Ernie Wise Opens Job Centre

Anglia TV news footage of comedian Ernie Wise in Peterborough to open a new job centre, including interview with Ernie Wise.

Chris Young reports from a Peterborough Job Centre where comedian Ernie Wise is guest of honour for the official opening of the Job Centre. Ernie Wise, smiling at the camera, arrives and walks into the Job Centre. A shot of the orange, black and white job centre sign and building front exterior. Inside, Ernie meets staff, shaking hands with a man, and giving an awkward kiss to a shy member of female staff. Press take photographs. Ernie looks at the jobs board. He jokes about each of the job titles and further jokes “how do you find a job for a layabout?!” Ernie shakes hands with the manager, and people applause as Ernie hands a plaque featuring a golden key to the man to officially open the job centre. Chris Young interviews Ernie Wise. The reporter asks Ernie “Have you ever had problems looking for work early in your career?” Wise says he has not had much to do with a “normal job”. He mentions being in the merchant navy during the war, and also recalls going for a job as a pageboy at the Queen’s Hotel in Leeds at aged 15 but saying he didn’t get the job because they didn’t have a uniform to fit him. He remarks that he had never before been in a labour exchange and that it “had to be show business”, that he had never known anything else from his early days when his father took him round the working men’s clubs. What is the future for Eric and Ernie? They are always looking for new ideas, something fresh. Ernie mentions the sketch with Angela Rippon and her legs. Ernie says that the Morecambe and Wise duo will never split up. Although socially the two go their separate ways owing to Ernie’s interest in football. Ernie tells a joke to the reporter deriding Eric Morecambe’s support for Luton Town FC. Ernie and a small gathering of people at the job centre are seen having a drink. Ernie tells a joke and the crowd all laugh.

Keywords

Comedian; Employment; Personalities; Morecambe and Wise