Wood: 'Critics hammered Morecambe & Wise'

Victoria Wood has insisted that comedy double-act Morecambe and Wise worked hard to achieve fame and success.

Wood, who will play Morecambe's mother Sadie in BBC drama Morecambe and Wise: The Early Years, admitted that the programme will show the poor response to the duo's early TV performances.

She told The Mirror: "It’s about their younger days, through to their first TV series, Running Wild, in 1954, which was hammered by the critics.

“One said the definition of television was ‘the box in which they buried Morecambe and Wise’ - it was that badly received."

The one-off drama has been written by Blackpool and Occupation writer Peter Bowker.