Yvette Fielding: I chat to Eric Morecambe every time I sit at his old desk
Most Haunted presenter bought the memorabilia at auction
Most Haunted presenter Yvette Fielding says she communicates with Eric Morecambe after buying his old desk.
The paranormal investigator said: ‘Every time I sit down to write and do my paranormal activity podcast I’ll go: "Hello Eric, help me out now" and hope that he is listening…’
And her husband Karl Beattie joked that he communicated via one of his catchphrases, saying: ‘At the end of every book she goes, "How’s that Eric," and just in the distance you can hear, "Rubbish!"'
Fielding, 56, wrote her The Vampire of Whitby on the desk, inspired by Bram Stoker’s story of Dracula arriving in the North Yorkshire town – and dedicated it to the late comedian.
Coincidentally, Morecambe wrote the children’s book The Reluctant Vampire, about a vampire prince who doesn't like blood but prefers ‘chips and a glass of red wine’ – which is now being adapted for TV by Alan Partridge writers Neil and Rob Gibbons.
Fielding paid £2,800 for the desk in January, at the same auction Robbie Williams snapped up the comedy legend’s iconic glasses for £20,000.
She also paid £660 for one of Morecambe's first props - a wooden lollipop with a bite out of it, used in the Youth Takes A Bow in about 1940, when the comic would have been about 14. She also bought a typewriter, some of his paintings and a hat – and got a free pair of his spectacles, found in the desk drawer.
Fielding said her husband sat in front of his computer for two days to secure the lots, and thought there was going to be no way they would be able to afford it.
Speaking on her Anytime podcast, she said: ‘As soon as the auctioneer’s hammer went down and we realised we’d got the desk, we both jumped up like England had scored in the World Cup and screamed with joy.
’And then I burst into tears because I was just so thrilled to have something so magnificent and wonderful. It is our pride and joy apart from Mary [her daughter], obviously.’
Karl added: ‘It’s hard to believe you’ve got this one-off thing that this icon of British comedy [owned].'
Fielding appeared on Celebrity Mastermind in 2023 with Morecambe and Wise as her specialist subject.
Morecambe died of a heart attack aged 58 in 1984 and the contents of his family home were put up for sale after his widow, Joan, died aged 97, in March 2024.
Published: 6 Jul 2025
