Eric Sykes

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Eric Sykes in the "Sykes" TV series (DVD)

Eric Sykes, CBE (born 4 May 1923 in Oldham, Lancashire) is an English comedic writer and actor.

He is perhaps best known for his BBC television sitcom with Hattie Jacques and Deryck Guyler, called Sykes. However, he was well-known on radio during the 1950s, both behind the scenes and in front of the microphone.

1 Biography
2 Awards
3 Selected filmography
- 3.1 Created and starring Eric Sykes
- 3.2 Other selected filmography
4 External links

[edit] Biography

"The Plank" (DVD cover)

Sykes's career in entertainment began during his time in a Royal Air Force Special Liaison Unit during World War II, during which time he worked with Flight Lieutenant Bill Fraser.

He first collaborated with Spike Milligan on a radio special called Archie in Goonland, which was a crossover between The Goon Show and the "radio ventriloquism" show Educating Archie starring Peter Brough and his dummy Archie Andrews, which Sykes had been writing. Archie in Goonland was not a success; recordings and scripts are not known to have survived. Milligan and Sykes though, collaborated on numerous Goon Show scripts, as Milligan was unable to meet the workload, and they shared an office, as colleagues at Associated London Scripts, for years afterward. In 1956-57, Sykes wrote and starred in The Tony Hancock Show.

One of Sykes' best known creations is his classic wordless slapstick routine, The Plank, which began as a sketch, "Sykes and a Plank", in his TV series. It was later expanded into an enduringly popular 45-minute film in 1967, The Plank (1967), co-starring Sykes, Tommy Cooper, Jimmy Edwards, Roy Castle, Graham Stark, Stratford Johns, Jim Dale, Jimmy Tarbuck, Hattie Jacques and Bill Oddie. A third version was made in 1979, The Plank (1979), as a half-hour special, with an all-star cast including Arthur Lowe (taking Cooper's role), Charlie Drake, Charles Hawtrey and Wilfrid Hyde-White. Edwards and Sykes also toured in their theatrical farce Big Bad Mouse, which while keeping more or less to a script, gave them free rein to ad lib and address the audience.

On 25 December 1979 Sykes was the subject of Thames Television's This Is Your Life. Guests included Sean Connery, Spike Milligan, Douglas Bader, and Hattie Jacques.

Sykes toured Australia with the play Run for Your Wife during (1987-1988). The cast also included Jack Smethurst, David McCallum and Katy Manning.

Sykes became partially deaf due to illness as an adult. His distinctive spectacles contain no lenses, but they are rather a bone-conducting hearing aid. Disciform macular degeneration, a condition brought about by age (and possibly smoking) has left Sykes partially-sighted, and he is registered as blind.

In the British New Year's Honours List published 31 December 2004, Sykes was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire 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 amongst the top 50 comedy acts ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders.

Also in 2005 his autobiography 'If I Don't Write It, Nobody Else Will' was published.

More recently, Sykes appeared as Mollocks, the servant of Dr Prunesquallor, in the BBC's mini-series adaptation of Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast. He continues to act on stage and on television, despite his advancing years - he appears in the 2007 series of Last of the Summer Wine.

He married Edith Eleanore on 14 February 1952. [1] The couple have three daughters and one son.

[edit] 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 Montreaux (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