Double Acts Story of Light Entertainment

The great double acts have always been at the heart of light entertainment.

-Tap, tap.

-Rock on, Tommy!

Two names, two different personalities join together to create something magical.

# I know why I've waited...

-# Yeah, yeah, yeah

-Know why I've been blue

-# Yeah, yeah, yeah

-Really tried for someone...

-Yeah, yeah, yeah

-# Exactly like you

-Yeah, yeah, yeah... #

There are times when I watch Morecambe And Wise and think, "You can't get better."

They epitomise the best of light entertainment.

When you get people like Morecambe And Wise, the Two Ronnies,

doing the kind of shows they did, that's not light, that's heavy duty! That is really going in.

The double acts keep coming and are still the kings of Saturday night television.

Ant and Dec are a remarkable phenomenon

because they are one of the very few genuine double acts.

'The best comedy teams bring us sunshine, laughter and love, but the pressure of entertaining

'can bring them jealousy, bullying, betrayal and pain.'

'It was horrible, absolutely horrendous.'

We hated one another, now we love each other.

You always hurt the one you love, don't ya?

You might argue with your wife and then the next day think, "Oh,

"shouldn't have said that." Same with a double act.

'When we disagreed, and we're both pretty volatile,'

if Bernie had one drink too many, he'll take on Mike Tyson!

-And might even win.

-This is like the scariest ride you've ever been on.

There was that week period when we weren't speaking, we were just speaking when we were on stage,

which, you know, for a double act, is completely mental.

I behaved so badly towards him that I can understand why...

he gets cross from time to time!

The double act has endured every twist and turn in the story of showbusiness, but behind the smiles,

the dance routines, the jokes and the songs, there's a world of intense pressure and anxiety.

Entertaining people is a stressful thing and it does play havoc with your health.

I got told that I could drop dead at any minute.

-Hey, come on, loosen up, man.

-Look, please!

'Mel would be on top of the line, so I think there was'

that tension - "I'm doing all the work and you're the one who's coming across as being the funny one!"

Yeah, yeah, yeah!

Well, it's not nice to be complained about.

But we didn't do it with any malice.

His lips went blue, and I thought "God, what have I done to this guy?"

They're tied together thinking, "If only this person wasn't with me, I could do better things"

but also, "Without the other person, I'd be dead."

The double act began in the music hall as a way for the comedians

to get their jokes heard above the noise of the audience.

-We didn't go away, my wife and I.

-Where did you go?

-We stayed at home in Battersea.

-Battersea?

-Battersea, yes. You know, the Dogs' Home!

-Is it? I didn't know it had been out!

If you had a fairly noisy audience, you want to get the joke across,

so often the straight man would repeat it.

The comic would say, "I went to the races yesterday."

"I see, you went to the races yesterday",

just to establish in the audience's mind, "Be quiet. He's gonna talk about the races now."

-Do you mind if I ask you a conundrum?

-I don't mind. I'd rather like you to ask me a conundrum.

-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?

-Yes.

-I don't know, what would it be?

-A bomb in a bull!

Stan Laurel had learned his comedy skills in the British music hall before going to America to become

one half of the most famous double act in the world.

Laurel and Hardy established the first rule of the double act -

argue with each other, but remain loyal when anybody else comes along.

Their brand of slapstick and stupidity has influenced every double act since.

PING!

# Underneath the arches... #

In Britain, the first British double act to really hit the big time were Flanagan and Allen.

They were nostalgic and reassuring.

They were the double act that got Britain through World War II.

Bud Flanagan famously sang the theme tune to Dad's Army.

They're remembered more for their songs than their comedy,

but in their heyday, they were experts in the art of classic comedy cross-talk.

-Now you're in the 2.30 race.

-What time?

-2.30.

-Yes.

-And you'll start about ten to one.

-How far is this?

-Oh, no distance at all.

-And I start at ten to one? How about the other horses?

-They start about five to four.

-The same day?

-Same day, same race.

-And I start at ten to one?

-Yes.

-Watch me at quarter to three, I'll show you something!

Meanwhile, in the United States, a double act had emerged that would influence comedy for years to come.

Abbott and Costello!

Abbott and Costello were a more modern, savvy style of double act.

This wasn't the cosy world of Laurel and Hardy.

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello were argumentative and unsentimental.

They were a double act that hated each other, on screen and off.

Why?

I don't know, he's not third, and I don't give a damn!

'They could fight over stupid things.'

One of our maids decided to go work for the Abbotts and my father just

hit the roof on that one, and he and Bud didn't speak for a few months.

-Now wait, don't start that!

-Oh, it's got a little rough!

-Now look, Lou, you know we're on...

we're on that...never mind that!

-I don't care about the other cameras, that's the one.

-All right.

Abbott and Costello had a huge influence on British comedians, including Morecambe and Wise.

Eric and Ernie first got together as teenagers in 1943, when television was still a long way off,

and spent the next ten years learning their craft on the stages of Britain's variety theatres.

Thank you, thank you. Who's come on?

-I don't know.

-Oh, it's us! I'm getting fed up of this stage lark.

-Fed up with it?

-I could do something different, like go abroad, get a new job.

-Who was that woman there when she was doing all that dancing?

-I've got it.

-What?

-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.

-Why?

-Listen, you would make a marvellous bullfighter!

-Me?

-Yeah, you're a natural.

Listen, I'm gonna make you the greatest bullfighter in the world.

-You're only saying that!

-No, I'm not.

-Well, somebody just did!

-Eh?

What's extraordinary about Eric and Ernie is the way they bridge the gap

between music hall and the television we know today.

In a sense, they helped to create modern light entertainment TV,

but they also acted as a kind of Noah's Ark by bringing the last of music hall into the modern age.

In 1954, Morecambe and Wise came to the attention of the BBC.

After success on radio, they were given their first television series, Running Wild.

They would eventually perfect the double act for television, but they got off to a very bad start.

Running Wild was a great disaster!

-Merry Christmas.

-Is that the best you can do?

I think it was a challenge to Ernie, but it was "Oh!" to Eric!

This was their first time on TV

and they hadn't realised actually how much attraction

that would get, particularly from the press, who absolutely slated it.

The newspapers gave Running Wild a savage beating, saying the gags

were weak, their sketches corny and declaring it a flop.

Eric was crushed.

Running Wild was really attacked and torn apart by the critics,

and one famously wrote "Definition of the week.

"A TV set - the box in which they buried Morecambe and Wise."

And he kept that in his wallet for the rest of his life.

Well, even when he was terribly successful later,

it rankles, that first effort they had.

Their pride was hurt.

For six long years, Eric and Ernie were out in the cold, but it was only a matter of time

before TV came knocking again,

and when it did, it was in the shape of the star-maker himself, Lew Grade.

Morecambe and Wise were offered their own series by ATV.

This time they were ready.

We are...

The show was an instant hit.

They had the right production team and they had great writers

in Sid Green and Dick Hills, who often appeared on screen alongside them.

Hold it, Jack!

Just a moment.

-You see, what's happening is I was "oohing" then...

-Oohing?

I've yatatat'd and I've oohed, I've only got a bom left!

-LAUGHTER

-I know!

-He knows, at last he knows!

You'll give us a two in!

He was my friend!

Let's do it.

It goes, one, two, bom, ooh, yatattata, bom, ooh, yatattata...

THEY SING ALONG IN RHYTHM: # Are you lonely tonight?

# Do you miss me tonight? #

Sid Green and Dick Hills made Eric and Ernie stars on ITV, there's no doubt about that.

They lifted them into the big league. They really wrote

some very eccentric stuff for Eric

to do, slightly surreal.

Good evening, and welcome to the show.

You all remember Fang, don't you? Fang.

Well, Fang this week has brought his playmate along with him, Bonzo.

LAUGHTER

Now where's your ballie?

Now come on, fetch your ballie!

Oh, no, don't bother with that. Don't go chasing after that.

I tell you for why, if you fetch it back, he only throws it away again!

-I don't think he wants it.

-He's a good boy, aren't you? He's a good...

-HE GROWLS

-Now, now watch it!

I'll have him. I'll have his arm one day! I'll have him.

Pardon? ..Forgotten your lines? Oh!

Nearly 20 years after they had first got together, Eric and Ernie had finally arrived.

They had money, fame and a hit TV series.

The early '60s saw the emergence of another double act on ITV,

the brothers Mike and Bernie Winters.

They were the nearest thing to rivals that Morecambe and Wise ever had.

They were young, talented and everybody liked them.

They were London's answer to Eric and Ernie.

Imagine that this is your girlfriend.

-What, this?

-There she is.

Yeah, well, things ain't that bad!

-She's beautiful, she's lovely!

-You like her?

-Yeah.

-Well, you have her!

-I don't want her!

Mike and Bernie took their show on the road, but for some parts of the country,

the last thing they wanted to see was a new Cockney double act.

Glasgow is the graveyard for British comics, and Mike and Bernie played,

and it opened with Mike Winters, who played the clarinet,

and at the end of the chorus,

Bernie Winters popped his head round the curtains and went...

A Scottish man in the audience went, "BLEEP me, there's two of 'em"!

By 1963, Mike and Bernie were the hosts of Big Night Out,

one of ITV's top light entertainment shows.

A double act with two brothers allowed Mike and Bernie to exploit the sibling rivalry

between an older, sophisticated brother and a younger, stupid one.

-Where's that bottle of Scotch I got you?

-I threw it away.

-What for?

It said it was 17 years old on the bottle, I thought it had gone stale!

All right. Look, what have we got to drink tonight?

-I've got some good gear.

-Yeah?

-I've been down the supermarket and bought wine.

-Yeah.

-It's a sort of a mixture between Muscatel and Hock.

-What's it called?

-Muck.

On the television, we think of Bernie Winters

with the bowler hat, and all the silliness going on.

In life, he was singularly the most charismatic,

and women used to dribble over him.

You know, Bernie, I think you're the most attractive,

the most intelligent and the funniest man I know.

-Ah, shut up!

-Yes, I do!

I wouldn't say I was as intelligent as my brother Mike.

-Definitely.

-Yeah?

-Yeah.

He is a bit stupid, you know, but then again, I wish I was as funny as Eric Morecambe!

No, no.

No, mmm.

Bernie knew that Eric Morecambe was funnier,

but that didn't stop a rivalry emerging between the two double acts.

Everybody I've spoken to from England who were in double acts

say, "How did you get on with Eric and Ernie, Morecambe and Wise?"

We were bloody rivals, weren't we?

We were the two biggest double acts in Britain.

Meanwhile, Eric and Ernie never passed up an opportunity to remind the brothers who was number one.

Can I ask you both, if you hadn't been comedians - I suppose it's impossible to imagine -

but imagine for a moment that you aren't, what would you have liked to be?

Mike and Bernie Winters!

Very cruel!

As Mike and Bernie Winters and Morecambe and Wise battled it out

for mainstream supremacy, the future of double act comedy lay elsewhere.

At the Palladium, they have a great tradition for great double acts,

like Flanagan and Allen, Mike and Bernie Winters, Morecambe and Wise, Nureyev and Fontaine,

and tonight's no exception. I'm chuffed to introduce Peter Cook and Dudley Moore!

# Red, blue, green, red blue, green, red, blue, green red, blue, green

# Red, blue, green, red, blue green, red, blue, green red, blue, green

# Yellow, ochre, white, yellow ochre, white, yellow, ochre white, yellow, ochre, white

-# Red, blue, green, red blue, green... #

-Tea's up, Dud.

-What?

-Tea's up.

Oh, thanks, Pete.

Peter Cook and Dudley Moore changed the rules.

This was a double act with no straight man and they hadn't worked

their way up through the theatre, they'd been to university.

Nobody had seen anything like it before.

The head of the BBC actually said,

"If this is light entertainment, I'm in the wrong business!"

Michael Peacock, who was in charge of BBC Two, said,

"I think you're in the wrong business!"

Peter Cook, I think, was pure genius. It's inspired all of us.

You're allowed to be funny, but also you could treat your audience as adults.

People were staying on at schools

and you could talk about things that the comedians would never have dared talk about before.

I was just about to drop off when suddenly...

tap, tap, tap at the bloody window pane.

I looked out. You know who it was?

-Who?

-Bloody Greta Garbo!

It is great to watch cos it's real and you like that they're laughing,

but there's also a bubble that's happened between them,

out of sight of all these people watching, where all they're doing is trying to make each other laugh

and that's always... Something brilliant about that.

Because it does imply an affection between the two of them that overrides,

"We gotta get the audience to laugh. We gotta get the bosses at the BBC to think this is good."

Something else has happened which is smaller and more lovely than all that.

Stark naked...

..save for a shortie nightie!

She was hanging onto the windowsill!

And I can see...I can see...

I can see her knuckles all white. She's...

For some reason, it works.

He's short and working class, I'm tall and middle class,

he's from Dagenham, I'm from Torquay.

And one of us is Jewish, I'm not sure which one!

Oxbridge-educated smart-Alecs like Pete and Dud would soon dominate comedy,

but in the late '60s, the music hall tradition of The Morecambe And Wise Show was still top of the TV ratings.

You're a gambling man, aren't ya?

-Yes, a gambling man.

-Yeah? We'll toss for who does it, eh?

-All right.

-Shall we?

-Yes, OK.

(I've got a double-headed penny! Double-headed!)

-What did you say then?

-I'm just telling 'em.

-Oh, are ya?

-Are you ready?

-Yes.

-Right, then.

Heads.

Oh!

They were huge, massive.

Biggest thing that ATV had...

at that time, The Morecambe And Wise Show.

Morecambe and Wise were ambitious. They asked Lew Grade at ITV

for more money, bigger budgets and a switch to colour television.

But Lew Grade said no.

They were always worried about getting into a rut,

and I think they were ready for a change. They were...

..ready to stretch, ready to stretch a bit,

and, er, it was partly money, partly money, I think that...

It wasn't only money, but...

They didn't like the feeling that Lew thought he owned them

or ATV thought they owned them.

The BBC's Head of Light Entertainment, Bill Cotton, was alerted to the fall-out.

I found out that Morecambe and Wise were gonna leave ATV,

and Michael Grade,

who was then acting as an agent,

phoned me up and said that they'd fallen out with his Uncle Lew,

and was I interested in discussing with them coming to the BBC?

And we did the deal, and I said, "Bill, you've got them, that's it.

"I'm gonna ring Lew now and tell him they've gone."

So I rang the boys and told them what the deal was - they were very happy -

and I rang Lew and told him that Morecambe and Wise were leaving.

He said, "They'll be sorry!" He said, "They'll be sorry."

The BBC gave Morecambe and Wise everything they wanted, and they sensationally jumped ship.

In 1968, they returned to the BBC in triumph, and in colour.

-You'll be telling me next you've heard a voice from the other side.

-I have! I have!

It was Lew Grade, but the money was no good!

Lew understood that business was business,

and that was it. He'd lost Morecambe and Wise. Move on.

The series was another success, and they set off to cash in

with a whirlwind of appearances from New York to Glasgow.

But one night, driving home after a gruelling week of midnight shows

at the Batley Variety Club, Eric Morecambe's luck ran out.

He had a heart attack which nearly killed him.

In typical form, Eric turned the whole frightening episode into a comedy routine.

I had a Jensen in those days, and I said,

"Do you feel you could take me to a hospital? I don't feel well."

And Walter Butterworth - I'll never forget him -

wasn't his real name, but I'll never forget him -

and, um, he said, "Yes, oh, aye!

"Hey, you're, um, um...

"..Morton and White!"

And I said, "Oh, Morecambe and Wise, yes".

So he said, "Oh, well, I've never driven one of these."

He said, "I'm in the Territorials, I've only driven a tank!" This is true, this!

So he takes me to a hospital, and the next thing I know I'm being injected...

This Walter Butterworth, he's sat with me.

I said, "I'd like to say thank you for all your help and everything."

He said, "Oh, that's all right. It's my pleasure." He says, "My mates won't believe this."

He says - and this is the exact words he used - he says, "Will you do us a favour?"

I said, "What?" He said, "Before you go, will you sign this?"

At his home in Portugal, away from the pressure of showbusiness,

Eric Morecambe tried to recover his strength,

but back in England, his trusted writers Sid Green and Dick Hills

had decided he was finished. They had plotted to leave the show, but kept it secret.

Eric felt betrayed.

Someone showed him a British newspaper that day,

in which it said that Sid and Dick

were leaving Morecambe and Wise to go for a contract to do their own show for ATV and Lew Grade.

And when Eric saw it, he said, "Well, this is news to me.

"They might have mentioned it to me before."

Everyone thought, "Oh, Morecambe and Wise have had it now

"because Eric's had this heart attack and things will never be the same again."

We were going on holiday to Barbados and the stewardess came up to us

and said, "Isn't it terrible, the fact that your scriptwriters have left you?"

And we said, "Have they?" We didn't know.

We felt they had written him off

and thought, "Well, they're never gonna work again. We must find somebody else to work for."

So he was extremely disappointed.

With their writers gone and Eric's health still fragile,

nobody knew whether Morecambe and Wise would ever be able to get back to their best.

Meanwhile, waiting in the wings to take their light entertainment crown were a brand-new double act.

Ronnie Corbett and Ronnie Barker first performed together in sketches on The Frost Report.

It was clear they were made for each other.

The first sketch the Two Ronnies did together was a whole sketch, written by Michael Palin

and Terry Jones, but the opening two lines got such a laugh,

they cut the rest, and it became what we call "a quickie".

Good morning, Super.

Morning, wonderful!

And that was the first words they spoke to each other on television.

When we first brought Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett together

in The Frost Report in 1966,

it was clear, immediately, that they had a chemistry.

There was John Cleese also there, so it wasn't just the Two Ronnies,

but they had a particular chemistry.

That was the interesting thing. They didn't want to be Morecambe and Wise.

They loved Morecambe and Wise, like everybody, but they wanted to be Ronnie Barker, Ronnie Corbett.

In a packed programme, we shall be talking to a stereo expert about his favourite breakfast -

two bowls of Rice Krispies ten feet apart!

Then we'll have a novelty dance by Rita Mertracarter - who dresses only in three coins.

We let her come on the show as she's down to her last penny!

One of the abiding successes of The Two Ronnies was that there wasn't a funny man, straight man.

They were equal...

in the same way as Pete and Dud,

although to a certain extent, Peter Cook was the dominant figure there.

But you didn't really get a sense that either was the dominant figure.

Fork 'andles?

Four candles?

Right, here you are - four candles.

No, fork 'andles.

Well, there you are, four candles.

No, fork 'andles.

Handles for forks!

I think the really special thing about The Two Ronnies is that

theirs was a genuine friendship and a genuine partnership.

They would sort of give each other lines, they weren't vying

-with each other for who was going to get the best laughs and the best lines.

-Your name, please.

-Good evening.

-In your first heat your chosen subject was "answering questions before they were asked".

This time, you have chosen to answer the question before last each time, is that correct?

Charlie Smithers.

And your time starts now. What is palaeontology?

Yes, absolutely correct.

What's the name of the directory that lists members of the peerage?

-A study of old fossils.

-Correct.

They definitely set the sort of template for a lot of great comic types and situations.

-Ready, Eric?

-Ready, Ern.

-Right, switch on.

-Right.

After the heart attack and being abandoned by their writers, it looked like the end of Morecambe and Wise,

but luckily Eric recovered and a new writer was found.

The new series began with a joke about his heart.

Thank you, thank you very much. Keep going you fool! What?

-Eric did that line - "Keep going, you fool." The audience went...

-HE SIGHS

They were happy. They knew everything was OK. We didn't look back from that moment.

# Let your arms be as... #

Morecambe and Wise were back.

The new writer was Eddie Braben. He revitalised the double act.

I wrote the bed sketch, I was pleased with it

as I got them even closer, and you can't get more intimate than two men in bed.

-Ern!

-Yes?

Just testing.

I don't like getting into bed with strangers!

I can remember them reading it. I remember them laughing and saying, "We can't do it."

I was very naive. Honestly, I really was. I said, "Why?"

They said, "It's two men together." I said, "It's Eric and Ernie." "It makes no diff...

"It's two of us in bed," he said. "We won't get away with it."

I said, "Look, if it's good enough for Laurel and Hardy, it's good enough for you."

And Eric said, "We'll do it."

SIREN WAILS

He's not gonna sell much ice cream going at that speed.

The Morecambe And Wise Show was now better than ever, and their Christmas shows were the biggest thing on TV,

but once again, as the ratings increased, so did the pressure.

Eric would start worrying about the Christmas show in about June!

I think we used to feel enormously responsible for the fact

that so many people were sitting there doing exactly what we were doing, watching the Christmas show.

We were told that even the Royal Family arranged their meal

so that they could watch The Morecambe And Wise Show!

In the run up to the show, I was a wreck, a total wreck, no other way to describe it,

just waiting for this programme to come out.

It was so, so important to so many people.

Bill Cotton and the BBC had made Morecambe and Wise the most popular double act on television.

But Eric and Ernie had some bad news for the BBC.

I'd got flu...and it was raining... and I was lying in this hotel

in Los Angeles, and my secretary phoned me up and said,

"I'm sorry to bring you bad news, but Eric and Ernie have gone."

ITV had stolen Morecambe and Wise from the BBC.

For Eric and Ernie, it was one last big pay day.

For Bill Cotton, it was a traumatic loss.

I was absolutely devastated.

And it was just like a divorce!

I just couldn't get over it, you know, that they'd gone.

Eric and Ernie's first Christmas show on ITV was watched

by a much smaller audience than the year before, and, even worse, they looked past their best.

They were getting older but the pressure was still there.

After just one year at ITV, Eric Morecambe suffered another heart attack.

You've gotta take it easy for a bit?

If I can get a bit, I'll take it easy, yes!

LAUGHTER

-Seriously, how are you feeling?

-Great. Absolutely marvellous!

Eric recovered from his heart attack to complete more shows for ITV,

and whilst there were some great moments, time was catching up with them.

Everybody reaches a peak.

We'd reached a peak, and when you reach a peak, there's only one way to go, and that's down.

No matter who you are, there's a time to get to the top and there's a time to leave it.

The Christmas show of 1983 was destined to be their last ever appearance.

A few weeks later at a charity show in a small theatre in Tewkesbury,

Eric entertained and enthralled an audience with stories of his childhood and early career.

As the show drew to a close, Eric couldn't resist dancing and joining in with the band.

As he left the stage, he uttered his last words, "I'm glad that's over",

and collapsed.

The most loved comedian in Britain died a few hours later.

He was only 58.

It did for him in the end, yeah, and I think that comedy had played its part in it, if not the biggest part.

At the funeral, his double act partner, Ernie Wise, gave the most fitting of tributes.

Ernie recited...

to finish his eulogy, Bring Me Sunshine, and it was really a masterstroke,

because it was so touching, the words of Bring Me Sunshine, with Eric's coffin in front of him.

# There should be more happiness So much more... #

Ernie Wise would outlive Eric by 15 years, but with Eric gone,

it was the end for television's greatest-ever double act.

# ..Through the years... #

The next generation would learn their craft in the Northern clubs.

This is where Cyril Mead met Edward McGinnis and became Little and Large.

We didn't sit down one day and say, "Right, I'm gonna do all the jokes,

"the clowning around, the impressions, and you stand there with a straight face."

That just evolved.

It all started when I first met Syd. I didn't meet him. I got him with my car - he was the dipstick!

I'd say to Syd, "Do you know this song?"

I'd be concentrating on the chords on the guitar,

-cos I'd only just learnt to play.

-I'd just be cracking jokes,

and people would say,

"How can he keep his face so straight and you messing about?" We hadn't thought about it!

Then you think, "If you keep your face straight and I'm clowning around, we might have something."

Well, here we are at the Supersonic Syd Little Show at Thames Television.

We have a great little battler here. He's gonna do some operandum tonight I hope, ah, er... All right?

-Yes, yeah.

-Own show, eh?

-Yeah.

I knew he would. Looking good tonight, ain't he, girls? Ah, ah...

This was comedy for people who hadn't been to a variety theatre or university.

They were nightclub comedians, who knew exactly what their audience wanted.

"Yabadabadoo! How you doing, Barney?" "Oh, hello, Fred."

'We used to do a lot of cartoons in the act. That's what made us different, I think.'

We didn't really rehearse much.

They should bring Popeye back. I used to love him. "Sweet Pea."

"Oh, me gosh, Olive. Ug, ug, ug!"

See, it's still there. It never leaves you, you just slow down!

That's what we used to do. That's how Deputy Duck came into the act.

Ah! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!

Now, geez...

When we first started TV, Eddie would come up with sketches and I'd think up sketches,

but I'd get frustrated cos mine would never get accepted.

If that's how he remembers it. It's not how I remember it.

So maybe when Syd says "his ideas", maybe they were crap ideas!

I thought it was good! Well, you try and think of one!

-I will.

-Right.

-The impression I would very much like to do is the one...

# And I painted matchstick men and matchstick cats and... #

I've always felt bullied by Eddie.

If I screwed up, Eddie would give me this look.

Anyone with confidence would go and get it right, but it used to make me worse.

Syd was nervous, and that made me nervous.

I would be nervous that he wouldn't remember the lines, and we're on telly and... Oh, please!

He's so good, the BBC wanted him to play the escape officer in Colditz.

You were late for the audition. He got locked in the dressing room.

Like I say, you only have to look, a look or a tut, and it used to scare me.

I don't remember him complaining in '77, '78, '79, when he was making fortunes.

I don't remember him saying it then.

Little and Large were at the top for a long time,

but just like Eric Morecambe, Eddie Large wasn't in the best of health.

Many comedians have had heart problems, and I'm one of them.

And I got told that I could drop dead at any minute.

Didn't tell me wife, didn't tell Syd,

which was pretty stupid, but I kept going, and then I just kept going until I couldn't go any further.

So then they said... need a heart transplant, so...

That's when the act had to finish. I had to phone Syd up and tell him I can't do it.

That was it. I knew we weren't going to get back together after his illness.

I just knew it. We just knew it.

It was a feeling, I think, more than a... You didn't have to say anything, we just knew it was over.

I cried me eyes out on the phone...

cos it was the end, you know, of the double act.

Ladies and gentlemen, it's Tommy Cannon and Bobby Ball!

Cannon and Ball were another nightclub act which made the leap into big-time television stardom.

In the act, Tommy Cannon bullied little Bobby Ball.

As a result, the audience loved Bobby but hated Tommy!

I've just got one more impression left, and I'm gonna do it on me own.

Hey, don't get shirty with me, Tommy.

-I've done a bit, you know.

-What?

A bit of that Typhoo!

Certainly when we first started doing all this stuff,

the general public really believed what was happening.

He used to go outside clubs... Women with umbrellas used to hit him!

They believed he were really picking on me!

You can't get me, can you, cos you've got boxing gloves on!

The formula worked. Tommy hit Bobby, and Cannon and Ball hit the big time.

We had a Rolls-Royce, we had a lot of money, we had a, a boat...

Listen, we're two lads from Oldham!

You've gotta think about it. If we've got a grand in our pocket, blimey, you spend it!

Thank you!

Thank you!

Once again, I thank you!

We lost control as well through it, because of it all being, all of a sudden, whooof...

All this sort of success is on top of you.

And, you know, really, I suppose to be honest about it, we weren't...

young kids when it happened, so... But, you know...

-I were a lot younger than you!

-Well, you were.

-You were a year younger.

-A few years!

-Consequently, we lost the plot a little bit.

Bobby Ball became a comedy superstar.

Women loved him, money was pouring in, but the lifelong friendship with Tommy began to fall apart.

Me and this lad here

had come from a welding floor and worked all the way through,

and we ended up falling out.

Now, no fame's worth that.

You mince morsels with me...

You said I were a dog!

-I never said you were a dog.

-In so many words.

-Exactly.

-You instituted it!

-Did say you were a dog?

-You said...

-Well, did I?

-You said...

-Did I? Well, did I?

-You said...

-Well, did I?

-Listen, you...

-Well, did I, did I?

-You did...

-Well, did I?

-Tommy you...

-Did I, did I?

Did I call you a dog?

-No, you didn't.

-No, I didn't.

Well, sit!

I'm fed up with you now always arguing, go on, get off!

Bournemouth was one of the worst summer seasons, I think, that we could have possibly...

As I remember, Bournemouth backstage was a long corridor, and he had...

Bobby had one dressing room at one bottom end, I had it at the top end.

And if we passed in the corridor, and we literally had to turn side by side to pass one another,

and we wouldn't even speak to one another.

I'd go home at night and I would, I'll be honest, I used to cry.

It was one of the worst periods of my life.

It really was. I mean, cos, A, I couldn't understand why it was there,

B, we're in the heart of success. We couldn't want for anything else at that particular time in our lives.

And, for some reason, we're not getting on.

What's brought all this on?

-You've done it again!

-I didn't, I didn't... Oh, you dirty swine!

You coulda made me pregnant then!

'I think it were egos took over.'

Your ego's continually being stroked when you're on TV,

always being stroked. I thought I was the main one, and he thought he was the main one of the act.

He should've realised it were me!

After four years of not speaking, Cannon and Ball were on the brink of collapse,

but a fateful meeting would change everything.

Met a fella called Max Wigley, who was a vicar,

if you like, and he started talking about God and so on, and so on.

I found it very interesting and it give me a bit of peace.

And I started seeing...

Tom, and I looked at him in a different light.

I started seeing the good in him, not the bad.

-I'm very sorry for what I've done.

-You should be.

I wouldn't spoil your act for anything, you're my hero!

You're a leg-end to me, a leg-end, boy!

Legend! Not a leg-end!

Tommy Cannon also became a Christian, and they now regularly tour with their gospel shows.

# I want to thank you, Lord... #

Cos we know double acts that didn't get on, and went their full career not getting on,

and the public never knew.

We've been honest about ours, and said, "Look, we didn't get on for four years, and it's fantastic now."

But we went in I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here together,

and we do shows together, and we're here.

And not as young men any more, but we've been through all that and it's great,

at the end of your career, to say, "We went there, and came out of it." And we did, for whatever reason.

We hated one another. Now we love each other.

Meanwhile in a seedy strip-club in London's Soho,

there were more double acts plotting to overthrow the established order.

Their names were Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French, Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson.

They called it alternative comedy.

-What's green and hairy and goes up and down?

-What?

A gooseberry in a lift! It kills 'em.

-Good evening! I'd like to tell the gooseberry joke.

-How does a gooseberry get into a lift?

-I beg your pardon?

-How does a gooseberry get into a lift?

How the plop do I know?

-It just seems improbable.

-Maybe somebody brought it into the lift.

Do I have to say everything?!

They were not a million miles away from the Bottom characters and also the Young Ones characters.

Ade, you know, just being lovable

and quite dangerous back then.

And Rik just being frustrated with the world,

convinced that surely everyone loves him, when, in fact, we always know that nobody does.

Rik and Ade's double act was put on the back burner

so they could reinvent the sitcom with The Young Ones.

I'm going to write to my MP.

But you haven't got an MP, you're an anarchist.

Ah, well, then I shall write to the lead singer of Echo and The Bunnymen!

Rik and Ade's next big double-act moment came

when they merged their Young Ones characters with the Dangerous Brothers. It produced Bottom.

French and Saunders, however, didn't need to invent new comedy characters.

They would make a career out of playing themselves - a pair of lazy women who act like children.

This was a perfect concept for a double act.

How long have you been in there, Jennifer?

She can't hear me, ladies and gentlemen.

How long have you been in there?

No, she still can't hear me.

How long have you been in here? How long?

I remember seeing French and Saunders at the Comic Strip

and it was great because...

I don't think we'd ever seen two women on stage. Apart from a strip club.

-But we hadn't seen two women on stage.

-It WAS a strip club!

-It was!

They're not the sort of people that, if they've got a TV series coming up

they'll have it written by the weekend.

You would think, "This has been carefully crafted by 200 people in Russia somewhere," but it hasn't,

you know, it's been knocked out on the back of a fag packet, but with...you know, very diligently.

Let's do some ideas.

-What do you wanna write? We've gotta write something on the board because I've gotta go early.

-Show Two.

Show Two.

-Now what's that gonna be?

-Um...

-What, here?

-Just write "idea".

-Idea, yeah.

Apart from spending several days looking at Hello! magazine and Heat,

the way they work is by bouncing ideas off each other.

And, in a way, the person who kind of runs with the idea furthest

gets to write it.

-I can have 80 pints and I can still give it what for.

-Can ya?

Yeah, uncontrollably sexy, I am, when I've had 80 pints.

I get even dirtier after 50 pints.

I can give it, I can give it...

Gloria, Gloria, it's your lucky night, darling, get a load of this!

He's got a present for you, Gloria.

Everything in the show, even when they're playing characters and they're genuinely immersed in them,

is Dawn and Jennifer, really. So when they do those movie parodies, it's Dawn and Jennifer.

Fandabidozi!

Good morning.

-Morning.

-Sit down, please.

What did the Krankies say to you?

They said "fandabidozi".

By the early '90s, the biggest influence on comedy wasn't other comedians at all, it was music.

Newman and Baddiel didn't want to be Morecambe and Wise, they wanted to be Morrissey and Marr.

Comedy was the new rock'n'roll.

We were doing stuff that was appealing to sort of NME readers and students.

We were the first wave of comedians to do stuff about pop music

and just being young people.

Rob Newman and David Baddiel's breakthrough TV show was The Mary Whitehouse Experience,

but they had to share the spotlight with another act, Punt and Dennis, and they weren't happy about it.

There was a sort of division at the heart of that show.

Me and Rob were doing different stuff from what Punt and Dennis were doing at the time.

It was like trying to make a concept album with Showaddywaddy.

-Papa?

-Nicole?

BOTH: Out on the pull again?

With the two double acts thrown together by the BBC,

The Mary Whitehouse Experience were like a manufactured boy band.

Even serious music critics like Paul Morley treated these comedians like rock stars.

'I felt Rob was the singer'

and Punt and Dennis were the rhythm section

and Baddiel was the keyboard player.

I love you.

-You're just saying that.

-No, no, I really love you.

You know how you can really love an entertainer and it becomes like...

And it's why you keep hoping that people like you come along, new people come along,

cos otherwise, what would happen if nobody came along? And you came along, and I love you.

After series one, Baddiel and Newman went to meet their adoring fans live in the flesh.

Punt and Dennis were left behind.

Hello, hello.

We did one series of The Mary Whitehouse Experience and then we played at The Venue,

which was a rock venue in London. The Venue sells out, and it's 1,500 people, and they go mental.

And that incredible cliche about comedy being the new rock'n'roll that we started to embody,

it had one truth about it, which was that the gigs were like rock gigs,

they weren't like theatre gigs.

Rob and Dave should have been happy.

But they weren't.

While we were there,

it would all land upon us,

so we would get the brunt of any kind of argument that went on,

but once we'd gone, they'd turned on... They started arguing amongst themselves.

"He had scurvy and rickets

"and was covered from head to foot in festering sores.

"All in all, he was quite the most ghastly apparition of a man I had ever seen."

I see. And who exactly was this...

LAUGHTER

...poor unfortunate?

-That's you, that is.

-LAUGHTER

Rob and Dave's popularity earned them a TV series all of their own.

For their live shows, they were always Baddiel and Newman, but this was the big time

and Rob now insisted his name should be first.

It was originally Baddiel and Newman and then became Newman and Baddiel.

-But you know,

-BLEEP!

-I was... I'm over it now. Trust me!

I think the thing we mustn't underestimate about Rob Newman

is he knows his place, and he was the leader in that relationship, he was the Morecambe.

You know, he was Lennon, not McCartney.

The arguments about whose name went first didn't help the atmosphere backstage

but ON stage, the conflict gave them their finest moment -

the squabbling professors of History Today.

Professor Lewis, do you feel, as many do,

that Sebastopol was indeed the birthplace of the Russian Revolution?

-See people who talk like this...

-HE RASPS

That's you, that is.

That's you talking your best.

I see. You see girls running like this...

That's you, that is.

That's how you run.

Rob thought that Dave was seen as the intellectual,

I think largely due to the glasses,

um...and I think, um, he did want to be...

seen as, you know, as equal intellectually

and not just the one who looks like a pop star.

Newman and Baddiel's live shows got bigger and bigger.

They had more money and adulation than they could handle.

The whole thing was spinning out of control.

I did all the stuff that you do - I split up with my girlfriend,

I slept with quite a lot of women - not as many as Rob -

and...I got paranoid about stuff.

But crucially we - me and him - found it difficult to just be friends

in the kind of easy way that we'd been friends before we were famous.

It did happen very quickly and I think it was a bit de-stabilising for both of us.

It meant that we were behaving kind of weirdly in some ways.

The wheels were falling off the Newman and Baddiel bandwagon, but the audience still adored them.

12,000 fans turned up at Wembley Arena for the biggest comedy show of all time.

The last tour, when we were doing Wembley, and apart from that, all 4,000 and 5,000-seater venues,

there was a period when we weren't speaking, we were just speaking when we were on stage,

which, you know, at the end of the day, for a double act is completely mental.

I like to think now it enhances our rock'n'roll status!

Goodbye!

You just wouldn't believe it that a couple of comedians so young and so seemingly down to earth

could have accelerated so quickly into neurotic disintegration

and that much hatred.

David Baddiel found a new double act partner who would let him have his name first,

and went on to huge success in Baddiel and Skinner.

Rob Newman gave it all up to write novels.

Meanwhile in a galaxy far, far away, a radical double act was developing

that would confuse some, but delight many more.

50 years of light entertainment television had entered the minds of these two young men,

and it was looking for a way to get out.

When it did, the result was extraordinary.

Vic Reeves' Big Night Out was a double-act show right from the start.

There was only ever one man who was truly on the same wavelength as Vic, and that was Bob Mortimer.

# I go where the in crowd go!

# I'm in with the in crowd... #

I started off at a little pub in New Cross and it was...

What I was doing was kind of deconstructing light entertainment.

It was taking all those elements and making them more ridiculous than they really were.

And Vic and Bob had a love of those old...traditional...

light entertainment formats.

And just thought, "It's a great thing you have all this set up

"and then you muck about in it and do very odd, odd stuff."

Everything they did together drew on the entire history of double-act comedy,

from music hall to modern television.

If you look at double acts, there's...like, one will be...

Maybe one's in charge, but stupid, but thinks they're in charge - that'd be me.

And the other one's a bit clever, so will say sarky things back to him.

# Like a sardine in a hairnet and he's staring at a priest... #

If there was one double act they clearly loved, it was Morecambe and Wise.

The first time I saw Vic Reeves' Big Night Out

I couldn't believe it, because they did a Morecambe and Wise routine!

One of them's talking, while the other one goes and gets his coat

and gets his muffler and his cap... And I thought, "Blimey!"

# She wants to dance with me

# Wanna hold her so close next to me She wants to dance with me... #

He would have Eric Morecambe frames, and put them on,

and do this business.

It was a direct copy... of Morecambe-esque...

kind of, malarkey.

Way-hey!

The way he sort of moves around Bob Mortimer, it's just like Eric did with Ernie,

and I like it. I feel a great comfort zone with it.

It was like, what if Morecambe and Wise had gone on for 200 years?

And it had become so... kind of their own language

that you had to...that you had to watch it for that 200 years

to get to the point of understanding why it was funny.

# I know I have waited... #

Vic and Bob's love of Morecambe and Wise was fun, but it would also get them into a lot of trouble.

# ..Exactly like you! #

In the BBC tribute show, Vic and Bob recreated Morecambe and Wise's famous routine with Tom Jones.

In the studio audience that night was double-act legend Ronnie Barker, who was not amused.

He was furious because he thought they were unprofessional, giggling through it,

and not really trying to entertain, first and foremost, the audience

rather than themselves.

And so he was very angry about that. It was a real generational and cultural clash between them.

I didn't find out for a while afterwards.

Well, it's not nice to be complained about, but we didn't do it with any malice.

Vic and Bob, in a way,

sort of revitalised the idea of the variety show,

light entertainment double act, and twisted it for a new generation.

They were Morecambe and Wise, Little and Large, the Two Ronnies, whatever -

they were a classic...a classic double act playing off each other.

Whilst Ant and Dec don't look like a traditional double act,

if we scratch the surface, we find everything the classic double act had, including the big audiences.

Ant and Dec are a remarkable phenomenon

because they are one of the very few

genuine double acts.

-# Who'd have thought

-We could be brothers

-# He makes the bed

-And he steals the covers!

-That's right!

-# He like it neat

-And he makes a mess

-# He takes it easy

-And I get upset. #

I think the thing with double acts is that you feel you know them better.

They constantly point out flaws or they constantly break the illusion for the audience.

I think Ant and Dec do it brilliantly, you know,

the way that they will turn to each other and, and say, "Well, that's not what you said earlier,"

or, "That's not what you said at rehearsal!"

Hold on, what are these cameras doing here?

What are ya...what are ya talking about?! It's the cameras!

The cameras have been following me all week, and I'm sick of it! Sick of it!

They even followed me on my skiing holiday.

Ah, what?

-What, on the piste?

-Not when I'm skiing, no, no!

Ant and Dec seem to have hit a vein that nobody else has locked into

since Morecambe and Wise, really.

What they do have is the love of a nation, and they have the skill of being themselves,

and they've mastered it to the highest degree.

My wife said, "I wanna go somewhere I've never been before." I said, "Why don't you try the kitchen?"

Look, shut up, shut up! You haven't even got a wife!

-Yeah, I have.

-No, you haven't. You can't even get a girlfriend.

What they do have is a really genuine friendship

and lots of great double acts haven't necessarily been great friends,

but I think if you are genuinely friends, then it can come across sometimes in what you do.

Hey, Dec, have you heard? Tom Jones is here.

-Oh, no, he's gonna be insufferable after the Brits the other night.

-Don't worry, I'll be ready for him!

-All right, lads?

-Oh, all right, Tom?

Did you see me get my Outstanding Contribution To Music Award the other night?

Big deal! We got a Special Recognition award last year.

But you were only 12 then. I got the OBE in 1999.

-Oh, yeah?

-Yeah.

-TV Personalities Of The Year 2001.

International Artist Of The Year at the Spanish Music Awards 2000. Beat that!

Right, right.

Butlins' Entertainers Of The Decade!

OK, Green Grass Of Home Marketing Board Special Merit Award. I win!

Not so fast. Miss Whitley Bay 1996!

I think the slight pity is that there isn't such a live variety circuit

for Ant and Dec to work with. They're a timeless act

and I can almost see them with top hats and canes

or straw boaters, doing the kind of front-of-curtain turns

that Eric and Ernie did.

I mean, they're working in a different medium now, so they're ending up doing different shows,

but I think Ant and Dec, in a funny sort of way, are as much the inheritors of Eric and Ernie

as Vic Reeves and Harry Hill.

Thank you!

The double act will always be a vital part of the world of entertainment.

Audiences love the slapstick violence, simmering tension and the ridiculous arguments.

For the double act themselves the rewards are great,

but fame, money and the chance to become cherished national icons are really only half the story.

Next time on The Story Of Light Entertainment,

the all-singing, all-dancing, all-round entertainers

and their fight for a place at the top of the slippery showbiz ladder.

They're not his feet!

I do regret doing so many game shows.

I'm an entertainer, I'm a performer, I'm an all-rounder, I do so many things.

If you want me to act, I'll act, if you want me to be serious, I'll be serious.

Just tell me which part of the song you want me to jiggle me bits, and I'll do it!

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd