Morecambe (Edinburgh)
switch had been flicked, it changes from drama to stand-up
instantaneously and the theatregoers become Eric Morecambe’s audience.
Bob Golding proves himself not just a great actor and mimic but also
a comedian with superb timing. It’s a pretty accomplished feat to get a
laugh out of joke everyone’s heard and that originated with a master
comic. And how do you do a one-man show about a double act? Enter Ernie
Wise, two foot tall, a ventriloquist’s dummy. So Golding is Morecambe
and Wise, not to mention Eric’s pushy mother.
The show is a great biography, somehow covering the whole of
Morecambe’s life, without trivialising or too much dull,
straightforward narration. Of particular interest is the surprising
difficulty the pair had getting their comedy to work on television.
Some comedians have had their off-stage lives sensationalised as
tragic clowns, but Morecambe wasn’t like Tony Hancock or Kenneth
Williams. Indeed, it is refreshing to hear the story of a comic who had
it good in their personal as well as public sphere.
A show filled with plenty of sunshine, laughter and love for
everyone, but of particular interest to comics trying to make the leap
from stage to screen.
– Seth Ewin
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