"Eric and Hattie, after a holiday in Scotland with Mr Brown, speed home on the Glasgow sleeper and end up in Darlington..."
That's the 'Radio Times' write-up for the 'Sykes' episode 'Journey', broadcast on Thursday 14th December 1972. It was shown at 8pm, after 'Top Of The Pops' and before 'Holiday 73', and I'm a little too young to remember watching much of this show, as the only one that ever seemed to get repeated was 'Stranger' from 19th October 1972, which just happened to star a certain Peter Sellers.
And it's this 'Goon Show' connection which gives you the clue that this series is something a little odder than the straightforward description of the plot would have you believe.
Even a relatively sensible one like 'Journey' has some unusual touches that set it apart from more mundane comedy fare, and it's this slight touch of madness that makes the show worth a look all these years later.
'Journey' exists only as a 16mm black-and-white film print of the original 2-inch colour videotape but this doesn't really spoil things as it zips along with Eric. Hattie (Jacques) and Mr Brown (Richard Wattis) battling with the British Rail rulebook.
Hattie and Mr Brown have a ticket for the 10.15 sleeper, but Eric has been booked on the 11.00 on the rather morbid grounds that if something drastic happened to the 10.15, at least ther'd be one survivor to clim the insurance money.
But Eric is having none of this and goes to see one Chick Murray who is operating the booking office from three windows, which leads to an elaborate routine in which Eric is always standing in the wrong place.
The 10.15 train has a familiar face as part of its crew, with Deryck Guyler here not playing Corky Turnbull, but his own twin brother, Wilfred.
His refusal to bend the rules means that he throws Eric out as Darlington, with Mr Brown's wallet and clothes, where Eric encounters Bill Maynard's policeman (assisted by David Batley in BR uniform), who frankly has better things to do than sort out this complicated series of affairs, even if Mr Brown is a personal friend of Ted Heath, as he claims...
Eric and Hattie eventually find themselves speeding along the line again, but Gordon ('The Herbs') Rollings has to deliver the bad news that they are actually headed back to Glasgow. Hattie presses a pound into Gordon's hand, wondering how well he knows the driver, but I don't think that will be much help...
Written down like this, it sounds like nothing more remarkable than a standard episode of 'Terry & June', but there's a dash of strangeness about the whole universe of 'Sykes' that means the more I get round to watching, the more interesting it becomes...
A bit weird, but more than a little bit wonderful!
(By Andrew Trowbridge)
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