For many people over the age of 50, the first few bars of an old 1960s song will always prompt a smile. Bring Me Sunshine, adopted by comedians Morecambe and Wise as their theme tune in 1969, came to define the pair who sang it at the end of every show.

May 14 2026 marks the centenary of the birth of Eric Morecambe, “the funny one” to Ernie Wise’s straight man, together regarded as Britain’s pre-eminent comedy double act of the 1960s and 1970s. Recognition of that milestone is boosted by the rediscovery of a lost episode from the first BBC series of The Morecambe and Wise Show, from September 16 1968 – the corporation plans to broadcast it on his century birthday.

Morecambe was then 42 and at the beginning of a BBC run lasting until 1977 that would produce a series of Christmas specials on which the duo’s fame largely rests. Half a century later, these specials are still a feature of the BBC’s Christmas line-up. But it is difficult to convey how much of an institution Morecambe and Wise were in that three-channel 1970s world of television.

In 1999 Queen Elizabeth dedicated the statue of Morecambe on the promenade of his home town, whose name the young Eric Bartholemew adopted. There are more than ten books about the comedian, and the late Victoria Wood wrote and performed in Eric and Ernie (2011) about their early years. The hunt for missing shows that led to the recent discovery has found episodes as far afield as Sierra Leone.

An enduring double........

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