Eric Sykes the 1977 Yorkshire Television adaptation of "Charley's Aunt" and appeared in the role of Brassett. The third version of "The Plank" was made in 1979 for Thames TV as a half-hour TV special. Sykes was the subject of Thames Television's "This Is Your Life", broadcast on 25 December 1979. Sykes wrote and appeared in two Thames Television specials broadcast during 1980 – "The Likes of Sykes" and "Rhubarb Rhubarb". The latter special, a remake of his 1969 short film "Rhubarb" which Sykes also directed, featured many of his old friends including Jimmy Edwards, Bob Todd, Charlie Drake, Bill Fraser, Roy
Eric A. Sykes with Sykes following. The pair had apparently planned this, since they shipped crates full of illegal weapons from lax Shanghai into Britain on their boat. Fairbairn and Sykes were both commissioned as second lieutenants on the British Army, General List on 15 July 1940. After training special forces units throughout 1940, the two were finally commissioned into the British Army on the General List of 1941. Their 1942 book "Shooting to Live", published in 1942, is considered by many to be the classic text of pistol combat, and one of the best codifications of the high-stress point shooting method. Nevertheless,