TONIGHT: Eric Sykes profile on the South Bank Show

[Neil]

ITV
Time: 23:10 to 00:10 (1 hour long).
When: Sunday 18th September on ITV1 London

Eric Sykes.
Melvyn Bragg talks to Eric Sykes about his remarkable career, which started in the 1940s when he began writing for Frankie Howerd in the hit radio show Variety Band Box, and how he evolved from being a top comedy writer to one of Britain's best loved performers who continues to appear on stage, TV and cinema. With contributions from Ken Dodd, Jimmy Tarbuck and Michael Palin.
(Stereo, Widescreen, Subtitles)

I was going to point out that Bedazzled is also on tonight (BBC1) but have just noticed that it's the remake.  However, if you do fancy a bit of Dud tonight then 10 is on afterwards:

BBC1
Time: 23:45 to 01:45 (2 hours long).
When: Sunday 18th September on BBC 1
Click to find all other showings of this programme

Sex comedy about a successful, middle-aged Hollywood songwriter who falls hopelessly in love with the woman of his dreams. He even follows the girl and her new husband to their Mexican honeymoon resort, but, while his behaviour seems sure to land him in trouble, out of the blue fate plays into his hand.
Director: Blake Edwards
Starring: Dudley Moore, Julie Andrews, Bo Derek, Robert Webber, Dee Wallace-Stone, Sam J. Jones
(Followed by Weatherview, Widescreen, Subtitles, 1979, 18, 2 Star)

[Neil]

Starting soon...

EDIT:  His autobiography is called "If I don't write it noone else will".  Class!

[Neil]

That was magic.  Haven't laughed so hard in a good while.  Lots of great clips and really interesting anecdotes.  I'll have to get those Sykes DVDs at some point, how many shows are available?  I remember them being repeated on BBC2 but I can only really remember the Peter Sellers one, as I've been lucky enough to catch that a couple of times.

I was flipping through the channels a while back and caught Eric Sykes being interviewed on that Des and Mel thing, he was great on that too.  And I'm sure they used to show The Plank fairly regularly on ITV when I was a kid, would love to see that again.

[mrpants]

It was great wasn't it?

The Sykes dvd has three discs worth of material on it although I can't remember off the top of my head how many episodes in total.

I have to say I'm more a fan of his short films and sketches than the Sykes series although I haven' t seen the series in such a long time.

The Plank and some of his other silents are also available on dvd although I wish they had some more extras on them.

[Neil]

It was great wasn't it?

The Sykes dvd has three discs worth of material on it although I can't remember off the top of my head how many episodes in total.

I have to say I'm more a fan of his short films and sketches than the Sykes series although I haven' t seen the series in such a long time.

The Plank and some of his other silents are also available on dvd although I wish they had some more extras on them.

Ah thanks for the info.  Yes, a wonderful show, I'm going to have to look for a download of it, I'm sure UkNova will have one.  Loved Bragg's face when Sykes talked about Hattie Jacques doing the splits.  I was going to have a rant about "naturalistic acting" earlier when I was chatting about The Young Ones in the Comic Strip thread, and that interview started me off thinking about the other ways comedy has changed, and how certain techniques have almost been completely obliterated.  Kath & Kim and Arrested Development are good examples of modern shows that have some good old-fashioned comedy in them, and I love them both.  I dunno, it's like a lot of modern comedy writers are boxing themselves in and reducing their comedy arsenal by being vaguely embarrased about writing comedy.

Oh, loved that mime he was doing when Max Bygraves was singing.  That reminded me of a clip I just saw recently of some mime artist who does a very similar thing to the Natalie Imbruglia version of Torn.

[Harfyyn Teuport]

The whole tone of the show was wonderful. So warm and embracing, full of joy. At the end of the show, when he got on to Bragg about his having spoken hardly a word, there was a brilliant bit once his laughter died down where he summed it all up with a really earnest and sincere "hmm...... lovely" with a big smile on his face. It's clear he loves to talk about his work and the mechanics of what makes things funny.

[Neil]

The whole tone of the show was wonderful. So warm and embracing, full of joy. At the end of the show, when he got on to Bragg about his having spoken hardly a word, there was a brilliant bit once his laughter died down where he summed it all up with a really earnest and sincere "hmm...... lovely" with a big smile on his face. It's clear he loves to talk about his work and the mechanics of what makes things funny.

Nicely summed up, especially that bit. And yeah, it was fascinating to hear him explaining why he didn't rate Chaplin at all, for instance.

[Roy*Mallard]

Gives you a nice warm glow watching something like that, doesn't it. No bad language, no stunts that are meant to piss off the general public, no nudity, no 'krazy' avant garde 'i don't understand it' humour - just good old fashioned comedy.  The man's a hero, but i guess he won't get anything like the treatment he deserves whe he passes on. Spike's been dead for 3 1/2 years and all he got was a dodgy old documentary and that show with Paul Merton, Eddie Izzard plus members of Python performing his material - what about Q???? Disgusting.

[Roy*Mallard]

Oh, Play dot com has the Sykes dvd (3 discs, 16 episodes + extras) for just £9.99 (free postage) - have you any excuse NOT to own this?

[RedboX]

The DVD is the whole of the first series of the colour shows.  And while I'm still waiting for more disks, I get the feeling its unlikely considering how well the first series seems of of sold.


Originaly  the show was was called "Sykes and a..." and was shot in Black and Whote.   Iit whould seem that very few/none of these episodes survive or at least they never seem to get any mention anywhere.

The later show was just called "Sykes" and where mostly remakes of the orignal B/W series in colour.

Have a read of the BBC comedy guides..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/articles/s/sykesanda_7776100.shtml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/articles/s/sykes_7776125.shtml


From memory the orignal show is mentioned on the DVD, and I think there might be a clib showing how the colour episodes were remakes of the B/W episodes.  I know I definatly saw just such an example with Eric in the bath renacting World War 2.

The Peter Sellers episode is good, but its becoming the "dell boy falling through the bar" episode of Sykes because thats all that ever gets mentioned in clips shows.

If you are really intersted theres a hardcover book about Sykes (The series) that covers all the episodes (B/W and Colour) and producion details, it also includes an excelent script that was never made into a show.  An Amazon search is not proving much results, but I'll have a look at the book when Im home next as it is worth tracking down for any Fan.

[Muggins]

Is his autobiography any good?  I don't normally buy stuff after watching tv shows but I feel I must get 'The Plank' out of a sheer sense of nationalism- I was trying to work out what to get with it.

[JCBillington]

That was a very good programme, although Sky+ managed to miss the end - something it only does when I record the programme after the ITV evening news.

My earliest Eric Sykes memory - his This Is Your Life appearance (or maybe he was a guest?) presumably in the mid 80s, and my mum saying 'I thought he was dead'.

Also, I remember watching one of the versions of The Plank, but I am sure it was in B&W - yet both 'long' versions are colour. Maybe I watched in on a portable.

[Particle Man]

If you are really intersted theres a hardcover book about Sykes (The series) that covers all the episodes (B/W and Colour) and producion details, it also includes an excelent script that was never made into a show.  An Amazon search is not proving much results, but I'll have a look at the book when Im home next as it is worth tracking down for any Fan.

I think the one you mean is called "Sykes of Sebastopol Terrace". Published by Virgin (looks like a similar format to those "... a celebration" books they did loads of). I think I picked mine up from a remainder shop a couple of years ago.

[RedboX]

If you are really intersted theres a hardcover book about Sykes (The series) that covers all the episodes (B/W and Colour) and producion details, it also includes an excelent script that was never made into a show.  An Amazon search is not proving much results, but I'll have a look at the book when Im home next as it is worth tracking down for any Fan.

I think the one you mean is called "Sykes of Sebastopol Terrace". Published by Virgin (looks like a similar format to those "... a celebration" books they did loads of). I think I picked mine up from a remainder shop a couple of years ago.

Thats the fella, I thought it was that but I was'nt sure and have found my copy out now.  I'd still recomend it.