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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 375160" data-attributes="member: 23">Last night I finally wrapped up Sykes. Even though the series wasn't planned to end at this point, it's apropos that the series should close with  something of a retrospective. The BBC Honours Sykes is an anniversary episode, commemorating twenty years of Sykes/Hattie programming, going back to the earlier Sykes And A... (the scripts of which were recycled wholesale by this later series). As a result it was interesting to see clips of a couple of scenes from Sykes And A... and immediately recognise the corresponding Sykes episode: one where Eric got his toe stuck in the bath tap, and another staying in the cabin by the river where the old tramp was refusing to leave. Nice to see Ronnie Barker playing the tramp in the original version. There were also clips from earlier episode of Sykes, and it was lovely to see Richard Wattis again, too.Although it featured a number of clips towards the end, it didn't feel like a lazy clip show since it had a lot of new accompanying scene featuring Hat and Eric going to the office of the Director General of the BBC to be thanked for their service to the company. This is one of those elements where lines get blurred and slightly irritate the logical side of my brain: it appears that Sid and Hat are actors in a TV series written by Eric, so they're effectively the real Eric Sykes and Hattie Jacques. But then Eric introduces Hattie as his sister, so we're to believe they're Eric and Hattie Sykes, siblings who live at Sebastopol Terrace. Certainly not one to over-think as it just leads to question after confusing question and no real answers. Still, it had some nice touches, including "Special Guest Celebrity" Les Dawson playing himself (though Sykes refers to him as "Des Lawson"), having just had his series cancelled in favour of another position. The end credits play out to Les vacuuming the DG's office with much flair.The final series of Sykes was mostly fine, as this series goes. Some daft scenarios (the last "regular" episode was a riff on The Six Million Dollar Man, complete with Eric being rebuilt and leaping onto buses with cranking sound effects (I think it was a dream but I'd mostly tuned out by that point). There was no sign of the off-camera tensions between Eric and Hattie. In fact, in her first scene of the series Hattie got perhaps the biggest laugh from me when Eric surprised her and she removed her thumb from the top of a champagne bottle, spraying it all over him. Corny and cliched, yes, but it was very well done.Following series' end, I've gone back to the first series to watch some of the bonus material. So far I've watched out-takes from four episodes, which mostly consists of bloopers and goofs. It's great fun to see this aspect of the series. Richard Wattis seems to have a quip for every occasion when he forgets his line (which seems quite frequent). And Hat's beaming smile on one of the few examples of her goofing was just a joy to behold. Better yet, because all this appears on the first series, even this supplemental material is wonderfully restored and looks pristine (sadly, only Series One was remastered to this degree. The rest of the series is noticeably poorer quality).Thanks for confirming. I'd thought it was a made-up name, but couldn't be certain.</blockquote>

Verification: What month follows July?