Eddie Braben
Encyclopedia
Eddie Braben is a comedy writer and performer who has provided material for such figures as David Frost
and Ronnie Corbett
, and who is most famous for having written for Ken Dodd
and Morecambe and Wise
.
. After school he followed his parents into market trading, manning a fruit and veg stall. In spare moments he wrote jokes, frequently on the back of the brown paper bags he used to package his goods.
for 2s 6d, but his first major success was with Ken Dodd
, with whom he worked for 12 years. Dodd's style was good training for Braben because his relentless delivery averaged around seven jokes a minute. Writing a five or 10-minute set was hard work.
Braben also worked on Round the Horne
. Some confusion has emerged over Braben's role in the show, as the similarly named Edwin Braden performed on the show while Braben (more fully named Edwin C Braben) wrote for it.
lured Morecambe and Wise
from ITV
. Bill Cotton
, then in charge of Light Entertainment at the BBC, was looking for a writer and asked Braben if he would like to try. Braben had seen Morecambe and Wise some years previously in music hall
and thought they were terrible. In the intervening years, the duo had polished their act and were using Dick Hills and Sid Green
to write their scripts. They had ended up with on-stage personas Braben says he did not like - Morecambe was "gormless" (a northern England phrase meaning stupid and unworldly), whereas Wise was tight-fisted with money, smart and hard-edged (they were not dissimilar from their older contemporaries Abbott and Costello
in this respect).
Braben's first trick for the duo was to alter these characterisations. Though retaining his love of money, Wise became more naive and his egotism more innocent and less self-aware - while Morecambe became more worldly-wise and even protective of his friend, though still retaining a child-like innocence himself.
After meeting the duo, Braben noticed their friendship and aimed to bring this out at the same time as adding enough jokes to make it funny. He provided the idea of the two not only living together but also sharing a large double bed - something which would have been unthinkable in the case of their 'Hills and Green' characters but which, emphasising their closeness as well as their innocence, became a regular feature of the TV shows. He countered their reticence about the idea by pointing out that if it was good enough for Laurel and Hardy
it was good enough for them.
Braben found writing for Morecambe and Wise stressful, particularly with pressure to produce the high-profile Christmas Specials, each of which took months to rehearse and film. As a result, he suffered nervous illnesses, including hallucinations. In 1978 Morecambe and Wise were lured back to ITV - but Braben did not go with them because he was still under contract with the BBC. He would not rejoin them on ITV until the 1980s.
, which featured Bill Pertwee
, Eli Woods
, David Casey (James Casey's son), and Alison Steadman
.
Braben subsequently wrote and starred in The Show with Ten Legs, broadcast in January 1978, performing jokes and sketches alongside Bill Pertwee, Alison Steadman, and Eli Woods. This was another of the many radio shows produced by James Casey. In style and form, Ten Legs harked back to the music-hall tradition - not least due to the presence of James Casey and Eli Woods, both former stage-colleagues (and blood relatives!) of music-hall legend Jimmy James
. The following year saw a second series, also written by and starring Braben, which aired under the revised title 'The New Improved Show with Ten Legs', broadcast in January 1979.
From 1982 to 1984 Braben joined Eli Woods and Alison Steadman for 13 episodes of the BBC radio series The Show with No Name, all of which he also wrote.
All these various series were spiritual successors to BBC radio's earlier comedy success, 'Round the Horne' (1964-68), in which Bill Pertwee had previously appeared, each being a similar style of comedy sketch show. All of Braben's radio shows were gestated and born under the guidance of Jim Casey, BBC Manchester's senior light entertainment producer; and Braben's radio career in effect came to an end when Casey retired after a long and successful broadcasting career, in 1982.
In 2001, Braben collaborated with Hamish McColl
and Sean Foley
to write The Play What I Wrote, a stage play and tribute to Morecambe, Wise and Braben, which opened in London's West End
. The director was Kenneth Branagh
.
In 2004, Braben's autobiography was published, entitled The Book What I Wrote
David Frost
Sir David Frost is a British broadcaster.David Frost may also refer to:*David Frost , South African golfer*David Frost , classical record producer*David Frost *Dave Frost, baseball pitcher...
and Ronnie Corbett
Ronnie Corbett
Ronald Balfour "Ronnie" Corbett, OBE is a Scottish actor and comedian of Scottish and English parentage who had a long association with Ronnie Barker in the British television comedy series The Two Ronnies...
, and who is most famous for having written for Ken Dodd
Ken Dodd
Kenneth Arthur Dodd OBE is a British comedian and singer songwriter, famous for his frizzy hair or “fluff dom” and buck teeth or “denchers”, his favourite cleaner, the feather duster and his greeting "How tickled I am!", as well as his send-off “Lots and Lots of Happiness!”...
and Morecambe and Wise
Morecambe and Wise
Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise, usually referred to as Morecambe and Wise, or Eric and Ernie, were a British comic double act, working in variety, radio, film and most successfully in television. Their partnership lasted from 1941 until Morecambe's death in 1984...
.
Early life
As a child he was entranced by radio comedy and particularly that of Arthur AskeyArthur Askey
Arthur Bowden Askey CBE was a prominent English comedian.- Life and career :Askey was born at 29 Moses Street, Liverpool, the eldest child and only son of Samuel Askey , secretary of the firm Sugar Products of Liverpool, and his wife, Betsy Bowden , of Knutsford, Cheshire...
. After school he followed his parents into market trading, manning a fruit and veg stall. In spare moments he wrote jokes, frequently on the back of the brown paper bags he used to package his goods.
Personal life
Braben is married and lives in North Wales. He has three children and five grandchildren. His grandson, Owen Braben, is a TV producer at ITVJoke writer
Although shy, he sent jokes to whichever comedians were appearing in Liverpool. His first was sold to Charlie ChesterCharlie Chester
Charlie Chester was a British comedian and TV and radio presenter, broadcasting almost continuously from the 1940s to the 1990s. His style was similar to that of Max Miller.- Life and career :...
for 2s 6d, but his first major success was with Ken Dodd
Ken Dodd
Kenneth Arthur Dodd OBE is a British comedian and singer songwriter, famous for his frizzy hair or “fluff dom” and buck teeth or “denchers”, his favourite cleaner, the feather duster and his greeting "How tickled I am!", as well as his send-off “Lots and Lots of Happiness!”...
, with whom he worked for 12 years. Dodd's style was good training for Braben because his relentless delivery averaged around seven jokes a minute. Writing a five or 10-minute set was hard work.
Braben also worked on Round the Horne
Round the Horne
Round the Horne was a BBC Radio comedy programme, transmitted in four series of weekly episodes from 1965 until 1968. The series was created by Barry Took and Marty Feldman - with others contributing to later series after Feldman returned to performing — and starred Kenneth Horne, with Kenneth...
. Some confusion has emerged over Braben's role in the show, as the similarly named Edwin Braden performed on the show while Braben (more fully named Edwin C Braben) wrote for it.
Morecambe and Wise
Braben's ultimate success came when the BBCBBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
lured Morecambe and Wise
Morecambe and Wise
Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise, usually referred to as Morecambe and Wise, or Eric and Ernie, were a British comic double act, working in variety, radio, film and most successfully in television. Their partnership lasted from 1941 until Morecambe's death in 1984...
from ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
. Bill Cotton
Bill Cotton
Sir William Frederick "Bill" Cotton, CBE was a British television producer and executive, and the son of big-band leader Billy Cotton....
, then in charge of Light Entertainment at the BBC, was looking for a writer and asked Braben if he would like to try. Braben had seen Morecambe and Wise some years previously in music hall
Music hall
Music Hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment which was popular between 1850 and 1960. The term can refer to:# A particular form of variety entertainment involving a mixture of popular song, comedy and speciality acts...
and thought they were terrible. In the intervening years, the duo had polished their act and were using Dick Hills and Sid Green
Dick Hills and Sid Green
Richard Michael Hills, , and Sidney Green, , were a British partnership of comedy writers, most notable for their work on TV in the 1960s...
to write their scripts. They had ended up with on-stage personas Braben says he did not like - Morecambe was "gormless" (a northern England phrase meaning stupid and unworldly), whereas Wise was tight-fisted with money, smart and hard-edged (they were not dissimilar from their older contemporaries Abbott and Costello
Abbott and Costello
William "Bud" Abbott and Lou Costello performed together as Abbott and Costello, an American comedy duo whose work on stage, radio, film and television made them the most popular comedy team during the 1940s and 1950s...
in this respect).
Braben's first trick for the duo was to alter these characterisations. Though retaining his love of money, Wise became more naive and his egotism more innocent and less self-aware - while Morecambe became more worldly-wise and even protective of his friend, though still retaining a child-like innocence himself.
After meeting the duo, Braben noticed their friendship and aimed to bring this out at the same time as adding enough jokes to make it funny. He provided the idea of the two not only living together but also sharing a large double bed - something which would have been unthinkable in the case of their 'Hills and Green' characters but which, emphasising their closeness as well as their innocence, became a regular feature of the TV shows. He countered their reticence about the idea by pointing out that if it was good enough for Laurel and Hardy
Laurel and Hardy
Laurel and Hardy were one of the most popular and critically acclaimed comedy double acts of the early Classical Hollywood era of American cinema...
it was good enough for them.
Braben found writing for Morecambe and Wise stressful, particularly with pressure to produce the high-profile Christmas Specials, each of which took months to rehearse and film. As a result, he suffered nervous illnesses, including hallucinations. In 1978 Morecambe and Wise were lured back to ITV - but Braben did not go with them because he was still under contract with the BBC. He would not rejoin them on ITV until the 1980s.
Other writing
Braben wrote and appeared in various radio comedy shows for the BBC, including the well-remembered Show With Ten Legs. He had been a radio scriptwriter and performer since 1975, when he wrote and starred in a BBC radio comedy series called The Worst Show On The Wireless, produced by James CaseyJames Casey (Variety Artist)
James Casey was at various times during his long career a Variety comedian on the English music-halls, a scriptwriter for BBC Radio's variety shows and situation comedies, and a senior BBC Radio Light Entertainment producer....
, which featured Bill Pertwee
Bill Pertwee
William Desmond Anthony Pertwee MBE is a British comedy actor. He is best known for playing the part of antagonist ARP Warden Hodges in the popular sitcom Dad's Army.-Early and personal life:...
, Eli Woods
Eli Woods
Eli Woods is an English comedian and comic actor, born in Stockton-on-Tees, possibly best known for his work with stage comedian Jimmy James , and particularly for his part in the famous 'elephant-in-the-box' routine. Woods's birth name is actually Jack Casey.Jimmy James developed his famous act...
, David Casey (James Casey's son), and Alison Steadman
Alison Steadman
Alison Steadman OBE is an English actress. She established her career with roles such as Beverley in Abigail's Party and Candice Marie in Nuts in May for the director Mike Leigh, to whom she was once married. In addition to her stage and radio work, she has had lead roles in The Singing Detective,...
.
Braben subsequently wrote and starred in The Show with Ten Legs, broadcast in January 1978, performing jokes and sketches alongside Bill Pertwee, Alison Steadman, and Eli Woods. This was another of the many radio shows produced by James Casey. In style and form, Ten Legs harked back to the music-hall tradition - not least due to the presence of James Casey and Eli Woods, both former stage-colleagues (and blood relatives!) of music-hall legend Jimmy James
Jimmy James (comedian)
Jimmy James was a music hall, film, radio and television comedian and comedy actor.Jimmy had limited use for jokes as such, preferring to say things in a humorous manner, sometimes in surreal situations and as such was seen by some as well ahead of his time.He was often hailed as a 'comedian's...
. The following year saw a second series, also written by and starring Braben, which aired under the revised title 'The New Improved Show with Ten Legs', broadcast in January 1979.
From 1982 to 1984 Braben joined Eli Woods and Alison Steadman for 13 episodes of the BBC radio series The Show with No Name, all of which he also wrote.
All these various series were spiritual successors to BBC radio's earlier comedy success, 'Round the Horne' (1964-68), in which Bill Pertwee had previously appeared, each being a similar style of comedy sketch show. All of Braben's radio shows were gestated and born under the guidance of Jim Casey, BBC Manchester's senior light entertainment producer; and Braben's radio career in effect came to an end when Casey retired after a long and successful broadcasting career, in 1982.
In 2001, Braben collaborated with Hamish McColl
Hamish McColl
Hamish McColl is a British comedian, writer and actor. He trained at the Ecole Phillippe Gaulier, Paris and Cambridge University. With Sean Foley, he formed the double act The Right Size in 1988, creating comic theatre shows which toured all over the world. more recently he has worked as a...
and Sean Foley
Sean Foley (comedian)
Sean Foley is a British comedian and actor. With Hamish McColl, he forms the double-act The Right Size.-Theatre:*Freud in Hysteria *Matti in Mr Puntila and His Man Matti...
to write The Play What I Wrote, a stage play and tribute to Morecambe, Wise and Braben, which opened in London's West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
. The director was Kenneth Branagh
Kenneth Branagh
Kenneth Charles Branagh is an actor and film director from Northern Ireland. He is best known for directing and starring in several film adaptations of William Shakespeare's plays including Henry V , Much Ado About Nothing , Hamlet Kenneth Charles Branagh is an actor and film director from...
.
In 2004, Braben's autobiography was published, entitled The Book What I Wrote
Awards
Morecambe, Wise and Braben formed what came to be known in the television industry as "The Golden Triangle". Together they won the Society of Film Television Artists 1973 award for Outstanding Contribution to Television. Braben won the Best British Light Entertainment Script award from the Writer's Guild of Great Britain in 1969, 1970, 1971, and 1973.See also
- Eric MorecambeEric MorecambeJohn Eric Bartholomew OBE , known by his stage name Eric Morecambe, was an English comedian who together with Ernie Wise formed the award-winning double act Morecambe and Wise. The partnership lasted from 1941 until Morecambe's death of a heart attack in 1984...
- Ernie WiseErnie WiseErnest Wiseman OBE , known by his stage name Ernie Wise, was an English comedian, best known as one half of the comedy duo Morecambe and Wise, who became an institution on British television, especially for their Christmas specials.-Career:Ernest Wiseman was the eldest of five children, and changed...
- The Morecambe & Wise Show (1968)The Morecambe & Wise Show (1968)The Morecambe & Wise Show that began airing in 1968 was the second TV series for comedy duo Morecambe and Wise.-Beginnings:The first series of the "new" Morecambe & Wise Show was broadcast in colour on BBC Two in 1968 and was deemed to be a success. Though now established as a popular star, Eric...
- Morecambe & Wise Show (1968) EpisodesMorecambe & Wise Show (1968) EpisodesThis is an episode summary of British TV comedy show The Morecambe & Wise Show.The nine series of 50 minute programmes produced between 1968 and 1976 by Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise are generally considered to be their best output; From series two all are penned by Eddie Braben these programmes...