S ay the name John Eric Bartholomew and few people will recognise it but mention his stage name of Eric Morecambe and a huge grin generally creeps across faces.

One of Britain's most cherished entertainers, Eric was part of the comedy double-act that totally dominated the 1970s: the much-loved Morecambe and Wise.

From 1941 and until his untimely death is 1984, the duo performed live and on radio, starred in films and conquered television with their popular Morecambe And Wise Show. The influence they had at the time was such that their Christmas specials became an institution and one, the 1977 special, attracted an awesome 28 million viewers: around half the total UK population.

Their comedy was a simple, old-fashioned style of silliness which isn't particularly fashionable today but what made the pair so popular was really a lot to do with their likeability.

With an interesting and well-loved character like Eric Morecambe, it's a wonder that it has taken this long for someone to create a biopic. But it wasn't until 1997 that the seed of Morecambe: The Man What Brought Us Sunshine was sewn by a simple comment from one actor to another. It took another 12 years for the collaboration between director Guy Masterson, writer Tim Whitnall and actor Bob Golding to come into being as a one-man play that went down a storm at the Edinburgh Festival last year.

Since then the show has been running at London's Duchess Theatre to huge critical acclaim and it is just about to begin a massive UK tour covering 120 dates.

So just what is about Eric Morecambe that attracts audiences to this show?

"He's a national treasure," says Bob. "At the end of the day he was a lovely man. It's the story of an everyman really; he lost his parents, he fell in love, had children, he had failures and successes at work and he just happened to be very funny and very famous."

The fact that Bob stars alone in the play can easily lead you to assume that it's done as a monologue but in fact it is a standard play. The only difference is that one actor plays all the roles.

"I play Eric, I play his mother, Ernie Wise, the whole lot," laughs Bob. "It tells the story of his life right from the early days, right through his success and ultimately his death from a heart attack."

Eric had a series of heart problems towards the end of his life and it was that which eventually killed him in 1984, after an appearance at a theatre in Tewkesbury. The nation was shocked and saddened but the love for Eric has never dwindled. Even though the play appeals mainly to older people who knew and loved him, Bob says that young people come along too.

"It's a mix really. Although mostly our audience are 50-odd-year-olds who grew up with Eric on their TV, there are a lot of younger people who are buying tickets for their parents and going along with them.

"It's quite a nostalgic play, it tends to open boxes in one's memory. One woman came up to us afterwards with tears in her eyes, saying that it had made her remember sitting in her grandmother's front room, watching The Morecambe And Wise Show and laughing."

Having played Eric for months now and with a gruelling tour schedule ahead of him, Bob says that he still isn't bored with playing "the tall one with glasses". And he seems to relate so easily to the comic, and even look so like him, that there is no danger of the play becoming stale any time soon.

"At the end of the day we all had or still have an uncle like Eric and that's what we relate to as an audience. We just see that silliness and as British people, we love a bit of silliness!"

Sunday February 7 at 5pm Tickets £14 (£12 concessions) from 01892 678678 or www.trinitytheatre.net