A winter comfort
Robert Sellers and James Hogg’s Little Ern!, the authorised biography of Ernie Wise, is an uplifting, heart-warming and beautifully written book that will act as a comfort blanket recalling cheery Christmases past: a time when Christmas didn’t really begin until the whole family gathered round the television set to enjoy the collective warmth of Morecambe and Wise. In 1977, 27 million people – half the population – watched the Christmas special. The trouble is that most of us regard Eric as the comic genius and Ernie as just a gifted straight man. In 1999, the Queen unveiled a statue to Eric, for which £127,000 was provided by lottery money. In
