Oliver! (film) in the United States, and Oliver Reed, who played Bill Sikes, had just begun to make a name for himself. Producer John Woolf suggested Oliver Reed for the role to the director Reed, without knowing that the two were in fact related. Ron Moody, who was also well known in Britain but not the US, recreated his London stage performance, after Peter Sellers, Dick Van Dyke and Peter O'Toole reportedly turned down the role. Elizabeth Taylor turned down the role of Nancy as well. Julie Andrews was also considered. Director Reed also had Shirley Bassey in mind, but his choice
Eric Sykes of "Eric Sykes Presents Peter Sellers", and the second, in 1958, was called "The Peter Sellers Show". In 1959, Sykes wrote and directed the one-off BBC special "Gala Opening", with a cast that included 'Professor' Stanley Unwin and Hattie Jacques, and played a small supporting role in the Tommy Steele film "Tommy the Toreador". At the turn of the decade Eric Sykes and his old friend and colleague Hattie Jacques co-starred in a new 30-minute BBC TV sitcom, "Sykes and a...", which Sykes created in collaboration with writer Johnny Speight, who had worked with him earlier in the 1950s on