Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Comedian, best known as the much-put-upon half of the great Morecambe and Wise double act, with whom he sang, danced and joked his way to the top.
On the island
Eight records
Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and Donald O'Connor
from the film Singin' in the Rain
In conversation
Presenter asks
9:18At what point did the young Master Wiseman think 'I wouldn't mind doing this for a living'?
My father was always trying to get me away from the working men's clubs into some sort of professional situation. And I went and gave this audition to Brian Mickey at Leeds Empire. … Didn't hear anything. That was it. Then the next thing we got a telegram. … And so he brought me down I auditioned him that afternoon in his office and he put me on that night at the Princess Theatre, and that was in January nineteen thirty nine. … I went on to that stage and I was uh the following morning I was headlines all over the country. Railway Porter Sun success overnight, you know. … Twelve and a half and they said to my father, Would you like to stay on with him? … And uh he said no, he had to go back home and um … look after the family, he had a regular job, he was frightened, you know. And he was um he was never the same, you know. … When I left. … It it broke his heart. My mother always used to say it broke his heart when you'cause we were so close. And even to this day, … My father's always with me, you know. I know it sounds funny to say that, but he's with me now, or inside me.
Presenter asks
13:56He [Eric] didn't really want to be the funny man, did he?
I don't think so. I always thought um it always struck me that he always felt very self-conscious. Um … uh when his mum used to make him up in these comedy clothes and whiten his face a bit, put her make up on, you know, and and a bit of lipstick and all that. And he was always very self conscious about being the dopey one. I think he would have been much happier as the smart sort of … Debonair type. … A sort of carry grants. … Oh, you always heard that, yeah. When we came to make the films later on, he was he wanted to make the films, yes, very much so. Wanted to be a film star.
The keepsakes
The book
Charles Dickens
purely and simply because I lived with those characters in at the Savoy Theatre, and I seemed to know them all personally.
Presenter asks
20:40Did [Eric's first heart attack] come as a surprise? Or had it crossed your mind?
Oh no, it came as a surprise. No, it came as we didn't know. Um we were appearing at Batley and um … Suddenly I that's why I hate the phone, you see. When the phone rings at one o'clock in the morning … Then I know it's bad news. … And the phone rang like one o'clock and did you know he'd had a heart attack? That was when I was in Wakefield. I was in the hotel in Wakefield. … He was going back to his hotel, and we weren't in the same hotel. … He suddenly felt terrible, felt very bad, and he got this guy to drive his Jensen for him. And this guy said, Oh, I'm not used to driving Jensens, I drive tanks, he said.
Presenter asks
23:05Do you think, had he lived, that you would still have been together?
Yes, I do. I think we would have been doing a Christmas show.
Presenter asks
24:31Was it for you a case of feeling in a sense that half of you had died too?
Well, we go back to when I first saw him give his audition, when he walked on to that stage. … But he's burying his um … Lollipop … and sang … I'm not all there, there's something missing. And that is what is the song when people see me. I'm not all there, there's something they expect to see. … Like somebody said the other day. … Uh excuse me, but um … Was it you or Eric that died? … What a remark. People get the confusion, you know. But I don't get any spirit messages, by the way. It's not like my father, you know, my father. But I do dream about him.
Presenter asks
29:15What do you think of today's comedians? Do you have a favourite?
I think Russ Abbott is uh the best commercial comedian we've got today. … On television, because he's good looking, he's got a lot going for him. He's excellent. The other ones. … They're just a little bit too um rude for me. I mean, it's not my generation. And they do talk about very personal things that I find a little bit embarrassing. I watched Fry and Lauria the other day. No, I like them. I think they're very good. … And then suddenly they come out with something that frightens the living daylights out of me. … I'tis to me, yeah, when they talk about personal, sexual, intimate things, I find … I don't like that sort of conversation on television.
“I comb them every morning, of course. I display them too.”
“I never won a two-pair hair. I've got the most beautiful hair. You can run through it barefoot if you'd like.”
“My father's always with me, you know. I know it sounds funny to say that, but he's with me now, or inside me.”
“Was it you or Eric that died? … What a remark. People get the confusion, you know.”
“I'm not all there, there's something missing.”