Channel 5 celebrate life and work of Eric Sykes

The programme will air this coming Friday…

Eric Sykes was one of Britain’s favourite comedians, a multi-talented writer, actor, and director who understood what made the British people laugh, and whose career spanned over six decades.

What few of Eric’s millions of fans knew was that he grew up in poverty and had a lifelong struggle with deafness that struck him in his 20s, just as he began to achieve huge success.

Eric found comedy by accident and first struck success after the Second World War as a writer, penning comedy sketches for a new generation of stars in the 50s and 60s such as Frankie Howerd. His enduring working relationship with Spike Milligan and the Goons would make him a favourite of comedy fans worldwide. But it was Eric’s writing and performance in record-breaking sitcom The Sykes Show which immortalised his comedy partnership with superstar Hattie Jacques and won him the hearts of the TV viewing public, that would make him one of the best loved comedians of his generation.

Eric Sykes / BBC

This poignant and funny film captures some of Eric’s greatest comedy moments and traces his life and career from his deprived childhood in the north of England to his superstar status at the BBC and the stages of London’s West End. It features interview footage of Eric previously unseen on British television, and rare footage of one of Eric’s legendary performances on stage.

With interview contributions from his daughter, Julie Sykes, and close friend comedian Jimmy Tarbuck, comedy great Eddie Izzard, actress Amanda Abbington, former Goodie Graeme Garden and theatre producer Bill Kenwright, this film reveals for the first time the extent of Eric’s deafness and the unique way in which he overcame it and show how he created some of the best laughs ever seen on British TV.

Eric Sykes: 50 Years of Laughs, Channel 5, Friday February 21st at 9pm