I just sat through the BBC TV drama Eric, Ernie & Me which re-wrote showbiz history by pretending the BBC made Morecambe & Wise famous on TV and writing-out their giant success on ITV before they joined the BBC.
Or, rather, re-joined the BBC…
The BBC had completely buggered Morecambe & Wise’s potential TV career with their first disastrous TV show Running Wild in 1954. One famous newspaper review read: “Definition of the week: TV set—the box in which they buried Morecambe and Wise.”
That quote was used in Eric, Ernie & Me as if it immediately preceded their 1968 TV series with the BBC – rather than being from 14 years before and a review of another BBC show.
ATV/ITV made them mega TV successes and household names with Two of a Kind (1961-1968, written by Sid Green & Dick Hills) and that TV success was ‘bought’ by the BBC who offered them much more money and then made their shows 1968-1977 (written by Eddie Braben). The BBC bought them because they were already ratings successes and they built on that.
Personally, I always thought M&W were funnier when written for by Sid & Dick at ATV/ITV.
Pretending the BBC started their TV success from ground zero is disgraceful bullshit bollocks.
Here they are in Sid & Dick’s classic Boom-Oo-Yata-Ta-Ta sketch on ATV/ITV in 1962, six years before they moved to the BBC.
SO IT GOES - John Fleming's blog 
Agree it is very unfair to make out that They were only succesful when they went to the BBC – stars of the calibre of, for, instance, the Beatles, would hardly have appeared on their itv show if they hadn’t been a success. I too thought their ITv stuff funnier.