Comedian Eric Sykes dies aged 89

[dipsydoodle]

Comedian and actor Eric Sykes has died at the age of 89, his manager has said.

Sykes was best-known for writing and performing in a series of TV sitcoms from the 1950s, including Sykes And A... alongside co-star Hattie Jacques.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-18704263

[non sociopath skin]

1. My thoughts are with his family ... but ...

... candour compels me to admit that I wasn't a fan - he was a little too close to right-wing politics for my taste.

May he sleep well, all the same.

The Skin

[fedsron2us]

2. What right wing politics would those be ?

Apart from touring Rhodesia with Jimmy Edwards and appearing on the apparently non PC Curry and Chips (ironically written as an attack on racial stereotypes by Johnny Speight) I am not finding much on the controversy scale

The only other thig I can find is his defence of conscription but that was a tongue in cheek argument for a state sponsored nursery for comic writers much as the army had been for him and others in WW2

Sykes was a very gifted comic writer with credits stretching over decades.

His film the Plank was perhaps the single best silent movie ever made in Britain.

[non sociopath skin]

3. At the time, the Rhodesia thing was quite a marker for us anti-colonialists, Feds.

The memory of the BBC's coverage of Sykes and Edwards has stayed with me over the years. They weren't "touring" Rhodesia, they weren't even "entertaining" the troops, as neither of them were much cop as stand-up comics.

What they were doing was demonstrating their solidarity with those who were fighting for white supremacy and their comtempt and loathing for a British government who was opposing it. Lord Haw-Haw rather than Paul Simon, I'm afraid.

I can forgive - they were a product of their times - but I can't forget.

The fact that I've never personally enjoyed Sykes's style of comedy - slapstick leaves me cold, I'm afraid - is neither here nor there.

The Skin

[SwissTony]

4. Ah, I wasn't aware of that!

Not a great fan, but RIP Eric.

[fedsron2us]

5. From what I can see he only went to Rhodesia once in 1978

Last edited Thu Jul 5, 2012, 04:45 PM - Edit history (2)

and that was a part of a tour that encompassed Australia and Canada. If he was hoping to aid the Ian Smith regime he was far too late for by that date the gig was already well and truly up for UDI and the Rhodesain government was already trying to negotiate a settlement behind the scenes even while it waged a war against ZANLA and ZIPRA

I am afraid many brilliant comics are not left wing. Leonard Rossiter was a very right wing Tory while Frances De La tour who played Miss Jones in Rigsby was very left wing. It does not stop their on screen meetings being the stuff of comedy heaven.

[non sociopath skin]

6. That is incorrect.

I have distinct memories of Sykes and Edwards entertaining the Selous Scouts there in the 60s.

However, if you wish to disbelieve me, feel free to do so.

I am aware that many fine entertainers have dodgy politics. However, it's what they do about them that counts for me.

The Kin

[fedsron2us]

7. You may be right I just ran a quick search of his major tours online

but the point still holds. Being left wing does not make you a great comic, writer, composer etc and being right wing does not prevent you from having those talents. I like the Merry Widow but Franz Lehar was hopelessly compromised by the fact he accepted Hitlers patronage (the Fuhrers personal taste in music was most un Wagnerian) even though his wife was Jewish. Should one not be allowed to listen to Vilja just because it was one of the favourite tunes of the Nazi leadership ? Sykes was not a 'political' comedian in terms of most of his material which was based around far more mundane human foibles so while I dont agree with his politics I don't judge his comedy by his personal views any more than I do Rossiters.

[non sociopath skin]

8. If you remember, Feds ....

... I said "candour compels me to admit that I wasn't a fan - he was a little too close to right-wing politics for my taste.

May he sleep well, all the same."

Nothing there about me wishing that you - or anyone else - shouldn't be allowed to watch "The Plank" to your heart's content. Just a personal reaction.

I'm not sure that the comparison with Lehar is a fair one. It isn't as if Lehar specifically went to Austria after the anschluss to entertain the Gestapo. What he basically did was stay at home after the Nazi takeover, as did Richard Strauss, for example. He certainly wasn't an anti-semite as his choice of partners, librettists and favourite leading man - Richard Tauber -amply demonstrates.

But, hey, we're never going to agree on this one so let's just agree to differ, eh?



The Skin

[oldironside]

9. Leonard Rossiter a Tory?

Well, I never knew that. So when he was playing an evil, bloodsucking capitalist, making money out of other people's misery, he wasn't acting.

[non sociopath skin]

10. I like it.

I saw him playing Brecht's "Arturo Ui" at the Edinburgh Festival many years ago and, at the end, he came out of role (alienation theory, ennit?) and talked about what a traumatic experience playing such a man had been - after which they flashed up a couple of pro-Hitler statements from current right-wing dictators.

So he can't have been that right-wing, can he?

Or maybe he was a right-wing asshole pretending to be a left-winger who hates right-wing assholes. Brechtian theatre can get a bit complicated like that ...



The Skin

[oldironside]

11. I wish I'd seen that.

Whatever else we can argue about, his timing and delivery were impeccable. He was one of the great English comic actors. Ronnie Barker, Will Hay, Chris Barrie, Peter Sellers, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Tony Hancock, etc (I'm sure others can add to the list - I could have added Sid James, but he was South African). He was up there with the best of them.

Witness his role in Billy Liar. Read the book, then watch the film. Flawless. A wonderful interpretation of inflexible English behaviour.

The bottom line is that the guy could act.

Okay, he drove the other actors mad with his perfectionism, but they say Mozart was an annoying little shit.

[non sociopath skin]

14. He was wonderful in Arturo Ui.

A performance I'll never forget.

The Skin

[fedsron2us]

12. I said Rossiter was a Tory not a Nazi

They are not the same thing.

His political views are well documented by his children who describe him as a staunch Conservative.

http://moreintelligentlife.com/story/leonard-rossiter-my-father

I expect Sykes views were pretty similar. Both men came from hard northern working class backgrounds and made their way in show business from nothing.

The political friction between Rossiter and De La Tour who was a member of the WRP is also pretty well known which is why they avoided each other off set. The fact they were so brilliant together on stage just proves that gifted acting does not really depend on your political allegiance.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/8188742/Leonard-Rossiter-Character-Driven-review.html

[non sociopath skin]

13. Of course he wasn't a bloody Nazi, Feds.

I thought I'd made it obvious that I had my tongue firmly in my cheek.

Must be losing my touch. Sorry!

The Skin

[fedsron2us]

15. Apologies. I did not mean it to sound that grouchy

I dont know much about Sykes the man but i know that Rossiter was a complex and sometimes contradictory character. For example, despite his differences with De La Tour on political matters he actively lobbied for her to get the role of Miss Jones in Rising Damp after appearing with her in its earlier stage prototype. Rossiter was highly competitive but also an actor who actively sought to get the best out of his fellow performers rather than trying to eclipse them.

[non sociopath skin]

16. It's become a cliche, but like most cliches it's grounded in truth ...

... that comedians often have a dark side.

Using humour is one of the classic Freudian/Gestalt defence mechanisms, even (especially?) for those who make a living out of it.

I would love to offer Frankie Boyle six Gestalt sessions.

The Skin