Morecambe & Wise (IV) - Tea Ern? Quiz

Answer: Thames Television

The announcement that Eric & Ernie were leaving the BBC for ITV was such a bombshell that it made front page news in the United Kingdom. The duo had been pursued by Thames for much of 1977, and had actively discussed the fact that they had received an offer during the production of the Christmas show. Bill Cotton, who had recently been appointed Controller of BBC1, had found out about the offer at Christmas 1977, and had hurriedly put together a financial package that would match Thames's in an attempt to get them to stay.

However, Thames were able to offer Morecambe & Wise the opportunity to make a film, something they had sought to do since the 1960s, which the BBC were unable to do.

Answer: John Junkin and Barry Cryer

When Morecambe & Wise moved, both Braben and producer/director Ernest Maxin declined to accompany them to ITV, as both were happy remaining at the BBC. As a consequence, Junkin and Cryer, who had written the 1972 and 1976 Christmas shows on the BBC, were brought in to script both the first ITV special and the 1978 Christmas show.

Answer: Harefield Hospital

For the second time in just over a decade, Eric was forced to take a considerable amount of time off to recuperate from a heart attack just when he and Ernie had begun a new contract with a new broadcaster. However, just like Bill Cotton had done a decade before at the BBC, Philip Jones, the Head of Light Entertainment at Thames, reassured the pair that the contract they had so recently signed would be honoured. So worried were the public about his partner's health that, once it was clear that Eric was well on the road to recovery, to avoid the almost inevitable question "How's Eric?", Ernie took to wearing a badge stating "Eric's much better, but I'm not feeling too good".

Answer: David Frost

The lack of a normal Christmas show was due to Eric's continued recuperation from his heart operation. The extended interview programme was intended as something of a retrospective on the duo's career, which by then had lasted almost 40 years. There was some new sketches produced for the show as well, most notably a performance of "I Tawt I Taw A Puddy Tat", with Ernie as Tweety Pie and Eric as Sylvester the Cat.

Answer: Eddie Braben

When Eric & Ernie had left the BBC, Eddie Braben had said that he wouldn't follow them as he was happy where he was, in addition to having an exclusive contract. However, he was contacted by producer John Ammonds and, having been made aware just how much he was missed, agreed to write for the duo as soon as his BBC contract expired.

Answer: The shows had been reduced in length to 30 minutes

During Eddie Braben's time writing for Eric & Ernie at the BBC, he had never had less than 45 minutes per episode to work with. But, at Thames the duration of each episode, during the series at least, had been reduced to 30 minutes, which was in reality only 25 minutes once the ad break was removed, which Braben found incredibly restrictive compared to what he had done before.

In addition, he also found it difficult to continually come up with fresh, new material, leading to increasing numbers of sketches and routines from the BBC days being reused.

Answer: Christmas Day 1983 was a Sunday

Because Thames only held the franchise to broadcast during the week in London, with weekend viewing in London was the responsibility of a separate franchise, London Weekend Television. As a consequence, because Thames did not want one of their guaranteed ratings winners broadcast by another franchise, from 1981 onward the Morecambe & Wise Christmas Show was not broadcast on Christmas Day.

Answer: Night Train to Murder

The prospect of making another film, and putting to bed the disappointment of their 1960s efforts with Rank, had been the primary motivation for Morecambe & Wise to leave the BBC and move to Thames. However, the end result was a crushing blow for both of them. Eric in particular was upset with how it had turned out, even going so far as to suggest that Thames should permanently shelve the piece, or else show it in a mid-afternoon slot usually reserved for children's programming.

In the end, "Night Train to Murder", the last piece that Morecambe & Wise worked on together, received its first broadcast on 3rd January 1985, just over seven months after Eric's death.

Answer: Tewkesbury

Eric had been suffering from a chest complaint for some weeks prior to the event at the Roses Theatre in Tewkesbury, and had made arrangements to visit the Harefield Hospital for tests. However, he had felt confident about his appearance, as he planned to use it as a test for the kind of public event he envisaged doing from that point onward in his semi-retirement.

Although intended as a leisurely question and answer session, at the end of the night Eric engaged in some increasingly hectic banter with the on-stage band. Almost as soon as he had finally left the stage, he collapsed with another heart attack.

This proved too much for his already weakened heart, and he died in the early hours of 28th May 1984.

Answer: United States

Ernie had suffered a minor stroke in 1993, which was followed by a second in 1995, at which point he announced his final retirement from show-business. While holidaying in Boca Raton, Florida in late 1998, he had a pair of heart attacks, which, in January 1999, led him to undergo an operation similar to that Eric went through in twenty years previously.

He was returned to the UK approximately two months later, and died on 21st March 1999.