Forget the short, fat hairy legs...10ft statue of Ernie Wise to be unveiled

The 10ft stone statue has taken sculptor Melanie Wilks five months to create and is running behind schedule because its sheer size means the work has to be done outside in all weathers.

It was commissioned by Morley Murals Committee with funds from Ernie's widow Doreen Wiseman, and will stand on Queen Street, Morley, close to the Morley Pavilion building where he performed as a boy.

Melanie said: "He is carved entirely by hand from a six ton block of stone and it has been backbreaking work. It is worth the extra time it will take me to get him just right.

"I have depicted Ernie in the prime of life as I remember him in the 1970s, as the height of Morecambe and Wise's success."

Wise was born Ernie Wiseman and lived at Station Terrace, East Ardsley, near Leeds. He died in 1999, aged 73.

There is a statue of Eric Morecambe, created by Yorkshire's Graham Ibbeson, in Morecambe, his home town, which he took as his stage name. Eric Morecambe died in 1984.