Tea Ern? I finally catch up with the delightful 2017 TV film Eric, Ernie and Me
“So, let’s see you butcher another one”
Written by Neil Forsyth, Eric, Ernie and Me is a rather delightful thing. Just an hour long but perfectly formed, it follows the relationship between erstwhile fruit and veg man and TV comedy writer Eddie Braben and an up-and-coming comedy double-act by the name of Morecambe and Wise.
In the 8 years that they worked together at the BBC, they became responsible for the most popular TV show in the country, an unthinkable 28 million viewers watching their 1977 Christmas special but perhaps unsurprisingly, it wasn’t always the smoothest of sailing for the three of them.
In particular, Braben suffered from nervous exhaustion as the pressure to maintain the funny became ever more intense as the duo became so successful. And Stephen Tompkinson is perfectly cast as Eddie Braben, gently crumbling even with support from the lovely Liz White as his wife Dee.
They’re matched well by Mark Bonnar as Eric Morecambe and Neil Maskell as Ernie Wise, especially in the earlier scenes when they’re sceptical about everything, even the closeness of them being in bed together for kicks. At just an hour, it is necessarily light touch but all the better for it here.
