Eric Sykes was a popular TV comedian when TV comedians were very much at a premium.
He starred in the post-50's sit-com series 'Sykes And A ...' there being some new object or scenario with which he was implicated each week. Already in early middle-age, he played a stay-at-home bachelor living with his spinster sister; she played by voluptuous Hattie Jacques. Together they occupied what looked like a typical 1930's terrace or semi, in the what-had-been-in-their-day, the 'new' suburbs. Sykes and his sister represented the lower middle-class, which the BBC seemed to consider its principal audience.
Beginning on the cusp of the 60's, the program was safe, sanitised and predictable. It was quite funny in its time, and as I say - popular. Contemporary competitors were 'The Charlie Drake Show' and 'Steptoe & Son'.
Richard Wattis made cameo appearances as a snooty and intolerant neighbour - a typical junior civil-servant. The show ran its course and even staggered into the 1970's, by which time it was long since out of fashion. Charlie Drake never outlived the 1960's. 'Steptoe' on the other hand has proved itself to be a much-loved classic that has crossed generations and still appeals today. It was working-class, cruder and more irreverent.
Sykes was a creature of his generation. He was a nice, unassuming, amiable bloke who could be funny. But he never had the stamp of a 'professional' funny-man - not in the way that Cooper, Morecambe & Wise, or Ronnies Barker & Corbett had. Perhaps that was his appeal. But it was date-stamped - 'Early 60's Comedian'.
Today, he wouldn't get a look-in.
He starred in the post-50's sit-com series 'Sykes And A ...' there being some new object or scenario with which he was implicated each week. Already in early middle-age, he played a stay-at-home bachelor living with his spinster sister; she played by voluptuous Hattie Jacques. Together they occupied what looked like a typical 1930's terrace or semi, in the what-had-been-in-their-day, the 'new' suburbs. Sykes and his sister represented the lower middle-class, which the BBC seemed to consider its principal audience.
Beginning on the cusp of the 60's, the program was safe, sanitised and predictable. It was quite funny in its time, and as I say - popular. Contemporary competitors were 'The Charlie Drake Show' and 'Steptoe & Son'.
Richard Wattis made cameo appearances as a snooty and intolerant neighbour - a typical junior civil-servant. The show ran its course and even staggered into the 1970's, by which time it was long since out of fashion. Charlie Drake never outlived the 1960's. 'Steptoe' on the other hand has proved itself to be a much-loved classic that has crossed generations and still appeals today. It was working-class, cruder and more irreverent.
Sykes was a creature of his generation. He was a nice, unassuming, amiable bloke who could be funny. But he never had the stamp of a 'professional' funny-man - not in the way that Cooper, Morecambe & Wise, or Ronnies Barker & Corbett had. Perhaps that was his appeal. But it was date-stamped - 'Early 60's Comedian'.
Today, he wouldn't get a look-in.