Two of a Kind

Two of a Kind is an early TV series for comedy duo Morecambe and Wise. It ran from 1961 to 1968 produced by ATV for the ITV network. History In 1954, Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise had starred in their first television series, Running Wild on BBC Television. This had proven to be a failure, which saw the duo initially return to the variety circuit, before slowly making a return to television, with guest spots on The Winifred Atwell Show and Double Six. Their increasing success eventually led to an offer from Lew Grade, the managing director of ATV (then an ITV franchise holder), for a second attempt at a television series of their own. With memories of their previous attempt still in their mind, the duo said that they would accept the offer from Grade if they could obtain the services of the writing team of Dick Hills and Sid Green, as well as producer Colin Clews. Once these were in situ, work could begin in earnest on the new show. Initially, there were problems in the working relationship between the two duos; the first scripts were, to Morecambe and Wise, too crowded with people for them, as the stars of the piece, to stand out. The reception for the first shows was described by Eric Morecambe as "lukewarm to say the least". In spite of this, the writers produced more of the same, until a strike by Equity saw the television schedules decimated. However, Morecambe and Wise were members of the Variety Artistes Federation, and therefore unaffected by the strike. As a consequence, Hills and Green were forced to write sketches that were more along the lines that Morecambe and Wise were looking for. Additionally, the writers were occasionally added to the situations as "Sid and Dick", the new, general-purpose stooges.