ENTERTAINER Eddie Large has been remembered in Dorset, where he and his comedy partner Syd Little played summer shows and filmed sketches for their hugely popular TV series.

The comedian died last week at the age of 78 after contracting the coronavirus while in hospital for heart problems.

Little and Large secured a prime slot on BBC1 in 1978, after Morecambe and Wise left for ITV.

Their show drew audiences of up to 18 million and ran until 1991.

During a summer season in Bournemouth in 1980, Little and Large supported a series of community events.

They appeared at Bournemouth Regatta and at summer fetes for Alderney Manor Community Association and St Peter’s School.

Eddie Large joked that he coveted the number plate on the mayor of Bournemouth’s Rolls Royce – EL1 – and posed for pictures wielding a spanner to remove it.

Retired entertainer David Medina remembers the pair filming parts of their BBC series locally.

One sketch, in which Mr Medina featured as a passer-by, featured Large in drag, spinning round and transforming into Wonder Woman.

A second, filmed at Canford School, depicted the signing of an international peace treaty – only for a fight to erupt over who owned the pen.

“A friend of mine was in another sketch where the two of them pushed a beautiful, expensively polished black piano all around Canford Cliffs,” said Mr Medina.

“Then they filmed at a petrol station in Ashley Road, at the Branksome end. The piano ran away from them and was heading for the car wash and when it came out the other end, it was white.”

Born Edward McGinnis in Glasgow, but mainly raised in Manchester, the future Eddie Large met singer and guitarist Cyril Mead in a pub. They turned professional in 1963.

Little and Large achieved national fame after topping the public vote in the ITV talent show Opportunity Knocks in 1971, and were rarely away off the screen until their BBC show was axed in 1991.

Large told the TV Times in 2010 that they had been “kicked out because the ratings went down to about eight million”.

He added: “When they get eight million now, they’re having champagne parties, but that’s just the way of the world.”

He and Syd Little did not speak to each other for years, but reunited in 2017 and appeared together on Good Morning Britain, Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway and Pointless Celebrities.