Isn’t it a pleasure to see a legendary classic comedy act doing their take on a legendary classic movie scene? Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise were the masters of this genre.

 

They were the undisputed kings of sketch show comedy in the late 60’s and early 70’s and had a career in show business that lasted for over 40 years, until Eric passed away in 1984. The pair had a prime time TV slot on BBC 1 under the name of ‘The Morecambe and Wise Show’, which ran from 1968 to 1978.

 

It was here the duo performed their skit on the memorable scene from ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ with Gene Kelly. Ernie was performing the role of Gene and Eric was playing the policeman. The set was a carbon copy of the movie, except for the fact that there was no rain whatsoever!

 

Ernie starts moving through the dance moves from the song, skipping along the curb of the street and swinging off the lamp post. Eric looks as if he is a bit confused by the song lyrics, as well as the fact that there isn’t a drop of rain falling from the sky!

 

As the dance routine continues, Eric has a bewildered expression on his face, as he wonders where the rain is going to come from. But, unfortunately, he is standing underneath a broken pipe which starts gushing water right down on top of him!

 

He moves down the street and takes his hat off to stretch his head in confusion – not realising he’s underneath another broken water pipe!

 

Ernie, in full flow and not paying any attention to the policeman’s soaking, begins to side step down the street, so Eric decides that it would be a good idea to follow, seeing as the water seems to be avoiding him! To his error he doesn’t leave the inside of the sidewalk and promptly gets hit from above by a woman with a bucket of water.

 

After hiding underneath a shop canopy Ernie brushes the cover with his umbrella handle, knocking the collected water on top of Eric!

Eric runs up to Ernie; “See what you’ve done to me. I’m wet through!”*

 

He’s had enough by this stage and conveniently there is a large pig trough filled to the brim with water at the end of the street. Ernie hands him is umbrella and he steps into the water, lies back and relaxes.

 

It was rumoured at the time that the sketch was shown to Gene Kelly himself, and although Ernie wasn’t quite the dancer he was, he apparently loved it.

 

The ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ sketch is a great example of Morecambe and Wise’s heavily orchestrated sketch routines. Their skits were perfectly choreographed, with every gag and punch line delivered with astounding comic timing – all set to the beat and lyrics of the music.

Eric and Ernie also never relied on bad language or strong sexual references to get a laugh from the audience. All their shows were fit for family viewing.

 

* quoted from The Morecambe and Wise Show/ Singin’ in the Rain sketch