
0:57:59 > 0:58:06but fame, money and the chance to become cherished national icons are really only half the story.
0:58:08 > 0:58:12Next time on The Story Of Light Entertainment,
0:58:12 > 0:58:15the all-singing, all-dancing, all-round entertainers
0:58:15 > 0:58:19and their fight for a place at the top of the slippery showbiz ladder.
0:58:20 > 0:58:22They're not his feet!
0:58:22 > 0:58:25I do regret doing so many game shows.
0:58:25 > 0:58:31I'm an entertainer, I'm a performer, I'm an all-rounder, I do so many things.
0:58:31 > 0:58:35If you want me to act, I'll act, if you want me to be serious, I'll be serious.
0:58:35 > 0:58:40Just tell me which part of the song you want me to jiggle me bits, and I'll do it!
0:58:40 > 0:58:42Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd