Bill Sikes won several awards in the early 1960s. Oliver Reed played Sikes in the musical's 1968 film adaptation which also won several awards, with Reed's performance often cited as the best portrayal of Sikes - being labelled as "the sinister core of the film". His songs are removed from the film, making his performance of the character closer to that of the novel rather than the stage version. The famous climax of the 1948 film adaptation is retained and Bill Sikes dies in the same manner of being shot then accidentally hanging himself. In Disney's animated version, "Oliver & Company" (1988),
Eric Sykes but from the early 1950s Sykes began to make an ultimately successful transition from radio to TV, writing a number of series episodes and one-off shows for the BBC. His credits in this period include "The Howerd Crowd" (1952), "Frankie Howerd's Korean Party", "Nuts in May", and "The Frankie Howerd Show", as well as "The Big Man" (1954) starring Fred Emney and Edwin Styles. Sykes also made his first screen appearance at this time in the army film comedy "Orders Are Orders" (1954), which also featured Sid James, Tony Hancock, Peter Sellers, Bill Fraser, and Donald Pleasence. Sykes's small office