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Comedy Double Acts - Memorable Christmas Moments (2025)
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00:00:00Merry Christmas to all of you.
00:00:01It was just an absolute joy.
00:00:04I've never laughed as much in my life.
00:00:06It was joyous in every way.
00:00:08Every year, these dazzling, dynamic duos...
00:00:11It's almost impossible to imagine them without each other.
00:00:13...make our Christmases merry and bright.
00:00:16I said, come on, it's based on me, isn't it?
00:00:18Yeah, Jesus, wherever you are, mate, if you're listening, happy birthday.
00:00:22Every child loved it, every adult loved it.
00:00:24That was hysterical.
00:00:26Absolutely wonderful.
00:00:27So much work went into all the Christmas episodes.
00:00:30Go warm.
00:00:31Tonight, we're celebrating the very best of them.
00:00:34They're a remarkable double act.
00:00:36Victoria Wood and Julie Walters were comedy legends.
00:00:39I was humming Vivaldi before I had my first slew net.
00:00:43As we hear the behind-the-scenes secrets...
00:00:46I'm filling up here.
00:00:47Do you want to make a double act? Do you want to make a double act?
00:00:49I kept saying, no, no, no.
00:00:51...that made these partnerships so special.
00:00:54Their chemistry was mesmeric.
00:00:57Cooperman and Blunderwoven, a partnership made in heaven.
00:01:01To help us celebrate, we're in the company of the double act.
00:01:05Ha-ha, that's a cracker!
00:01:07And their friends.
00:01:08Oh, that was wonderful.
00:01:11So sit back, sit up, raise a glass...
00:01:15...and enjoy Christmas with the double act.
00:01:19It made Christmases so marvellous.
00:01:22Merry Christmas from me.
00:01:23And a Happy New Year from him.
00:01:24I think Christmas years and years and years ago on television was variety.
00:01:44And, of course, that doesn't happen any more.
00:01:46I mean, because we don't have those double acts.
00:01:49I mean, they've gone.
00:01:50They were just wonderful.
00:01:51All those double acts were wonderful.
00:01:54Fear not, for we have a feast of festive double acts.
00:02:02You're crackers.
00:02:03You're crackers.
00:02:04For your viewing pleasure.
00:02:05Ding-dong merrily on high.
00:02:07Kicking us off, please welcome Cyril John Mead and Edward Hugh McGuinness, or as we know them...
00:02:15...little and large.
00:02:17How many folks are welcome to our Christmas show?
00:02:19Christmas specials?
00:02:20I wish we could have done more.
00:02:22We wish you good luck and a Happy New Year.
00:02:26I love Christmas.
00:02:27It's great to actually dress up Christmassy, you know, and it was my dream in a way.
00:02:34Good morning!
00:02:37Steps back in Micklemas amazement.
00:02:40It's one of the Mr Men.
00:02:42Yes, little and large were an essential part of our Christmas viewing.
00:02:48Their four specials in the 1970s and 80s gave us many a merry moment.
00:02:54River!
00:02:55Sit!
00:03:01Little and large were a very funny double act.
00:03:04I remember me and Bob working on the same show as them.
00:03:09All four of us all got on like a house on fire.
00:03:12And their show was on TV, very successful.
00:03:1715 million tuned in to little and large's Christmas specials.
00:03:21Not bad for a double act formed in the working men's clubs in 1960.
00:03:27Me and Eddie, we met by accident.
00:03:30He ran me over on the zebra crossing.
00:03:31No, no.
00:03:33No, I just played guitar in the pubs and clubs around Manchester.
00:03:36And then 17, Eddie came to this pub where I was working, doing a Saturday night gig.
00:03:42And he, er, he said, can I get up with you?
00:03:45And we hit it off.
00:03:46It went from there.
00:03:48For someone with me, the little boy that owns me, right little comic ears,
00:03:53pulls this off and then starts saying, oh, what's this here?
00:03:57He's heard me squeak, listen.
00:03:58They were, you know, a great double act.
00:04:05They had a good repartee between the two of them.
00:04:08Eddie was a funny man.
00:04:10Yes, Santa's workshop.
00:04:11You'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.
00:04:20I was a straight man.
00:04:21You know, I could never be a comic.
00:04:23If the straight man stays straight, the funnier the comic.
00:04:27So I'd like to start by singing this lovely Christmas song.
00:04:32The all-round family entertainment of Little and Large was that Eddie was always annoying and interrupting Sid.
00:04:40These interruptions became iconic.
00:04:42Here's a goodie from 1980.
00:04:45What have you got behind your back?
00:04:47A big fat bum, what of you?
00:04:51It's not easy always to be the butt of everybody's jokes.
00:04:56I know what presents I want for Christmas.
00:04:58Last year he got a Monopoly set.
00:05:00He spent so much time in jail, Longford came to visit him.
00:05:04He wasn't really being horrible.
00:05:06I always remember Eddie was in the street once and a little old lady come up to him and she said,
00:05:10Let him sing a song on his own.
00:05:12You never let him sing a song on his own.
00:05:14Oh, and Eddie got that a lot.
00:05:16And do you remember the fortune teller who predicted that you'd become a big singing star?
00:05:21No.
00:05:22Well, she remembers you because you're the only prediction she ever got wrong.
00:05:25But that was the great thing.
00:05:27You knew, like all double acts, there has to be some affection between them.
00:05:33If they're really nasty and really mean, people don't like it.
00:05:37Sid may have been the butt of Eddie's festive funnies, but off stage the boys were closer than brothers.
00:05:44We were in a car crash up in the North East.
00:05:46I ended up ending hospital for a couple of days and then they sent me back to Manchester and Eddie finished the week off.
00:05:54And he came to see Sid regularly.
00:05:56It was quite a long illness.
00:05:57And he brought him half the money.
00:05:59So no, I only did.
00:06:00I only did till Wednesday.
00:06:02You checked my day.
00:06:03No.
00:06:0450-50.
00:06:05And that's the way it was all the way through our career.
00:06:08And, er, yeah.
00:06:10And I think that's why we survived so long, yeah.
00:06:13This very special friendship lasted for more than 60 years until Eddie's death in 2020.
00:06:20So we're in the crematorium and they wanted me to do the eulogy.
00:06:27Patsy, his wife, told me that he'd buried and he's got his stay suit on.
00:06:33And I said, which one?
00:06:35The blue one.
00:06:36And I wore the blue suit.
00:06:38Oh, don't.
00:06:40I wore the blue suit and, erm, I said, this is our, this is our last.
00:06:47Yeah.
00:06:48Yeah.
00:06:49Yeah, I do miss him.
00:06:54I miss him.
00:06:55I, I, I still talk to him, yeah.
00:06:57But I still remember him at Christmas though.
00:07:00He's still in my heart, yeah.
00:07:02And, er, more worth talking to him, yeah.
00:07:08Stay tuned, because we've got plenty more double acts and their funniest festive moments.
00:07:14Somebody call for a miracle.
00:07:16Including these menopausal madams.
00:07:19Excommunicado.
00:07:21I think I want to stop that with prawns.
00:07:23It was just hysterical.
00:07:25And these marvellous misses.
00:07:27I believe that your heart will go warm.
00:07:32So much work went into all the episodes, particularly Christmas.
00:07:36Welcome back to our romp through the double acts.
00:07:47That made our Christmases very merry.
00:07:50Oh!
00:07:52The festive season is a time for catching up with friends.
00:07:55Say, he bocks him as well.
00:07:57And this friendship united a well-loved soap star with the man of a thousand faces.
00:08:04Roy Barraclough and Les Dawson were possibly one of the greatest double acts ever.
00:08:11Sissy and Ada, why were they so brilliant?
00:08:14I've got to find Bert's teeth.
00:08:17You know, last time I saw them, they were just near the cheese dip.
00:08:21Yes, no Christmas would be complete without our favourite bosom-hitching buddies.
00:08:26It was your vol-au-vents that really stood out.
00:08:29Ada Shufflebottom and Sissy Braithwaite, who entertained us in our millions in the 70s and 80s.
00:08:35It's this new bra.
00:08:38You see, it lifts and separates at the same time.
00:08:41Trouble is, it's a bit of a struggle when they do.
00:08:45Les Dawson was one of our comedy greats, but fame came late to him.
00:08:51Les Dawson, he's got a soft spot in my heart.
00:08:54Most of the acts that came through showbiz in the 70s did have hard starts to their careers.
00:09:02And Les was the one, he was a vacuum salesman, but he could play piano.
00:09:08When we went to Opportunity Knox, there was a guy on stage playing the piano.
00:09:14And Bob turned to me, he said, God damn it, he's rubbish, he'll never pass the audition.
00:09:18But Les Dawson.
00:09:20Not only did Les top the clapometer and win the show.
00:09:23He soon became a firm fixture on Saturday Night TV, where he started a lifelong partnership with Roy Baraclough.
00:09:31When he met Roy Baraclough, they clicked instantly.
00:09:35The whole double act was just magnificent.
00:09:39This magnificent duo featured in seven Christmas specials, including this Boxing Day classic from 1975.
00:09:48The Christmas sketch with Sissy and Ada was just the best.
00:09:52You don't know they're born these days.
00:09:55I think of 1935, Christmas Day, what a year that was.
00:09:59We couldn't even afford a turkey.
00:10:01Whatever did you do?
00:10:02My Bert gave the budgie chest expanded.
00:10:03But it was the best of the best of those types of sketches that they both did.
00:10:11I can see those ten kids lined up now, whinnying piteously.
00:10:15Things were so bad it was five assigned to a cracker.
00:10:17And Bert didn't help because his feet were so dirty every time he hung his stocking up the tree he died.
00:10:24Sissy and Ada first appeared in 1973 on ITV's sketch show Says Les, but they only came about by accident.
00:10:33They started it just during the periods when they weren't filming, just to fill in while they changed the sets.
00:10:40They'd do it as a bit of a joke at first.
00:10:42Ada, Les' character, was slightly more common and he'd do that with his...
00:10:47Just do that with your breasts and it was hysterical.
00:10:53Roy, he was a sweet lady and liked his hair and was very particular and prissy.
00:11:00That's why they complimented each other so well.
00:11:02It was wonderful and they'd become such a great double act.
00:11:07You do show yourself up at times, Ada.
00:11:09Ostracise means a case of excommunicado.
00:11:13Excommunicado?
00:11:15I think I once had that with prawns.
00:11:18In the cotton mills at the time, very noisy, women would do this memoing to each other because mostly women worked in the mills.
00:11:25And they'd say, how are you cotton? Yeah, how are you?
00:11:28And they didn't like to talk about anything personally.
00:11:29She's at it all.
00:11:32Yeah, but...
00:11:34I don't suppose there's any, er, any drink left?
00:11:38In the melee.
00:11:40I'm nice to salvage.
00:11:41Les Dawson was a great pantomime dame.
00:11:52I always said he was a bit like the late Queen Mother, God bless her.
00:11:56When he walked in the room, everyone would go, Les Dawson.
00:12:00That was the love that people had for Les.
00:12:02And what's funnier than boys dressed as girls?
00:12:04Girls dressed as boys, obviously.
00:12:06Happy Christmas, Dawn and Jennifer.
00:12:07Oh, they were brilliant.
00:12:08Just exciting, funny.
00:12:09And what's funnier than boys dressed as girls?
00:12:14Girls dressed as boys, obviously.
00:12:18Happy Christmas, Dawn and Jennifer.
00:12:20No!
00:12:23French and Saunders had some great moments in their sketch shows.
00:12:29Oh, they were brilliant.
00:12:34Just exciting, funny and hysterical and the best.
00:12:41In the 1980s, French and Saunders emerged from the groundbreaking world of alternative comedy to become the Queens of Christmas, giving us fabulous festive specials over 20 years.
00:12:53LAUGHTER
00:12:56Dawn and Jen were friends before French and Saunders even existed.
00:13:02The humour that they lived with, they shared a flat.
00:13:05And that's where it all comes from.
00:13:08I've got your Christmas present here.
00:13:11Don't get funny.
00:13:13So much work went into all the episodes, particularly Christmas.
00:13:17When they did the Titanic sketch, they seemed completely natural together.
00:13:21Jack, I want you to draw me like one of your French queens.
00:13:25What, on a bicycle with some onions?
00:13:27I'm sure there's a lot of ad-lib going on.
00:13:29Playing, shall I say.
00:13:38Don't do the accent, by the way.
00:13:40Who's doing it?
00:13:41How are you?
00:13:43And to have women like that creating these characters that took the mickey out of everyone.
00:13:49Near, far, wherever you are, I believe that your heart will go warm.
00:13:55LAUGHTER
00:13:57The physicality of those two girls is that they can become anything, anybody else.
00:14:02And that sort of draws attention to the absurdity of the film.
00:14:05That it comes out funny, cos they're funny people.
00:14:06In 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.
00:14:16I think Kim's going to be sick again.
00:14:18All right. Let's do it without her. She doesn't matter.
00:14:21Lana Nini Nunu.
00:14:24Yep.
00:14:25Lana Nini Nunu.
00:14:27This is great film, this sketch.
00:14:29It's clearly having a bit of a poke at Bananarama.
00:14:33Jimmy!
00:14:35You're raging in the middle of the word.
00:14:37Well, how else am I going to get to the end of the word?
00:14:38There were so many layers in that sketch that I loved, and the fact that they couldn't sing at all.
00:14:45I'm a bit toppy.
00:14:47Yeah, Pete, Pete, I'm a bit bottomy.
00:14:50Lovely examples of people in a recording studio who were slightly out of their depth.
00:14:54I think, actually, it's a real tribute to Bananarama, that sketch, you know, because if you're parodied, that means you're successful, genuinely. And they did it with love.
00:15:05And we loved it when pop stars popped into the studio for a sing-song, Dawn and Jen style.
00:15:10When 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.
00:15:29And destroying her moment is what they do beautifully.
00:15:34Dawn, her mouth is doing like a solo routine.
00:15:37The 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.
00:15:44I know your honor in Chelsea.
00:15:47In Chelsea.
00:15:49It was just hysterical and brilliantly done, you know. Everything about it was absolutely spot on.
00:15:57French and Saunders understand comedy, they know comedy.
00:16:01They can know what the other person's thinking before they do it, and so the comic timing is just bang on.
00:16:07Cheerio.
00:16:08Ta-da.
00:16:12If French and Saunders could do it, then that meant we could do it. They were brilliant.
00:16:19If French and Saunders came from alternative comedy, our next comic was pure mainstream magic.
00:16:25It's time to see my favorite show, the Russ Abbott Christmas show. I just hope he doesn't do that to Scotsman.
00:16:32Russ was the best of his time.
00:16:35I've got a splitting headache.
00:16:37It was just amazing.
00:16:40Yeah, I was a fan of Russ Abbott.
00:16:43It was just the magic.
00:16:44I thought it was very, very funny.
00:16:46It's taken me a long time to crack this one.
00:16:49With his quick wit and clever characters, throughout the 1980s, Russ Abbott was a veteran of eight Christmas specials, but he didn't do it alone.
00:17:01He built up a little team of people around him.
00:17:03I think Christmas is a waste of time. I mean, it's just an excuse for people to stuff themselves, innit?
00:17:09Yeah, well, they can stuff themselves as much as they like, as long as they don't stuff me, eh?
00:17:13All comedians need to feel secure.
00:17:16He 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.
00:17:28But there was one performer with whom Russ formed his most enduring partnership.
00:17:37The late, great, Bella Emberg.
00:17:41Bella was an extraordinary character.
00:17:45We catch fish, put spear down ice hole.
00:17:48Fleg, Bella.
00:17:54He said ice hole.
00:17:57Bella was just funny in her own right as a person, and yet she never really thought she was.
00:18:04Pardon my bringing up a rather delicate matter, Mr. Ferd.
00:18:08Dick.
00:18:10Mr. Ferd Dick.
00:18:11We always used to tell her, and she went, oh, no, I don't do that because you're brilliant. You're so funny.
00:18:19Bella 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.
00:18:29Cooper man and blunder woman, that's not a handbrake.
00:18:30Cooper man and blunder woman, yeah, I mean, the partnership made in heaven.
00:18:38And in this festive treat, the less than dynamic duo swung in to save the village panto.
00:18:43Somebody call for a miracle.
00:18:45Cooper man.
00:18:46Cooper man.
00:18:47It was very funny, because I met Tommy Cooper, and he was very much like Cooper man.
00:18:53Is the pumpkin ready?
00:18:54Yes, she's here, look.
00:18:55Yes, she is.
00:18:56There'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.
00:19:02And I know it's crude, and I know it's simplistic, but it works.
00:19:05Do you know anything about pentas?
00:19:07Oh, yes, she gets hers from Marx.
00:19:09She was at the butt of all the jokes, and she became, you know, I mean, everybody knew her.
00:19:15And the combination of the two of them, I thought, was great. Very funny.
00:19:19Have either of you two ever acted before?
00:19:21Oh, yes. I once did the caretaker at the National Theatre.
00:19:26Well, I expect you ask for it.
00:19:27Right, that's a gag about a Harold Pinter play in a Russ Abbott show.
00:19:34It fits!
00:19:36Flaming wood, wouldn't it?
00:19:37I don't know what it was. There was some magic between them.
00:19:41And they made you laugh. That's what it's all about.
00:19:45Oh, we'll live happily ever after in a huge castle.
00:19:49We'll have lots and lots of children. We'll have lots to eat and drink.
00:19:54I can't wait to say all that. She's making this up.
00:19:56It's like any double act. You know, you've got to have that connection.
00:20:01It was an amazing time.
00:20:03No more would things be as they were.
00:20:05Well, not for me. I'm stuck with her.
00:20:07And I learnt all about comedy timing from all of them.
00:20:11Now I look back and think, wow, what a time.
00:20:14What a time to be in something. And it was fabulous.
00:20:18Coming up, more dynamic double acts at Christmas.
00:20:24I was hamming the valdy before I had my first sling nap.
00:20:27Jesus, wherever you are, mate, if you're listening, happy birthday.
00:20:31As we reveal the inspiration behind this furbtustic DJ double act.
00:20:37What I see was based really on...
00:20:39Shh! Don't tell us yet, Tony.
00:20:48Welcome back to our deep dive into the funniest double acts and their memorable Christmas moments.
00:20:53Happy New Year!
00:20:56Our next comedy couple were pure festive fabulous and gave us some of the funniest and most original lines ever committed to Christmas TV.
00:21:08My God. If her bum were a bungalow, she'd never get a mortgage on it.
00:21:14Victoria Wood and Julie Walters, are they lucky to have found each other?
00:21:17Their chemistry was absolutely mesmeric.
00:21:22She met a soul mate, really, in Julie.
00:21:26Wood and Walters was a match that met in 70s Manchester, was sealed in a Shepherd's Bush review,
00:21:32and in 1981, burst onto our TVs and into the nation's hearts.
00:21:37The thing I absolutely love about Victoria Wood and Julie Walters is the class and the quality and the detail in their character work.
00:21:50No, sorry, sorry, the black ones, they're a flat lace-up.
00:21:54Pardon?
00:21:55Well, those aren't flat.
00:22:00Flatter now!
00:22:01Julie Walters is just another level of an actress.
00:22:06The detail in the physicality, the movements, the eye-rolling, the looks, it is superb.
00:22:13The Christmas specials of Victoria Woods were a select part of Christmas.
00:22:17It was like a chocolate box of, you know, Christmas stocking of goodies, and she used that analogy a lot.
00:22:24And one such Christmas goodie came in a 1991 special.
00:22:30Petrina!
00:22:32What is it, Mrs Sedgler?
00:22:34Now, I didn't want to be having this little talk, but you've manoeuvred me up an alley with no side lights.
00:22:42The knitwear sketch is brilliant.
00:22:45This is you, Petrina, you're not cultured!
00:22:48I was humming Vivaldi before I had my first slingbacks.
00:22:52I think Julie, Julie Walters is a brilliant comedy actress.
00:22:56Do you know Vivaldi?
00:22:57In The Four Seasons.
00:22:58Well, I prefer to think of them in the original. The Quattro Formaggi.
00:23:05It was hysterical. She just flies. She just takes wing with the lines.
00:23:11I don't like upsetting people. Like the woman who brought back the Cerise Batwing.
00:23:17I didn't like playing on her paranoia and taking advantage of her physical defects, but if someone has body odour that could strip pine, they should be told.
00:23:29Vick's writing was beyond brilliant because she nailed those people that we know in life and reflected them so brilliantly on our screens.
00:23:40Victoria famously wrote every line of her shows all by herself.
00:23:45Victoria was very protective of her scripts and very strict about them, you know, and she would spend hours thinking about them, creating them.
00:23:57And if you changed a line just from the to a or something, she'd say, no, no, no. And she'd come down and she'd, listen, I've sat for three months with a pencil in me gob thinking about this. That's the way you're going to say it. And she did.
00:24:09Vic always gave everyone amazing lines and was the most selfless performer, writer. And Julie's character was almost a monologue of this person that we all know in life that we hate.
00:24:23But I'm too sensitive, Petrina. This is my deficiency. Chernobyl. I worried for weeks about that.
00:24:32Oh, that were awful. Well, it was. The night that it occurred, we'd had all our garden furniture out.
00:24:37But it's, it's, it's things like, it's, it's the genius of garden furniture. Nobody else would think of that.
00:24:46I don't say any of this lightly, Petrina. I'm having nightmares over this. I keep dreaming I'm on the generation game.
00:24:52I have to make filo pastry with oven gloves on. It's celebrating the mundanity of items and things that surrounded us.
00:25:01It'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?
00:25:16A hugely 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.
00:25:27Young people watch them. Learn, learn your trade from people like Victoria Wood and Julie Walters. You'll never go wrong.
00:25:35It's just that, yeah, Lennon and McCartney and, you know, Malcolm and Wise and Bread and Butter. Meant to be.
00:25:42Meant to be.
00:25:44Next up.
00:25:46Joy to the world. It's Harry Enfield. And chums.
00:25:51Harry tickled our ribs through the 90s with three glorious Christmas specials.
00:25:56Harry Enfield is an extraordinary performer.
00:26:00He's a grumpy genius.
00:26:02He used to have on his caravan door at lunchtime, I dare you to knock, except there's an explicit in there as well.
00:26:13Because he had to have a sleep. He was carrying the whole thing and he really wanted to have a sleep at lunchtime.
00:26:18He 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.
00:26:29Paul 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.
00:26:39Is it what I think it is?
00:26:40I hope so.
00:26:41I hope so.
00:26:44A big cat.
00:26:46And he said he wanted one for under the floorboards.
00:26:50Thank you very much.
00:26:53Harry 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.
00:27:02And it was during this time the ultimate comedy duo was born, making their TV debut in 1990.
00:27:09The whole thing of a smashy and nicey was a take-off of DJs.
00:27:13That was the Smiths there, and they want to hang the DJ, and you know, I couldn't agree more.
00:27:19My words there, Morrissey, mate, because if you've been out at a big charity dinner, I think it's megamongously important that you do hang your dinner jacket up.
00:27:27But when you get in...
00:27:31That's a fantastically sensible tip there, mate.
00:27:34Isn't Thursday great, mate? Following Wednesday and just only a few hours away from Friday now.
00:27:39I'm sure all those DJs must have been watching at home going,
00:27:43Oh, no. The game's up. That's it. We're done.
00:27:46Most of the DJs on Radio 1 didn't like it very much. I thought it was so funny.
00:27:50I thought it was one of the funniest things I've ever seen.
00:27:51Send it to me, Mike Smash, Fab FM, Fab Tower, Fab Street, Swindon.
00:27:57I asked Paul, I said, who's it based on? And he wouldn't really say.
00:28:02I said, come on, it's based on me, isn't it?
00:28:06And he said, well, a little bit, a little bit.
00:28:09So I'm smashy, and nicey was based really on Alan Freeman, not half Poppickers, and a charity.
00:28:15Smash-O-Dopolis, Bachman Turner Overdrive.
00:28:19And when Smashy and Nicey brought that radio-mungus energy to a Christmas sermon,
00:28:25it was quite literally a joy to behold.
00:28:28Come on, all you faithful there, and what a Pop-tastic number to start off the show with, Nicey.
00:28:33You're not wrong there, mate. One of my all-time favourite hymns of all time, Carol-wise type stuff.
00:28:36There's always a vague hint towards a young friend of mine is coming at the weekend.
00:28:43Well, mate, I've got a young friend of mine coming over for Christmas Day,
00:28:47and he's going to be cooking the turkey, and that's going to be mega-gobble-gobble-tastic.
00:28:51You know it's a boy. You know it's a boy.
00:28:54But he never says, he never says it's a boy, but it's a young friend of mine came round.
00:28:58But you know, Christmas is not just about a turkey, bird-mungus, though it is.
00:29:03No, it's also about the marvellous, pop-tabulous day when Mary...
00:29:09Great Virgin there, mate.
00:29:11And you know, unlike a lot of other chaste ladies, she gave birth to a baby, which is quite phenomenal.
00:29:17Fantastic, mate.
00:29:19Harry'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.
00:29:25They called him Jesus, and he grew up to be a carpenter.
00:29:28And, of course, he wasn't just a carpenter, was he, mate? He was also one hell of a nice guy.
00:29:34Right, 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.
00:29:41They've ruined the word charity, mate. And doing things for charity.
00:29:46Jesus, wherever you are, mate, if you're listening, happy birthday.
00:29:49Harry had a way of putting his finger on phenomenon, and Smashy and Icy, I think, probably had an effect.
00:29:57They certainly did have an effect, but not the one they were expecting.
00:30:02They're iconoclasts, aren't they? Because they brought down the thing that they were sending up.
00:30:07Matthew Bannister, who took over Radio One, he didn't see the funny side of it.
00:30:10And he said, I want to get rid of that image, and he sacked a load of people all at once.
00:30:16They'd sort of held up to the world, these men who were reasonably harmless, for ridicule.
00:30:24And the world went, yeah, ha-ha, let's get rid of them.
00:30:27Oh, hang on, I didn't mean to go quite that far.
00:30:29Smashy and Icy were a phenomenon, but when it came to Christmas ratings in the 1990s, there was one pair that proved unbeatable.
00:30:42Yes, it's time to pull a knock-off cracker with our favourite fraternal double act, Dell and Rodney.
00:30:49Lovely jubbly.
00:30:50A bit like the Queen's Speech, you had to see Only Fools and Horses, particularly the Christmas specials, because they were special.
00:31:01For 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.
00:31:12Oh, Bain Marie! Bain Marie!
00:31:14That dynamic of the clown, Dellboy, and Rodney forever put upon, you know, brother, is just beautiful.
00:31:25Every moment they create and every moment they fill.
00:31:29And you don't want to miss.
00:31:32And 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.
00:31:40Finally, writer John Sullivan gave us the present we'd all been waiting for.
00:31:46Everybody was waiting for the Christmas special. What are fools going to do this year?
00:31:52And Dellboy and Rodney didn't disappoint.
00:31:55Obviously Batman and Robin was the biggest one of all.
00:31:57The Batman and Robin sequence is possibly one of their most iconic, you know, sequences.
00:32:03This Christmas special, part of a holy trilogy, was so hotly anticipated, filming had been kept under wraps for months.
00:32:12The big thing about the Batman and Robin thing was the filming of it at night in Bristol.
00:32:18The press would arrive in droves trying to film what you were filming, so they could spoil everybody's Christmas.
00:32:25We just had scaffolding put up and Harris fencing, put black drapes over them and block the road.
00:32:32We had to block off the whole street with hundreds of security people.
00:32:36We wanted to make it a surprise for Christmas Day for the nation.
00:32:38I think if it had been ruined, I think it would have been terrible.
00:32:41Well worth the wait.
00:32:44Clever scripting gave us first one brilliant visual gag...
00:32:51...after another.
00:32:52The costume designer said,
00:32:56Do you want us to make this like they've been to a terrible old shop and looked at you?
00:33:00We eventually came up with the decision, no, they've got to look fantastic.
00:33:04They've got to look really great.
00:33:05So that, obviously, was the right decision.
00:33:08I mean, David looked funny, but Nick looked extraordinary.
00:33:13The comedy for me is not even so much what Dellboy does, it's Nicholas's reactions to what Dellboy does.
00:33:19Will you get back inside the van? I don't want people seeing you dressed like that.
00:33:25You look like a right Wally.
00:33:27He's going, what?
00:33:29It's just so wonderful.
00:33:31John's writing, along with the directing that's happening, along with the actors kind of putting in their moments, the comedy does build in that scene.
00:33:39It's a laugh on top of laugh on top of laugh, and you think, how much more can there be?
00:33:44Being a John Sullivan script, a lot more, as the scene built to the most iconic and arguably greatest moment in comedy history, watched by over 21 million people.
00:33:53The best moment, of course, is when they're running down the street.
00:33:58What's happening?
00:34:00I have the faintest idea.
00:34:02With brilliantly accurate music, costumes, and even smoke, we could have been watching actual superheroes, which made this moment even funnier.
00:34:10It was just joyous in every way.
00:34:14That shot of them running through the smoke with the Batman tradition, the old Batman music on the TV series.
00:34:21It was just brilliant. I love it. I still watch it now.
00:34:27Stay tuned for Britain's longest-running double act.
00:34:34Merry Christmas to all of you. Ho, ho, ho!
00:34:38Sometimes I still look for him on my right-hand side and think, where the heck is he?
00:34:44And a Christmas visit from this anarchic antipodeum.
00:34:48Stop it!
00:34:50It was like a turkey getting up from the plate and attacking you.
00:34:57Welcome back to our Christmas celebration of the best-ever comedy double acts.
00:35:06Don't get funny.
00:35:08I don't suppose there's any drink left.
00:35:12Time to continue the festive fun.
00:35:15Merry Christmas to all of you. Ho, ho, ho!
00:35:18With Britain's longest-running double act, Cannon and Ball.
00:35:22It was just an absolute joy to do what we did.
00:35:26I've never laughed as much in my life.
00:35:29Get it!
00:35:32They're a remarkable double act.
00:35:35They knew what a joke was. They could time a joke.
00:35:37And the brilliant of the audience.
00:35:39Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!
00:35:42They're really anarchic.
00:35:44What's the funny about them? What's the funny about them?
00:35:46Bobby Ball would threaten the audience.
00:35:49You think, this is brilliant.
00:35:50Tommy and Bobby just felt like a club act that had landed in TV land and landed well.
00:35:57Yes, stalwarts of Saturday night TV, Cannon and Ball's enduring partnership began in the 60s in Lancashire.
00:36:04They were welders together, Tommy and Bobby.
00:36:08There were 500 men on the shop floor and he was the first person to speak to me.
00:36:13Walked in, hello, cock.
00:36:15And I went, no, are you all right, mate?
00:36:17And as he walked away, I never forget, I thought to myself, wow, that's a funny little beggar.
00:36:22Aspiring singer Bobby was keen to form a duo with Tommy, but the feeling wasn't mutual.
00:36:29You know, every two or three months, do you want to make a double act?
00:36:32I kept saying, no, no, no.
00:36:34And one morning, I see him coming across and I thought, if he asses me once more, I'm going to knock him out.
00:36:39Anyway, he did and, well, like I said, the rest is history.
00:36:43Cannon joined Ball on the Northern Club Circuit, honing their craft as singers before deciding to switch to comedy.
00:36:52One day we met a comedian, he got £12, Bob and I got six.
00:36:57He said, oh, he said, you do a bit of comedy, you get more money.
00:37:01So, bit by bit, we would sing a couple of songs and then we'd put a bit of comedy in.
00:37:06We'd been on the same working man's club.
00:37:08They'd do the first spot and we'd go on and do the second spot and they were hard places.
00:37:13There were 15 years of hard, hard graft.
00:37:17Fast forward two decades and Cannon and Ball were the biggest things on ITV.
00:37:23Their five Christmas specials pulling in 20 million viewers.
00:37:27One of my favourite ones at Christmas time was when Tommy's telling the story.
00:37:30Bobby was, erm, very naughty.
00:37:34He's getting, these kids are sat there brilliant and then all of a sudden,
00:37:39Tommy!
00:37:40Come on, disco, pull a couple of birds, come on!
00:37:43Will you please leave us alone?
00:37:45I'm trying to tell the children a Christmas story, alright?
00:37:48OK, tell them all, just sit and listen.
00:37:51Bobby Ball is that really unpredictable kid in your class who you sort of find funny
00:37:58but you're not really going to make friends with him because he's nuts.
00:38:01As Hippity and Bobbity were going along, they met Willie the Weasel.
00:38:06Willie the Weasel!
00:38:07Yes!
00:38:08And that's right there!
00:38:09Yes!
00:38:10Willie the Weasel!
00:38:11Yes!
00:38:12Get on my nerves, are you?
00:38:13He's dangerous.
00:38:15Bobby made me laugh.
00:38:18I was supposedly the straight man but I don't think I ever did one series where I didn't laugh.
00:38:26They used to laugh a lot and the audience would go with them and, you know,
00:38:30so you would have to wait for them because it was just so funny.
00:38:34He started it!
00:38:35Never mind that, I'll kill you if you carry on!
00:38:37Despite rumours of a rift, Cannon and Ball's friendship was as strong off-screen as on.
00:38:42Of course you have your arguments.
00:38:44You know, anybody who's been married for 59 years, you're not telling me they don't have an argument.
00:38:49Of course you do.
00:38:50Put it there.
00:38:51Put what there?
00:38:52We were pals.
00:38:53Merry Christmas.
00:38:55What they've done gave an audience a real, well, it's a warmth, isn't it?
00:39:03Because you feel you're getting to know two people who've been friends all their life.
00:39:06A better friend has no man.
00:39:08True friends.
00:39:09True friends.
00:39:10True friends.
00:39:11I'm filling up here.
00:39:12You're nuts.
00:39:13You're crackers.
00:39:14I can't argue with that.
00:39:15Oh.
00:39:16Cannon and Ball continue to entertain us on stage and screen right up until Bobby's death
00:39:29in 2020.
00:39:30Been in the business 64 years.
00:39:33Five years without Bob.
00:39:35Sometimes I still look for him on my right-hand side and think, where the heck is he?
00:39:41You were a jerk?
00:39:42Yeah.
00:39:43Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
00:39:45Well, that's very funny.
00:39:46You just had a magic about him.
00:39:48And he's still got it and he's up there but I know he's having a good time.
00:39:52from the working men's clubs
00:39:59to the dreaming spires
00:40:02and two very fine fellows.
00:40:06Peter Cook and Dudley Moore have come out of that tradition of Oxbridge comedy.
00:40:11Peter was from Cambridge, Dudley Moore had gone to Oxford.
00:40:15Peter Cook and Dudley Moore were in a league of their own.
00:40:19And they were the most successful double act of the 1960s.
00:40:24Their BBC sketch series not only but also was must-see TV.
00:40:29Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, what is there to say?
00:40:33We could say that Aunty wiped most of their stuff,
00:40:36so finding a Pete and Dud shaped bauble to adorn this show was tricky.
00:40:41But we have uncovered a little Christmas gift from 1971.
00:40:45Pete is a shepherd giving an eyewitness account of the nativity to Dud,
00:40:50a journalist from the Bethlehem Star.
00:40:52Yeah, well, basically, what happened, Matthew,
00:40:54was that me and the lads were abiding in the fields.
00:40:58Abiding in the fields, yes.
00:41:00Yeah, mind you, I can't abide these fields, you know.
00:41:03Well, they are unabideable fields.
00:41:05I mean, look around you, they are unabideable.
00:41:08These are about the most unabideable fields I've ever had to abide in.
00:41:12So a lot of time with Christmas TV, what you are seeing is inevitably covered in tinsel and baubles
00:41:18and sleigh bells going ch-ch-ch in the background.
00:41:23But this is different.
00:41:24This is the Christmas story, it's the nativity,
00:41:27but it's boiled down to one person telling another person about it,
00:41:31sitting on the tiniest set you've ever seen,
00:41:34one of them holding a crook and then the sound of some sheep on an effects track.
00:41:38What was brilliant about that sketch was using those biblical terms
00:41:42and turning it into a press interview.
00:41:44It was so funny and so brilliant.
00:41:46Much to our surprise, the angel of the Lord come down.
00:41:50Oh, that must have been a fantastic experience.
00:41:53Well, it made a bit of a break, you know.
00:41:56A bit of a change from just abiding in the fields, though.
00:41:59How did you know it was the angel of the Lord?
00:42:02Well, I'll tell you what the giveaway was, Matthew.
00:42:04It was the ethereal glow that he was emanating.
00:42:08He was emanating this ethereal glow.
00:42:11And as soon as I saw him emanating this ethereal glow,
00:42:14I said, hello, that's angel of the Lord there.
00:42:18You've taken this incredible moment of the birth of Christ
00:42:21and made it the most ordinary thing ever,
00:42:25and that, to me, is comic genius.
00:42:27This sketch was filmed for Australian TV
00:42:30to promote their 1971 tour Down Under.
00:42:33With his writing, when he had to sort of be disciplined,
00:42:37he could take something like familiar verses from the Bible
00:42:41that everyone knows and has noticed, well, that's a bit weird,
00:42:44and he could go off on that.
00:42:47He was an extraordinary creator.
00:42:49You shall find the child lying in a manger,
00:42:52all meanly wrapped in swaddling clothes.
00:42:55Yes.
00:42:56All meanly wrapped in swaddling clothes.
00:42:57Now, I suppose your first reaction was to whip over there
00:43:00and have a peep, eh?
00:43:00Yes, it certainly was, but when I got to the stable, Matthew,
00:43:03I was in for a bit of a shock.
00:43:05Oh.
00:43:05Because when he said, you shall find the child
00:43:07all meanly wrapped in swaddling clothes,
00:43:09I thought, you know, fair enough, he'll be fairly meanly wrapped.
00:43:13Right.
00:43:13You know?
00:43:13Yes.
00:43:13Nothing flesh, nothing gaulder.
00:43:15Right.
00:43:16But when I arrived, it was abominable.
00:43:19And I think his delivery, his style of comedy,
00:43:22was so different to a lot of the comedians
00:43:25that had to be very expressive and very big.
00:43:27He was quite still and quite calm and quite blunt and hard.
00:43:32But that kind of worked for the British sense of humour really well.
00:43:36It was the meanest bit of wrapping I have ever seen.
00:43:41Really?
00:43:42And what's more, the kid was barely swaddled.
00:43:45I would say it is the worst job of swaddling and wrapping
00:43:48I have ever seen in my life.
00:43:50You would say a very hasty job of wrapping and swaddling
00:43:53had been inflicted on the child.
00:43:55You may quote me on that, Matthew.
00:43:56Yeah, very hasty indeed.
00:43:57Part of it is squeezing out from something
00:44:01that you wouldn't think would give you ten minutes of comedy,
00:44:05squeezing every inch out and thinking it could go on for more.
00:44:09You could go on for other ten minutes.
00:44:12People have said that Peter Cook is a comedy genius
00:44:14and I think I have to agree.
00:44:17But the Australian Broadcasting Control Board didn't agree.
00:44:21They cried blasphemy and banned Pete and Dud
00:44:24from appearing on their hallowed TV ever again.
00:44:28That wouldn't have done any harm to the ticket sales for the live show.
00:44:32The ticket sales for the live show went through the roof.
00:44:35Every night was a sell-out.
00:44:37And eventually Peter Cook sent a telegram
00:44:39to the head of the Australian Broadcasting Control Board
00:44:41saying thank you for the publicity.
00:44:43I think it was quite ahead of its time in the sense that
00:44:45it was taking the mickey out of the Bible.
00:44:48And nowadays we don't think about those things.
00:44:51But then it was very confrontational.
00:44:54There was something magical there
00:44:55which I don't think either of them found anywhere else.
00:44:57Sometimes, you know, just worlds collide
00:44:59and something beautiful happens.
00:45:01As good as anything else you'll see
00:45:03in terms of Christmas comedy.
00:45:09It wouldn't be Christmas without a warm bird
00:45:12that spent the morning with a hand up it.
00:45:14But what if that bird is an anarchic Antipodean?
00:45:19Don't you worry?
00:45:22Yes, and a merry Christmas for me.
00:45:25And for me, you.
00:45:26It is.
00:45:27No, I don't like this either.
00:45:29I knew Rod Howell and his bird.
00:45:32Oh!
00:45:33He was manic with that emu.
00:45:39It was like a turkey getting up from the plate and attacking you.
00:45:43Watch it, watch it.
00:45:43Just watch him.
00:45:44That's all.
00:45:45I remember me and Bob having a chat about it
00:45:47and said, I'll tell you what,
00:45:47he comes anywhere in the years with that emu.
00:45:50That's all.
00:45:50Stop it!
00:45:51Yes, it's emu,
00:45:53who, with a hand from Rod Howell,
00:45:55created a destructive double act in the 1970s,
00:45:59feared by the famous.
00:46:02I mean, he made his name on the Royal Verratti shows.
00:46:06He was an unknown and he stole the show.
00:46:08And then afterwards, he met the Queen Mother
00:46:11and the emu actually attacked her bouquet of flowers and ate it.
00:46:17So he didn't care what he did.
00:46:20He was amazing.
00:46:22When they weren't terrorising celebrities and actual royalty,
00:46:27Rod and Emu had their own kids' TV series
00:46:30and in 1977 gave the nation a chaotic Christmas special.
00:46:35Get!
00:46:35I can't wait for tomorrow, you laughs.
00:46:38Stop it!
00:46:39Rod worked so hard with that, we called it the bird.
00:46:43This thing is hugely heavy, but he had to wear that all day.
00:46:48So you would often see him in the studio just lying
00:46:51with the emu sort of like this, just to get the weight off.
00:46:55But the emu was still watching the floor manager,
00:46:59watching the FM, watching everybody.
00:47:02But to put that concentration in all the time was hard work.
00:47:07Which was evident in this skit as Rod and Emu headed out to buy Christmas dinner.
00:47:13Look out, shoppers, he's loose in aisle three.
00:47:17He said, I don't want a rehearsal for this, I'm just going in.
00:47:19He said, just follow me, just follow me.
00:47:21I won't, there's no retakes on this, I'm just going to go.
00:47:23And we did five minutes and that whole shop went out.
00:47:27Have some of these, oh, yeah.
00:47:29Lots of cabinet.
00:47:30Yeah, come on, let's do that.
00:47:32Stop it!
00:47:33He just goes into a supermarket and he just basically destroys the supermarket.
00:47:38I mean, that takes a lot of timing, a lot of setting up.
00:47:41It's a surprise in suit.
00:47:44To show something really stupid and daft.
00:47:47You're not supposed to be in here.
00:47:48You have to be very clever and canny.
00:47:52Which one have you got?
00:47:54It was almost like comedy without any sound.
00:48:03You know, it was just, you could laugh at it
00:48:05with not having any lines or any sophistication.
00:48:09It was just pure fun.
00:48:11And at the checkout, the cashier found a very unexpected item in the bagging area.
00:48:17And I thought, that's an art.
00:48:20That's a brilliant art and you've got it in spades.
00:48:23Stop it!
00:48:25Every child loved it, every adult loved it.
00:48:28It was brilliant because it was slapstick.
00:48:30And slapstick was something which was very rare to be seen.
00:48:33But when it was seen and done brilliantly, like Rod did, it was wonderful.
00:48:40Coming up...
00:48:42There has been altogether too much TV this Christmas.
00:48:44The two Ronnies were my favourite, I think.
00:48:47We've got marvellous moments from the Rons
00:48:50and some festive mayhem with these two.
00:48:53It was always as genuinely funny on screen as off screen.
00:48:57Welcome back, as we gallop faster than a one-horse sleigh
00:49:07through our festive funnies.
00:49:09Enough for me, I'm stuck with her.
00:49:12As Christmassy as mince pies and brandy butter,
00:49:15this next pairing truly made our Yuletides gay.
00:49:19The best partnership you could put on at Christmas.
00:49:22The Christmas shows were absolutely terrific.
00:49:24Yes, Ronnies, Corbett and Barker kept us laughing
00:49:28through four Christmas specials with clever wordplay...
00:49:32News have just come in from Sussex
00:49:34that firemen have freed the drunken bell ringer
00:49:37who forgot to let go of the rope
00:49:39and caught his ding-dong merrily on high.
00:49:42..and gloriously silly visual gags.
00:49:45The two Ronnies were my favourite, I think.
00:49:57They were a great double-up.
00:49:59The first time the two Ronnies shared a screen
00:50:01was in 1966 on The Frost Report.
00:50:04Bill Cotton or some other important executive at the BBC said,
00:50:09well, these are good.
00:50:10And we've got two performers, both called Ronnie.
00:50:13They both wear glasses and they seem to get on quite well.
00:50:17Give them a series and off they went.
00:50:20The two Ronnies sketch show landed on our screens in 1971
00:50:24and became a staple of our festive viewing
00:50:26over the next two decades.
00:50:28They were both very different performers.
00:50:32Ronnie Corbett was a stand-up comedian.
00:50:35He was at the Peter Cook's Establishment Club.
00:50:37He played some quite edgy stuff.
00:50:39Ronnie Barker came from rep theatre,
00:50:41but from radio was where he really learnt his trade.
00:50:45And, of course, Ronnie wrote a lot of those sketches himself.
00:50:49He'd send them in anonymously.
00:50:50And he had one or two turned down on his own show.
00:50:56Elaborate sketches like this.
00:50:59Had 22 million of us tuning in.
00:51:02Their ballet sequence is just incredible to watch.
00:51:06The dance is starting.
00:51:07You know there's going to be an entrance.
00:51:08You know at some point.
00:51:10So you're expecting it.
00:51:11And they actually delay it quite a while.
00:51:14There's a sort of...
00:51:15Which builds the moment.
00:51:17The moment Big Ron comes on...
00:51:20LAUGHTER
00:51:21..is a big laugh.
00:51:24Then Ronnie comes on.
00:51:26And so you've got two entrances which immediately give you the humour.
00:51:31Middle-aged men, you know, goofing around.
00:51:33That's funny.
00:51:33It's funny in itself.
00:51:35They're just basically bitchy ballet dancers.
00:51:37But it's about the words.
00:51:38Here's Batman and Robin, arms entwined.
00:51:43Her bosom is dropping, ain't loved rhyme.
00:51:46He's old enough to be her mum, but she adores his sugar plop.
00:51:49He's got a room in Euston and she's got a flat behind.
00:51:53So you're thinking they're doing something about the Nutcracker
00:51:55and they're actually talking about what's going on on stage.
00:51:59And it's so clever.
00:52:01Look at her, Jess.
00:52:02Don't she look a mess.
00:52:04Tattered dress, no finesse.
00:52:07Shaking it about.
00:52:09Shoes by dulcis.
00:52:11When she waltzes.
00:52:13Watch her falses.
00:52:15Fall out.
00:52:16That was hysterical.
00:52:18Absolutely wonderful.
00:52:19It's a lot of old camp crosstalk and old camp jokes,
00:52:25which you just love.
00:52:27Production value, they threw a lot of effort
00:52:29and it was just beautifully done.
00:52:32Everybody loved the big production numbers.
00:52:34And who doesn't love A Christmas Carol,
00:52:37especially when it's done to Ronnie's style?
00:52:40There's been altogether too much TV this Christmas.
00:52:43On the 12 days of Christmas we've seen up on TV.
00:52:48The 12 days of Christmas was a brilliant piece.
00:52:51It's just a feat of memory.
00:52:5312 hours of snooker.
00:52:5511 hours of bowling.
00:52:5610 core repeated.
00:52:579 Polish dramas.
00:52:598 panoramas.
00:53:007 brides and brothers.
00:53:016 Nolan sisters.
00:53:034, Bill and Dean.
00:53:06Linguistically, you could not beat the two Ronnies.
00:53:09It's those rhymes that only those two could make.
00:53:12For what it's worth.
00:53:133, 2, 1.
00:53:15To the manor born.
00:53:16And a speech from the dear old queen.
00:53:20There's just such good wordplay going on.
00:53:22For what it's worth.
00:53:233, 2, 1.
00:53:24To the manor born.
00:53:26Well done.
00:53:27Well done.
00:53:27If I'd written that, I'd take the rest of the day off.
00:53:29That's just brilliant.
00:53:31That's genius.
00:53:31It doesn't work, but they make it work.
00:53:33They were just magnificent.
00:53:35You know, they were a proper double act.
00:53:38Even their sign-offs were fun.
00:53:41And they always signed off in the same way.
00:53:43And it just made us laugh.
00:53:45It's a merry Christmas from me.
00:53:46And a happy new year from him.
00:53:48Good night.
00:53:48Good night.
00:53:49From two men who wore glasses.
00:53:51To two glasses that were always very full of bolly.
00:53:58Patsy and Adina are classic.
00:54:00I mean, Joanna Lumley and Jennifer Saunders.
00:54:02They are wonderful comediennes.
00:54:04Adina and Patsy were the most extraordinary characters.
00:54:09Adina had a kind of ambition.
00:54:11And Patsy was just there for the bubbles.
00:54:14You've never met anybody like those two.
00:54:17But it was believable.
00:54:19Because they did it.
00:54:20And it was hysterical.
00:54:21Hello, hello, cab, cab.
00:54:23Yes, it's absolutely fabulous Eddie and Patsy.
00:54:27Who gave us five Christmas specials with gloriously silly visual gags.
00:54:32When we get in there, we're just going to point and load.
00:54:34Point and load.
00:54:35Point and load.
00:54:40Brilliantly written characters.
00:54:41I've got your little present.
00:54:42And perfectly executed physical comedy.
00:54:50Eddie, Eddie.
00:54:51Pats.
00:54:52Eddie, where are you?
00:54:53Pats.
00:54:54Hello.
00:54:55Eddie.
00:54:55Follow my voice, darling.
00:54:57Hello.
00:54:57Hello.
00:54:58Hello.
00:54:59Oh, say hello.
00:55:00It's Wix and Darling.
00:55:02Eddie, where have I been?
00:55:04Oh, darling, they must have picked you up on the way in, darling.
00:55:06There's a lot about AbFab to love.
00:55:08Oh, I love squirrels.
00:55:09Squirrels, squirrels, squirrels.
00:55:09I think the characters that Jennifer's written are so clever and so varied.
00:55:15It was an absurd world of magazines and PR and parties.
00:55:20It was just brilliant and it was showbiz.
00:55:23Just the best.
00:55:24And it made Christmases so marvellous.
00:55:28Adapted by Jennifer Saunders from a French and Saunders sketch, AbFab hit our screens in 1992, though it often took a Christmas miracle to get it there.
00:55:38I would ring her up and say, when are we likely to get the script?
00:55:43And she would say, well, with any luck, next week.
00:55:49And she knew she was lying and I knew she was lying.
00:55:52She sort of had to wait for the spark from heaven to fall.
00:55:56And even at the first read-through, it wasn't plain sailing.
00:56:01I know that at the beginning, Joanna found it difficult.
00:56:05She rang her agent and said, get me out of this.
00:56:08And thankfully, her agent said, look, it's only a pilot.
00:56:11It may never go anywhere.
00:56:12But she was very good in it.
00:56:14She was very good at sort of high comedy.
00:56:17Let's think texture.
00:56:18Let's think colour.
00:56:18Do we love this?
00:56:19Do I love that, actually?
00:56:20Actually, no, I thought I liked that.
00:56:21That's a bit, I don't know.
00:56:23Well, quite.
00:56:23What do you think about that?
00:56:24It was lovely, great, quite.
00:56:25Well, I've got to try it all.
00:56:27And you haven't bought anything yet?
00:56:28I know this because I'm trying to find what I want, darling.
00:56:30I'm trying to focus.
00:56:31Darling, I know what will help you focus.
00:56:32What?
00:56:33What?
00:56:33Nice little drink.
00:56:34This was left field.
00:56:36Nobody expected her to be, you know, with a flag on and falling out of a taxi, hammered.
00:56:41It was absolutely brilliant and revolutionary for her.
00:56:46It was a lovely surprise for those of us who'd only ever seen her in The Avengers.
00:56:50You can hardly see her any other way now.
00:56:53On comes Joanna Lumley, and she blows everybody off the screen.
00:56:57For Christmas lunch, darling, who comes to that, darling?
00:57:00Well, there will be me and John.
00:57:02Is he from Gabon?
00:57:05What?
00:57:06Is he from Gabon?
00:57:08Gabon?
00:57:08Yes, is he from Gabon?
00:57:09Who's saying that?
00:57:12Gabon.
00:57:14Will you stop saying that now?
00:57:15I'm going to ask her if he's from Gabon.
00:57:18Is he from Gabon?
00:57:19No.
00:57:19No, he's not from Gabon, so shut up.
00:57:22That was such a fantastic role for her to have, and she picked up the ball, and she didn't
00:57:28just run with it.
00:57:29She got on her motorbike and drove off.
00:57:31Those two ran amok.
00:57:34I mean, they were outrageous.
00:57:36That's just comedy gold.
00:57:38And the 2003 Christmas Day special built to the ultimate comedy crescendo.
00:57:44The thing I remember especially is Joanna Lumley eating.
00:57:50Patsy was essentially a non-eating character, and her trying to eat or not eat a sliver of
00:57:58turkey.
00:57:58That little taste of turkey, which perhaps she'd never had in her life before, although
00:58:03it was protein, she'd never eat a carb, was hysterical, and she delivered 100%.
00:58:09It was one of the occasions when Joanna did a thing she did rather wonderfully.
00:58:15Essentially, she'd gone home and rehearsed in front of a mirror how it would be, and the
00:58:20expressions 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.
00:58:42It's Joyce.
00:58:42It was always as genuinely funny on screen as off screen.
00:59:00Other people in the shot gradually went further and further away or went out of the shot because
00:59:06they were simply corpse-y Joyce.
00:59:11Stay tuned for the greatest double act of all time.
00:59:15Eric and Ernie can make any single thing look funny.
00:59:18We're nearly at the end of our sleigh ride through the double act who've given us many a happy
00:59:31Christmas.
00:59:33And there's just time for one more.
00:59:36The Christmas miracle that was Bartholomew and Wiseman, or as we all know them...
00:59:42Morecambe and Wiseman are a phenomenon.
00:59:46Eric and Ernie were, I think, masters.
00:59:49You'd sit in front of the television, you'd watch the Queen's speech, and then you'd have
00:59:54your dinner, and then Morecambe and Wiseman would come on.
00:59:57You were bated breath.
00:59:59I think the great thing about Eric and Ernie was that they could make any single thing
01:00:03look funny, even the two of them just pulling the cracker.
01:00:07Seeing as it's Christmas, would you like to pull my cracker?
01:00:09Oh, you're gone.
01:00:12Yes, fine.
01:00:13All right.
01:00:14Eric Morecambe and Wise were the daddies of the double act, and made the whole nation laugh
01:00:31with some of the most inventive, colourful moments ever seen on the screen.
01:00:39Like the very best of their stuff, the tap dancing routine is just, it's very simple.
01:00:52It's one idea.
01:00:53The one idea is that they, the stars of the show, can't be seen, because there's things
01:00:59in the way.
01:00:59And then more and more of them seem to appear from nowhere.
01:01:07It's a very funny sketch.
01:01:09And it's just that simple, and then it's brilliantly executed, because they have plenty to do.
01:01:17It's almost impossible to imagine them without each other.
01:01:20It's like spinning gold out of straw.
01:01:23I think one of the things that stands out is the breakfast sketch.
01:01:28They were so in tune with each other.
01:01:42Every bit was timed every moment, and it was beautifully timed.
01:01:48You just felt that they never would have rehearsed.
01:01:51However, we know better than that.
01:01:52We know they rehearsed a lot.
01:01:54Yes, to perfect their Christmas specials, rigorous rehearsals began in June.
01:02:01Well, me and Eddie got told that Malcolm & Wise Christmas shows took six months to do.
01:02:07And as you know, Eric was the classic of ad-libs that weren't ad-libs, because they were
01:02:12rehearsed and rehearsed and rehearsed.
01:02:14What they were so clever at was making a very rehearsed situation very natural.
01:02:18Smell that flower.
01:02:19Smell the flower?
01:02:20Smell the flower, right?
01:02:20Yeah.
01:02:20Smell the flower, right?
01:02:21Yeah.
01:02:21Smell the flower, right?
01:02:21Yeah.
01:02:21Yeah.
01:02:21Yeah.
01:02:21Yeah.
01:02:21Yeah.
01:02:21Yeah.
01:02:22Yeah.
01:02:22Yeah.
01:02:23Yeah.
01:02:24Yeah.
01:02:25Yeah.
01:02:26Yeah.
01:02:27Yeah.
01:02:28Yeah.
01:02:29Yeah.
01:02:30Yeah.
01:02:31Yeah.
01:02:32Yeah.
01:02:33Yeah.
01:02:34Yeah.
01:02:35That's a Christmas spirit.
01:02:36That's what I love.
01:02:37Did you enjoy that?
01:02:38I certainly did.
01:02:39It was the straight man and the funny man together, playing off each other, in that kind of musical
01:02:45way that transferred itself to television, to our rooms.
01:02:49And we all waited for those moments when Eric would do something crazy.
01:02:54And with 28 million tuning in, Morecambe & Wise attracted a dazzling array of the starriest
01:03:01of guests.
01:03:03A key note of all their sketches was disrupting the artist.
01:03:08The best example of that is Penelope Keith and the two of them high-kicking down a staircase
01:03:13only to find out that it hasn't been finished.
01:03:15Brilliant.
01:03:17Such a simple gag.
01:03:22And add in a hilarious and perfectly acted dose of dignity loss for Penny, and the moment achieves perfection.
01:03:31You must do something with a...
01:03:32It's been specially made.
01:03:33And to see her have to stagger down with her dress round her crutch in order to get down
01:03:43to the next level was hysterical.
01:03:45And so, to end our double-act celebration, let's revisit a festive gem from Eric and Ernie
01:03:51Ernie in 1970.
01:03:52A very Christmassy set, and a carol beautifully sung by guest star Nina Van Pallant.
01:03:58There's a turkey and some mistletoe.
01:04:04In front of a giant tree.
01:04:06What could possibly go wrong?
01:04:08If a tree falls like that, it's quite funny.
01:04:15But if it does that, you have to...
01:04:18Your brain is going, where's the rescue?
01:04:20Where's the rescue?
01:04:21And, of course, the rescue is that Eric and Ernie come in hidden by trees, but not hidden
01:04:27at all, and have to try and rescue it.
01:04:29He's loaded lots of toys of kittens in his legs, and every mother's child.
01:04:39It's slapstick comedy when a set begins to melt behind her and they shuffle on, segue
01:04:45on, fix it, and then go off again.
01:04:47The fact that you saw not only the first tree coming out this side where I would have
01:04:52just been like, no, moving, and then the second one behind her, this is the one.
01:04:57It was superb.
01:05:07Eric Morecambe was always a great physical performer, not just with the glasses and things,
01:05:12but in the way when he goes the wrong way off the set here.
01:05:21If you look at Ernie Wise's timing in this, when he knows how long to leave it,
01:05:26before beckoning him back, perfect.
01:05:29That's how you know you've got a successful duo, when they speak to each other without words.
01:05:34It's showbiz. It's hysterical. It's panto.
01:05:37It's that added layer of laughter. Every time you think they've done as much as they can,
01:05:42they will add something else in, and that's what I love.
01:05:45Christmas.
01:05:54And then the incredible moment where he just puts the table in her hand, which I love. I absolutely love.
01:06:02She held her own, I've got to say.
01:06:09When you think Eric and Ernie, Mark and Myers are still being shown today, and I can see why.
01:06:15The sketches they had were just unbelievably good. Every single show they did was funny.
01:06:22It's probably the best comedy career that anyone's ever going to have on television,
01:06:27in terms of numbers and affection.
01:06:29And so they were just the kings of comedy.
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