Comedy legend’s £400,000 will

COMEDY LEGEND: Eric Sykes, pictured after receiving his CBE from the Queen in 2005

OLDHAM-BORN comic genius Eric Sykes left almost £400,000 in his will - and requested his burial in the same plot as his mother.

The Coldhurst writer and comedy actor, who died in 2012 aged 89, left most of the cash to wife Edith and their four children. He also left £15,000 to his personal assistant, Janet Spearman, and shares in a family property firm to his friend and long-term manager, Norma Farnes.

His acting, writing and directing career on radio, TV, film and in the theatre spanned more than 50 years. He wrote for and performed with almost all the leading comedy actors and writers of his day, from Tony Hancock and Spike Milligan to Tommy Cooper and Peter Sellers.

Sykes became one of the most popular comic actors of his generation with his long-running and much-loved comedy television show, “Sykes”. It featured “Carry-On” star Hattie Jacques as his sister and attracted huge audiences between 1960-79.

He was also well-known for short films such as “The Plank” and “Rhubarb”, both of which he wrote, directed and starred in. He was also a West End stage star, notably in comedies such as “Big Bad Mouse” alongside fellow star Jimmy Edwards.

Increasingly deaf since the 1950s and partially-sighted in his later years, he continued to work in films such as “The Others” (2001) and “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” (2005).

He was awarded an OBE in 1986 and a CBE in 2005.