This was
Eric Morecambe's and
Ernie Wise's first appearance on television, although they were already well established and acclaimed as stage performers. They and "Running Wild" received many highly critical and derogatory reviews in newspapers, one of which said "Definition of Television - the box they buried Morecambe and Wise in". Eric carried a cutting of that review in his wallet for the rest of his life. One of the main reasons for their lackluster performance was that the BBC strongly advised them use BBC script-writers and to tone down their northern humor, instead of using their own material which they had written and which they were confident about.
