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 Jaunty Jalopies". In 1970, Sykes returned to BBC television with a guest appearance in an episode of "Till Death Us Do Part". This was followed in 1971 by a six-episode series, "Sykes and a Big, Big Show", for the BBC and a special, "Sykes: With the Lid Off", for Thames Television. In 1972, seven years after the cancellation of "Sykes and A...", the BBC revived the series under the title "Sykes". Sixty-eight colour episodes of "Sykes" were made between 1972 and 1979; forty-three of the shows were re-workings of scripts from the 1960s series, which had been recorded in monochrome.