It would be hard to find a sketch that goes into such meticulous detail as this one from the classic comedy minds of Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise. The ‘Breakfast’ sketch put Morecambe and Wise into the annals of comedy history when it was performed on ‘The Morecambe and Wise Show’ in the early 70’s. It is one of the most choreographed and well rehearsed comedy sketches ever to appear on British Television, but in saying that, its easy to see that every move was tense and in danger of destroying the whole act!

The sketch starts with Eric and Ernie just out of bed and in the kitchen to start breakfast. They are dressed appropriately in dressing gowns, pyjamas and slippers. There is no dialogue in the whole sketch, just the soundtrack of the music to the Stripper (a well known big band piece composed by David Rose that has become synonymous with the striptease). An interesting choice, considering there is no stripping involved, but as the sketch moves on you can see why they chose it.

The whole sketch revolves around the two making breakfast in sync to the music. With the piece’s pronounced percussion sections, orchestra hits and brass sections, it works perfectly with every little action they do. Ernie starts off the sketch by throwing bread to Eric, which in time with the trumpet stabs in the first verse. The stops and starts in the tune are then highlighted when Eric throws Ernie two eggs to scramble – the throw signalling the brass section, and the breaking of the eggs signalling the hit on the triangle.

A hilarious moment in the sketch is when Ernie is scrambling the eggs in sync to the trumpet shrills, with his whole body shaking uncontrollably! Eric then lines up four grapefruits on the chopping board and proceeds to chop them wildly to the bang of the kettle drums. They then start to squeeze the juice out of them to the sound of the trumpet shrills!

Where the gag really works now is during the ‘Old Man River’ section of the piece. They grab empty grapefruit skins, put them over their mouths and start moving them along to the melody! Other gems in the act include Eric doing a spot of pancake tossing to the belching trombones and the toaster, of its own accord, popping out slices to the orchestra hits!

The stripper has been a common theme tune for many sketch shows. It has accompanied skits in ‘Monty Python’s Flying Circus’, ‘Little Britain’ and ‘The Benny Hill Show.’ In fact, it was Benny Hill who first used the scores lively, hit and stab rhythm, during his sketch at a strip show, which went out in the late 60’s.

Although Morecambe and Wise played a huge part in bringing the sketch to life, it was their long time writing partner, Eddie Braben, who was the main orchestrator of the act. It was actually Edie who scripted most of their material.