Eric Sykes

Eric Sykes, CBE (born May 4 1923) was born in Oldham, Lancashire (now Greater Manchester) and is a British comedic writer and actor. He is widely regarded as an unsung hero behind much of the British comedy scene over the past 50 years.

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He is perhaps best known for his BBC television sitcom with Hattie Jacques and Deryck Guyler, called Sykes. However, he was well-known on radio during the 1950s, both behind the scenes and in front of the microphone.

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He also helped Spike Milligan with The Goon Show after Milligan's depression. He had first collaborated with Milligan on a radio special called Archie in Goonland, which was a crossover between The Goon Show and the "radio ventriloquism" show Educating Archie starring Peter Brough and his dummy Archie Andrews, which Sykes had been writing. Archie in Goonland was not a success, and all existing recordings and scripts have been destroyed, but Milligan and Sykes collaborated on numerous Goon Show scripts and shared an office for years afterward.

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One of Sykes' best known creations is his classic wordless slapstick routine, The Plank, which began as a sketch in his TV series. It was later expanded into an enduringly popular 45-minute film in 1967, co-starring Sykes, Tommy Cooper, Jimmy Edwards, Roy Castle, Graham Stark, Stratford Johns, Jim Dale, Jimmy Tarbuck and Hattie Jacques. A third version was made in 1979 as a half-hour special, with an all-star cast including Charlie Drake, Charles Hawtrey and Wilfred Hyde-White. Edwards and Sykes also toured in their theatrical farce Big Bad Mouse, which while keeping more or less to a script, gave them free rein to ad lib, address the audience and so forth. More recently, Sykes appeared as Mollocks, the servant of Dr Prunesquallor, in the BBC's mini-series adaptation of Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast. He continues to act on stage, despite his advancing years.

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Sykes became profoundly deaf as an adult. His "trademark" spectacles contain no lenses, but are rather a bone-conducting hearing aid.

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In the New Year's Honours List published 31 December 2004 he was created a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to Drama, following a petition by MPs after he was left out of the Birthday Honours List.

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In a 2005 poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, he was voted amongst the top 50 comedy acts ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders.

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CBE: CBE can stand for:...

May 4: May 4 is the 124th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (125th in leap years). There are 241 days remaining....

1923: 1923 was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar)....

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