University acquires comedy legend's joke books

Comedy legend Eric Morecambe's notebooks containing his handwritten jokes will be made available for people to look through after being acquired by a university.

The nine notebooks, dating back to the 1960s and 70s, were auctioned in January alongside items such as the desk and signature glasses once owned by the comedian, who died in 1984.

The books, featuring jokes, one-liners and ideas for sketches for the hit Morecambe and Wise TV show, have now been archived by the University of York.

Laura Yeoman, from the university, said: "It's going to take some deciphering to work out exactly what he is saying in some cases, but it shows how he was operating in the moment as things were coming to mind."

A lifetime of showbiz memorabilia and personal items from the comedian's former home went on sale at the auction earlier this year.

It took place 10 months after the death of his widow, Joan, at the age of 97, and more than 40 years after the comic died of a heart attack, aged 58.

The notebooks have all the hallmarks of being stuffed into a suit pocket and contain scribbled material for Morecambe and Wise's 1977 BBC Christmas special.

The show attracted 28 million viewers at a time when there were only three TV channels in Britain.

Ms Yeoman, access and digital engagement archivist at the university's Borthwick Institute for Archives, said some of the jokes in the books were scored out, some had lines and crosses next to them, and the university team was figuring out what Morecambe's system was.

"We do see across the books, he comes back to the same themes and topics again and again. He refines those jokes down as well," she explained.

The team managed to get their hands on two of the five lots up for auction, Ms Yeoman said.

"I think Robbie Williams ended up with the famous glasses for about £20,000 and I think Yvette Fielding got his desk. So, there were a number of high profile people bidding on some of the lots, too," she said.

Ms Yeoman said the material was acquired thanks to funding from Friends of the Library and Archives and the Friends of the Nation's Libraries.

To see the notebooks, people could contact the library to book an appointment, she added.

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