Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3625 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-06-04
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Full Screen, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 213 minutes

Synopsis
One of Britain’s best-loved comedy double acts appear a variety show that combines sketches, musical numbers and the plays ‘wot Ernie wrote’ that became a firm family favourite. This collection features the surviving footage of the first and complete second series.

Customer Reviews

unforgettable
when you watch this brilliant 2 disc d.v.d it certainly makes you realise what great comedy actors they really were, no other double acts have come anywhere near their brilliance. ok we did:nt see frankie & susan as advertised but that dos;nt distract from making this a must have d.v.d.

chas windsor

Sunshine brought to your DVD player
As has been mentioned below, this is where Morecambe and Wise became the Morecambe and Wise that are so warmly remembered. Eric Morecambe once said that their premise was that everyone knew that Ernie was an idiot and that Eric was a bigger idiot, and in their early days, this was certainly the case. Eric was gormless and naive (but still providing the greater part of the comedy), and Ernie was the suave one with the putdowns. And that stuff is still good, but with these shows things changed. Eric suddenly was allowed to be astute, more astute than Ernie - even though Little Ern is still quite suave in these episodes and doesn't send himself up quite as much as he will (and which is probably the reason why people seem to think Ern was just a straight man when he is very funny in himself and when I was a kid he was my favourite of the pair - see the point where he starts dancing wildly in the end credits of the first episode of the second series). There's a touch of the anarchy of the Marx brothers in the show from hereon out, with Eric bursting the pomposity of drama and classical acting and oh, so many things. But they also retain the innocence that was so wonderful in Laurel and Hardy.

And finally (I'm only 28) seeing the shows uncut and all the way through is wonderful. As is standard nowadays, jokes bleed between sketches as when Ann Hamilton appears in her second sketch with Peter Cushing and Eric remarks "It's the doctor again! What's she doing here?" and there's a nice little comment about Kenny Ball who is a regular on the show, but whose contribution - a musical interlude - is naturally cut out of clip shows.

This hasn't been a particularly well constructed review because I'm gushing. All right, there is something slightly off about the early episodes, where it's clear that Eric and Ernie are getting back into the swing of things and getting a hang of the altered dynamics of their on-screen relationship, but by the episode with Edward Woodward (and one of the best guest star performances by the Equaliser himself) they're knocking them out of the park. And the thing is it's still funny. Nearly forty years on and it's still funny.

very best of Eric and Ern
The last review is correct in that there are mistakes on the packaging for this DVD. Frankie Vaughan and Susan Hampshire are mentioned as guests, but neither appear in any of the shows in this series (although there is a running gag about Vaughan), however it is correct in claiming the 'complete series 2'. I, too, initially thought I'd been duped (since when has a series ever had only four episodes, I thought), but couldn't see a reason why they'd bother to make such a claim only to release half of it. After reading the last review my fears were rekindled, and I instantly rushed on to the Morecambe and Wise website and found a list of their shows, and on it it clearly states four episodes in series 2. (There's seven in series 3, if the M&W website is correct)
And these four episodes are brilliant. It was a defining moment, Eric's heart attack and Eddie Braben replacing Hills and Green as their writer, as the surviving footage from series 1 shows. It's still in the mould of their 'Two of a kind' series which is fine, but not great, and in this one it seems Hills and Green were trying to write themselves a double act as well. Despite writing for them for seven years, they never quite got the formula right for Eric and Ern, but then maybe Eric and Ern didn't quite know what that formula was either.
But in series 2 something amazing happens. Eric's full of life - not surprising after surviving a near-death experience, and Braben responds by providing a script that is firmly based on the duo's best strenghths - their interactions. He opens their act up, allows them to be themselves instead of imitating their heroes, like Abbott and Costello. As a result their humour is more assertive, zany and hilarious. And genuinely post-modern in some episodes - they send-up the fact they are a double act doing a TV show, there's a running gag concerning catchphrases, and instead of imitations they may occasionally do an homage, which is all part of the joke now anyway.
It's great to see their shows uncut. In the past it's only ever been compilations. Edited highlights of the 'best bits', which actually only succeeds in making their humour seem unfunny and forced when taken out of context. We lose the subtlety, the ethos and psychology involved which made their act unusual, and by 1969 there had been twenty-eight years of history between them as a double act, all of which Braben knew full well was the basis to tap into in order of unlocking their full potential. In these shows we can see just how funny they really were. And as most of us have never seen these sketches before, they seem fresh and new (and some of the musical interludes are enjoyable too). The best sketches mainly being the one's with just Eric and Ern - the banter at the beginning of the show, the sketches in the flat, this is where their humour is at it's strongest, sharpest and funniest, instead of most of the guest star moments so favoured by compilations.
This is a long-awaited release, I never thought the BBC would do it. And series 3 will be out soon too.