Comedy Greats Feature in Sky Arts Christmas Line Up

I quite often tune in to Sky Arts for a bit of documentary action and I really like what the channel does, so I was pleased to see some classic comedy heroes featuring in their festive line up this year. 

There is a three part strand looking at three of Britain's best loved comedy actors. Titled "The Undiscovered…" the series, presented by Victor Lewis-Smith, will devote three hours to Peter Sellers, Tony Hancock and Kenneth Williams. Little is known about what will feature, however Lewis-Smith has apparently said viewers will see lots of previously unseen diary entries, letters and photographs as well as a superb range of classic clips from their lives and careers.

The idea for the series came from a previous documentary Lewis-Smith made on Peter Cook for BBC4 back in 2016. After seeing material for the Sellers programme, Sky Arts signed the film maker up to make the series of three. Sounds like the perfect way to relax over the festive period to me! 

Also, look out for a special programme - Comedy Legends - going out on the same channel. It focusses on the wonderful Frankie Howerd and is hosted by none other than Barry Cryer.

The Undiscovered Peter Sellers airs on Sky Arts on Tuesday 18 December at 10pm, with the programme on Kenneth Williams following on Wednesday 19 December at 10pm while Tony Hancock is the subject of the show going out on Thursday 20 December, also at 10.

Meanwhile, Comedy Legends - Frankie Howerd, airs on Wednesday 19 December at 11pm, also on Sky Arts.


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Carry On Faces in Different Places: Two Way Stretch

Here we go with another in my series of blogs looking at some of the cream of British comedy film making from the 1950s, 60s and 70s. Although this blog is all about the Carry Ons, believe it or not, there were some other joyous comedy films made away from Peter Rogers Productions. However, given the quality of the actors Peter employed to make his series, it's no wonder that most of them popped up elsewhere.

So far I've looked at the wonderful 1959 crime caper Too Many Crooks , the 1954 domestic comedy starring Dirk Bogarde, For Better For Worse , the big screen spin off Please Sir! and the wonderful Up Pompeii and the brilliant John Gregson and Diana Dors vehicle, Value for Money. 
  
More recently I blogged about the Sid James and Kenneth Connor comedy horror What A Carve Up! and the the Gordon Jackson drama, Floodtide. 

I've also looked at the Carry On links with the wonderful film I'm All Right Jack

Recently I blogged about the Billy Fury and Amanda Barrie musical film I've Gotta Horse , the classic 1954 school comedy The Belles of St Trinian's and the 1959 romantic comedy from the Betty Box and Ralph Thomas stable, Upstairs and Downstairs. You can also check out my blog on the 1956 drama Lost. 

Today I am going to write about the 1960 classic British comedy, Two Way Stretch.

What's it about?

Three prisoners nearing the end of their jail sentences; 'Dodger' Lane, 'Jelly' Knight and 'Lennie the Dip', are visited by a vicar seeking to find employment for them. He is actually smooth-talking conman 'Soapy' Stevens, who proposes a large-scale diamond robbery. They will also have the ultimate alibi; they will break out of prison, commit the robbery and then break back in.

With the assistance of Dodger's girlfriend Ethel and Lennie's mum, they smuggle themselves out in a prison van. The operation is almost foiled by the disciplinarian 'Sour' Crout, the new Chief Prison Officer who is replacing the easy-going retiring Jenkins.

The diamond heist goes like clockwork and the three break back into prison, hiding the proceeds in the Governor's office. When they 'officially' leave prison, they manage to take the loot with them. All goes well, until the sack of diamonds is lost on a train. Stevens is recognised and arrested, but the others get away – minus the diamonds.

Who's in it?

Leading a wonderful cast of British comedy talent is Peter Sellers as Dodger Lane. His fellow cons are played by Bernard Cribbins (Lennie The Dip Price) and David Lodge as Jelly Knight. Also look out for the legendary Wilfrid Hyde-White as Soapy Stevens and the peerless Lionel Jeffries as Prison Officer 'Sour' Crout! 

Carry On Faces?

Plenty! As I've already mentioned, there are starring roles for Bernard Cribbins and David Lodge as members of Peter Sellers' gang. Bernard would go on to star in Carry On Jack, Spying and Columbus while David Lodge cropped up in supporting roles in Regardless, Girls, Dick, Behind and England, as well as many episodes of Carry On Laughing for ATV in 1975. Carry On Nurse guest star Wilfrid Hyde-White also stars here as the aforementioned Soapy Stevens.

Having proved a winning double act in 1959's I'm All Right Jack, Irene Handl and the late Liz Fraser were back for Two Way Stretch. Irene, who had cameos in Carry On Nurse and Constable plays Mrs Price while Liz, seen in Regardless, Cruising, Cabby and Behind, plays Ethel. Carry On Emmannuelle guest star Beryl Reid pops up in the small role of Miss Pringle while Carry On Jack actor George Woodbridge appears as Chief Prison Officer Jenkins.

There are also small roles for Carry On regular Cyril Chamberlain as Gate Warder - Day, Carry On Cleo actor Warren Mitchell as a Tailor and Ian Wilson, who had small roles in the likes of Carry On Regardless, Cabby, Jack and Cleo, as a Milkman.

Did you know?

The film was the fourth most popular film at the British Box Office in 1960.

Liz Fraser later described Two Way Stretch as one her favourites of all the films she made during her long career.

Liz couldn't yet drive when making this film and during scenes involving the Aston Martin, she kept stalling the car, so in the end ropes had to be used to pull the car out of shot.

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Carry On Faces in Different Places: Heavens Above!

Here we go with another in my series of blogs looking at some of the cream of British comedy film making from the 1950s, 60s and 70s. Although this blog is all about the Carry Ons, believe it or not, there were some other joyous comedy films made away from Peter Rogers Productions. However, given the quality of the actors Peter employed to make his series, it's no wonder that most of them popped up elsewhere.

So far I've looked at the wonderful 1959 crime caper Too Many Crooks , the 1954 domestic comedy starring Dirk Bogarde, For Better For Worse , the big screen spin off Please Sir! and the wonderful Up Pompeii and the brilliant John Gregson and Diana Dors vehicle, Value for Money.
  
More recently I blogged about the Sid James and Kenneth Connor comedy horror What A Carve Up! and the the Gordon Jackson drama, Floodtide. 

And last week I looked at the Carry On links with the wonderful film I'm All Right Jack and the Diana Dors' prison drama, Yield to the Night

Today I'm going to blog about the 1963 comedy film, Heavens Above!

 

What's it about?

A naive but caring prison chaplain, Smallwood, is accidentally assigned as vicar to the small and prosperous country town of Orbiston Parva, in place of an upper-class cleric (Carmichael) with the same name. His belief in charity and forgiveness sets him at odds with the locals, whose assertions that they are good, Christian people are belied in Smallwood's eyes by their behaviour and ideas. He creates social ructions by appointing a black dustman as his churchwarden, taking in a gypsy family, and persuading local landowner Lady Despard to provide free food for the church to distribute free to the people of the town. However, all his good works lead to trouble.

Who's in it?

Heavens Above! is produced by the Boulting Brothers, so as with several other films of the period, their stars include Peter Sellers and Ian Carmichael (who also starred in the brilliant I'm All Right Jack). Also in the cast is Bernard Miles, Eric Sykes, Miriam Karlin, Isabel Jeans and the wonderful character actor, Roy Kinnear. 

 

Carry On Faces?

Lots of them! Carry On original actor William Hartnell plays the town councillor, Major Fowler. Regular Boulting Brothers' favourite Irene Handl, who also had cameos in Carry On Nurse and Constable, plays Rene Smith. Carry On Jack guest star, the great Cecil Parker, stars here as Archdeacon Aspinall while Eric Barker, seen in authority roles in Carry On Sergeant, Constable, Spying and Emmannuelle, plays a bank manager in this film.

There are also a whole host of regular Carry On actors in small parts throughout the film. Joan Hickson plays a housewife, Harry Locke a shop steward and Carry On Up The Khyber actor Cardew Robinson appears as a tramp. Also, look out for Marianne Stone in the role of Miss Palmer, Ian Wilson as a Salvation Army Major and George Woodbridge as a Bishop.

 

Did you know?

The film features small uncredited roles for future well known actors John Junkin and Rodney Bewes.

The film was the 12th most popular film in the UK in 1963.


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Whatever Happened To Elke Sommer?

 

It may have seemed quite a bizarre piece of casting when German-born Hollywood actress Elke Sommer agreed to lead the cast of the 1975 film Carry On Behind, however this role came about as a result of a long and close friendship with producer Peter Rogers and his wife Betty Box. By the mid-1970s Sommer had built up a strong working relationship with Betty, having first starred for Box and director Ralph Thomas in the 1967 film Deadlier Than the Male. This Richard Johnson/Bulldog Drummond crime caper saw Elke take on the role of "sexy assassin" Irma Eckman.

In 1970 Elke joined a cast including Hywel Bennett, Denholm Elliott and Britt Ekland for the broad big screen comedy, Percy, about the first male member transplant. Playing Helga in this film led to Elke coming back to London to star in the sequel four years later. In Percy's Progress, Sommer played the different role of Clarissa. The following year saw her work for Betty's husband Peter in her sole Carry On film. In Carry On Behind, Sommer plays Russian archeologist and Roman expert Professor Anna Vooshka. Elke made Carry On history by joining American star Phil Silvers as the top earning actor ever to appear in one of the low budget comedies. She made £30000 for her starring role opposite series regular Kenneth Williams, who usually only took home around £5000.

 

Despite the disparity in their wages and their backgrounds, Kenneth's diaries suggest he got on fine with the big, glamorous Hollywood star. With a reputation for being at odds with his leading ladies, you would probably have expected otherwise. His diary records that he joined her for lunch and she was also included in debates with fellow actors Kenneth Connor and Bernard Bresslaw about the UK's membership of the European Economic Community. While the Carry Ons may have been faltering by '75, I have a bit of a soft spot for Carry On Behind. With several series regulars missing from the line up and a more near the knuckle approach to sex and nudity, it somehow still manages to stay in the style of earlier hits. Much of this is down to a very funny script from new writer, Dave Freeman, replacing Talbot Rothwell who had retired in 1974. Elke's role adds a different dimension to the film and there is much humour taken from her foreign misunderstandings of very British situations. I am sure these were also replicated off set! 

Elke Sommer would work for Ralph Thomas one final time towards the end of the decade. In 1979 she had a supporting role in the crime caper, A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square. The film, mainly watchable for glimpses of late 1970's London, co-starred Richard Jordan, Oliver Tobias (fresh from The Stud with Joan Collins) and the late, great David Niven. Elke's role doesn't add up to much but she provides some much needed glamour. This film would prove to be Ralph's last as a director.

 

Elke was born in Berlin in November 1940. While on holiday in Italy in 1958 she was spotted by a film director and almost immediately began making films in that country. Born Elke von Schletz, the late 1950s saw her change her surname to Sommer as her career took off. Having moved to Hollywood in the early 1960s, she quickly became known for her looks as well as her talents as an actor. Elke even appeared in Playboy magazine during the mid-1960s. One of her earliest and most fondly remembered roles came in 1964 when she starred opposite Peter Sellers in the comedy film A Shot in the Dark. Sellers was of course playing the legendary Inspector Clouseau. That same year Sommer won a Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer in the film The Prize, which saw her work with Paul Newman and Edward G. Robinson.

Throughout the 1960s more leading roles came along, including The Art of Love in 1965 with James Garner; The Oscar in 1966 with Stephen Boyd; Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number! in 1966 with Bob Hope and two years later, The Wrecking Crew with Dean Martin. Elke also appeared regularly on American television. She guested on The Dean Martin Show and on various Bob Hope Specials. She was a regular guest on the famous Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and also popped up on the game show, Hollywood Squares.

 

By the 1970s, Elke was appearing more regularly in European cinema once again. As well as her work for Betty Box and Peter Rogers, she could also be seen in the disaster film Zeppelin with Michael York and a remake of Ten Little Indians, directed by Peter Collinson and co-starring Richard Attenborough, Herbert Lom, Oliver Reed and Charles Aznavour. The same year she worked for Ralph Thomas for the last time also saw her reunite with Peter Sellers in the comedy film The Prisoner of Zenda. 

As the 1980s progressed, Elke moved away from acting and concentrated on other areas of her professional life. At one stage she recorded and released several albums but latterly it has been her role as an artist which has garnered most acclaim. She continues to produce artwork today from her home in Los Angeles. 

 

Elke Sommer has been married twice, first of all to Hollywood columnist Joe Hyams however that marriage ended in divorce. She met her second husband several years later - Walther was the general manager of a luxury hotel in New York. The pair were married in 1993 and are still together today. 

To finish here's one of her appearances on with Johnny Carson on American telly from the mid-1970s:

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Joan Carries on in The Naked Truth

 

I've just caught up with one of my favourite old comedy films from the 1950s, the superb The Naked Truth. The film, first released in 1957, is yet another classic comedy shown on the brilliant Talking Pictures Television. I saw The Naked Truth many years ago but it has not been shown on terrestrial telly for ages, a great shame I think. 

Featuring an all star cast including Peter Sellers, Peggy Mount, Terry-Thomas, Dennis Price, Joan Sims and Shirley Eaton, this Mario Zampi film tells the story of the attempted blackmail of several high profile public figures and their collective attempts to basically bump him off! This film is a little-known classic of its kind and definitely deserves much more acclaim due to the calibre of its cast and the quality of the script. The film fairly whips alone, shot in glorious black and white and featuring just the right mix of clever dialogue, sparkling performances and out and out slapstick.

At the centre of the tale is the slimy Dennis Price, playing very much to type as the slippery blackmailer Mr Dennis. His targets are a rum bunch of comedy favourites. Terry-Thomas plays a caddish Lord who is trying to hush up many ill deeds from his suspicious and disapproving wife, Georgina Cookson. Peter Sellers plays "Little Sonny MacGregor" a rather twee Scottish(!) television personality with a dubious sideline as an East End landlord. Shirley Eaton is the glamorous model Melissa Wright, again attempting to hide shocking scandals; while the glorious Peggy Mount plays crime writer Flora Ransome, desperate to hide a past of ill repute! 

 

When such a cast is involved it's hard to pick out favourites but I do love Sellers in this film. His role as MacGregor allows him many Goon-like touches, particularly a wonderful range of silly voices pretty much taken from some of his radio performances. He also glories in a range of absurd disguises and characters with many dodgy fake noses and beards involved in the deception! It's a tour de force and no doubt this film led to him starring in many of the wonderful film comedies that followed.

At the heart of The Naked Truth is the great double act of Peggy Mount and Joan Sims as her timid daughter and unwilling accomplice, Ethel. Joan is very much the downtrodden character doing all her scheming mother's donkey work which involves mistakingly drugging Terry-Thomas, carting about a heavy trunk from pillar to post and even a dunk in the river! Poor Joan, always suffering for her art. Peggy and Joan are superb and I only wish they had acted together again in other pictures. Joan is eye-catching in her supporting turn, twitching and twittering with beautiful comic timing. Although only 27 at the time and capable of much more glamorous performances, this is an early indication of Joan's willingness and natural ability to tackle a wide range of challenging character parts.

Joan herself mentioned The Naked Truth in her autobiography, High Spirits. In her memoirs Joan fondly recalled working on the film with her fellow cast mates and obviously saw it as a turning point in her career. At the time she had been playing a series of small-ish cameos in a never ending stream of British films. With The Naked Truth she moved into more substantial featured roles and within a year she would make her debut with the Carry On team in Carry On Nurse as Stella Dawson. Joan also became friendly with the director and producer of the film, the Italian Mario Zampi. Sims and Zampi got on like a house on fire with Joan even joining Mario and his wife on holiday in Italy once the film had been completed. 

 

So if you get the chance, do check out The Naked Truth. It's well worth a go!



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Carry On Watching Talking Pictures TV!

Finally, finally I have access to Talking Pictures TV. I have been reading about this new station for some time now and been really interested to see the range of classic and rarely seen films they have been showing. The channel has been gradually rolling out around the country and I was very excited to see it pop up on my box!

I have wasted no time in catching up with some films I've either never seen but always wanted to watch or those I just really need to see again. I've already blogged about my first brush with Peter Rogers' 1962 film The Iron Maiden thanks to Talking Pictures however I've now lined up some more classics for future viewing. 

I haven't seen the brilliant heist film Two Way Stretch for many years but with a cast including Peter Sellers, Bernard Cribbins, David Lodge and Wilfrid Hyde-White and a specially filmed introduction from co-star Liz Fraser, I can't wait to see it again! Another rare showing is the 1969 film What's Good for the Goose, rather a departure for its star Norman Wisdom. This film co-stars a young Sally Geeson, a few years before she rose to fame as Sid James' daughter in Bless This House.

Another of Peter Sellers' early 1960s comedy films is also now safely stored for future watching - the superb The Wrong Arm of the Law, co-starring Cribbins again as well as Lionel Jeffries, Davy Kaye and Nanette Newman. Finally, I spotted another rare gem in the listings - Chance of a Lifetime. This 1950 film stars Bernard Miles, Basil Radford and an early film appearance from future Carry On legend, Hattie Jacques. 

Do check out Talking Pictures TV. As you can see they show a wide range of wonderful old films and television that sadly aren't often seen elsewhere. To me they are the kind of films BBC 2 used to show on a rainy Saturday afternoon.


You can find out more about Talking Pictures TV on their website and via Twitter



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The Wonderful World of Wilfrid

 

Wilfrid Hyde-White represents the quintessential English character actor, as far as I am concerned anyway. During a long, varied and successful career in films, on the stage and latterly, on television, Wilfrid often played to type and yet never seemed to be typecast. For such an English figure, he also transferred the second half of his career to the United States where he became prominent in guest spots on television during the 1970s and 1980s. Much of this popularity stateside was probably due to one of the films I'm going to mention in this blog.

I've found myself watching several films recently featuring Wilfrid Hyde-White so I thought I would put together a blog on some of my favourite Hyde-White performances over the years. I guess I have to start off with ...

 

Carry On Nurse (1959)

Carry On Nurse was the immediate follow up to the original Carry On, Sergeant, made earlier the same year. Many of the same faces returned for this gentle romp around the hospital wards however there were one or two new additions to keep the action fresh. In a prominent guest starring role was Wilfrid Hyde-White as the grumpy, yet kindly old Colonel. Apparently Wilfrid's role was filmed in under a week, mainly due to his scenes being shot in a private room away from the other patients. Indeed only once is he seen on the main ward with the likes of Kenneth Williams and Bill Owen. It's a delightful supporting role though and Hyde-White shares some very natural scenes with fellow racing enthusiast Mick, the hospital orderly played by Harry Locke. He also has a lot of fun with the young nurses (as it were) in the form of Joan Sims and Susan Stephen.

Despite limited screen time, Wilfrid does stake a claim to being part of one of the most infamous, legendary finales in Carry On history. He features in the very last sequence which sees Sims and Stephen get their own back on the old Colonel involving a certain daffodil. However the prank is interrupted by the arrival of the bombastic Matron (Hattie Jacques) who's hard exterior finally softens when she spots the offending flower! This ending made the film however allegedly Hyde-White was unhappy with being involved with something so indecent (even though nothing was shown) and threatened to sue the producers! Fortunately all was resolved amicably in the end!

 

Northwest Frontier (1959)

One of my favourite BBC Two Saturday afternoon matinee treats, I would often watch this with my dad or my grandmother. It's quite simply a belting little film of the kind we don't seem to make any more in this country. J Lee Thompson's film is set in British India at a time when tensions were rising between Hindu and Muslim Indians. The film is basically a good old fashioned adventure movie with plenty of lovely set pieces, action, peril and glorious stiff upper lip performances. The wonderful Kenneth More stars as Captain Willoughby Scott who is charged with taking the young son of the maharajah to safety on an old steam train through enemy territory. Joining him on this journey are the boy's nanny (Lauren Bacall), the British governor's wife (Isabel Jeans) and a rather dodgy journalist played by Pink Panther actor Herbert Lom. 

And of course Wilfrid Hyde-White is along for the ride too as cheerful British ex-pat Mr Bridie. This is classic Hyde-White as he jollies along his fellow passengers, acts as the perfect gentleman to the ladies present and is wise to the fiendish cunning of his enemies. Wilfrid works really well in this rather tense picture, never losing his old fashioned British cool and providing some much needed light moments amidst all the tension. I could quite easily watch the likes of More and Bacall reading from the Yellow Pages however Hyde-White almost steals the show from these great movie stars with his gentle, unassuming performance.

 

Crooks Anonymous (1962)

Back to comedy now and another classic from the golden age of British cinema. This Ken Annakin film sees one of the earliest appearances on screen from a certain Julie Christie, playing stripper Babette but we're more interested in Wilfrid. The film follows perpetual criminal and habitual liar Dandy Forsdyke (Leslie Phillips) as he attempts to give up his life of crime so he can marry his girlfriend Babette. Unfortunately he can't resist temptation for long so Babette gets in touch with an organisation called Crooks Anonymous, which helps criminals go straight. 

Picked up mid-job by Stanley Baxter's Brother Widdowes we soon meet the founder of the organisation, the kindly but firm Mr Montague (Hyde-White). Together Montague and Widdowes put Forsdyke through a series of tests before he is eventually released into the wider world, securing a job in a department store as Father Christmas. However he can't resist temptation for long, but I won't spoil the ending. Again dabbling in the wrong side of the law, Wilfrid Hyde-White plays to type as the gentle Englishman of a certain age, belying his criminal past. You can't go wrong with a film that features Phillips, Baxter and Hyde-White along with the likes of James Robertson Justice, Michael Medwin and Norman Rossington. 

 

Two Way Stretch (1960)

I watched this film again only last night and it stands up remarkably well for something that was made nearly fifty years ago. This prison crime caper starring Peter Sellers, Bernard Cribbins and David Lodge is light, bright and hilarious from the off. One of the successes of the film is the casting of so many delightful British character actors who add real depth and quality to their parts. Surely any film which co-stars the likes of Irene Handl, Beryl Reid, Maurice Denham, Lionel Jeffries, Liz Fraser and George Woodbridge has got to be worth watching more than once?

Wilfrid grabs joint top billing opposite Peter Sellers and his eye-catching, yet under-played role as Soapy Stevens is totally memorable. In disguise as a gentle, kindly old vicar, Stevens is actually a sharp as they come villain with a new and tantalising job in mind for Sellers, Lodge and Cribbins. Easily working his way round the daft as a brush prison governor (Denham - regular references to his prize marrow never fail to amuse), Stevens soon masterminds the perfect crime. It's a brilliant role for Hyde-White, so often cast as the mild, gentle, posh Englishman. With his role as Soapy he manages to turn that ideal on it's head. It's probably my favourite of all Hyde-White's film performances and he's easily a match for all the other prime comedy talent in this amazing, wonderful British film comedy.

 

My Fair Lady (1964)

I can't go any further without mentioning what was probably Wilfrid Hyde-White's most famous film role, as Colonel Hugh Pickering (he played a lot of Colonels) in the Hollywood musical adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion. Starring Audrey Hepburn as poor flower seller Eliza Doolittle and Rex Harrison as the arrogant phonetics Professor Henry Higgins, the film charts Eliza's journey from Cockney rags to the world of high society and "proper English". The film also stars Stanley (father of Julian) Holloway and Gladys Cooper.

Without a doubt this was the film which cemented Hyde-White's career in the United States. it was hugely successful at the time and continues to be so in the present day. As Colonel Pickering, Hyde-White is at the centre of the narrative as the idea that Higgins could teach anyone how to speak properly and improve themselves comes from his character. The joy of this role is that it's simply Hyde-White doing what he always did on screen, only in a much bigger budgeted picture and to a larger, transatlantic audience. In much the same way as Charles Hawtrey always played to type, so did Hyde-White and it worked out very well and very successfully for him over a career that spanned seven decades. In saying he always played to type, that does not diminish his qualities as an actor. Far from it, Wilfrid was always worth watching and as I hope I've demonstrated, appeared in many brilliant films. 

 
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My Review of Sykes: The Complete Series

 

As I've previously blogged, Network On Air will be releasing the Complete Sykes on DVD, tomorrow 26 June! Sykes has always been one of my very favourite classic comedy series and I was thrilled when offered the chance of a sneak preview of the new DVD set. The set comprises all 68 episodes of the colour series broadcast on the BBC between 1972 and 1979. The first colour series from 1972 was issued on DVD some years back however this is the first time every episode from the relaunched programme has been available for fans to own.

Sykes is a glorious semi-surreal domestic sitcom which at the heart is all about the joyous chemistry between long time collaborators Eric Sykes and Hattie Jacques. As twins Eric and Hat, life at Sebastopol Terrace, East Acton, was always full of surprises. While the series features a host of well-known, colourful guest stars, for me it's all about Sykes and Jacques. Sykes, who also wrote all the episodes, is playing the slightly pompous arrogant little man, finding himself in a host of tricky situations. Jacques meanwhile steps away from the bombastic Matron persona of the Carry Ons to play a softer character who is normally the voice of reason when her brother gets above himself. I always loved Sykes for the fact the writing very very rarely touched upon Hattie's size, something which could sometimes dominate in the Carry Ons. Sykes features by far some of my favourite performances from Hattie, surely one of our all-time greatest comic actresses.

 

For me the first series from 1972 features the best quality scripts and stories. Many of them are simply remade from the original 1960s black and white Sykes and A ... which ran from 1960 to 1965. That doesn't matter - if they feel at all familiar it's only in a comforting sense. My all-time favourite episode has to be the one featuring Peter Sellers as the escaped convict Tommy Grando. This episode, "Stranger" features a rare television performance from Sellers, who obviously goes back a long way with Eric. The chemistry between the three lead actors is superb and it's clear they can hardly keep a straight face throughout. The studio audience reaction is catching and the whole episode a complete joy.

Sykes also features other regular characters. The peerless Richard Wattis plays the snooty, snobbish next door neighbour Mr Brown, very much Eric's nemesis. The pair work brilliantly against each other. Such a shame that Wattis passed away during the run - his absence from the later series is keenly felt. Also along for the entire run is Please Sir! favourite Deryck Guyler as P.C Corky Turnbull. Corky is probably the world's most incompetent police constable but Guyler brings along a breezy sense of comedy and easy going charm and is a vital part of the series' success. Making several appearances throughout the run is Carry On favourite and Hattie's best friend, the wonderful Joan Sims. As bakery owner Madge Kettlewell, Joan is Eric's love interest and very nearly marries him at one stage! Joan is great as Madge and there are some fantastic bloopers included of Joan cracking up on set with Eric and Hattie which show Sims' tremendous sense of fun. It's just a shame she didn't feature more often in the show.

 

A host of other brilliant, well-known talent features in the series. The likes of Bernard Bresslaw, Roy Kinnear, John Le Mesurier, Joan Hickson, Dinah Sheridan, Sheila Steafel, Michael Ripper, Derek Francis, Les Dawson, Chic Murray, Hugh Paddick and Bill Maynard all appear throughout the run. The quality of the writing and the performances from all these wonderful talents really does make Sykes a cut above many other comedy series of the time.

The DVD set isn't cheap however it contains pristine versions of all 68 episodes, totaling nearly 2000 minutes of classic BBC comedy, of the kind they just don't make any more. The set has some interesting extras. They include a special interview with the late, great Eric Sykes; a special Spotlight programme on the comedian; behind the scenes footage from the studio as the series was filmed and an extensive booklet of extra information on the series written by television historian Andrew Pixley. 

 

The chance to own a complete set of this classic comedy is just too good an opportunity to miss. I grew up catching repeats of this series on BBC2 and sadly it appears yet another one of those shows that is just never broadcast on the television any more. This newly presented DVD box set is the perfect opportunity to relive some classic comedy and see some of our favourite comedy stars doing what they do best!

Sykes: The Complete Series is available from tomorrow, Monday 26 June.

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