Somebody recently discussing the comedy duo Mike and Bernie Winters said, rather snootily, “They were no Morecambe & Wise”.
That’s unfair, because, as much as I admire Eric and Ernie, they weren’t infallible.
Their first TV series flopped so badly, a critic quipped “Television: The box they buried Morecambe and Wise in”.
Ouch!
The trio of feature films they made in the ’60s didn’t really work, while “Night Train To Murder”, the TV film that formed part of the ITV deal to lure them away from the BBC, is barely remembered,
Brothers Mike and Bernie split-up in 1978 after working together for three decades. They’d fallen out years before and by the end weren’t speaking to each other off stage.
Mike became an agent in Miami and died in 2013, while Bernie teamed-up with Schnorbitz, a huge St. Bernard dog that Bernie called ‘My favourite stage partner’, and enjoyed TV success with “Whose Baby?” and “It’s Bernie!” before playing Bud Flanagan in the TV movie “Bud and Ches” and on stage in the musical “Underneath The Arches”.
Bernie’s long marriage to Siggi could sometimes be volatile and one particular Sunday, after another huge row, Bernie was eating his lunch in the kitchen while Siggi ate hers in the dining room.
When the phone rang, Bernie answered and on the other end was Jimmy Tarbuck calling from the London Palladium.
Roy Orbison, booked to top the bill on that night’s “Live From The Palladium” was indisposed, so Jimmy wondered if Bernie could help fill out the show by doing a short comedy routine with him?
Bernie immediately drove to the theatre without telling Siggi, who was used to him disappearing after an argument.
That evening, following some dressing room rehearsals with Jimmy and his writers, the two comedians did their spot on the ‘live’ broadcast.
Siggi was watching at home, while wondering where Bernie had got to, so was shocked to see her husband walk out on stage and entertain the Palladium audience . . . and 12 million viewers!
What a pro ‘Choo-Chi Face’ Bernie was.
He died, much too young, at 58, in 1991.