Arena Season 1, Episode 540

Night of Entertainers: Sykes and a Day · BBC Four · Wednesday, December 26

Writer, performer and director, the late Eric Sykes was the renaissance man of British comedy. This episode of Arena opens the doors of the room that was his creative home for forty years. Post-war Britain saw Sykes catapulted to fame in the hugely successful 'Variety Bandbox' and 'Educating Archie'. He quickly became the country's highest paid comedy writer. The film takes him through a day at his beloved office, an Aladdin's Cave of triumphs and treasures. There he muses on his life and career, and the other greats he knew and worked with.