Eric
Sykes, who cultivated his talent
for comedy whilst serving in the
Army in World War II, worked as
a writer on radio and a writer/performer on television
all through the 1950s before
having his greatest success, the
long running BBC sitcom
SykesVersus TV which debuted in
1960. The services had proved to
be fertile ground for aspiring
entertainers and many of
Britain's favourite stars of the
1950s had discovered their
performing kills whilst on
wartime duty. Following the end
of hostilities, these talents
found themselves taking their
acts on stage before getting the
chance to do radio or
television. Sykes was one such
talent. He wrote comedy scripts
as well as performing and
eventually scripted one of
radio's most popular comedies,
Entertaining Archie which was a
prolific breeding ground for
comic talent. His many
appearances on TV were usually
comedy-variety specials and he
developed a format for such
one-offs which featured himself
as a harassed producer
struggling to put on a show and
meeting with various obstacles.
But it was in 1960 that Sykes
enjoyed his most enduring
success. Comedy writer Johnny
Speight collaborated with Sykes
on the idea of a sitcom based
loosely on Sykes existing stage
persona. In the idea, Sykes
would live in suburbia with his
wife, getting involved in simple
plots centering on everyday
problems.
However Sykes soon
realised that by making his
partner his sister, rather than
his wife, he would have more
scope in storylines, with either
or both of them able to get
romantically entangled with
other people.
Comedy actress Hattie Jacques,
who had worked with Sykes on the
radio, was chosen as the sister
and the first series, written by
Speight, proved to be a success.
The second series written by
Sykes and other writers from
storylines suggested by Speight,
consolidated that success.
Subsequent series were all
written by Sykes alone. The TV
character Sykes was a proud,
rather work-shy individual with
somewhat childish habits, as if
part of him hadn't grown up. His
sister Hattie was formidable in
stature but timid by nature, and
was easily inveigled into her
brother's schemes.
It was a
departure for a big woman to be
portrayed on TV in this way but
it was probably Hattie Jacques'
radio career which had allowed
her to formulate such
characters, as her gentle voice
belied her size allowing her to
portray, on radio, small,
timorous women. The format was
simple but enduring. Each week a
single idea would be taken and
every possible comedic situation
of the theme would be exploited.
For example: in one episode
Sykes gets his toe stuck in the
tap whilst having a bath and the
entire programme revolves round
efforts to free him; in another,
highly memorable segment, Sykes
and his sister accidentally get
handcuffed together and spend
the whole episode trying to do
cope with ordinary domestic
situations whilst remaining
connected. By concentrating on
this technique, Sykes was able
to come up with seemingly
endless storylines in which to
place his characters.
The series was called simply
Sykes Versus TV but each week
bore a subtitle which began with
"and", for instance
Sykes ..and a telephone, Sykes..
and a Holiday with the subtitle
referring to the particular
theme to be milked in the
episode. Sykes became the
longest running sitcom of its
time, continuing, with one
notable seven year break between
1965 and 1972, for 127 episodes
until Hattie Jacques' death in
1980. During the run of the
sitcom Sykes also made a series
of short, dialogue-free films
for the cinema, utilising the
same structure as the TV show:
that is one idea exploited to
the limit, comedically. Most
famous of these was called The
Plank (1967) and just focused on
the mishaps caused by a man
carrying a large plank
around-incidentally one of the
Sykes episode also used this
concept. Later he re-made two of
these short films, The Plank and
Rhubarb (1969) for television:
The Plank (Thames 1979) and Rhubarb, Rhubarb (Thames
1980). Subsequently Sykes, now a
huge comedy star due to the
success of the famous sitcom,
appeared in specials and the odd
series but never managed to
recreate the popularity of
Sykes. His long lasting top
flight career is even more remarking considering he has
been dogged by hearing problems
since 1952. The problems
increased with the passing of
time, eventually leaving him
completely deaf in one ear and
with very poor hearing in the other.
