Eric Sykes and Hattie Jacques return as twins Eric and Hat Sykes, now relocated to an end-terrace in East Acton where each half-hour begins with a mundane task and ends in bedlam. Richard Wattis hovers next door as the finicky Charles Fulbright-Brown, primed to be scandalised, while Deryck Guyler's PC Corky Turnbull clocks the damage with weary resignation. Scripts from their 1960s black-and-white run were colour-reheated for the 1970s, so a 1974 episode like "Bus" is a carbon-copy of the 1964 tale "Sykes and a Following", shot seven years later on brighter sets but with the same collapsing top-deck gag.
Domestic silliness rules: Eric talks to the cuckoo clock he calls Peter, Hat fields the baker Madge Kettlewell's advances, and the unseen Mrs Turnbull only appears face-first in porridge during a food fight. When Wattis died in 1975, Joy Harington stepped in as neighbour Melody Rumbelow and the chaos rolled on until Jacques's death in 1980 slammed the front door for good. The BBC produced 68 episodes across seven series, each 30 minutes of precise, escalating slapstick delivered with the rhythm of a well-oiled misfire.
Production Details
BBC One / 7 Seasons / 68 Episodes / 1972
Writer(s): Eric Sykes
Producer(s): Roger Race
Main Cast
Eric Sykes as Eric Sykes
Deryck Guyler as PC Corky Turnbull
Hattie Jacques as Hattie Sykes
Richard Wattis as Charles Brown
Felix Bowness as Man in fog
Joy Harington as Miss Rumbelow
Joan Sims as Madge Kettlewell
Sam Kydd as Mr. Ackersmith
Ronnie Brody as Postman
Gordon Rollings as Attendant
Leslie Noyes as Road Sweeper
Wensley Pithey as Sergeant Beaconsfield
