Eric Sykes

For other people named Eric Sykes, see Eric Sykes (disambiguation).

Eric Sykes
Born	(1923-05-04) 4 May 1923 Oldham, Lancashire, England
Medium	television radio
Years active	1947-present
Spouse	Edith Milbrandt
Notable works and roles	Sykes, The Goon Show, The Plank

Eric Sykes, CBE (born 4 May 1923) is an English radio, television and film writer, actor and director. He is widely acknowledged as one of the most significant figures in British radio and TV comedy in the latter 20th century and frequently worked with leading performers and writers of the period including Tony Hancock, Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers, John Antrobus and Johnny Speight. Sykes first came to prominence through his many radio credits as a writer and actor in the 1950s, most notably through his work on The Goon Show. He became a TV star in his own right when he co-starred with Hattie Jacques in several popular 1960s and 1970s BBC television series, and he is probably best remembered for his famous slapstick routine "The Plank".

Biography

Career

Sykes' entertainment career began during World War II while serving in a Special Liaison Unit, when he met and worked with then Flight Lieutenant Bill Fraser. When the war ended Sykes decided to try his luck in London, arriving in the middle of the coldest winter in living memory. He rented lodgings, expecting to find work quickly, but by the end of the first week he was cold, hungry and broke. The turning point in his life and career came on the Friday night of that week -- he had a chance meeting in the street with Bill Fraser, who was then starring in a comedy at the Playhouse Theatre. Fraser took the impoverished Sykes to the theatre, offered him food and drink then asked if Sykes would like to write for him. Sykes began providing scripts for both Fraser and Frankie Howerd and soon found himself in demand as a comedy writer, contributing to the successful BBC radio series Educating Archie -- where he first met Hattie Jacques -- as well as Variety Bandbox. In 1948 he began writing for TV.

1950s

In the early 1950s Sykes made the successful transition from radio to TV, writing a number of series episodes and one-off shows for the BBC. His credits in this period include The Howerd Crowd (1952), Frankie Howerd's Korean Party, Nuts in May and The Frankie Howerd Show -- all starring Frankie Howerd -- as well as The Big Man (1954) starring Fred Emney and Edwin Styles. During 1954 Sykes also made his first screen appearance (as Private Waterhouse) in the 1954 army film comedy Orders Are Orders, which also featured Sid James, Tony Hancock, Peter Sellers, Bill Fraser and Donald Pleasence.

Late in 1954 Sykes began collaborating with Spike Milligan on scripts for The Goon Show when Milligan was unable to meet the workload. Their first collaborative script was for a Goon Show special called "Archie in Goonland", a crossover between The Goon Show and the "radio ventriloquism" show Educating Archie (which Sykes had been writing). The special was broadcast in June 1954 and featured the regular Goon Show cast plus Peter Brough, his dummy Archie Andrews and Hattie Jacques. It was not a success, however, and the recordings and scripts have not survived.

Sykes and Milligan co-wrote all but the first six of the 26 episodes in Series 5 (1954-55) and three episodes of Series 6 (1955-56); Sykes also wrote a 15-minute Goon Show Christmas special, "The Missing Christmas Parcel", broadcast during the Children's Hour on 8 December 1955. Sykes and Milligan shared an office for years as founding members of the writers' collective Associated London Scripts.

In 1955 Sykes wrote and performed in a BBC Christmas spectacular, a spoof pantomime called Pantomania, which featured many well-known BBC personalities of the era; it was directed by Ernest Maxin, who went on to produce some of the most famous comedy routines for Morecambe & Wise. That same year Sykes signed a contract as scriptwriter and variety show presenter for the newly formed independent television company ATV, while continuing to write and perform for the BBC.

In 1956 Sykes performed, wrote scripts and acted as script editor for the pioneering BBC TV comedy The Idiot Weekly, Price 2d, the first attempt to translate the humour of The Goons to television. It starred Peter Sellers, with Sykes, Kenneth Connor and Valentine Dyall. During the year he also made his second film appearance, playing a minor role in the Max Bygraves film Charley Moon, which also featured Bill Fraser, Peter Jones, Dennis Price and a young Jane Asher. During 1956–57, Sykes also wrote for and performed in The Tony Hancock Show, where he again worked with Hattie Jacques.

His next venture for the BBC was a 1-hour special, Sykes Directs a Dress Rehearsal, playing a harassed director in a fictional TV studio rehearsal room, just before going live to air. Later that year he wrote and appeared in another all-star spectacular called Opening Night which celebrated the opening of the 1956 National Radio Show at Earl's Court. In 1957 he created Closing Night, which closed the 1957 Show.

By this time Eric had developed hearing problems, and he subsequently lost most of his hearing, but he learned to lip-read and watch other performers say their lines to get his cues. In 1957 Sykes wrote and appeared in an edition of Val Parnell's Saturday Spectacular, the first of two shows in this series that he wrote for Peter Sellers. The first went out under the title of Eric Sykes Presents Peter Sellers, and the second, in 1958 was called The Peter Sellers Show.

In 1959 Sykes wrote and directed the one-off BBC special Gala Opening, with a cast that included "Professor" Stanley Unwin and Hattie Jacques, and played a small supporting role in the Tommy Steele film Tommy the Toreador.

1960s

With start of the Sixties, Eric Sykes and his old friend and colleague Hattie Jacques were suddenly catapulted to stardom when they co-starred in a new 30-minute BBC TV sitcom, Sykes and A..., which Eric created in collaboration with Johnny Speight. The original concept for the series had Eric living in suburbia with his wife, with simple plots centering on everyday problems, but Sykes soon realized that by changing the housemate from wife to sister it offered more scope for storylines and allowed either or both to become romantically entangled with other people.

In the revised concept, Sykes played a version of his established stage persona, a bumbling, work-shy, accident-prone bachelor called Eric Sykes, who lives at 24 Sebastopol Terrace, East Acton with his unmarried twin sister Harriet, played by Jacques. The other regular cast members were Derek Guyler as local constable Wilfred "Corky" Turnbull and Richard Wattis as their snobbish, busybody neighbour Charles Brown. Wattis left the show after Series 3; his departure was explained by having Mr Brown emigrating to Australia. Other guests included Hugh Lloyd, John Bluthal, Leo McKern and Arthur Mullard.

The first series (5 episodes, all written by Johnny Speight) premiered on 29 January 1960 and it was an immediate hit, establishing "Eric and Hat" as one of Britain's most popular and enduring comedy partnerships. The second series (6 episodes) was written by Sykes, with John Antrobus and Spike Milligan) from storylines suggested by Speight, but all subsequent programs were written by solely by Sykes.

Sykes and A... ran for nine seasons (plus a 1962 Christmas special) between January 1960 and November 1965. Regrettably, 34 of the original 59 episodes made between 1960 and 1965 are now missing, presumed erased, as is the 1962 Xmas special.

In December 1961 Sykes co-starred with Warren Mitchell in "Clicquot Et Frils", a one-off, 30-minute comedy written by the renowned team of Ray Galton and Alan Simpson. This was the premiere episode of a new BBC series Comedy Playhouse, which became an important proving ground for new TV comedy -- numerous episodes were subsequently developed into their own highly successful series, including Meet the Wife, Steptoe and Son, Til Death Us Do Part, All Gas and Gaiters, The Liver Birds, Are You Being Served? and Last of the Summer Wine.

One of Sykes' best-known creations is his wordless slapstick routine The Plank, which was originally performed on TV in Episode 2, Series 7 of Sykes And A..., first broadcast on 3 March 1964 under the title "Sykes and A Plank". In 1967 it was expanded into the 45-minute wordless colour short The Plank co-starring Sykes and an all-star cast: Tommy Cooper, Jimmy Edwards, Roy Castle, Graham Stark, Stratford Johns, Jim Dale, Jimmy Tarbuck, Hattie Jacques and Bill Oddie. A third version of The Plank was made in 1979 for Thames TV as a half-hour TV special, with a cast including Arthur Lowe (taking Cooper's role), Charlie Drake, Charles Hawtrey and Wilfrid Hyde-White.

In 1962 Eric scored his first starring film role, playing a travelling salesman in the Ealing comedy Village of Daughters, set in an Italian village, but featuring a mostly British cast including John Le Mesurier (then married to Hattie Jacques]]), Warren Mitchell and Roger Delgado (best known for originating the role of Dr Who's nemesis The Master). This was followed by a supporting role in the MGM (UK) comedy, Kill or Cure, starring Terry Thomas and a strong cast of British comedy stalwarts including Dennis Price, Moira Redmond, Lionel Jeffries, David Lodge and one of the first film appearances by Ronnie Barker. Both films were made by the same writer-director team behind the popular Margaret Rutherford Miss Marple film Murder She Said.

Sykes was very busy during 1965, making what proved to be the final series of Sykes and A... and appearing in three major films. He had a small role in Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines, joining an all-star cast of British TV and film luminaries including Terry Thomas, Tony Hancock, Robert Morley and Flora Robson, as well as US stars Stuart Whitman and Red Skelton. The spy spoof The Liquidator, directed by Jack Cardiff, starred Rod Taylor with Sykes, Jill St John, Trevor Howard, Akim Tamiroff, Wilfrid Hyde-White, David Tomlinson, John Le Mesurier and Derek Nimmo and the Boulting Brothers film Rotten to the Core starred Anton Rogers (who replaced Peter Sellers), Charlotte Rampling and Sykes.

1970s - present

Sykes and A... was cancelled at the end of 1965, but after a seven-year break, the BBC revived the show (in colour) in 1972, under the title Sykes. Eric and Hat (who had by then moved to 28 Sebastopol Terrace) were rejoined by Richard Wattis as the snooty Mr Brown (who had returned from Australia) PC "Corky" Turnbull, played by Derek Guyler, .

Many of the earlier shows in the return series were re-workings of scripts from the original series -- much of which had been erased -- including an episode in which Peter Sellers appears as an ex-convict (originally played by Leo McKern) who arrives on their doorstep claiming that Hattie is his fiancé. 68 episodes of Sykes were made between 1972 and 1979, but the series was brought to an enforced end by Hattie Jacques's sudden death from a heart attack in October 1980.

Edwards and Sykes also toured in their theatrical farce Big Bad Mouse, which while keeping more or less to a script, gave them rein to ad lib and address the audience. On 25 December 1979, Sykes was the subject of Thames Television's This Is Your Life and guests included Sean Connery, Spike Milligan, Douglas Bader, and Hattie Jacques. Sykes toured Australia with the play Run for Your Wife (1987–88) with a cast that included Jack Smethurst, David McCallum and Katy Manning.

In the British New Year's Honours List published 31 December 2004, Sykes was awarded a CBE for services to Drama, following a petition by MPs after he was excluded from the Birthday Honours List. In a 2005 poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, he was voted among the top 50 acts by fellow comedians and comedy insiders. Also in 2005, his autobiography If I Don't Write It, Nobody Else Will was published.

In 2000 Sykes appeared as Mollocks, the servant of Dr Prunesquallor, in the BBC's mini-series adaptation of Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast. In 2001 he appeared as a servant in the blockbuster movie The Others and 2005 he played Frank Bryce in Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire.

Sykes continues to act on stage and on television -- he appeared in the 2007 series of Last of the Summer Wine. Also in 2007, he had a small role in an episode of the sitcom My Family.

Personal life

Sykes was educated at Ward Street Central School in Oldham. He joined the Royal Air Force during World War II and qualified as a wireless operator with the rank of Leading Aircraftman. Sykes became partially deaf as an adult. His spectacles contain no lenses but are a bone-conducting hearing aid. Disciform macular degeneration, brought about by age and possibly smoking, has left Sykes partially-sighted, and he is registered as blind. In 2002 he suffered a stroke and underwent heart bypass surgery.

He was awarded the OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in 1986 for his services to drama. He received The Bernard Delfont Award For Outstanding Contribution To Showbusiness at The Variety Club Show Business Awards in 2002.

He married Edith Eleanore Milbrandt on 14 February 1952 and they have three daughters, Catherine, Julie, Susan, and a son, David.

Sykes is an honorary president of the Goon Show Preservation Society.

Awards

• 1961 Guild of TV Producers and Directors' Lifetime Achievement Award
• 1964 BBC TV Personality of the Year
• 1980 Pye Colour TV Award
• 1980 The Golden Rose of Montreux (for The Plank)
• 1985 The 25th Golden Rose Of Montreaux
• 1986 OBE
• 1988 Freedom Of The City of London
• 1992 Lifetime Achievement Award from Writers' Guild of Great Britain
• 1998 Honorary Fellowship Of University of Lancaster
• 1998 Eric Morecambe Award from Comic Heritage
• 2001 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Grand Order of Water Rats
• 2001 Bernard Delfont Award for outstanding contribution to show business from the Variety Club of Great Britain
• 2002 Oldie Of The Year
• 2004 CBE

Filmography

Created by and starring Eric Sykes

• The Big Freeze (1993)
• Mr. H Is Late (1988)
• It's Your Move (1982), a remake of It's Your Move (1969)
• If You Go Down in the Woods Today (1981)
• The Likes of Sykes (1980)
• Rhubarb Rhubarb (1980), a remake of Rhubarb (1969)
• The Plank (1979), a remake of The Plank (1967)
• Eric Sykes Shows a Few of our Favourite Things (1977)
• Sykes: With the Lid Off (1971)
• Mr. H is Late (1969)
• Rhubarb (1969)
• It's Your Move (1969)
• The Plank (1967)
• Gala Opening (1959)
• Closing Night (1957)
• Dress Rehearsal (1956)
• Opening Night (1956)
• Pantomania, or Dick Whittington (1956)

(television)

• Sykes and a Big Big Show (1971) (TV series)
• Sykes (1960) (TV series)

Other roles

• Son of Rambow (2007)
• Heartbeat (2007)
• My Family (2007)
• New Tricks (2007)
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)
• The Others (2001)
• Gormenghast (2000) (miniseries)
• dinnerladies (1999)
• Theatre of Blood (1973)
• Monte Carlo or Bust (1969)
• Shalako (1968)
• Spy With A Cold Nose (1966)
• Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965)
• Rotten to the Core
• One Way Pendulum (1964)
• Kill or Cure (1962)
• Orders Are Orders (1954)

External links

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