Rhubarb (1969 film) Rhubarb (1969 film) Rhubarb was a 1969 British short film written and directed by Eric Sykes, starring Sykes and Harry Secombe. The dialogue consisted entirely of repetitions of the word ""rhubarb"", all the characters last names were "Rhubarb", and even the number plates on vehicles were "RHU BAR B". A baby "spoke" by holding a sign with the word ""Rhubarb"" written on it. "Rhubarb" is a radio idiom for unintelligible background speech. Typically extras would mutter the word over and over to provide ambience for a crowd or party scene. In "The Goon Show" the cast was usually only the
Eric A. Sykes the volunteer branch of the Shanghai Municipal Police (SMP) Specials with the rank of Inspector in 1926. Sykes was born Eric Anthony Schwabe in Barton on Irwell, the son of Lawrence Schwabe a Manchester born letter press printer and Octavie his German wife from Cologne, Germany. By 1891 the family had moved south to Bromley in Kent near to Sevenoaks where his father worked as a cotton trader. He grew up at No. 40 Marlowes, Hemel Hempstead and by 1901 was working as a clerk for the county council. The reasons for his name change in 1917 were said to