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 7 of "Sykes And A...", first broadcast on 3 March 1964 under that title. In December 1961, Sykes co-starred with Warren Mitchell in "Clicquot et Fils", a one-off, 30-minute comedy written by Associated London Scripts colleagues Ray Galton and Alan Simpson. This was the premiere episode of a new BBC series "Comedy Playhouse", which became an important proving ground for many successful TV comedy series. In 1962, Sykes played his first starring film role, being a travelling salesman in the comedy "Village of Daughters", set in an Italian village, but featuring a mostly British cast including John Le Mesurier (who