Eric and Ernie

Victoria Wood conceived this idea of taking a look back at the early lives of two of our best and well loved entertainers; Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise, played beautifully by Daniel Rigby and Bryan Dick, with the former winning a BAFTA for his portryal. Reece played Harry Wiseman, Ernie's father - he and Ernie had the act Carson and Kid. Reece is not in the programme for very long, although I loved how his character Harry had the opening shot, smoking a cigarette in a working man's club. He and Ernie get an audition with a London talent agent but it is soon apparent that it is Ernie, and Ernie alone that the agent is interested in signing. Harry is torn between between returning home alone or with Ernie, having lost his chance to perform in the West End. Harry knows he must give Ernie his chance and the scenes in the hotel between Harry and Ernie as Harry has to give his son some guidance and say goodbye are terribly sad. Reece breaks your heart with his eyes alone, and his defeated body language. As I said he features for about 15 mins but he makes the scenes memorable.

Betty Blue Eyes

Cameron Mackintosh bought Alan Bennett's "A Private Function" to the West End stage as a bright colourful musical complete with animatronic pig. Reece and Sarah Lancashire played the title roles of Gilbert and Joyce Chilvers - Gilbert a mild mannered and meek chiropodhist and Joyce a social climbing upwardly mobile housewife. It is 1947, and the moneyed residents of Sheperdsford are planning a banquet for the wedding of Princess Elizabeth. However meat is scarce, therefore they pay a local farmer to raise a pig, namely Betty, for slaughter and to be the centrepiece of the banquet. Gilbert stumbles upon their plan, and angry after being told that his dream of having a chiropodhist's surgery on the Parade will never be allowed to happen, decides along with Joyce to steal Betty and teach them all a lesson.

Reece and Sarah were a lot of fun to watch perform together, and this was a nice show to go and see. Reece was adorable as Gilbert and is in his element in this kind of role, going from husband under the thumb to asserting himself and gaining respect and new love from Joyce. Sadly the show closed early in September after a six month run, but Cameron believes it will return.

Psychoville (II)

Reece and Steve returned with a second series of Psychoville. I'm not going to delve into the plot in this roundup in case there are people who haven't seen the series yet. But the two of them returned with their old favourites, and a couple of great new characters. We had Mr Jelly, still performing, now with sidekick Mrs LadyBird Face aka Mrs Wren! Oscar Lomax still being looked after by Tealeaf, and Joyce now has Jennifer in a wheelchair to fuss over instead of a doll, although she calls her Freddie! We had new characters Jeremy, Hattie, Detective Finney and the superbly sinister Silent Singer. Jeremy Goode is a fussy and slightly maniacal librarian who is obsessed with retrieving 50 Great Coastal Walks of the British Isles Volume II, and is haunted by an eerie pigtailed, silently miming vision, Silent Singer, in times of stress. Both are played by Reece and I confess their moments were my favourites in the episodes. Reece made Jeremy so angy and quietly mad, and pernickity, he was such fun to watch as both Jeremy and Silent Singer. Mr Jelly had some fantastically funny moments in this series too. As I said though, no plot finale revelations here. Reece and Steve won a second British Comedy Award for the series in December 2011.

Reece has filmed and taken part in other projects this year that we'll see next year. He has along with the other Gents filmed a sketch for the CBBC hit Horrible Histories, and filmed a pilot Bad Sugar written by the Peep Show guys and another pilot The Function Room. He is filming Henry VI for the BBC and is starring in Alan Ayckbourn's Absent Friends at the Harold Pinter Theatre next year. So that's 2011 (ish). Arise Sir 2012.