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 Sykes an all-star cast of British and American TV and film luminaries. The spy spoof "The Liquidator" was directed by Jack Cardiff and starred Rod Taylor with Sykes in a secondary role. His third film of that year was the Boulting brothers' "Rotten to the Core" starring Anton Rodgers (who replaced Peter Sellers) with Sykes. Sykes had a minor film role in another spy comedy "The Spy with a Cold Nose" (1966), written by Galton and Simpson. In 1967, Sykes expanded one of his routines into a 45-minute wordless colour short, "The Plank" which features, among others, Sykes, Tommy Cooper, Jimmy