What comedy icon Eric Morecambe means to his hometown 40 years after his death

Eric Morecambe died in Cheltenham General Hospital at 4am on May 28 1984, just hours after collapsing from a massive heart attack after a show in Tewkesbury, Glouces-tershire.

The national media mourned the death of the nation’s favourite funny man with lengthy TV bulletins, pages of tributes and interviews with friends, colleagues and family.

Our sister newspaper The Visitor, however, surprisingly devoted only a few paragraphs to the passing of the resort’s most famous celebrity.

This was partly because coverage of the explosion at the Abbeystead water plant near Lancaster – where 16 people lost their lives – dominated the pages that week.

But the restrained reaction of The Visitor at the time shows how much Eric’s name has grown in stature in Morecambe in the 40 years since he died.

When Eric was alive, the people of Morecambe were fond of him and undoubtedly proud of his accomplishments.

Although Eric lived down south for much of his life, he visited the town regularly and it was always close to his heart – he did take its name after all!

But the people of Morecambe did not celebrate him as ‘one of their own’ quite as much as they do now. Today, Eric is unquestionably the biggest cultural icon in Morecambe.

Ask someone from outside the town what Morecambe is famous for. They will inevitably answer ‘Eric Morecambe’.

Eric has become totally synonymous with Morecambe. Even children, far too young to remember his hilarious TV comic routines, know exactly who Eric Morecambe is.

He’s come a long way from the humble beginnings of his birth on May 14, 1926, at his parents’ George and Sadie’s next door neighbour’s house at 42 Buxton Street.

John Eric Bartholomew attended Lancaster Road Primary and Euston Road Secondary Schools, where he was, by his own admission, not exactly a star pupil.

Instead young Eric wanted to be an entertainer and follow in the footsteps of his hero George Formby.

As a teenager he entered and won several talent competitions. Then in 1941, he met the man who would become his career-long partner, Ernest Wiseman.

They formed a double act, Eric taking the name of his hometown to become Eric Morecambe.

Ernie at first was to be named after his birthplace too but they thought ‘Morecambe and Leeds’ sounded too much like a train ticket! Instead, Morecambe and Wise was born.

Eric’s mum Sadie played a vital role managing the aspiring comic pair and by the early 50s, they were rising stars of the variety scene.

TV success came in the 1960s, followed by ‘The Morecambe and Wise Show’.

This reached its peak at Christmas 1977 when the show had a viewing audience of 28,835 million (that’s half the UK population).

Eric and Ernie comic sketches such as ‘Singin’ in the Rain’, ‘The Stripper’ kitchen sketch and ‘The Grieg Piano Concerto’ sketch with Andrew Preview (Andre Previn) have become classics of the genre.

Away from his life as a comedian, Eric was married to Joan and had three children – Gary, Gail and Steven.

He loved football, being a big fan of Luton FC where he was vice-president, wrote novels and plays, and was a keen birdwatcher. There is a bird hide named after him at RSPB Leighton Moss in Silverdale. And today, there are other signs of Eric’s legacy all over Morecambe.

Of course the most famous memorial to Eric is the bronze statue standing proudly on the seafront, which has been visited by millions since the Queen unveiled it in July 1999.

His signature tune ‘Bring Me Sunshine’ is played at every single Morecambe FC home match. And whenever the Shrimps have a big away game, many supporters will dress up as the man himself. Our resort also receives a huge amount of national press because of Eric Morecambe.

For example, when the BBC1 Football Focus cameras visited the resort just prior to the FA Cup Third Round match against Ipswich in January 2001, they chose to recreate a Morecambe and Wise sketch with two Shrimps footballers to best represent what the town was all about.

Morecambe has a pub, the Eric Bartholomew, and even a residential home, Eric Morecambe House, named after him.

There are so many other examples, too numerous to mention, of how Eric has become firmly entrenched in the folklore of our town.

This is testimony to how much Eric has become revered in Morecambe over the past 40 years. The great man has become even more symbolic of our resort than the view across the Bay and potted shrimps.