The Beatles’ celebrated appearance on The Morecambe And Wise Show was filmed at ATV’s Elstree Studio Centre in Borehamwood on this day, although it wasn’t broadcast to the nation until April 1964.
In the morning they rehearsed their act prior to filming in the afternoon. The Beatles performed three songs to a small studio audience: ‘This Boy’, ‘All My Loving’ and ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’.
They were then joined by Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise for some banter and a light-hearted version of golden oldie ‘Moonlight Bay’.
The episode of The Morecambe And Wise Show was shown on the ITV network on Saturday 18 April 1964 at 8.25pm. It was repeated on 24 July the following year on The Best Of Morecambe And Wise.
The audio recording of Moonlight Bay was released on Anthology 1 in 1995.
Also on this day...
- 2017: Paul McCartney live: nib Stadium, Perth
- 2009: Paul McCartney live: Color Line Arena, Hamburg
- 1991: George Harrison live: Osaka-jō Hall, Osaka
- 1979: Wings live: Brighton Centre, Brighton
- 1974: US single release: Walking In The Park With Eloise by Paul McCartney
- 1969: George Harrison live: Colston Hall, Bristol with Delaney & Bonnie
- 1969: Mixing: Lady Madonna, Rain, Octopus’s Garden
- 1969: Television: 24 Hours: The World Of John And Yoko – day one
- 1969: John Lennon is interviewed for Man Of The Decade
- 1968: US album release: Wonderwall Music by George Harrison
- 1966: Mixing, editing: Pantomime: Everywhere It’s Christmas
- 1965: George Harrison’s Gretsch guitar is destroyed
- 1964: Ringo Starr’s tonsils are removed
- 1963: The Beatles live: Grosvenor House, London
- 1962: The Beatles live: Embassy Cinema, Peterborough
- 1961: The Beatles live: Cavern Club, Liverpool (evening)
Want more? Visit the Beatles history section.
Morecambe calls Ringo “Bongo”. Paul fakes a diplomatic laughter, but George and John doesn’t seem happy at all. Later John intimidates Morecambe, who looks pretty scared, in that moment Paul looks worried. Look at his face! Thinking “John’s gonna do it again”. And he even says “no” to John. Uh I love this video.
Very true man, good observation
The four of them said it was their best ever TV show . John only jokes with the fact that Eric Morecambe was old enough to have known his father . He was not scared at all it’s a sketch . But you’re right this is a great video !
Just a wonderful clip. Made me smile on a gloomy morning.
Don’t think morecambe is intimidated by john though,they both clearly are getting off on the daftness of it all and gives as good as he gets. You are right about paul – only when the audience start laughing at johns comment does he relax. An early indicator into john’s ability to get away with just about anything coupled with paul’s ‘showbiz’ inclinations.
it is my feeling that lennon deviated from the script to unerve morcambe and thats why morcambe seemed surprised but in true comic fashion destroyed him by quipping “youve only got a little dad, have you ?”
I know virtually everyone lists “The Morecambe & Wise Show”, but it wasn’t. Their ATV show was titled “Two of a Kind”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_of_a_Kind_(UK_TV_series)
Was this lipsynced?
The music wasn’t, but the banter and jokes were.