Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise, known as Morecambe and Wise, were an English comic double act, working in variety, radio, film and most successfully in television. Their partnership lasted from 1941 until Morecambe's sudden death in 1984. They have been described as "the most illustrious, and the best-loved, double-act that Britain has ever produced".
On a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes drawn up by the British Film Institute in 2000, voted for by industry professionals, The Morecambe and Wise Show was placed 14th. In September 2006, they were voted by the general public as number 2 in a poll of TV's 50 Greatest Stars. Their early career was the subject of the 2011 television biopic Eric and Ernie, and their 1970s career was the subject of the television biopic Eric, Ernie and Me in 2017.
In 1976, Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise were both awarded the OBE. In 1999, they were posthumously awarded the BAFTA Fellowship. In 2013, they were honoured with a blue plaque at Teddington Studios, where their last four series of The Morecambe and Wise Show were recorded.