Press clippings Page 30
As seen on The Late Great Eric Sykes, three days before he died in the summer, aged 86, Eric Sykes told his agent Norma Farnes that what he'd like more than anything would be the chance to pop into Orme Court one last time.
This was his office in London's Bayswater, and having been fortunate enough to share an hour in his company there, I knew what the place meant to him. In the 1960s it had been a fun factory, with top gagsmiths firing jokes at each other across the hallway. Comedy was a serious business for these guys with Sykes and Spike Milligan failing to agree where to position a "the" for maximum laughs and the latter settling the matter with a lobbed paperweight.
When I visited Orme Court, I noticed that Milligan, who had been dead three years, still had a pigeon-hole and what's more he had mail. I hope Sykes' pigeon-hole remains active although he's pretty much the last of his generation. Almost all his associates featured in The Late Great Eric Sykes, including Tommy Cooper, Frankie Howerd, Peter Sellers and regular co-stars Hattie Jacques and Derek Guyler, are gone. Guyler played Corky, the bumbling bobby, and typically Corky would say "Hello, hello, what's all this then?" and Eric would say "Don't come dashing in here like Starsky and Hutch!" He was being ironic, of course. No one did any dashing in Sykes' comedy.
Farnes took us on a tour of the office, which seems to have been left untouched. Sykes fired his gags from a big Sherman tank of a desk. There was the cupboard where he kept his cigars, latterly just for sniffing. And there was the photograph of his mother. She died giving birth to him, at least this was what he was told, and he bore much guilt for that. But she was his inspiration. In a clip from an old interview he said: "When I'm in trouble or a bit down I've only got to think of her." The photo's position in direct eyeline from the Sherman was deliberate. "Eric was absolutely certain that she guarded and guided him," said Farnes.
Sykes didn't have a catchphrase and his style wasn't loud or look-at-me. His heroes were Laurel and Hardy who no one mentions anymore, which seems to be the fate of practitioners of gentle comedy (notwithstanding that with Stan and Ollie or Eric around, there was a high probability of being hit on the head with a plank). Denis Norden, one of the few old chums not yet potted heid, described him as diffident, and not surprisingly it was the gentle comedians of today who queued up to sing his praises (no sign of Frankie Boyle). Eddie Izzard rhapsodised about him getting a big toe stuck in a bath-tap; Michael Palin said: "He just did the things you'd see your dad do, or someone in a garage." And right at the end Farnes recalled Eric's reaction to the dramatic revelation that his mother had actually hung on for a week after he was born: "So she did hold me!"
Aidan Smith, The Scotsman, 4th November 2012Frankie Boyle sketches 'wouldn't broadcast if racist'
Channel 4 chief David Abraham defends Frankie Boyle's gags but admits the joke about Katie Price's son was wrong.
John Plunkett, The Guardian, 2nd November 2012Frankie Boyle gives libel damages to Reprieve
Comedian Frankie Boyle has pledged the £54,650 he won in libel damages to prisoner campaign group Reprieve.
BBC News, 27th October 2012Video: Shappi Khorsandi on internet trolls & prejudice
On BBC1's This Week, comedian Shappi Khorsandi laughed at how internet trolls reckon she only gets on TV as she was a woman and Iranian.
She teased Andrew Neil about journalists asking her about prejudice - in a debate with Michael Portillo and Alan Johnson. She also defended Frankie Boyle who won a legal action over claims he was a racist.
Andrew Neil, BBC News, 26th October 2012Comedian Andrew Lawrence is in his early 30s but he sounds like a malevolent child. His comedy is at its strongest when he is spitting venom at those who have wronged him in the past or random groups that have aroused his ire.
The subject for this opening show is the food we eat and a troubling memory of being the fat kid at school - almost impossible to believe if you have seen his rake-like physique - is the first trigger for a rant. From here on he takes no prisoners, with vegetarians, meat-eaters, supermarkets and middle-class food snobs in particular feeling the full force of his rage.
In a very weird way, this reminded me of listening to something that one might expect to spew forth from Frankie Boyle's mouth but that's delivered in Joe Pasquale's voice. Keeping with the food theme, it will have a Marmite effect on listeners.
Jane Anderson, Radio Times, 25th October 2012Frankie Boyle libel case: race replaces sex as #1 taboo
It's understandable that Frankie Boyle chose to sue, racism being the worst stain on anyone's character today.
Ed West, The Telegraph, 23rd October 2012Video: Al Murray backs Frankie Boyle after libel win
Comedian Al Murray has come out in support of Frankie Boyle saying "the world is getting sillier".
Frankie Boyle won £54,900 in damages after a High Court jury concluded that the Daily Mirror had libelled him by describing him as "racist".
Daily Mirror publisher Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) defended the piece "on the basis of truth and fair comment".
The comedian was talking to Newsbeat's entertainment reporter Natalie Jamieson after hosting The Q Awards.
Natalie Jamieson, BBC News, 22nd October 2012Frankie Boyle wins substantial libel damages
Glaswegian comic Frankie Boyle has been awarded more than £50,000 in damages from the Daily Mirror newspaper for defamation.
British Comedy Guide, 22nd October 2012Opinion: Frankie Boyle has made a mistake...
I don't think Frankie Boyle is a racist. He mocks racists. One has to assume that he's smart enough not to use the n-word anywhere close to a hateful way. Even real racists aren't that stupid.
Lewis Schaffer, Giggle Beats, 19th October 2012Frankie Boyle's jokes are 'callous' claims Daily Mirror
Newspaper group argues that comedian's libel case over article that described him as a 'racist comedian' should be dismissed.
Josh Halliday and Ellis Schindler, The Guardian, 19th October 2012