In early 1973 two documentaries about Morecambe & Wise hit the airwaves within a month of each other. First, the BBC Schools programme Scene aired a 22 minute programme on BBC2 (18^th January) and then on BBC1 (18^th February) the Omnibus strand broadcast Fools Rush In, which ran for 50 minutes.

Both documentaries were culled from fly on the wall footage shot the previous summer, when episode 7.7 of The Morecambe & Wise Show was being rehearsed and recorded. Show 7.7 was broadcast two days before the Omnibus doco, which meant that the lucky schoolchildren who caught the original Scene screening had an early peak at one of the most enduring M&W moments (“Arsenal!”)

Without knowing the original tx dates, it would be easy to assume that the Scene programme was simply a cut-down version of the adult documentary. But given that Ronald Smedley was the producer of both, it’s plain that Scene was the original one (presumably it was felt that the material gathered was too good to waste – hence it was reassembled and expanded for Omnibus).

Ronald Smedley spent his career working in children’s television. His highest profile job was as the producer of Grange Hill between 1985 and 1989, a period that saw the programme hit highs of controversy and public interest (Just Say No) and lows (Harriet the Donkey).

That apart, I find it fascinating that he worked on a series of impressive drama productions for BBC Schools, some of which were later repeated for an adult audience (including a modern language version of Julius Caesar, renamed Heil Caesar, and An Inspector Calls).

This serves as a reminder that schools programmes of this era could often be of a high quality. Indeed, the Scene documentary about Morecambe & Wise doesn’t talk down to its audience so it’s easy to imagine it receiving a peak time slot on its own merits (although with so much footage recorded it’s maybe understandable that the decision was made to produce a new effort from scratch).

Both have similar structures – although one notable difference is that Scene employs a narrator whilst Omnibus doesn’t. So while the Scene viewer is told that Eddie Braben lives and works in Liverpool, the Omnibus watcher is simply shown a picture of his house and either has to work out his geographical location or just not care.

Although Eric Morecambe can’t resist acting up for the cameras, both Eric and Ernie also talk seriously about Braben’s pivotal role in the series. At one point, Eric wistfully admits that he could never do what Braben did every week (enter his writing room on a Monday with a blank piece of paper and emerge with something). The pair concede that they may be able to improve on Braben’s work, but they’d be lost if they had to attempt to create it from scratch.

Both of these programmes would have made excellent special features on the Morecambe & Wise DVDs. Of course, neither were included ….

Sadly, the original range of releases lacked any extras at all (not even the Parkinson interview) and while the most recent DVD (containing previously lost episodes) did include a few bits and bobs, it was something of a half-hearted attempt. But at least there’s reasonable quality copies currently on YouTube. Links for both are below.