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Comedy Double Acts: Memorable Christmas Moments (2025)
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00:00:00Bottom is open.
00:00:01Double Axe, the jewel of Christmas TV.
00:00:05Merry Christmas to all of you.
00:00:06It was just an absolute joy.
00:00:09I've never laughed as much in my life.
00:00:11It was joyous in every way.
00:00:13Every year, these dazzling, dynamic duos...
00:00:16It's almost impossible to imagine them without each other.
00:00:18...make our Christmases merry and bright.
00:00:21I said, come on, it's based on me, isn't it?
00:00:23Yeah, Jesus, wherever you are, mate, if you're listening, happy birthday.
00:00:27Every child loved it, every adult loved it.
00:00:29That was hysterical. Absolutely wonderful.
00:00:32So much work went into all the Christmas episodes.
00:00:35Go, go.
00:00:36Tonight, we're celebrating the very best of them.
00:00:39They're a remarkable Double Axe.
00:00:41Victoria Wood and Julie Walters were comedy legends.
00:00:44I was hamming Vivaldi before I had my first Sloan X.
00:00:48As we hear the behind-the-scenes secrets...
00:00:51I'm filling up here.
00:00:52Do you want to make a Double Axe? Do you want to make a Double Axe?
00:00:54I kept saying, no, no, no.
00:00:56...that made these partnerships so special.
00:00:59Their chemistry was mesmeric.
00:01:02Cooperman and Blunderwoven, the partnership made in heaven.
00:01:06To help us celebrate, we're in the company of the Double Axe...
00:01:10Ha-ha, that's a cracker!
00:01:12...and their friends.
00:01:13Oh, that was wonderful.
00:01:15So sit back, sit...
00:01:18...tuck it, raise a glass...
00:01:20...and enjoy Christmas with the Double Axe.
00:01:24It made Christmases so marvellous.
00:01:27Merry Christmas from me.
00:01:28And a Happy New Year from him.
00:01:29I think Christmas years and years and years ago on television was variety.
00:01:49Of course, that doesn't happen any more.
00:01:51I mean, because we don't have those Double Axe.
00:01:54I mean, they've gone.
00:01:55They were just wonderful.
00:01:56All those Double Axe were wonderful.
00:02:03Fear not, for we have a feast of festive Double Axe.
00:02:07You're crackers.
00:02:08For your viewing pleasure.
00:02:10Ding-dong merrily on high.
00:02:12Kicking us off, please welcome Cyril John Mead and Edward Hugh McGuinness.
00:02:17Or as we know them, Little and Large.
00:02:21Good evening, folks, and welcome to our Christmas show.
00:02:24Christmas specials.
00:02:25I wish we could have done more.
00:02:27We wish you good luck and a Happy New Year.
00:02:31I love Christmas.
00:02:33It's great to actually dress up Christmassy.
00:02:36You know, it was my dream in a way.
00:02:39Good morning!
00:02:42Steps back in Micklemas amazement.
00:02:45It's one of the Mr Men.
00:02:47Yes, Little and Large were an essential part...
00:02:51..of our Christmas viewing.
00:02:53Their four specials in the 1970s and 80s...
00:02:56..gave us many a merry moment.
00:02:59River! Sit!
00:03:06Little and Large were a very funny double act.
00:03:09I remember me and Bob working on the same show as them.
00:03:14All four of us all got on like a house on fire.
00:03:17And their show was on TV, very successful.
00:03:2115 million tuned in to Little and Large's Christmas specials.
00:03:26Not bad for a double act formed in the working men's clubs in 1960.
00:03:30Me and Eddie, we met by accident.
00:03:35He ran me over on a zebra crossing.
00:03:36No, no.
00:03:37No, I just played guitar in the pubs and clubs around Manchester.
00:03:40And then 17, Eddie came to this pub where I was working,
00:03:44doing a Saturday night gig.
00:03:47And he said, can I get up with you?
00:03:50And we hit it off.
00:03:51It went from there.
00:03:53So I'm with me.
00:03:54The little boy that owns me, right little comic ears,
00:03:57pulls this off and then starts saying,
00:03:59Oh, what's this here?
00:04:01He's ruined me squeak.
00:04:02Listen.
00:04:03They were, you know, a great double act.
00:04:06They had a good repartee between the two of them.
00:04:09Eddie was a funny man.
00:04:10Yes, Santa's workshop.
00:04:12You'd like what in your bedroom this Christmas, sir?
00:04:14Yes, wouldn't we all?
00:04:16I don't think I'd be able to fit Dolly Parton past your chimney breast.
00:04:21I was a straight man.
00:04:22You know, I could never be a comic.
00:04:24If the straight man stays straight, the funnier the comic.
00:04:28So I'd like to start by singing this lovely Christmas song.
00:04:33The all-round family entertainment of little and large
00:04:36was that Eddie was always annoying and interrupting Sid.
00:04:40These interactions were the same.
00:04:43Here's a goodie from 1980.
00:04:46What have you got behind your back?
00:04:47A big fat bum. What have you?
00:04:49It's not easy always to be the bat of everybody's jokes.
00:04:54I know what presents I want for Christmas.
00:04:56Last year he got a Monopoly set.
00:04:58He spent so much time in jail, Longford came to visit him.
00:05:01He wasn't really being horrible.
00:05:03I always remember Eddie was in the house.
00:05:05He was always annoying and interrupting Sid.
00:05:08These interruptions became iconic.
00:05:10Here's a goodie from 1980.
00:05:12Eddie was in the street once.
00:05:13A little old lady come up to him and she said,
00:05:15let him sing a song on his own.
00:05:17You never let him sing a song on his own.
00:05:19Oh, and Eddie got that a lot.
00:05:21And do you remember the fortune teller
00:05:23who predicted that you'd become a big singing star?
00:05:26No.
00:05:27Well, she remembers you,
00:05:28because you're the only prediction she ever got wrong.
00:05:31But that was the great thing.
00:05:33You knew, like all double acts, there has to be some affection between them.
00:05:38If they're really nasty and really mean, people don't like it.
00:05:42Sid may have been the boss of Eddie's festive funnies,
00:05:45but off stage, the boys were closer than brothers.
00:05:48We were in a car crash up in the North East.
00:05:51I ended up ending hospital for a couple of days
00:05:54and then they sent me back to Manchester
00:05:57and Eddie finished the week off.
00:05:59And he came to see Sid regularly.
00:06:01It was quite a long illness.
00:06:02And he brought him half the money.
00:06:04He said, no, I only did.
00:06:06I only did till Wednesday.
00:06:07You checked Monday?
00:06:08No.
00:06:0950-50.
00:06:10And that's the way it was all the way through our career.
00:06:13And, yeah.
00:06:15And I think that's why we survived so long, yeah.
00:06:18This very special friendship lasted for more than 60 years
00:06:23until Eddie's death in 2020.
00:06:25So we're in the crematorium
00:06:30and they wanted me to do the eulogy.
00:06:33Patsy, his wife, told me that he'd buried
00:06:36and he's got his stay suit on.
00:06:39And I said, which one?
00:06:40The blue one?
00:06:41And I wore the blue suit.
00:06:43Oh, don't.
00:06:46I wore the blue suit and I said, this is our...
00:06:51This is our last...
00:06:53Yeah, yeah.
00:06:58Yeah, I do miss him.
00:06:59I miss him.
00:07:00I still talk to him, yeah.
00:07:02But I still remember him at Christmas, though.
00:07:05He's still in my heart, yeah.
00:07:07And more was talking to him, yeah.
00:07:14Stay tuned, because we've got plenty more double acts
00:07:17and their funniest festive moments.
00:07:19Somebody call for a miracle.
00:07:20Who's the man?
00:07:21Including these menopausal madams.
00:07:24Excommunicado.
00:07:26I think I want to set that with prawns.
00:07:28It was just hysterical.
00:07:30And these marvellous misses.
00:07:32I believe that your heart will go warm.
00:07:36So much work went into all the episodes, particularly Christmas.
00:07:48Welcome back to our romp through the double acts.
00:07:51That made our Christmases very merry.
00:07:54Oh!
00:07:56The festive season is a time for catching up with friends.
00:08:00Stay.
00:08:01He bottoms up.
00:08:02Oh.
00:08:03And this friendship united a well-loved soap star with the man of a thousand faces.
00:08:09Roy Barraclough and Les Dawson were possibly one of the greatest double acts ever.
00:08:16Sissy and Ada, why were they so brilliant?
00:08:19I've got to find Bert's teeth.
00:08:22You know, last time I saw them, they were just near the cheese dip.
00:08:26Yes, no Christmas would be complete without our favourite bosom-hitching buddies.
00:08:31It was your volavance that really stood out.
00:08:34Ada Shufflebottom and Sissy Braithwaite, who entertained us in our millions in the 70s and 80s.
00:08:40It's this new bra.
00:08:43You see, it lifts and separates at the same time.
00:08:46Trouble is, it's a bit of a struggle when they do.
00:08:51Les Dawson was one of our comedy greats, but fame came late to him.
00:08:56Les Dawson, he's got a soft spot in my heart.
00:08:59Most of the acts that came through showbiz in the 70s did have hard starts to their careers.
00:09:08And Les was the one, he was a vacuum salesman, but he could play piano.
00:09:13When we went to Opportunity Knox, there was a guy on stage playing the piano.
00:09:19And Bob turned to me and said,
00:09:20God blammy, he's rubbish, he'll never pass the audition.
00:09:23But Les Dawson.
00:09:25Not only did Les top the clapometer and win the show,
00:09:29he soon became a firm fixture on Saturday Night TV,
00:09:33where he started a lifelong partnership with Roy Barraclough.
00:09:37When he met Roy Barraclough, they clicked instantly.
00:09:40The whole double act was just magnificent.
00:09:44This magnificent duo featured in seven Christmas specials,
00:09:49including this Boxing Day classic from 1975.
00:09:53The Christmas sketch with Sissy and Ada was just the best.
00:09:58Don't know they're born these days.
00:10:00I think of 1935, Christmas Day, what a year that was.
00:10:04We couldn't even afford a turkey.
00:10:06Whatever did you do?
00:10:07My Bert gave the budgie chest expanded.
00:10:10But it was the best of the best of those types of sketches that they both did.
00:10:16I just see those ten kids lined up now, whinnying piteously.
00:10:20Things were so bad it was five assigned to a cracker.
00:10:24And Bert didn't help because his feet were so dirty
00:10:27every time he hung his stocking up the tree he died.
00:10:28Sissy and Ada first appeared in 1973 on ITV's sketch show Says Les,
00:10:36but they only came about by accident.
00:10:39They started it just during the periods when they weren't filming,
00:10:42just to fill in while they changed the sets.
00:10:45They'd do it as a bit of a joke at first.
00:10:47Ada, Les's character, was slightly more common
00:10:50and he'd do that with his...
00:10:52Just do that with your breast and it was hysterical.
00:10:58Roy, he was a sweet lady and, you know, liked his hair
00:11:03and was very particular and prissy.
00:11:05That's why they complimented each other so well.
00:11:08It was wonderful and they'd become such a great double act.
00:11:12You do show yourself up at times, Ada.
00:11:14Ostracise means a case of excommunicado.
00:11:19Excommunicado?
00:11:21I think I want to sound that with prawns.
00:11:23In the cotton mills at the time, very noisy,
00:11:25women would do this memo-ing to each other,
00:11:28because mostly women worked in the mills.
00:11:30And they'd say, how are you, God?
00:11:32Yeah, how are you?
00:11:33And they didn't like to talk about anything personally.
00:11:35They'd say, she's at it.
00:11:37Yeah, but...
00:11:39I don't suppose there's any, er, any drink left?
00:11:43In the Mali.
00:11:45I managed to salvage.
00:11:50Les Dawson was a great pantomime dame.
00:11:54I always said he was a bit like the late Queen Mother, God bless her,
00:12:02in that when he walked in the room, everyone would go,
00:12:04Les Dawson.
00:12:06That was the love that people had for Les.
00:12:10Oh, what fun it is to be in one possible today.
00:12:17And what's funnier than boys dressed as girls?
00:12:21Girls dressed as boys, obviously.
00:12:24Happy Christmas, Dawn and Jennifer.
00:12:26No!
00:12:29French and Saunders had some great moments in their sketch shows.
00:12:39Oh, they were brilliant.
00:12:41Just exciting, funny and hysterical and the best.
00:12:46In the 1980s, French and Saunders emerged from the ground-breaking world of alternative comedy
00:12:51to become the Queens of Christmas, giving us fabulous festive specials over 20 years.
00:13:02Dawn and Jen were friends before French and Saunders even existed.
00:13:07The humour that they lived with, they shared a flat.
00:13:10And that's where it all comes from.
00:13:13I've got your Christmas present here.
00:13:16Don't get funny.
00:13:18So much work went into all the episodes, particularly Christmas.
00:13:22When they did the Titanic sketch, they seemed completely natural together.
00:13:27Jack, I want you to draw me like one of your French queens.
00:13:30What, on a bicycle with some onions?
00:13:32I'm sure there's a lot of ad-lib going on.
00:13:34Playing, shall I say.
00:13:35Do you want to do the accent, by the way?
00:13:36Yes, I'm doing it.
00:13:37How are you?
00:13:38And to have women like that creating these characters that took the mickey out of everyone.
00:13:54Near, far, wherever you are, I believe that your heart will go warm.
00:13:59The physicality of those two girls is that they can become anything, anybody else, and that sort of draws attention to the absurdity of the film.
00:14:10And it comes out funny, because they're funny people.
00:14:12In their very first Christmas special, way back in 1988, we got a glimpse of the recording process of the glorious girl band, Lana Nini Nunu.
00:14:21I think Kim's going to be sick again.
00:14:24All right. Let's do it without her. She doesn't matter.
00:14:26Lana Nini Nunu.
00:14:29Yup. Lana Nini Nunu.
00:14:32This is great film, this sketch.
00:14:34It's clearly having a bit of a poke at Bananarama.
00:14:38Do you know me?
00:14:40You're raging in the middle of the word.
00:14:41How else am I going to get to the end of the word?
00:14:44There were so many layers in that sketch that I loved.
00:14:48The fact that they couldn't sing at all.
00:14:51I'm a bit toppy.
00:14:52Yeah, Pete, Pete, I'm a bit bottomy.
00:14:55Lovely examples of people in a recording studio who were slightly out of their depth.
00:15:00I think actually it's a real tribute to Bananarama, that sketch, you know, because if you're parodied, that means you're successful, genuinely.
00:15:08And they did it with love.
00:15:10And we loved it when pop stars popped into the studio for a sing-song, Dawn and Jen style.
00:15:15When they did the Alison Moyet sketch, when she's singing, of course, and truly wonderful, and they're doing backing singers, but they're really bad.
00:15:33And destroying her moment is what they do beautifully.
00:15:39Dawn, her mouth is doing like a solo routine.
00:15:43The number of things that she does with her mouth, it looks like it's trying to get off her face and launch its own career at one point.
00:15:48It was just hysterical and brilliantly done. You know, everything about it was absolutely spot on.
00:16:02French and Saunders understand comedy, they know comedy.
00:16:06They can know what the other person's thinking before they do it, and so the comic timing is just bang on.
00:16:12Cheerio! Ta-da!
00:16:17If French and Saunders could do it, that meant we could do it. They were brilliant.
00:16:24If French and Saunders came from alternative comedy, our next comic was pure mainstream magic.
00:16:31It's time to see my favorite show, the Russ Abbott Christmas show.
00:16:35I just hope he doesn't do that to Scotsman.
00:16:38Russ was the best of his time.
00:16:40I've got a splitting headache.
00:16:44It was just amazing.
00:16:46Yeah, I was a fan of Russ Abbott.
00:16:48It was just the magic.
00:16:49I thought it was very, very funny.
00:16:51It's taken me a long time to crack this one.
00:16:54With his quick wit and clever characters, throughout the 1980s, Ross Abbott was a veteran of eight Christmas specials, but he didn't do it alone.
00:17:06He built up a little team of people around him.
00:17:09I think Christmas is a waste of time.
00:17:11I mean, it's just an excuse for people to stuff themselves, innit?
00:17:13Yeah, well, they can stuff themselves as much as they like, as long as they don't staff me, eh?
00:17:18All comedians need to feel secure.
00:17:22He would have Justin Gee, he would have Les Dennis, he would have Susie Blake, he would have me, and we were all part of a team.
00:17:28LAUGHTER
00:17:34But there was one performer with whom Russ formed his most enduring partnership.
00:17:43The late great, Bella Enberg.
00:17:47Bella was an extraordinary character.
00:17:51We catch fish, put spear down ice hole.
00:17:53Flair, eh?
00:17:54LAUGHTER
00:17:58He said I sold.
00:18:01LAUGHTER
00:18:03Bella was just funny in her own right as a person, and yet she never really thought she was.
00:18:10Pardon my bringing up a rather delicate matter, Mr Third.
00:18:13Dick.
00:18:15Mr Third Dick.
00:18:17LAUGHTER
00:18:19We always used to tell her, and she went,
00:18:21Oh, no, I...
00:18:22Don't do that, cos you're brilliant.
00:18:23You're so funny.
00:18:24Bella was part of every single Christmas special, but there was one comedy creation that turned her from supporting player into bona fide double-act partner.
00:18:35Do you mind, Blunderwoman? That's not a handbrake!
00:18:39Cooperman and Blunderwoman. Yeah, I mean, a partnership made in heaven.
00:18:44And in this festive treat, the less-than-dynamic duo swung in to save the village panto.
00:18:49Somebody call for a miracle? Cooperman!
00:18:51Cooperman!
00:18:52It was very funny, cos I met Tommy Cooper, and he was very much like Cooperman.
00:18:59Is the pumpkin ready?
00:19:00Yes, she's here, look.
00:19:01Yes, she is.
00:19:03There's a very simple thing that goes on in this double act, and it's one of them's that shape, and the other one's that shape.
00:19:08And I know it's crude, and I know it's simplistic, but it works.
00:19:11Do you know anything about pentas?
00:19:12Oh, yes, she gets hers from Marx.
00:19:15She was at the butt of all the jokes, and she became, you know, I mean, everybody knew her.
00:19:21And the combination of the two of them I thought was great. Very funny.
00:19:25Have either of you two ever acted before?
00:19:28Oh, yes. I once did the caretaker at the National Theatre.
00:19:32Well, I expect you ask for it.
00:19:34Right, that's a gag about a Harold Pinter play in a Russ Abbott show.
00:19:40It fits!
00:19:41Flaming wood, wouldn't it?
00:19:43I don't know what it was. There was some magic between them.
00:19:47And they made you laugh. That's what it's all about.
00:19:51Oh, we'll live happily ever after in a huge castle.
00:19:55We'll have lots and lots of children.
00:19:58We'll have lots to eat and drink.
00:20:00I can't wait to say all that. She's making this up.
00:20:02It's like any double act. You know, you've got to have that connection.
00:20:06It was an amazing time.
00:20:08No more would things be as they were.
00:20:09Well, not for me. I'm stuck with her.
00:20:12And I learnt all about comedy timing from all of them.
00:20:16Now I look back and think, wow, what a time.
00:20:19What a time to be in something. And it was fabulous.
00:20:22Coming up, more dynamic double acts at Christmas.
00:20:29I was hamming the valdy before I had my first sling back.
00:20:32Jesus, wherever you are, mate, if you're listening, happy birthday.
00:20:36As we reveal the inspiration behind this fabtastic DJ double act.
00:20:41Nicey was based really on...
00:20:44Shh! Don't tell us yet, Tony.
00:20:53Welcome back to our deep dive into the funniest double acts and their memorable Christmas moments.
00:20:58Happy New Year!
00:21:00Our next comedy couple were pure festive fabulous and gave us some of the funniest and most original lines ever committed to Christmas TV.
00:21:11God, if her bum were a bungalow, she'd never get a mortgage on it.
00:21:18Victoria Wood and Julie Walters, are they lucky to have found each other?
00:21:23Their chemistry was absolutely mesmeric.
00:21:27She met a soul mate, really, in Julie.
00:21:32Wood and Walters was a match that met in 70s Manchester, was sealed in a Shepherd's Bush review and in 1981 burst onto our TVs and into the nation's hearts.
00:21:43The thing I absolutely love about Victoria Wood and Julie Walters is the class and the quality and the detail in their character work.
00:21:53No, sorry, sorry, the black ones, they're a flat lace-up.
00:21:59Pardon?
00:22:00Well, those aren't flat.
00:22:05Flatter now!
00:22:08Julie Walters is just another level of an actress.
00:22:12The detail in the physicality, the movements, the eye-rolling, the looks, it is superb.
00:22:18The Christmas specials of Victoria Woods were a select part of Christmas.
00:22:23It was like a, like a chocolate box of, you know, Christmas stocking of goodies and she used that analogy a lot.
00:22:31And one such Christmas goodie came in a 1991 special.
00:22:34Patrina!
00:22:37What is it, Mrs Sedgler?
00:22:39Now, I didn't want to be having this little talk, but you've manoeuvred me up an alley with no side lights.
00:22:47The knitwear sketch is brilliant.
00:22:51This is you, Patrina. You're not cultured. I was hamming Vivaldi before I had my first slingbacks.
00:22:56I think, er, Julie, Julie Walters is a brilliant comedy actress.
00:23:01Do you know Vivaldi?
00:23:03Into the Four Seasons.
00:23:05Well, I prefer to think of them in the original. The Quattro Formaggi.
00:23:10It was hysterical.
00:23:12She just flies. She just takes wing with the lines.
00:23:15I don't like upsetting people. Like the woman who brought back the Cerise Batwing. I didn't like playing on her paranoia and taking advantage of her physical defects.
00:23:27But if someone has body odour that could strip pine, they should be told.
00:23:32Vick's writing was beyond brilliant, because she nailed those people that we know in life and reflected them so brilliantly on our screens.
00:23:45Victoria famously wrote every line of her shows all by herself.
00:23:50Victoria was very protective of her scripts and very strict about them, you know, and she would spend hours thinking about them, creating them.
00:24:03And if you changed a line just from the to a or something, she'd say, no, no, no.
00:24:08And she'd come down and she'd, listen, I've sat for three months with a pencil in me gob thinking about this.
00:24:13That's the way you're going to say it. And she did.
00:24:14Vick always gave everyone amazing lines and was the most selfless performer, writer.
00:24:23And Julie's character was almost a monologue of this person that we all know in life that we hate.
00:24:28But I'm too sensitive, Petrina. This is my deficiency. Chernobyl. I worried for weeks about that.
00:24:37Oh, that were awful.
00:24:38Well, it was. The night that it occurred, we'd had all our garden furniture out.
00:24:45But it's, it's, it's things like, it's, it's the genius of garden furniture. Nobody else would think of that.
00:24:50I don't say any of this lightly, Petrina. I'm having nightmares over this. I keep dreaming I'm on the generation game.
00:24:58And have to make filo pastry with oven gloves on.
00:25:00It's celebrating the mundanity of items and things that surrounded us.
00:25:06It's affecting my marriage. Only last night my husband said to me, Sondra, where is the laughing fairy that could crochet a crinoline lady toilet roll cover whilst imitating Kirita Kanoa?
00:25:22Hugely magical chemistry between Victoria Wood and Julie Walters. It's, it's, it's rare to find. So when you find it, you grab it, hold on to it.
00:25:32Young people watch them. Learn, learn your trade from people like Victoria Wood and Julie Walters. You'll never go wrong.
00:25:40It's just that, you know, Lennon and McCartney and, you know, Morecambe and Wise and Bread and Butter. Meant to be.
00:25:48Next up, joy to the world. It's Harry Enfield and chums. Harry tickled our ribs through the 90s with three glorious Christmas specials.
00:26:01Harry Enfield is an extraordinary performer. He's a grumpy genius.
00:26:07He used to have on his caravan door at lunchtime, I dare you to knock, except there's an expletive in there as well.
00:26:17Because he had to have a sleep. He was carrying the whole thing and he really wanted to have a sleep at lunchtime.
00:26:23He may have been grumpy but this genius gave us double the funny when he teamed up with Paul Whitehouse to create one of the iconic and historic double acts.
00:26:34Paul Whitehouse is the nicest man in the world. Paul really started as a writer for Harry, but it turns out Paul is a brilliant actor.
00:26:44Is it what I think it is? I hope so.
00:26:47I think cat.
00:26:51I mean, you said you wanted one for under the floorboards. Thank you very much.
00:26:57Harry and Paul are proper chums, friends, and they knew each other when they were both broke, sleeping on each other's floors, working on building sites, stuff like that.
00:27:07And it was during this time the ultimate comedy duo was born, making their TV debut in 1990.
00:27:13The whole thing of a smashy and nicey was a take-off of DJs.
00:27:17That was the Smiths there, and they want to hang the DJ, and you know, I couldn't agree more.
00:27:23Life works there, Morrissey, mate, because if you've been out at a big charity dinner, I think it's mega-mongously important that you do hang your dinner jacket up when you get in.
00:27:35Blacktide-tastically sensible tip there, mate.
00:27:38Isn't Thursday great, mate? Following Wednesday and just only a few hours away from Friday now.
00:27:44I'm sure all those DJs must have been watching at home going,
00:27:47Oh, no. The game's up. That's it. We're done.
00:27:50Most of the DJs on Radio 1 didn't like it very much. I thought it was so funny.
00:27:54I thought it was one of the funniest things I've ever seen.
00:27:56Send it to me, Mike Smash, Fab FM, Fab Tower, Fab Street, Swindon.
00:28:02I asked Paul, I said, who's it based on?
00:28:05And he wouldn't really say. I said, come on, it's based on me, isn't it?
00:28:11And he said, well, a little bit, a little bit.
00:28:14So I'm Smashy, and Nicey was based really on Alan Freeman, not half Poppickers, and a charity.
00:28:21Smash-O-Dopolis, Bachman Turner Overdrive.
00:28:24And when Smashy and Nicey brought that radiobungus energy to a Christmas sermon,
00:28:29it was quite literally a joy to behold.
00:28:32Come on, you faithful there. What a Poptastic number to start off the show with, Nicey.
00:28:37You're not wrong there, mate. One of the all-time favourite hymns of all time, Carol-wise type stuff.
00:28:42There's always a vague hint towards a young friend of mine is coming at the weekend.
00:28:48Well, mate, I've got a young friend of mine coming over for Christmas Day,
00:28:51and he's going to be cooking the turkey, and that's going to be mega-gobble-gobble-tastic.
00:28:56You know it's a boy. You know it's a boy.
00:28:59But he never says, he never says it's a boy.
00:29:01But he has helped a young friend of mine came round.
00:29:04But you know, Christmas is not just about a turkey. Birdmungus, though it is.
00:29:08No, it's also about the marvellous, Poptabulous day when Mary...
00:29:13Great Virgin there, mate.
00:29:15Great Virgin.
00:29:16And you know, unlike a lot of other chaste ladies, she gave birth to a baby, which is quite phenomenal.
00:29:22So fantastic, mate.
00:29:24Harry's a great mimic, so he's over the top with his DJ, and Paul can, you know, be even more precise in his performance.
00:29:30They called him Jesus, and he grew up to be a carpenter.
00:29:33And, of course, he wasn't just a carpenter, was he, mate? He was also one hell of a nice guy.
00:29:38Right, and you know, when he was 30, he gave up carpentry and spent the last three years of his life doing a whole lot of good work for charity.
00:29:45They've ruined the word charity, mate, and doing things for charity.
00:29:50Jesus, wherever you are, mate, if you're listening, happy birthday.
00:29:56Harry had a way of putting his finger on phenomenon, and Smashy and Nicey, I think, probably had an effect.
00:30:02They certainly did have an effect, but not the one they were expecting.
00:30:06They're iconoclasts, aren't they? Because they brought down the thing that they were sending up.
00:30:11Matthew Bannister, who took over Radio One, he didn't see the funny side of it.
00:30:16And he said, I want to get rid of that image, and he sacked a load of people all at once.
00:30:20They'd sort of held up to the world, these men who were reasonably harmless, for ridicule.
00:30:28And the world went, yeah, ha-ha, let's get rid of them.
00:30:31Oh, hang on, I didn't mean to go quite that far.
00:30:34Smashy and Nicey were a phenomenon, but when it came to Christmas ratings in the 1990s, there was one pair that proved unbeatable.
00:30:46Yes, it's time to pull a knock-off cracker with our favourite fraternal double act, Dell and Rodney.
00:30:53Lovely jubbly.
00:30:55A bit like the Queen's Speech, you had to see Only Fools and Horses, particularly the Christmas specials, because they were special.
00:31:05For 20 years and 16 Christmas specials, millions would tune in for Dellboy and Rodney's antics, like this hilarious and cleverly scripted bit of linguistic misuse.
00:31:16Oh, Bain Marie! Bain Marie!
00:31:20That dynamic of the clown, Dellboy, and Rodney forever put upon, you know, brother, is just beautiful.
00:31:30Every moment they create and every moment they fill, and you don't want to miss.
00:31:37And on Christmas Day 1996, we certainly didn't want to miss a thing, as Only Fools had been off our screens for three long years.
00:31:45Finally, writer John Sullivan gave us the present we'd all been waiting for.
00:31:51Everybody was waiting for the Christmas special. What are fools going to do this year?
00:31:57And Dellboy and Rodney didn't disappoint.
00:32:00Obviously, Batman and Robin was the biggest one of all.
00:32:02The Batman and Robin sequence is possibly one of their most iconic, you know, sequences.
00:32:08This Christmas special, part of a holy trilogy, was so hotly anticipated, filming had been kept under wraps for months.
00:32:17The big thing about the Batman and Robin thing was the filming of it at night in Bristol.
00:32:23Press would arrive in droves trying to film what you were filming, so they could spoil everybody's Christmas.
00:32:31We just had scaffolding put up and Harris fencing and put black drapes over them and blocked the road.
00:32:36We had to block off the whole street with hundreds of security people.
00:32:41We wanted to make it a surprise for Christmas Day for the nation.
00:32:43I think if it had been ruined, I think it would have been terrible.
00:32:46We're worth the wait.
00:32:49Clever scripting gave us first one brilliant visual gag...
00:32:56...after another.
00:32:59The costume designer said,
00:33:01Do you want us to make this like they've been to the Terrell World shop and looked at you?
00:33:05We eventually came up with the decision, no, they've got to look fantastic.
00:33:08They've got to look really great.
00:33:10So that, obviously, was the right decision.
00:33:12I mean, David looked funny, but Nick looked extraordinary.
00:33:15The comedy, for me, is not even so much what Del Boy does,
00:33:20it's Nicholas's reactions to what Del Boy does.
00:33:24Will you get back inside the van?
00:33:27I don't want people seeing you dressed like that.
00:33:30You're like the right Rolly.
00:33:32He's going, what?
00:33:33It's just so wonderful.
00:33:35John's writing, along with the directing that's happening,
00:33:39along with the actors kind of putting in their moments,
00:33:42the comedy does build in that scene.
00:33:45It's laugh on top of laugh on top of laugh,
00:33:47and you think, how much more can there be?
00:33:49Being a John Sullivan script, a lot more,
00:33:51as the scene built to the most iconic and arguably greatest moment in comedy history,
00:33:57watched by over 21 million people.
00:33:59The best moment, of course, is when they're running down the street.
00:34:03What's that happening?
00:34:04I have the faintest idea.
00:34:07With brilliantly accurate music, costumes and even smoke,
00:34:11we could have been watching actual superheroes,
00:34:13which made this moment even funnier.
00:34:16It was just joyous in every way.
00:34:19That shot of them running through the smoke with the Batman tradition,
00:34:23the old Batman music from the TV series.
00:34:26It was just brilliant. I love it. I still watch it now.
00:34:36Stay tuned for Britain's longest running double act.
00:34:39Merry Christmas to all of you. Ho, ho, ho!
00:34:43Sometimes I still look for him on my right-hand side and think,
00:34:47where the heck is he?
00:34:49And a Christmas visit from this anarchic antipodeum.
00:34:53Stop it!
00:34:54It was like a turkey getting up from the plate and attacking you.
00:34:58Welcome back to our Christmas celebration
00:35:08of the best ever comedy double acts.
00:35:11Don't get funny.
00:35:13I don't suppose there's any drink left.
00:35:17Time to continue the festive fun.
00:35:20Merry Christmas to all of you. Ho, ho, ho!
00:35:23With Britain's longest running double act, Cannon and Ball.
00:35:27It was just an absolute joy to do what we did.
00:35:31I've never laughed as much in me life.
00:35:33Get it!
00:35:37They're a remarkable double act.
00:35:39They knew what a joke was. They could time a joke.
00:35:41And the brilliant of the audience.
00:35:47They're really anarchic.
00:35:49What's the funny about them? What's the funny about them?
00:35:51Bobby Ball would threaten the audience.
00:35:54You think, this is brilliant.
00:35:55Tommy and Bobby just felt like a club act that had landed in TV land and landed well.
00:36:01Yes, stalwarts of Saturday night TV, Cannon and Ball's enduring partnership began in the 60s in Lancashire.
00:36:09They were welders together, Tommy and Bobby.
00:36:13There were 500 men on the shop floor and he was the first person to speak to me.
00:36:17Walked in.
00:36:19Hello, cock.
00:36:20And I went, you alright mate?
00:36:21And as he walked away, I never forget, I thought to myself, wow, that's a funny little beggar.
00:36:27Aspiring singer Bobby was keen to form a duo with Tommy, but the feeling wasn't mutual.
00:36:33You know, every two or three months, do you want to make a double act?
00:36:36I kept saying no, no, no.
00:36:38And one morning I see him coming across and I thought, if he asses me once more I'm going to knock him out.
00:36:44Anyway, he did and well, like I said, the rest is history.
00:36:48Cannon joined Ball on the northern club circuit, honing their craft as singers before deciding to switch to comedy.
00:36:57One day we met a comedian, he got £12, Bob and I got six.
00:37:02He said, oh, you do a bit of comedy, you get more money.
00:37:05So bit by bit we would sing a couple of songs and then we'd put a bit of comedy in.
00:37:10We'd been on the same working man's club, they'd do the first spot and we'd go on and do the second spot.
00:37:16And they were hard places.
00:37:18There were 15 years of hard, hard gruff.
00:37:22Fast forward two decades and Cannon and Ball were the biggest things on ITV.
00:37:27Their five Christmas specials pulling in 20 million viewers.
00:37:32One of my favourite ones at Christmas time was when Tommy's telling the story.
00:37:36Bobby was very naughty.
00:37:39He's getting these kids are sat there brilliant and then all of a sudden, Tommy!
00:37:45Come on, disco, pull a couple of birds, come on!
00:37:48Will you please leave us alone?
00:37:50I'm trying to tell the children a Christmas story, alright?
00:37:53OK, tell them I'll just sit here and listen.
00:37:56Bobby Ball is that really unpredictable kid in your class who you sort of find funny but you're not really going to make friends with him because he's nuts.
00:38:06As Hippity and Bobbity were going along, they met Willie the Weasel.
00:38:11Willie the Weasel!
00:38:12Yes!
00:38:13And that's right there!
00:38:14Yes!
00:38:15Willie the Weasel!
00:38:16Yes!
00:38:17Get on my nerves, I'm dying!
00:38:19He's dangerous.
00:38:21Bobby made me laugh.
00:38:23I was supposedly the straight man but I don't think I ever did one series where I didn't laugh.
00:38:31They used to laugh a lot and the audience would go with them and, you know, so you would have to wait for them because it was just so funny.
00:38:38His dad did it!
00:38:40Never mind that, I'll kill you if you carry on!
00:38:42Despite rumours of a rift, Cannon and Ball's friendship was as strong off-screen as on.
00:38:48Of course you have your arguments.
00:38:50You know, anybody who's been married for 59 years, you're not telling me they don't have an argument.
00:38:55Of course you do.
00:38:56Put it there.
00:38:57Put what there?
00:38:58We were pals.
00:39:03Merry Christmas.
00:39:04What they'd done gave an audience a real...
00:39:07Well, it's a warmth, isn't it?
00:39:08Because you feel you're getting to know two people who've been friends all their life.
00:39:12A better friend than old man.
00:39:14True friends.
00:39:15True friends.
00:39:16True friends.
00:39:20I'm filling up here.
00:39:21You're nuts.
00:39:25You're crackers.
00:39:27I can't argue with that.
00:39:29Oh!
00:39:30Cannon and Ball continue to entertain us on stage and screen right up until Bobby's death in 2020.
00:39:36I've been in the business 64 years.
00:39:39Five years without Bob.
00:39:41Sometimes I still look for him on my right-hand side and think, where the heck is he?
00:39:47You want to joke?
00:39:48Yeah.
00:39:51But that's very funny!
00:39:52You've just had a magic about him.
00:39:54And he's still got it and he's up there, but I know he's having a good time.
00:39:57From the working men's clubs, to the dreaming spires, and two very fine fellows.
00:40:11Peter Cook and Dudley Moore have come out of that tradition of Oxbridge comedy.
00:40:16Peter was from Cambridge, Dudley Moore had gone to Oxford.
00:40:19Peter Cook and Dudley Moore were in a league of their own.
00:40:24And they were the most successful double act of the 1960s.
00:40:28Their BBC sketch series, not only but also, was must-see TV.
00:40:33Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, what is there to say?
00:40:36We could say that Aunty wiped most of their stuff, so finding a Pete and Dud shaped bauble to adorn this show was tricky.
00:40:46But we have uncovered a little Christmas gift from 1971.
00:40:50Pete is a shepherd giving an eyewitness account of the nativity to Dud, a journalist from the Bethlehem Star.
00:40:56Yeah, well, basically, what happened, Matthew, was that me and the lads were abiding in the fields.
00:41:02Abiding in the fields, yes.
00:41:04Yeah, mind you, I can't abide these fields, you know.
00:41:07Well, they are unabideable fields.
00:41:09I mean, look around you, they are unabideable.
00:41:12These are about the most unabideable fields I've ever had to abide in.
00:41:16So a lot of time with Christmas TV, what you are seeing is inevitably covered in tinsel and baubles and sleigh bells going ch-ch-ch-ch in the background.
00:41:27But this is different. This is the Christmas story, it's the nativity, but it's boiled down to one person telling another person about it,
00:41:36sitting on the tiniest set you've ever seen, one of them holding a crook and then the sound of some sheep on an effects track.
00:41:42What was brilliant about that sketch was using those biblical terms and turning it into a press interview.
00:41:49It was so funny and so brilliant.
00:41:51And much to our surprise, the angel of the Lord come down.
00:41:54Oh, that must have been a fantastic experience.
00:41:57Well, it made a bit of a break, you know.
00:42:00Bit of a change from just abiding in the fields now.
00:42:04How did you know it was the angel of the Lord?
00:42:06Well, I'll tell you what the giveaway was, Matthew.
00:42:08It was the ethereal glow that he was emanating.
00:42:12Ah.
00:42:13He was emanating this ethereal glow.
00:42:15Yeah, yeah.
00:42:16And as soon as I saw him emanating this ethereal glow, I said, hello, that's angel of the Lord there.
00:42:22You've taken this incredible moment of the birth of Christ and made it the most ordinary thing ever and that to me is comic genius.
00:42:31This sketch was filmed for Australian TV to promote their 1971 tour Down Under.
00:42:37With his writing, when he had to sort of be disciplined, he could take something like familiar verses from the Bible that everyone knows and has noticed, well, that's a bit weird, and he could go off on that.
00:42:51He was an extraordinary creator.
00:42:54You shall find the child lying in a manger.
00:42:57Yes.
00:42:58All meanly wrapped in swaddling clothes.
00:43:00Yes.
00:43:01All meanly wrapped in swaddling clothes.
00:43:02Now, I suppose your first reaction was to whip over there and have a peep, eh?
00:43:05Yeah, it certainly was, but when I got to the stable, Matthew, I was in for a bit of a shock.
00:43:10Oh.
00:43:11Because when he said, you shall find the child all meanly wrapped in swaddling clothes, I thought, you know, fair enough, he'll be fairly meanly wrapped, you know.
00:43:18Yeah.
00:43:19No flash, nothing gauldy.
00:43:20Right.
00:43:21But when I arrived, it was abominable.
00:43:23And I think his delivery, his style of comedy, was so different to a lot of the comedians that had to be very expressive and very big.
00:43:32He was quite still and quite calm and quite blunt and hard.
00:43:37But that kind of worked for the British sense of humour really well.
00:43:41It was the meanest bit of wrapping I have ever seen.
00:43:46Really?
00:43:47It was more the kid was barely swaddled.
00:43:50I would say it is the worst job of swaddling and wrapping I have ever seen in my life.
00:43:55You would say a very hasty job of wrapping and swaddling had been inflicted on the child.
00:43:59You may quote me on that, Matthew.
00:44:02Yeah, very hasty indeed.
00:44:03Part of it is squeezing out from something that you wouldn't think would give you ten minutes of comedy, squeezing every inch out and thinking it could go on for more.
00:44:14You could go on for another ten minutes.
00:44:17People have said that Peter Cook is a comedy genius and I think I have to agree.
00:44:22But the Australian Broadcasting Control Board didn't agree.
00:44:26They cried blasphemy and banned Pete and Dud from appearing on their hallowed TV ever again.
00:44:33That wouldn't have done any harm to the ticket sales for the live show.
00:44:37The ticket sales for the live show went through the roof. Every night was a sellout. And eventually Peter Cook sent a telegram to the head of the Australian Broadcasting Control Board saying thank you for the publicity.
00:44:47I think it was quite ahead of its time in the sense that it was taking the mickey out of the Bible. And nowadays we don't think about those things. But then it was very confrontational.
00:44:58There was something magical there which I don't think either of them found anywhere else. Sometimes, you know, just worlds collide and something beautiful happens. As good as anything else you'll see in terms of Christmas comedy.
00:45:09It wouldn't be Christmas without a warm bird that spent the morning with a hand up it. But what if that bird is an anarchic Antipodean?
00:45:24Don't you worry. Yes, and a merry Christmas for me. And for me, you. No, I don't like your size.
00:45:33I knew Rod Hull and his bird. He was manic with that emu. It was like a turkey getting up for the plate and attacking you.
00:45:47Watch it. Watch it. Just watch it. That's all.
00:45:49I remember me and Bob having a chat about it and said, I'll tell you what, he comes anywhere near us without emu.
00:45:54That's all. Stop it.
00:45:56Yes, it's emu, who, with a hand from Rod Hull, created a destructive double act in the 1970s feared by the famous.
00:46:07I mean, he made his name on the Royal Variety shows. He was an unknown and he stole the show.
00:46:12And then afterwards he met the Queen Mother and the emu actually attacked her bouquet of flowers and ate it.
00:46:22So he didn't care what he did. He was amazing.
00:46:26When they weren't terrorising celebrities and actual royalty, Rod and Emu had their own kids TV series
00:46:34and in 1977 gave the nation a chaotic Christmas special.
00:46:39Get! I can't wait for tomorrow. You'll have stuffy and...
00:46:44Rod worked so hard with that, we called it the bird.
00:46:47This thing is hugely heavy, but he had to wear that all day.
00:46:52So you would often see him in the studio just lying with the emu sort of like this, just to get the weight off.
00:46:59But the emu was still watching the floor manager, watching the FM, watching everybody.
00:47:06But to put that concentration in all the time was hard work.
00:47:12Which was evident in this skit as Rod and Emu headed out to buy Christmas dinner.
00:47:17Look out, shoppers. He's loose in aisle three.
00:47:20He said, I don't want a rehearsal for this. I'm just going in.
00:47:23He said, just follow me. Just follow me. I won't. There's no retakes on this.
00:47:27I'm just going to go. And we did five minutes and that whole shop went out.
00:47:39He just goes into a supermarket and he just basically destroys the supermarket.
00:47:42I mean, that takes a lot of timing, a lot of setting up.
00:47:49To show something really stupid and daft...
00:47:51You're not supposed to be in here.
00:47:53You have to be very clever and canny.
00:47:55Which one do you want?
00:47:57It was almost like comedy without any sound.
00:48:01You know, it was just, you could laugh at it with not having any lines or any sophistication.
00:48:13It was just pure fun.
00:48:15And at the checkout, the cashier found a very unexpected item in the bagging area.
00:48:21And I thought, that's an art. That's a brilliant art.
00:48:25And you've got it in spades.
00:48:27Stop it!
00:48:29Every child loved it, every adult loved it.
00:48:32It was brilliant because it was slapstick.
00:48:34And slapstick was something which was very rare to be seen.
00:48:38But when it was seen and done brilliantly, like Rod did, it was wonderful.
00:48:45Coming up...
00:48:46There's been altogether too much TV this Christmas.
00:48:49The two Ronnies were my favourite, I think.
00:48:52We've got marvellous moments from the Rons.
00:48:55And some festive mayhem with these two.
00:48:57It was always as genuinely funny on screen as off screen.
00:49:08Welcome back, as we gallop faster than a one-horse sleigh through our festive funnies.
00:49:13Enough for me, I'm stuck with her.
00:49:17As Christmassy as mince pies and brandy butter,
00:49:20this next pairing truly made our Yuletides gay.
00:49:24The best partnership you could put on at Christmas.
00:49:26The Christmas shows were absolutely terrific.
00:49:29Yes, Ronnies, Corbett and Barker,
00:49:32kept us laughing through four Christmas specials,
00:49:35with clever wordplay...
00:49:36News have just come in from Sussex
00:49:38that firemen have freed the drunken bell ringer
00:49:41who forgot to let go of the rope
00:49:43and caught his ding-dong merrily on high.
00:49:46LAUGHTER
00:49:47..and gloriously silly visual gags.
00:49:58The two Ronnies were my favourite, I think.
00:50:01They were a great double act.
00:50:03The first time the two Ronnies shared a screen was in 1966 on the Frost Report.
00:50:09Bill Cotton or some other important executive at the BBC said,
00:50:13well, these are good.
00:50:14And we've got two performers, both called Ronnie.
00:50:18They both wear glasses and they seem to get on quite well.
00:50:21Give them a series and off they went.
00:50:23The two Ronnies sketch show landed on our screens in 1971
00:50:28and became a staple of our festive viewing over the next two decades.
00:50:34They were both very different performers.
00:50:36Ronnie Corbett was a stand-up comedian.
00:50:39He was at the Peter Cook's Establishment Club.
00:50:41He played some quite edgy stuff.
00:50:43Ronnie Barker came from rep theatre,
00:50:45but from radio was where he really learnt his trade.
00:50:49And, of course, Ronnie wrote a lot of those sketches himself.
00:50:53He'd send them in anonymously and he had one or two turned down on his own show.
00:51:01Elaborate sketches like this had 22 million of us tuning in.
00:51:07Their ballet sequence is just incredible to watch.
00:51:11The dancers start and you know there's going to be an entrance,
00:51:13you know at some point, so you're expecting it.
00:51:16And they actually delay it quite a while.
00:51:18There's a sort of which builds the moment.
00:51:21The moment Big Ron comes on is a big laugh.
00:51:29Then Ronnie comes on and so you've got two entrances
00:51:33which immediately give you the humour.
00:51:36Middle-aged men, you know, goofing around, that's funny.
00:51:38It's funny in itself.
00:51:39They're just basically bitchy ballet dancers, but it's about the words.
00:51:44Here's Batman and Robin, arms entwined
00:51:47Her bosom is dropping, ain't love grind
00:51:50He's old enough to be her mum, but she adores his sugar plump
00:51:54He's got a room in Euston and she's got a flat behind
00:51:58So you're thinking they're doing something about the nutcracker and they're actually talking about what's going on on stage.
00:52:03And it's so clever.
00:52:05Look at her Jess, don't she look a mess
00:52:09Tatted dress, no finesse, shaking it about
00:52:13Shoes by Dulcis, when she waltzes
00:52:17Watch your forces, fall out
00:52:21That was hysterical, absolutely wonderful.
00:52:24It's a lot of old camp crosstalk and old camp jokes, which you just love.
00:52:32Production value, they threw a lot of effort and it was just beautifully done.
00:52:36Everybody loved the big production numbers.
00:52:38And who doesn't love A Christmas Carol?
00:52:42Especially when it's done too Ronnie's style.
00:52:45There's been altogether too much TV this Christmas.
00:52:49On the 12 days of Christmas we've seen upon TV
00:52:53The 12 days of Christmas was a brilliant piece.
00:52:56It's just a feat of memory.
00:52:58Twelve hours of snooker
00:52:59Eleven hours of bowling
00:53:00Ten core repeated
00:53:01Nine Polish dramas
00:53:03Eight panoramas
00:53:04Seven brides and brothers
00:53:06Six Nolan sisters
00:53:07Tall and deep
00:53:09Linguistically you could not beat the two Ronnies.
00:53:14It's those rhymes that only those two could make.
00:53:16For what it's worth
00:53:18Three, two, one
00:53:19To the man aboard
00:53:20And a speech from the dear old queen
00:53:24There's just such good wordplay going on.
00:53:27For what it's worth
00:53:28Three, two, one
00:53:29To the man aboard
00:53:30Well done.
00:53:31Well done.
00:53:32If I'd written that I'd take the rest of the day off.
00:53:34That's just brilliant, that's genius.
00:53:36It doesn't work, but they make it work.
00:53:38They were just magnificent.
00:53:40You know, they were a proper double act.
00:53:43Even their sign offs were fun.
00:53:46And they always signed off in the same way.
00:53:48And it just made us laugh.
00:53:50It's a Merry Christmas from me.
00:53:51And a Happy New Year from him.
00:53:52Good night.
00:53:53Good night.
00:53:54From two men who wore glasses
00:53:58To two glasses that were always very full of bolly.
00:54:02Patsy and Adina are classic.
00:54:04I mean, Joanna Lumley and Jennifer Saunders.
00:54:07They are wonderful comediennes.
00:54:09Adina and Patsy were the most extraordinary characters.
00:54:13Adina had a kind of ambition.
00:54:16And Patsy was just there for the bubbles.
00:54:19You've never met anybody like those two.
00:54:21But it was believable.
00:54:23Because they did it.
00:54:24And it was hysterical.
00:54:26Hello, hello, cab, cab.
00:54:28Yes, it's absolutely fabulous Eddie and Patsy.
00:54:32Who gave us five Christmas specials with gloriously silly visual gags.
00:54:37When we get in there, we're just going to point and load.
00:54:39Point and load.
00:54:40Point and load.
00:54:41No.
00:54:42No.
00:54:43No.
00:54:44No.
00:54:45No.
00:54:46No.
00:54:47No.
00:54:48No.
00:54:49No.
00:54:50No.
00:54:52And perfectly executed physical comedy.
00:54:54Eddie!
00:54:55Eddie!
00:54:56Patsy?
00:54:57Eddie, where are you?
00:54:58Pats!
00:54:59Hello.
00:55:00Eddie.
00:55:01Follow my voice, darling.
00:55:02Hello.
00:55:03Hello.
00:55:04Oh, sweet.
00:55:05Yes, sweet.
00:55:06How dare you?
00:55:07Eddie, where have I been?
00:55:08Oh, darling, they must have picked you up on the way in, darling.
00:55:10There's a lot about AppFab to love.
00:55:12Oh, squirrel, squirrel, squirrel.
00:55:14I think the characters that Jennifer's written are so clever and so varied.
00:55:20It was an absurd world of magazines and PR and parties.
00:55:25It was just brilliant and it was showbiz.
00:55:27Just the best and it made Christmases so marvellous.
00:55:34Adapted by Jennifer Saunders from a French and Saunders sketch,
00:55:37Ab Bab hit our screens in 1992,
00:55:40though it often took a Christmas miracle to get it there.
00:55:44I would ring her up and say, when are we likely to get the script?
00:55:48And she would say, well, with any luck, next week.
00:55:53And she knew she was lying and I knew she was lying.
00:55:57She sort of had to wait for the spark from heaven to fall.
00:56:02And even at the first read-through, it wasn't plain sailing.
00:56:06I know that at the beginning, Joanna found it difficult.
00:56:10She rang her agent and said, get me out of this.
00:56:12And thankfully, her agent said, look, it's only a pilot.
00:56:16It may never go anywhere.
00:56:17But she was very good in it.
00:56:19She was very good at sort of high comedy.
00:56:21Let's think texture. Let's think colour.
00:56:23Do we love this? Do I love that, actually?
00:56:25Actually, no, I thought I liked that.
00:56:26That's a bit, I don't know.
00:56:28What do you think about that?
00:56:29It was lovely. Great. Bye.
00:56:30Well, I've got to buy it all.
00:56:32And you haven't bought anything yet?
00:56:33I know, that's because I'm trying to find what I want, darling.
00:56:35I'm trying to focus.
00:56:36Darling, I know what will help you focus.
00:56:37What? What?
00:56:38Nice little drink.
00:56:39This was left field.
00:56:41Nobody expected her to be, you know, with a flag on and falling out of a taxi hammered.
00:56:46It was absolutely brilliant and revolutionary for her.
00:56:50It was a lovely surprise for those of us who'd only ever seen her in The Avengers.
00:56:55You hardly see her any other way now.
00:56:58On comes Joanna Lumley, and she blows everybody off the screen.
00:57:02For Christmas lunch, darling, who comes for that, darling?
00:57:05Well, there will be me and John.
00:57:07Is he from Gabon?
00:57:10What?
00:57:11Is he from Gabon?
00:57:13Gabon?
00:57:13Yes, is he from Gabon?
00:57:16Why are you saying that?
00:57:17Gabon.
00:57:19Will you stop saying that now?
00:57:20Well, to ask her if he's from Gabon.
00:57:23Is he from Gabon?
00:57:24No.
00:57:24No, he's not from Gabon, so shut up.
00:57:28That was such a fantastic role for her to have, and she picked up the ball and she didn't just run with it.
00:57:34She got on her motorbike and drove off.
00:57:36Those two ran amok.
00:57:39I mean, they were outrageous.
00:57:41That's just comedy gold.
00:57:43And the 2003 Christmas Day special built to the ultimate comedy crescendo.
00:57:49The thing I remember especially is Joanna Lumley eating.
00:57:55Patsy was essentially a non-eating character, and her trying to eat or not eat a sliver of turkey.
00:58:03That little taste of turkey, which perhaps she'd never had in her life before, although it was protein, she'd never eat a carb, was hysterical, and she delivered 100%.
00:58:13It was one of the occasions when Joanna did a thing she did rather wonderfully.
00:58:20Essentially, she'd gone home and rehearsed in front of the mirror how it would be, and the expressions are the funniest thing of the show for me.
00:58:28She does a brilliant, only longer, which she's clearly rehearsed to a tee.
00:58:46It's Joyce.
00:58:47It was always as genuinely funny on screen as off screen.
00:59:04Other people in the shot gradually went further and further away, or went out of the shot, because they were simply corpsing Joyce.
00:59:13Stay tuned for the greatest double act of all time.
00:59:20Eric and Ernie can make any single thing look funny.
00:59:23We're nearly at the end of our sleigh ride through the double act, who've given us many a happy Christmas.
00:59:38And there's just time for one more.
00:59:41The Christmas miracle that was Bartholomew and Wiseman, or as we all know them...
00:59:47Morecambe and Wise are a phenomenon.
00:59:50Eric and Ernie were, I think, masters.
00:59:54You'd sit in front of the television, you'd watch the Queen's speech, and then you'd have your dinner, and then Morecambe and Wise would come on.
01:00:01You were bated breath.
01:00:03I think the great thing about Eric and Ernie was that they could make any single thing look funny, even the two of them just pulling the cracker.
01:00:11Seeing as it's Christmas, would you like to pull my cracker?
01:00:15Oh!
01:00:16Go on then.
01:00:17Yes, fine.
01:00:18All right.
01:00:19Eric Morecambe was extraordinary.
01:00:20He just looks at the camera and is sort of like a schoolboy, and that's funny.
01:00:24With a record-breaking 14 Christmas specials between 1968 and 1984, Morecambe and Wise were the daddies of the double act, and made the whole nation laugh with some of the most inventive, colourful moments ever seen on the screen.
01:00:41Like the very best of their stuff, the tap dancing routine is just, it's very simple. It's one idea. The one idea is that they, the stars of the show, can't be seen, because there's things in the way.
01:01:04And then more and more of them seem to appear from nowhere. It's a very funny sketch.
01:01:13And it's just that simple, and then it's brilliantly executed, because they have plenty to do.
01:01:22It's almost impossible to imagine them without each other. It's like spinning gold out of straw.
01:01:27I think one of the things that stands out is the breakfast sketch.
01:01:34They were so in tune with each other.
01:01:44Every bit was timed every moment, and it was beautifully timed.
01:01:52You just felt that they never would have rehearsed. However, we know better than that. We know they rehearsed a lot.
01:01:58Yes, to perfect their Christmas specials, rigorous rehearsals began in June.
01:02:06Well, me and Eddie got told that Malcolm & Wise Christmas shows took six months to do.
01:02:12And as you know, Eric was the classic of ad-libs that weren't ad-libs, because they were rehearsed and rehearsed and rehearsed.
01:02:18What they were so clever at was making a very rehearsed situation very natural.
01:02:23Smell that flower. Smell the flower? Yeah.
01:02:25Yeah.
01:02:35Hey!
01:02:37That's a knock on that hand! Hey!
01:02:40That's a Christmas spirit! Did you enjoy that?
01:02:42Hey! Did you enjoy that?
01:02:43I certainly did!
01:02:44It was the straight man and the funny man together playing off each other in that kind of musical way that transferred itself to television, to our rooms.
01:02:54And we all waited for those moments when Eric would do something crazy.
01:02:59And with 28 million tuning in, Morecambe & Wise attracted a dazzling array of the starriest of guests.
01:03:08The key note of all their sketches was disrupting the artist.
01:03:13The best example of that is Penelope Keith and the two of them high-kicking down a staircase, only to find out that it hasn't been finished.
01:03:26Brilliant. Such a simple gag.
01:03:28Where is it?
01:03:29And add in a hilarious and perfectly acted dose of dignity loss for Penny, and the moment achieves perfection.
01:03:36You must do something with a...
01:03:37It's been specially made.
01:03:38Yes, I realise.
01:03:42And to see her have to stagger down with her dress round her crutch in order to get down to the next level was hysterical.
01:03:50And so, to end our double-act celebration, let's revisit a festive gem from Eric and Ernie in 1970.
01:03:58A very Christmassy set and a carol beautifully sung by guest star Nina van Pallant.
01:04:05There's a turkey and some mistletoe.
01:04:10In front of a giant tree. What could possibly go wrong?
01:04:14If a tree falls like that, it's quite funny, but if it does that, you have to...
01:04:22Your brain is going, where's the rescue? Where's the rescue? And, of course, the rescue is that Eric and Ernie come in hidden by trees, but not hidden at all, and have to try and rescue it.
01:04:35But it locks the ties of kittens in this land. And every mother's child.
01:04:45It's slapstick comedy when a set begins to melt behind her and they shuffle on, segue on, fix it, and then go off again.
01:04:53The fact that you saw not only the first tree coming out this side, where I would have just been like, no, moving.
01:04:59And then the second one behind her, this is the one. It was superb.
01:05:06And so I'm offering this simple prayer.
01:05:13Eric Morecambe was always a great physical performer, not just with the glasses and things, but in the way, when he goes the wrong way off the set here.
01:05:22Oh, no, it's best for you. It's all about heaven's many worlds.
01:05:26If you look at Ernie Wise's timing in this, when he knows how long to leave it before beckoning him back.
01:05:33Perfect.
01:05:35That's how you know you've got a successful duo, when they speak to each other without words.
01:05:40It's showbiz. It's hysterical. It's panto.
01:05:43It's that added layer of laughter. Every time you think they've done as much as they can, they will add something else in. And that's what I love.
01:05:50And then the incredible moment where he just puts the table in her hand, which I love. I absolutely love.
01:06:07She held her own, I've got to say.
01:06:15When you think Eric and Ernie, Malcolm and Myers are still being shown today, and I can see why.
01:06:20The sketches they had were just unbelievably good. Every single show they did was funny.
01:06:27It's probably the best comedy career that anyone's ever going to have on television, in terms of numbers and affection.
01:06:34And so they were just the kings of comedy.
01:06:41That was the most לע
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