Britain's Most Loved and Best Comedy Double Act

Piccadilly Palace

Feature from 2007



In colour

Rare colour shots of the ATV show
Picadilly Palace was the name of the US version of last ATV series of Morecambe & Wise. It was broadcast as the summer version of Hollywood Palace, an American variety show popular at the time.

At the time of filming, both ATV and ABC had cameras present. ABC were recording in the American 425 line colour format while the ATV cameras were still using the older 405 line colour format.

ATV, although recording in colour, had no means of transmitting it because the transmitters (owned by the Post Office) were unable to cope with colour, thus all ATV shows in the UK were only transmitted in black and white.

The post office opted to upgrade the whole network to the newer UK PAL 625 line format, but did not complete it until 1969, by which time Eric and Ern had joined the BBC.

As was the usual case when this happened (it happened on quite a few other shows as well), the American colour cameras always got precedence. This meant they got the best angles and shots, meaning that the UK recorded what could be considered as a less superior version.

Being American, they switched the broadcast dates around and extended the show by a further 4 episodes that did not feature Morecambe & Wise. Amongst their stand ins were Bruce Forsythe and Millicent Martin.

Still remaining a bit of a mystery, the colour shows have not been seen in a long time, either the American or the ATV ones. A few colour photos do exist however, several being printed in the TV Times at the time of of the show.

Below is a full show listing, collated from various sources, and as far as we know, the most accurate to date.

All of these details are also in the show database.
US Episode: 1US Date: 20 May 67UK Episode: 10UK Date: 31/03/1968
Guests:Millicent Martin, The Dave Clark Five, Cliff Richard
Sketches:Peter and the Wolf, East Side Story
US Episode: 2US Date: 27 May 67UK Episode: 3UK Date: 12/11/1967
Guests:Millicent Martin, The Hollies, Tom Jones
Sketches:A pie throwing demonstration, The problems of the nearsighted
US Episode: 3US Date: 03 Jun 67UK Episode: 2UK Date: 22/10/1967
Guests:Millicent Martin, The Small Faces, Bobby Rydell
Sketches:A parody of Adagio dancers, A spoof of a popular soap opera
US Episode: 4US Date: 15 Jun 67UK Episode: 5UK Date: 31/12/1968
Guests:Millicent Martin, The New Vaudeville Band, Frankie Avalon
Sketches:Grieg's Concerto, Samson and Delilah, Julius Caesar
US Episode: 5US Date: 17 Jun 67UK Episode: 1UK Date: 01/10/1967
Guests:Millicent Martin, Freddie and the Dreamers, Jimmy Rodgers
Sketches:Pantomime table tennis
US Episode: 6US Date: 24 Jun 67UK Episode: 9UK Date: 17/03/1968
Guests:Millicent Martin, Georgie Fame, Bobby Vinton
Sketches:An Arabian sheik's first impressions of London, A parody of pop singing groups (Boom Oo Yatta-ta-ta?)
US Episode: 7US Date: 01 Jul 67UK Episode: 4UK Date: 10/12/1968
Guests:Millicent Martin, Manfred Mann, George Maharis
Sketches:Greek vase, English village life
US Episode: 8US Date: 22 Jul 67UK Episode: 6UK Date: 14/01/1968
Guests:Millicent Martin, The Moody Blues, Tommy Leonetti
Sketches:Spoof of Hollywood westerns, Spoof of musicals
US Episode: 9US Date: 05 Aug 67UK Episode: 8UK Date: 25/02/1968
Guests:Millicent Martin, Eric Burdon and The Animals, Gene Pitney
Sketches:Gladys Whitred joins Morecambe and Wise for a selection of arias, Millicent Martin does an apache dance with Morecambe and Wise
US Episode: 10US Date: 24 Aug 67UK Episode: 7UK Date: 04/02/1968
Guests:Millicent Martin, The Tremeloes, Peter Nero
Sketches:Parody silent films, Eric Morecambe joins Peter Nero for a piano duet.


© morecambeandwise.com 2007

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