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 be because he found it "too Germanic". A shikari hunter, he was an avid rifleman and an expert with the pistol. He first arrived in Shanghai in 1907 while working for Reiss & Co. He met Fairbairn in 1919, then with the Shanghai Municipal Police, beginning their famous professional association. In 1923 Sykes was working for the China & Japan Trading Co, China representative for Remington and Colt. It was not until 1926 that Sykes officially joined the SMP as an unpaid, part-time volunteer officer in the reserve, and in 1929 he joined S.J. David & Co., where he worked