Sykes
 1 9 6 0 - 1 9 6 5 (UK)
1 9 7 1 - 1 9 7 9 (UK)
128 x 30 minute episodes
A classic British comedy in which the irrepressible Eric Sykes
constantly got himself in a mess with all manner of new technology
in order to improve his life-style.
Of course "new technology" to Sykes just meant
everyday objects like the telephone. . .
Eric lived with his spinster sister Hattie (Hattie Jaques,
veteran of the Carry On series of films and also real-life
wife of Dad's Army actor John Le Mesurier), at 24
Sebastopol Terrace, East Acton, where they lived on our TV screens
for the best part of twenty years (In the later series they moved
two doors down to number 28).
Apart from having to contend with snooty, interfering next-door
neighbour Mr. Brown (Richard Wattis) or local Bobby, Corky
Turnbull (Deryck Guyler), Eric and 'Hat' managed to get themselves
into all sorts of difficulty, including episodes which found them
handcuffed together, running a bus route minus the bus, and
unwittingly harbouring an escaped convict, played by Peter
Sellers.
Good fun was enjoyed with a temperamental cuckoo in their
cuckoo clock, whom Eric and Hattie named Peter and spoke to as if
it was a real bird (in a fine touch typical of Eric Sykes' comedic
inventiveness, they did so with such consistency that it became
impossible to be sure if they were mad or correct).
There were also regular references to a character never seen -
Corky's wife, Elsie - and to one very rarely seen, Madge
Kettlewell, who ran the baker's shop and was very generous with
her doughnuts. (Occasionally played by Joan Sims.)
The original episodes were transmitted under the title of Sykes
and a . . . with the object that was about to cause havoc
inserted into the title. The first episode was Sykes and a
Telephone .
 Johnny
Speight wrote some of the early episodes, but Eric soon took over
the task himself, although he did team up with Speight again in
1969 for the controversial Curry and Chips, which also
starred Spike Milligan.
Unfortunately the series ended with the death of Hattie Jacques
in 1980.
Deryck Guyler died in October 1999 aged 85 in Brisbane,
Australia. His big screen credits included the 1964 Beatles film A
Hard Day's Night, 1968's Carry On Doctor, and One of
Our Dinosaurs Is Missing from 1976.
NB : Between 1960 and 1965 the series was called Eric Sykes.
After a seven year break, the series returned under the title Sykes.
Some of the Sykes episodes were remakes of earlier Eric
Sykes episodes.
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