During 1982 Sykes played the Chief Constable in the slapstick police comedy film The Boys in Blue, which starred the comedy duo Cannon and Ball, with Jon Pertwee. For Thames TV that year he also appeared in and wrote The Eric Sykes 1990 Show with Tommy Cooper and Dandy Nichols and It's Your Move, a wordless slapstick comedy depicting the travails of a couple (Richard Briers and Sylvia Syms) moving into a new home, who hire an accident-prone firm of house removers, headed by Sykes. It featured an all-star cast including Tommy Cooper, Bernard Cribbins, Jimmy Edwards, Irene Handl, Bob Todd, and Andrew Sachs. Sykes produced one further silent movie for Thames in 1988, Mr. H. Is Late, set at a funeral. In 1984 Sykes played the Genie in the children's film Gabrielle and the Doodleman, which also featured Windsor Davies (who would also appear with Sykes in the BBC's Gormenghast in 2000), Bob Todd, Lynsey de Paul, and Gareth Hunt.