Two more missing sitcom episodes have been found: one featuring the great Eric Sykes and the other a vehicle for Hugh Lloyd and Terry Scott.
A few weeks ago, it was reported that lost episodes of Til Death Us Do Part and Hancock’s Half Hour had been found. Now, it has been announced that two more sitcom episodes, long since believed wiped, have been discovered in the collection of a deceased private archivist by the organisers of the Film Is Fabulous! convention in conjunction with Leicester De Montfort University’s Television and Cinema Institute. (Funnily enough, the exact same people that recently unearthed a 104 year-old silent film once thought lost.) Sykes and a… was Eric Sykes’ first sitcom and served as a precursor to the long running (and much better known) Sykes. In both iterations, he played the ‘identical’ twin to Hattie Jacques. The newly discovered episode is from 1961, the fifth instalment of the third series, called Sykes And A Marriage. The other sitcom is Hugh And I, which was written by John T. Chapman, with additional material by John Junkin, as a vehicle for comic actors Hugh Lloyd and Terry Scott, who played two friends sharing lodgings with Terry’s mother. The episode that has been discovered is called New Year’s Resolutions from series three. It first aired in 1964. A 1966 edition of BBC drama Mogul was also discovered. All three prints will be returned to the BBC for digitisation shortly. There are currently no plans to screen or release the episodes on home media.
A few weeks ago, it was reported that lost episodes of Til Death Us Do Part and Hancock’s Half Hour had been found. Now, it has been announced that two more sitcom episodes, long since believed wiped, have been discovered in the collection of a deceased private archivist by the organisers of the Film Is Fabulous! convention in conjunction with Leicester De Montfort University’s Television and Cinema Institute. (Funnily enough, the exact same people that recently unearthed a 104 year-old silent film once thought lost.) Sykes and a… was Eric Sykes’ first sitcom and served as a precursor to the long running (and much better known) Sykes. In both iterations, he played the ‘identical’ twin to Hattie Jacques. The newly discovered episode is from 1961, the fifth instalment of the third series, called Sykes And A Marriage. The other sitcom is Hugh And I, which was written by John T. Chapman, with additional material by John Junkin, as a vehicle for comic actors Hugh Lloyd and Terry Scott, who played two friends sharing lodgings with Terry’s mother. The episode that has been discovered is called New Year’s Resolutions from series three. It first aired in 1964. A 1966 edition of BBC drama Mogul was also discovered. All three prints will be returned to the BBC for digitisation shortly. There are currently no plans to screen or release the episodes on home media.
