Eric Morecambe profile

Determined to nurture Eric's talent and steer him towards a life in showbiz, his mum ploughed money into singing, dancing and piano lessons for her gifted son. To cover the costs she was forced to take many odd jobs – as a cleaner and theater usherette, among other things – but it soon paid off. By the age of 10, Eric was already bringing in money by performing at local working men's clubs and music halls.

Eric, meet Ernie

Eric's life changed in 1939, when he got the chance to audition for Jack Hylton, one of the country's top entertainment managers. In the audience that day were a number of other performers in Hylton's troupe, including a young teenager by the name of Ernie Wise who was already a seasoned singer and dancer by then. The two boys didn't actually speak that day – that happened later, when Hylton invited both of them to become part of a travelling show called Youth Takes a Bow.

Going on tour together strengthened their bond, and one fateful night Eric's mother casually suggested they should perform as a duo. The lads loved the idea, and made their double act stage debut on 28 August 1941. But it would be quite some time before the world would know the names Morecambe and Wise...

Tough times

Eric and Ernie may have made early starts in showbiz, but real fame was a long time coming. There was the small matter of World War Two, for example, which caused audiences to dwindle so much that Hylton dissolved the travelling show and Eric and Ernie were forced to go their separate ways.

Eric took a job in a razorblade factory before becoming a Bevin Boy – one of 48,000 young men conscripted to work in British coal mines for the war effort (Jimmy Savile was another famous Bevin Boy). Shortly after the war he and Ernie were reunited by accident - almost literally bumping into each other on Regent Street - and their double act was triumphantly reborn.

The other Erics

TV success, when it finally came in the early 60s, established Eric as one of the most naturally gifted funnymen Britain had ever seen. But, while he lived and breathed comedy, there was far more to Morecambe than his TV career.

Away from the cameras he was absolutely loopy about football, and actually served as a director of his beloved Luton Town FC – an event he used to justify the absurdly sparse moustache he grew at around that time ("It's a football moustache," he explained. "Eleven a side.").

Eric was also a novelist (publishing a tale of music hall comedians called Mr Lonely) and whenever he had a bit of spare time he loved nothing more than birdwatching in Morecambe Bay – which is why the statue of him in Morecambe, unveiled in 1999, shows him sporting a big pair of binoculars.

The end of an era

Eric suffered heart problems throughout his life, perhaps as a result of working down the mines as a Bevin Boy. He had his first heart attack in 1968 while driving back to his hotel from a show, and actually had to stop his car and get a passer-by to drive him to hospital. Eric, being Eric, managed to see the funny side of it; when told that Des O'Connor had asked his audience that night to pray for his recovery, he replied "Tell him that those six or seven people made all the difference."

Sadly, it was another heart attack that would claim his life in 1984. He performed at a theatre in Tewkesbury that night, making jokes about his heart condition and musing to his audience about Tommy Cooper's death just weeks before. Minutes after the show was over, Eric collapsed backstage and died later in hospital. Over a thousand members of the public gathered around the church for his funeral, and newspapers compared him to Charlie Chaplin and other comic greats. His status as a comedy immortal, bringing sunshine with his every move and mannerism, is beyond doubt.