THE BENNY HILL SHOW – The Museum of Broadcast Communications
Thanks to his work in television, especially The Benny Hill Show, Benny Hill is the most universally recognised of British comedians. However, what most audiences outside of the United Kingdom know as The Benny Hill Show, was in fact a compilation series of 111 half-hour episodes, composed of sketches and numbers drawn from his British ITV series produced over a 20 year period from 1969 to 1989, and syndicated on American television from 1979 onwards.
This series picked up a cult following, making Hill the most popular British comedian to appear on U.S. television. The compilation series was sold in over 90 other foreign language markets, including Russia and China, that normally did not buy British comedy. However so much of Hill’s series was based on sight gags and humour that audiences in many parts of the world came to appreciate the comedy. In point of fact, the early series of The Benny Hill Show appeared on the BBC. Hill’s television career was launched in 1955 and his show ran, off and on, on the BBC until 1968 with a brief season with ATV in 1967. In 1969 he moved to Thames Television and it was there that he was to make the programs on which most of his fame rests.
via THE BENNY HILL SHOW – The Museum of Broadcast Communications.
Hello Ed
He was sadly overlooked in Britain for most of his life but as you say his visual humour and gags will stand the test of time.
Best wishes
gingerfightback
September 28, 2011 at 2:22 pm
Benny was a great guy. I mean, as with a lot of comedans of his time he had issues and if you watch some of his stuff there is a great timing factor there, helped largely by the semi-sped up scenes. What happened – and sadly continues to happen is that people who found his humour offensive somehow managed to shelve his shows. They are not shown in the UK anymore, which is a shame; to me it’s more offensive to see some of the items on the news than a relatively harmless scene of a woman in a bra being chased by a letcherous man. People – some people – are out to be offended or find problems with things when bigger issues seem to evade their sensibilities. It’s sad. The latest ‘crowd complaint generator’ was Larry Davids’ season finale of Curb, where people objected to drawings of Hitlers’ moustache and Michael J Fox promoting his awareness campaign in a cool way.
Saddest thing about Benny was he wasn’t missed for a few days. When someone went around to check on him, they found him dead, alone, in a chair with the TV on and a curling sandwich next to him. He was found on the same day as Frankie Howerd died. The two had always had a thing between them about illnesses. In fact they used to joke about who would go first. Odd they should tie up in such a final, unrelated way.
Benny, in the weeks before his death recorded a ‘rap’ album.
edparnell
September 28, 2011 at 10:27 pm