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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.

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