I had already recorded one radio programme with Morecambe and Wise, and although they were again in town, arrangements had been made for me to interview their co-stars, The Beverley Sisters.
The girls were in a happy mood, the interview taking over half and hour to record, and I was just packing up my equipment when there was a knock on their dressing room door.
It was one of the Management team for Morecambe and Wise, and he looked straight at me and said "Hi Ken the boys heard you were in the Theatre, they enjoyed your interview with them so much last year could you pop round to their room and do another one?"
Well, a nice surprise, and of course an offer that I just simply had to accept.
Despite this praise, I knew it would not be easy. They could of course be serious at times, but almost immediately the jolly banter started, and seemed to revolve around my short stubbly beard.
ERIC. This is the second time we have done a show with you, young man, I remember we did say that you looked like a slashed cinema seat in those days, but I see you have grown the fluff even further, now you look more like an upturned loo brush. The last time I saw anything like that on a face the whole herd had to be destroyed.
I did try to steer the conversation back to normality, and as I had just interviewed the Beverleys, I wondered how the boys selected the support acts for their Theatre shows.
ERIC. This is no problem, people just write in and ask if they can work with us, and we say alright if you do it for nothing!
ERNIE. It really is a simple process; we try to have a balanced bill. We do like to have a ventriloquist or a speciality act that amuses people in the first half, without giving direct competition to ourselves. A comic would be a non-starter because instead of complimenting us they would become opposition, which would be rather foolish.
At that time Eric was a Vice President of Luton Town Football Club, so I asked him how his team were doing.
ERIC. I am a happy man today, we have only beaten Wolves, and now have the chance of going up. After a string of really bad results we are now getting it together.
ERNIE. How does that happen when a team starts so badly and then begins to play well again, that is now 8 wins in a row?
ERIC. I had a word with them, I said you had 8 loses in a row, now go out and have 8 wins in a row, it is that simple. It is all about confidence, it is like you and I Ern, if we went out for 6 weeks and never got a laugh, our sub conscious minds would probably be such that we went out for the 7th week and still did not get a laugh. We would need an injection of confidence to change things around.
ERNIE. What causes this confidence, does new life suddenly get into the team, maybe the ball starts bouncing the right way, I know that sometimes a team can play like crazy and the ball just does not run for them?
ERIC. That has a lot to do with it take the England game against Poland. England paralysed them, but still lost 1 0. It is very much like Golf, you need that bit of luck.
At this point I simply could have just sat back and let the boys ramble on they really had this wonderful way of taking a conversation and moving it along through various tangents until the original question was lost in a sea of total confusion. However, it was now time to regain control.
Eric had at that time already suffered from heart problems, and I wondered how he was coping with this.
ERIC. I do tend to take things easier now, although your heart is not a lump of cotton wool, you cannot just wrap it up. The best approach is not to go silly, take these shows for example, I do not do two in a row these days, and we tend to limit the number of one night stands that we do.
Although some of my questions were directed to either of the boys specifically, it was evident from their answers that they were a real team act. I was interested in how their relationship on the screen had developed and maybe changed over the years.
ERIC. On the television Ernie is the pompous one, and I am the "con man" I con him, but if anyone else tries to then I also jump in and protect him.
ERNIE. He is more of a tearaway, I am much more prudish. It all evolved accidentally. If you look at us we have gone through two patterns now. At one time I used to be the sharp man and Eric was rather dopey, which meant that I used to "take" him all the time. Now, suddenly, it moves around the other way and I am a little prudish and he takes me.
ERIC. Despite all our swapping of banter, we are very protective of each other.
With a couple of films already under their belt, a steady round of Theatre appearances, and of course one of the most successful Television series of all time still running, I asked them how they managed to maintain a successful balance within their career.
ERNIE. We always have to do Television if we want to survive, we are only a can of beans you know. If we continue to do just Theatre we will slowly fade out, it is that simple. Eventually the Theatres will not be full. If there is no advertising with Heinz beans then the people will not go out and buy them, and if we do not market ourselves correctly they will just stop laughing at all our clichs.
ERIC. And they will stop laughing at the beans!
ERNIE. When you are doing Theatre work it is good, it is very personalised and very enjoyable, but it is not creative enough, and we are very creative people. When we get on to the screen we can do some marvellous creative things.
ERIC. The strain, the worry, and the tensions come on Television, they do not come here in the Theatre. You know this Ken the house is full, they want to see us. The audience laughs when we say "what do you think of it so far," "my little fat friend," and "you can't see the join" that is great for us and just pure relaxation.
Well, the time had come to end our interview, but life is always full of those "little surprises"
I tried to shake their hands, but instead they held out their hands as if expecting some kind of payment."
"Sorry lads," I said, "you remember all those guest stars you have on your shows who do not get paid?".
ERIC. Er yes, what are you trying to tell us my little feathered friend?
"Well," I said, "My programme is very much like yours we do not pay our guest stars either."
ERIC. Get out of here, we will set Peter Cushing on you, he will bite your neck and you will never be seen again!
Sadly, the two boys are no longer with us, but my memories will always be of two characters, so different in many ways, but a perfect blend which made them icons of their generation, and also two people with hearts of gold.
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