However, I digress. Let’s get back to Aldenham and education. A recent survey shows that out of 974 school teachers in this country, 201 proved conclusively that they were!
I remember my wife saying—we were talking that day—she said what a marvellous job teachers do—and I agree, because the human
brain is a most wonderful piece of mechanism. It starts functioning the moment you wake up in the morning, and doesn’t stop until you get to the office. I feel that teachers, and in particular headmasters, have a tremendous responsibility. My old headmaster, when I left school, said to me—‘Bartholomew, I’m sorry to see you go. You’ve been like a son to me: Insolent, surly and unappreciative.’
But when I was at school we didn’t have the facilities of today. Just take the Aldenham school library alone. My son brings home some fantastic books. I’ve read some and they’ve taught me a thing or to.
There was this one book—I forget the title but it was a sad story. It was about this young girl of twenty-five who was going to do away with herself as she was working in this brothel for ten years before she found out all the other girls were getting paid.
Oh yes, I’ve learned a lot from Aldenham library.
Of course, we try to keep up the good work when my son comes home at weekends. He sometimes brings home a couple of friends for Sunday lunch. Well, it’s not really a meal, it’s more a commando raid with knives and forks. They clear all the food off the table then they start looking at each other hungrily…
Eric’s Rough Notes for Luton Town FC Civic Hall Reception
Acknowledgements
A book of this nature is always dependent on the generous cooperation of others. My profound thanks, therefore, to all my father’s peers from Lancashire who so kindly allowed me to impose during my research into his early years.
Also, my thanks to those of stage, screen and television who, likewise, squeezed me into their hectic schedules to make enlightening observations for this book. I can honestly say that all those who have contributed have given me a fuller picture of my own father, for the first time in my life.
Thanks to Natalie and Daniel and all at HarperCollins for their continued support and friendship; and to my literary agent Jennifer Luithlen for advising me so wisely over countless years. And to Suzanne Westrip at Billy Marsh Associates, who does such a remarkable job representing the estates of Morecambe and Wise.
Finally, thanks to my friends and family, who no doubt regard my obsession with M&W as…well—an obsession! Yet still they stick by me!
Absolutely finally, to Eric and Ernie themselves, who brought us the sunshine in which I’ve occasionally been able to bathe. And my thanks to my sister, Gail, for coming up with Eric’s own words for the title of this book.
ERIC: You had a phone call while you were out. Alfred someone!
ERNIE: [Excited] HITCHCOCK!
ERIC: He might have, I didn’t ask…
There’s no answer to that…!
Sources
Bring Me Sunshine, Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise (Futura, 1979)
Funny Man, Gary Morecambe (Methuen, 1982)
Funny Way to be a Hero, John Fisher (Paladin, 1976)
Hello, I Must Be Going: Groucho and His Friends, Charlotte Chandler (Robson, 1979)
Morecambe and Wife, Joan Morecambe (Pelham, 1985)
Parkinson, Michael Parkinson (Elm Tree Books, 1975)
Still On My Way to Hollywood, Ernie Wise (Duckworth, 1990)
The Media Mob, Barry Fantoni and George Melly (Collins, 1980)
Internet: www.ericandern.co.uk
Index
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Copyright
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You'll Miss Me When I'm Gone Page 18
