Little Ern by Robert Sellers and James Hogg printed

review by Maggie on recorded show december 2011
Here is a super book about someone I always thought was very underated. Ernie Wise born in Leeds,
started entertaining at the age of six with his dad in Northern Clubs, was spotted by Jack Hylton
and went on to perform across the country as a song and dance man. Later on when he and Eric Morecombe teamed up, he was if anything the stronger performer, but gradually they honed the act until it reached the dizzy heights of 28 million listeners at their Christmas Specials. It took a while to get their, the worst criticism was for their first TV appearance," Last night the television became the box Morcombe and Wise was buried in!!"!Eric never forget that dreadful review keeping it in his wallet till he died, Ernie worked out how to change it. Eddie Braben their new script writer looked at the two, noted their closeness to each other and wrote around that. It made them an immediate sucess. Ernie the over confident awful author who wrote terrible scripts, Eric the clown, made funny by Ernie's presentation of the jokes. This book is very warm and has unseen photos of Ernie with his wife who also gave advice and help to the authors. it presents a happy hardworking man who never resented the adulation Eric received, if it makes the act work, that's all that matters he said. And no, he never wore a wig, and he didn't have hairy legs either. A great read, warmly recommended. Maggie.