ERIC & LITTLE ERN To Play Christmas Season At Vaudeville

Direct from a critically acclaimed sell-out Edinburgh Festival Fringe premiere and autumn tour, Eric and Little Ern transfers to the West End for an eight-week Christmas season.

The production vividly brings back the warm memories of a bygone era, recreating some of the finest moments of Eric and Ernie's television and stage performances through the use of classic sketches alongside new material devised by the show's performers. Newly extended from its Edinburgh hour, the script explores the dynamic that made Morecambe and Wise one of Britain's most enduringly popular double acts.

Producers were granted rare permission by Eddie Braben to feature favourite moments from his writing just weeks before his untimely death earlier this year. Together with further classic material licensed from the estates of Hills and Green, who wrote for Eric and Ern in their early career, the show mixes in new scenes exploring the public and private personas of Morecambe and Wise.

EDINBURGH FRINGE 2013 REVIEW HIGHLIGHTS:

'Spot on. You could watch this for hours.' **** Daily Telegraph

'Brilliantly acted and incredibly moving.' **** Chortle

'A hugely enjoyable piece of comedic theatre.' **** The List

Ian Ashpitel's TV credits include Phone Shop, Starlings, Doctors and as Roy Piper in Thin Ice. Theatre includes Kursk (Young Vic & Sydney Opera House), Nicholas Nickleby (Chichester), Tittle Tattle (Gilded Balloon), Brighton Rock (Tour), The Ghost Train (New Wolsey), Father Brown and the Poppyland Mysteries, Shout, When the Boat Comes In (Eastern Angles), The Merchant of Venice (Tour) and Jesus Christ Superstar (Tour). Prior to drama training, he spent nine years in the Royal Navy as a submarine radio operator.

Jonty Stephen's theatre credits include The Merry Wives of Windsor (Globe, US and UK Tour), Liberty (Tour), A Small Family Business (Watford), Coriolanus (RSC & Kennedy Centre Washington), Great Expectations (Lancaster), Love at a Loss (BAC), Simplicity (Tour & Donmar), Loot, The Canterbury Tales, Joseph (Leicester Haymarket), The London Cuckolds (Lyric Hammersmith) and Tales of Toad Hall (Tour). Television credits include Love and Marriage, Peaky Blinders, WPC 56, Coronation Street, Doctors, Silent Witness, Lewis, Moving On, The Lenny Henry Show and All About Me. Film credits include Possession, Large, Good King Wenceslas, Mild and Bitter and the forthcoming Walking With The Enemy.

Director Owen Lewis most recently staged solo shows for Suggs, Mrs Moneypenny and HarDeep Singh Kohli; theatre directing credits include The Only Way Is Downton (Pleasance Edinburgh & St James, London) and Pete and Dud: Come Again (London, UK tour and New Zealand).