''Sykes and a Big, Big Show'' is a British

sitcom A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent settin ...

sketch show Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches" or, "skits", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. While the form developed and became popular in ...

first aired on

BBC 1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and Flagship (broadcasting), flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includ ...

in 1971. Starring

Eric Sykes Eric Sykes (4 May 1923 – 4 July 2012) was an English radio, stage, television and film writer, comedian, actor and director whose performing career spanned more than 50 years. He frequently wrote for and performed with many other leading com ...

and

Hattie Jacques Hattie Jacques (; born Josephine Edwina Jaques; 7 February 1922 – 6 October 1980) was an English comedy actress of stage, radio and screen. She is best known as a regular of the ''Carry On'' films, where she typically played strict, no-no ...

, it was written by Sykes and directed by

Harold Snoad Harold Edward Snoad (28 August 1935 – 2 June 2024) was a British television producer, writer and director. He was best known for the television sitcom ''Keeping Up Appearances'', starring Patricia Routledge and Clive Swift. He was also well kn ...

and

Douglas Argent Douglas George Charles Argent (21 May 1921 – 30 October 2010) was an English television producer and director. Born in Bexleyheath, Kent and raised in Ilford, Essex, Argent's parents ran an ironmongers shop. He served as a navigator du ...

. Sykes and Jacques had previously starred together in '' Sykes and a...'' (1960–65) and from 1972 to 1979 starred in ''

Sykes "Sykes" is a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origins, which generally has topographical roots as it original linguistic origin. The name derives from the Old Norse word "sík" or "síkja", meaning a small stream, marshy hollow, or gully. It eventua ...

''.

Cast

– various roles *

– various roles * Ian Wallace – various roles *

Philip Gilbert Philip Gilbert (March 29, 1931 – January 6, 2004) was a Canadian actor. Background Gilbert was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, and educated at Vancouver College. He was a player with the Rank Organisation, appearing in many films duri ...

– various roles *

Tony Melody Anthony John Melody (18 December 1922 – 26 June 2008) was an English television character actor who appeared in a number of long running comedies and soap operas, with more than 100 television roles. Early life Melody was born in London, wher ...

– various roles * Michael Knowles – various roles

Plot

''Sykes and a Big, Big Show'' features situation sketches and musical numbers, performed by the singer Ian Wallace.

Episodes

#"Shipwreck" (26 February 1971) #"Concorde" (5 March 1971) #"Guest" (12 March 1971) #"Submarine" (19 March 1971) #"Western" (26 March 1971) #"Britain's First Moon Shot" (2 April 1971)

Missing episodes

Out of the six episodes, 3 episodes have been lost, the first 'Shipwreck' still exists as a b/w telerecording. The second 'Concorde' exists as a VHS copy held by the BFI (the BBC also hold a digital copy) and the third episode 'Guest' still exists on original 625 line

PAL Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a color encoding system for analog television. It was one of three major analogue colour television standards, the others being NTSC and SECAM. In most countries it was broadcast at 625 lines, 50 fields (25 ...

colour videotape.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sykes And A Big, Big Show 1971 British television series debuts 1971 British television series endings 1970s British comedy television series BBC television sitcoms British English-language television shows Lost BBC episodes