Gail Morecambe greets lost Eric Morecambe episode for 100th birthday
A long-lost eric morecambe episode of The Morecambe and Wise Show will air on 14 May, the date that would have marked his 100th birthday. The broadcast returns a 1968 programme that had been missing for years and places a recovered television asset back into public view.
The episode was originally shown on 16 September 1968, during Morecambe and Wise’s return to the after time in commercial television. It is one of four missing episodes from the series, and the surviving copy is in black and white even though the show was first broadcast in colour.
Film Is Fabulous! finds 1968
The programme was tracked down by Film Is Fabulous!, a charitable trust run by film collectors, cinema lovers and vintage television enthusiasts. A copy had been preserved by an industry professional who has since died, which helped keep the episode alive long after the original transmission.
That recovery gives broadcasters something rarer than a routine repeat: a missing piece of a major television run, with sketches written by Sid Green and Dick Hills still intact. Ann Hamilton appears as Pauline in a sketch set in a nudist colony, while Jenny Lee-Wright plays Eric’s niece, a balloon dancer. The episode also includes a musical performance from The Paper Dolls.
Gail and Gary Morecambe
Gail Morecambe said she was thrilled that the broadcast date will coincide with her father’s centenary year. “What a lovely surprise this is, and I'm really looking forward to seeing it on a screen once again after so many years,” she said. She added that it is “excellent to hear that skilled people are actively going through the archives and discovering 'lost' programmes.”
Gary Morecambe said the discovery was wonderful and said he had thought there was not “anything out there left to find”. “I'm so thrilled and surprised by the discovery of a Morecambe and Wise show that hasn't been seen since 1968,” he said, adding: “Hats off to Professor Justin Smith and his team, whose dedication and hard work brought this gem back to us.”
Justin Smith and the archive
Professor Justin Smith, professor of cinema and television history and chair of trustees at Film Is Fabulous!, described the episode as fast-paced and witty with many of the duo’s trademarks. That description points to why archive recoveries still matter to broadcasters and collectors: they can restore a missing chapter, but only if the surviving material is good enough to screen.
For viewers, the practical part is simple. The recovered episode now has a broadcast date, a public airing on 14 May, and a direct link to Eric Morecambe’s centenary. For archive watchers, the harder part continues in the background: four episodes remain missing from the series, and this find shows there is still material to be found in private hands.
