Eric Sykes Kinnear, Beryl Reid, and Norman Rossington. It was his last screen appearance with Hattie Jacques. The film employed an idea drawn from the British showbiz tradition in which extras used the word "rhubarb" to simulate low-level background dialogue, which had also been a running joke in "The Goon Show". In 1981, Sykes wrote, directed, and starred in the offbeat comedy "If You Go Down in the Woods Today" for Thames, with a cast including Roy Kinnear, Fulton Mackay, and George Sewell. During 1982, Sykes played the Chief Constable in the slapstick police comedy film "The Boys in Blue", which starred
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