Appearing at the ABC cinema in Exeter, the comic watched City lose 3-1 at home to Southport in October 1971 but not in the company of his comic partner Ernie Wise. Then at the height of his fame, Eric Morecambe - real name John Eric Bartholomew (born 1926) - had been in partnership with Wise since 1941 with the pair having had a regular show on BBC TV since 1968. Later switching to ITV, Mr Morecambe suffered serious heart attacks in 1968 and 1979 and died of a third in 1984 at the age of fifty-eight.

A keen football fan, he was a director of Luton Town and, on the occasion of his visit to St James' Park, joked that Ernie Wise had opted to visit Sidmouth rather than watch Exeter City.