Eric Sykes (Absolute Beginners)
Eric Sykes was a British film producer best known in the David Bowie canon as the producer of Absolute Beginners (1986), a stylised musical drama based on Colin MacInnes’ novel.
The film featured David Bowie in the supporting but highly visible role of Vendice Partners, placing Bowie at the centre of one of the most ambitious — and controversial — British films of the 1980s.
- Name: Eric Sykes
- Profession: Film producer
- Key project: Absolute Beginners (1986)
- Connection to Bowie: Producer of Bowie film appearance
- Bowie role: Vendice Partners
- Era: Mid-1980s (post-Let’s Dance)
Where Eric Sykes fits in Bowie’s timeline
Eric Sykes enters Bowie’s story during the mid-1980s, a period when Bowie was actively exploring film, fashion, and stylised nostalgia alongside his commercially successful music career.
Following the global success of Let’s Dance (1983), Bowie was increasingly selective about acting roles, choosing projects that aligned with his interest in image, subculture, and visual storytelling.
Absolute Beginners (1986)
Absolute Beginners was conceived as a lavish, visually rich adaptation of Colin MacInnes’ novel, set in late-1950s London and steeped in jazz, youth culture, and early modernism.
As producer, Eric Sykes oversaw a production that aimed to combine period authenticity with contemporary 1980s style — a risky and expensive undertaking in British cinema.
David Bowie as Vendice Partners
Bowie’s character, Vendice Partners, is a flamboyant advertising executive, embodying glamour, cynicism, and moral ambiguity. The role allowed Bowie to channel his long-standing fascination with performance, identity, and style.
Bowie also contributed the title song, “Absolute Beginners”, which became one of his most enduring mid-1980s singles despite the film’s troubled reception.
Reception and legacy
Upon release, Absolute Beginners was widely criticised and performed poorly at the box office, becoming emblematic of excess in British filmmaking during the decade.
Over time, however, the film has been re-evaluated for its visual ambition, cultural references, and Bowie’s magnetic screen presence.
Why this collaboration matters
Eric Sykes’ production of Absolute Beginners places him within Bowie’s extended creative universe not as a musician, but as a facilitator of one of Bowie’s most iconic screen roles.
The film stands as a snapshot of Bowie at a crossroads: commercially powerful, visually dominant, and still willing to take risks that did not always pay off.