Eric and Ernie is a 2011 British television drama film based on the early career of the British comic double-act Morecambe and Wise. The film was produced by BBC Wales, completed in 2010, and premiered on BBC Two on 1 January 2011. It was watched by 6.65 million viewers. Since then, it has been repeated several times on Gold. Plotline Several years before World War II, Ernie Wiseman, a precocious and confident child performer, is signed up by influential impresario Jack Hylton. In Morecambe, pushy stage mother Sadie Bartholomew drags her slightly reluctant son Eric, an eccentric dancer, from one audition to the next until he too is employed by Hylton. At first glance the boys do not initially get on but Sadie sees a way to use their cross-talk to form a bantering double act, originally known as Bartholomew and Wise. But as time goes on, Sadie comes to the conclusion that their name is stopping them from getting noticed, so after reading the local newspaper, The Morecambe Visitor, she suggests that they should change their name to Morecambe and Wise. After war service they become successful on stage and on radio but their attempt to crack the new medium of television is a disaster because they have been forced to accept a script which will make their Northernness acceptable to Southern viewers. As a result, the duo go their own ways and split up. However, Sadie knows that their formula will work and pushes Eric, now married to dancer Joan, into contacting Ernie, who is married to dancer Doreen. They decide to reform, and to completely rewrite their own act that would become one of the most successful performing duos ever in British comedy. Cast In credits order: Victoria Wood as Sadie Bartholomew, Eric's mother Daniel Rigby as Eric Morecambe Bryan Dick as Ernie Wise Jim Moir as George Bartholomew, Eric's father Reece Shearsmith as Harry Wiseman, Ernie's father Emer Kenny as Joan Bartlett, Eric's wife Hannah Steele as Doreen Blythe, Ernie's wife Josh Benson as Little Ernie Thomas Atkinson as Little Eric Thomas Aldersley as Club MC Ted Robbins as Jack Hylton Jonah Lees as Young Eric Harry McEntire as Young Ernie Ria Jones as Boarding House Landlady Pam Shaw as Lily Esmé Bianco as Naked Showgirl Andrew Greenough as Gordon Noval, Eric and Ernie's manager Marcus Taylor as Stage Door Keeper #1 Lee Oakes as Stage