Eddie Braben dies age 82

Eddie Braben, best known as the writer of the Morecambe and Wise BBC series’, has died aged 82.

His agent Norma Farnes said in a statement today: “The writer Eddie Braben, the third man behind the success of Morecambe and Wise, died this morning at the age of 82 after a short illness,” Farnes said.

“It was Billy Cotton Jr at the BBC who recognised the brilliance of Eddie’s writing was the ideal marriage that would guarantee the success of Morecambe and Wise.

“He is survived by his loving wife Dee, three children and six grandchildren.”

Braben was born in Liverpool and began his venture into showbiz writing when he began selling jokes to local performers, including Ken Dodd.

It was 1968 when Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise (pictured right at ATV with Noele Gordon) returned to the BBC after a successful stint at ITV with ATV. They also took with them their ATV writers Sid Green and Dick Hills.

After the first series Green and Hills returned to ATV, the beeb brought in a new writer. Eddie Braben was hired. He felt the ITV shows, and recent BBC series, didn’t ‘capture’ the real Eric and Ernie. He decided to bring the warmth their off-screen friendship had to the small screen in an comedy format – this included the duo supposedly sharing a flat together and their search for creative success with Eric trying to book star guests and Ernie writing plays.

Braben with Morecambe and Wise proved a success, a far cry from their first venture with the BBC which had proved to be a disaster in the ratings, and critically, in the 1950s. Famously one critic noted the television had been “the box which they buried Morecambe and Wise in.”

From 1969 to 1978 the regular Morecambe and Wise series drew huge audiences to BBC One, making the pair the corpopration’s biggest entertainment stars. It was however the Christmas specials which became the yearly highlight of the beeb’s festive schedule..

Speaking to comedian Miranda Hart in March this year Braben recalled, “The Morecambe and Wise Show became more important than Christmas.

“The real pressure came when I was sat in front of that typewriter with all those blank pages and there was a deadline and there was nothing happening. That’s when you realised there were 20 million or 25 million people looking over your shoulder – all saying ‘Make me laugh’.”

He later found the stress effected his mental and physical health. In 1978 Eric and Ernie’s golden era came to an end. Lured back to ITV by Thames Television the shows were never quite the success they had been at the BBC, early set backs included Braben remaining with the corporation due contractual obligations.

Braben also wrote for other comic icons such as Les Dawson (pictured, above, left), Ronnie Corbett, Eddie Large and impressionist Mike Yarwood.