Sykes

Eric Sykes' treatment of Hattie Jacques was so bad that her family banned him from attending her funeral and memorial service* ("You couldn't say we had a lot in common," he commented). This was mainly related to Sykes' behaviour during the sparsely-attended 1977-78 UK stage tour of the show, when he peevishly objected to her getting more applause or laughs or a better theatre dressing room. *The Sykes family have said that Eric (and his wife) were invited to Hattie's funeral by her family but he was unable to attend as he was working in Australia at the time. Several of Eric's children did attend instead. Sykes also spoke warmly and affectionately of Jacques in his autobiography published many years later. He also repeatedly ruled out any suggestion of a new series due to the absence of Hattie.

Edited into Auntie's Bloomers: Auntie's New Bloomers 2 (1995)