Benny Hill: Happy Birthday!!

Well, now, we've gotten to January 21st and the birthdate of the comedic genius, Benny Hill. Happy birthday to the late Benny Hill!! 

Everyone has their idea of what a 'comedic genius' is...I think that Benny is a genius because of his ability to be innovative with visual comedy in the early days of television. Some may shrug that off as irrelevant and take the cynical attitude of "well, it wasn't like someone else wouldn't have figured it out...". As a visual comedian I rank Benny Hill along side the likes of Ernie Kovacs and Red Skelton. I'd say that Benny was like a combination of those two...with a stage name inspired by Jack Benny. 

Benny Hill was born Alfred Hill on January 21, 1924. His upbringing was that of most in his era...and for entertainment it was radio or live theater. In numerous on-line biographies and documentaries on Benny it's reported that live theater had a profound influence on Benny...and as a kid he'd see the comedians on stage and loved the idea of causing other people to laugh. He also took note of the emcee's of these theatrical performances and the sea of girls that would come out on stage and dance and have a fun old time. He remarked that the emcee always tended to be surrounded by a lot of beautiful women and that the comic made the people laugh...so, in a lot of ways, Benny combined two of those elements from British Music Hall theater into one and became: Benny Hill! The hallmarks of the Victorian Music Hall traditions that were still being performed during his childhood obviously played a huge role in the style of comedy he would gravitate to. Benny's affinity for this style of comedy put him at odds with 'contemporary' British comedians several decades later...but nevertheless there was an audience for it and millions would tune in to watch his television specials. His television career began in the 1950s and he taped a lot of comedy specials for the BBC.

This is a publicity photo from one of his early television specials...surrounded by a collection of beauties. It's been documented that television made Benny Hill a legendary entertainer...someone that became a popular entertainer exclusively through television rather than having a lengthy run in the theater or in radio. Benny had a spotty presence on BBC radio...but it's generally viewed that the greatness of his comedy wouldn't arrive until the visual medium and television. He was an under-rated master of pantomime. He could be hilarious with no dialogue whatsoever. So many of his most recognizable sketches are the non-verbal routines. These are largely recognizable for several reasons. The main reason they're recognizable is because of how great they're executed/timed and how they're a throwback to the sped-up silent sketches of the Keystone Kops and silent movie comedy in general. He was a big fan of Charlie Chaplin. It's a legendary anecdote now but when Benny visited Chaplin's residence he was shocked, stunned, and highly emotional upon discovering that within the personal collection of Charlie Chaplin were dozens of Benny Hill recordings on video tape. Benny's visit to the Chaplin estate happened in the late '70s following Chaplin's 1977 death. Benny's television programs on the BBC throughout the '60s featured many sight-gags, patter songs, and topical comedy. His inventiveness with the camera enabled him to appear on screen with himself...not once...but three or more times in the same scene. In the days of early television production this trick was performed through the use of covering part of the camera lens to block out certain areas and then, in post production, splicing all of the separately recorded images together to appear as if all images of Benny are appearing at the same time on screen. 

He invented a character named J. Arthur Clinker...world's fastest film maker. Benny once remarked that Clinker wrote the story in the morning, cast it during the afternoon, and filmed it in the evening and it's ready for viewing. The character probably was created as a vehicle for Benny to showcase sped-up or slowed-down camera footage and the haphazard approach of patching unrelated scenes together to create a film. One sketch featured the characters not speaking in-synch with the audio. The Clinker productions were always filled with errors, blunders, bizarre camera edits, and all kinds of other visually jarring activity. Benny may have been spoofing the reputation of Ed Wood.

Benny Hill's comedic seeds were sown in the brief appearances on BBC radio as well as his semi-regular appearances on BBC television in the early to mid '60s. He hit the 'big time' when he joined Thames Television in 1969. The company would be his home for the next 20 years. His legacy and impact took shape during his decades at Thames Television. He continued his appreciation for silent comedy and tackling British celebrities of the time period...one of his frequent spoofs happened to be newscasters and game show hosts. In the BBC years Benny's main comic foil was Jeremy Hawk. Benny's main character, Fred Scuttle, came with him to Thames Television. Benny's comic foil eventually became Henry McGee. Patricia Hayes appeared in several of Benny's early Thames Television specials. She was a hold over from the BBC era. Rita Webb, another ensemble member from the BBC years, also made some appearances on the early Thames Television specials. Benny's television specials were sporadic...the show wasn't on every week or every other week or every month...the specials would show up whenever they were completed and they were treated as television specials...garnering millions upon millions of television viewers. In the photo above Benny Hill is portraying Oliver Hardy and Sue Upton is portraying Stan Laurel in a sketch from the late 1980s. Benny's core ensemble throughout much of his Thames Television years consisted of Henry McGee, Bob Todd, Jackie Wright, and Jon Jon Keefe. 

In 1979, during it's 10th year in production, the series got a new producer/director named Dennis Kirkland. The series also added an all-girl dance group called The Hill's Angels. The most notable of the Angels happened to be Louise English and Sue Upton. In addition to the production and aesthetic changes in 1979, Don Taffner, an American television syndicator, began distributing half hour syndicated versions of Benny's television specials. These specials hit the American television airwaves, slowly at first, but the demand was so high that numerous half hour programs were created to fill all of the time-slots on local television stations as cable television and network television stations began popping up and staying on the air all night long rather than signing off at Midnight with a test pattern airing until 5 or 6am. The half hour programs that aired, first, on American television beginning in 1979 were edited versions of his hour long television specials. Some of those half hour episodes featured sketches taken from several of his hour long specials...meaning that in a single half hour episode Benny could age 5 to 10 years from sketch to sketch. These half hour episodes would become internationally popular...heavy emphasis placed on his silent sketches. The non-verbal comedy in those sketches was obviously helpful. 

Benny's television specials for Thames Television came to an end in 1989. A cave-in to political correctness brought the curtain down on Benny's harmless, whimsical comedy. It was a win for authoritarianism and a loss for comedy. The half hour shows were still airing all over most of the planet...and they continued airing...except in Benny Hill's home country. The accusations of sexism and the condemnation of 'contemporary' British comics in the late 1980's was too much for Thames Television to ignore, apparently. Don Taffner, in the meantime, arranged for Benny and the gang to star in another comedy special. The special, Benny Hill's World Tour: New York, was taped in 1990. The exterior scenes were shot in New York. USA Network aired the comedy special in May of 1991. Benny's syndicated programs were still airing in many television markets...and there was talk of Benny putting together a series of future television specials using the World Tour concept. He passed away, however, in April of 1992 at the age of 68...and reportedly among the papers found in his house was an unsigned television contract which called for the production of new comedy specials. 

This is by no means a detailed overview of his life/career...some out there may find my style of writing incoherent and grammatically challenged...be that as it may Benny Hill was a comedic genius...his work is on video hosting sites for millions of people to discover. In a 2007 poll of the Top-50 Greatest Television Stars conducted by ITV, Benny Hill was ranked 17. I think that was an incredible showing particularly in Britain and particularly nearly 20 years after he passed away. So much hate was written about him during the final years of his television career and so much hate-filled rhetoric directed at Benny has spewed forth since 1989 that having him rank at 17 in a public poll of the 50 Greatest British television stars in 2007 was something of a revelation. It shows me that the public, if you really think about it, was never truly offended by Benny Hill's comedy. The hate and criticism came from special interest groups rather than the public at large. Why is it wrong to cater to special interests? It's wrong because special interests only reflect the views of a small group who share a single interest...it's wrong to cater to the whims of a faction but instead try to reflect the interests of a public as a whole. I'm going to close this blog entry with a funny song and dance from Benny Hill and Jackie Wright...it's wonderful...

Benny Hill...a Future Biopic in the Works...

I periodically browse the internet as mostly everybody else does and I came across a story about a biopic in the works centering around the one and only Benny Hill. I came across this story while doing an on-line news search for Benny and it's from a site called deadline.com and I offered a comment over there. Their comments section, much like mine, is monitored and so it hasn't been uploaded to their site yet. Just in case my comment, for whatever reason, doesn't get published on their site I planned ahead and copied my message and I'm pasting it here. Since I'm a fan and appreciator of Benny Hill's brand of humor and entertainment and since I've written several blog posts about him over the years I decided it made a whole lot of sense to share it on my personal blog page, too. First off here's the link to the story about the possible Benny Hill Biopic so you'll be able to better understand my comment:

Although one comment suggests there's not an audience considering the subject of the biopic died more than 25 years ago and another comment simply trashes him based on their interpretation of his comedy I, for one, have loved Benny Hill's style of entertainment ever since I came across it by accident flipping through the television channels one summer night as a teenager. I live in America and like a lot of people here I discovered Benny's comedy on late night television on those half hour syndicated programs that used to air on numerous local channels at all hours of the night.

I get a bit nervous, though, anytime I read about upcoming book releases or in this case, a biopic, centering around Benny given his enigmatic life and how only a precious few actually got to know Benny off-stage.

Unlike a quote from one of the writers of this project I never "fell out of love" with Benny's comedy...I grew to love it more and more. I've since added a lot of DVD products of his comedy...everything from his sketches from his BBC era in the mid 1960s to his more famous Thames Television sketches. But again...I hope this does Benny justice and presents him in a way that will teach people a lot of things they maybe didn't realize...the last thing I want to see, as a Benny Hill fan, is a hatchet job that celebrates or justifies the negative criticisms leveled at him during his later years from those with axes to grind.

So, then, that's the comment I wrote concerning the possible biopic of Benny Hill. You will be able to read much more detail about this when you click the link I provided. There are other on-line sites reporting on this, too, but deadline.com was the first one I came across. They published their report on May 31st so I'm just a tad bit late at finding it.

Benny Hill...my favorite British comedian...

In December of 2014 I posted a blog entry marking the occasion of Benny's birth year 90 years earlier in 1924. I didn't post a blog in January of 2015 marking the 60th anniversary of the debut of The Benny Hill Show on the BBC because I'm notorious for not keeping track of anniversaries, birthdays, and milestones except for a chosen few. But as I began looking through some of the photo's saved on my computer of Benny from various stages of his career I happened to read that January 15th is the day that Benny debuted as the star of his own self-titled comedy special. No stranger to British audiences in 1955 he had been seen in a series of comedy programs and specials as early as 1951 but those didn't carry the title of The Benny Hill Show.

It should come as no surprise that I'm a fan of Benny Hill...he's my favorite British comedian by far. Although he isn't the only British entertainer that I'm familiar with he is by far my favorite. Television specials hosted and written by Benny under the specific title of The Benny Hill Show aired, on and off, from January 15, 1955 to May 1, 1989. The last television special in May of 1989 was his 58th and final for Thames TV. The syndicated half-hour series that originated in America in 1979 and had expanded globally continued to air regardless of the cancellation of the series by Thames TV. There happened to be more than 100 half hour programs that had already been compiled since 1979 that re-airing them over and over to fill the lack of new footage coming over became the norm for several years. In the early '90s Benny ventured over to America to check out potential spots to tape comedy material for a proposed series of specials titled Benny Hill's World Tour. The first special, focusing on New York, is the only program that became a reality due to the slow nature of the shooting schedule, delays, and the usual perfectionism Benny had been known for. The special finally hit the air on the USA Network on May 30, 1991. It didn't air in his homeland until 1994 (2 years after his death!).

I discovered the comedy of Benny Hill as a teenager in the early 1990s. Here in my part of America the local channels aired Benny's program in the late-night/over-night hours although research shows his programs in some parts of the United States aired as early as 9pm.

The syndicated half hour programs, comprised of sketches originally seen on his full-length hour long programs in the U.K., began airing in 1979. The batch of syndicated programs that aired for the first several years in local syndication in America featured material that had originally aired as early as 1969 (the first year Benny began making television specials for Thames TV).

After the phenomenal success of the edited programs in America it didn't take long for those clip-fest programs to find their way onto the television screens of people all over the planet. As it's been pointed out by official historians and biographers alike the popularity of Benny Hill in America kicked open the bolted doors of just about every country across the globe and this half hour program of sketches suddenly gave Benny global fame the likes of which a decidedly television-created star had never known.

This isn't to say Benny's mass popularity translated into critical acclaim, praise, acceptance, or any other similar synonym you can think of. Critical praise of Benny Hill is limited and in some countries it's muted. The irony of Benny's global success and the acclaim from abroad stood in sharp contrast to the cold and condescending remarks by television critics. Baffled, mystified, and dumbfounded could easily have been the adjectives to describe television critics in America once the program started to become such a hit in local syndication that episodes of the show began to air for what seemed like every other hour in the same market but on a different channel. It also wasn't uncommon for multiple local channels to air the program at the same time during late-night.

To further illustrate the phenomenal success of Benny's program in America newspaper columnists began to go on the attack in their editorials...attempting to link Benny's programs to increased crime, the rise of AIDS, increased rape, and just about anything else. During my research for this blog entry I come across a scathing article about the program carried in a Florida paper on July 5, 1982. The author attempted to find the reasoning behind Benny Hill's success. To the author's credit he supplied Arbitron ratings information supplied to him for WTVT-TV (Channel 13) during May 1982 and compared the numbers of Benny Hill's half hour of so-called "sexist smut" to it's chief competition, NBC's Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson. The article's author couldn't understand how Carson's classy presentations had consistently been, in that market at least, toppled by Benny Hill's "vulgar, tasteless, and sexist" excesses.

According to the numbers provided in the 1982 article Benny's program averaged 36,000 viewers locally to Carson's 13,000. There wasn't any demographics numbers provided for Carson but according to the report Benny's program attracted nearly double the amount of male viewers than females (21,000 male; 15,000 female). Obviously the goal on reporting the demographic numbers for Benny's program is the author's way of driving home the sexist accusations. Hmm, judging by those numbers, there must be a lot of female sexists out there if we're to buy the author's argument about Benny's comedy being sexist.

In an article dated July 4, 1983 it had been reported that WVNY-TV (Channel 22) had decided to stop airing Ted Koppel's Nightline series at 11:30pm in order to make room for Benny Hill's program. The station's programmer explained his decision by citing the ratings reports, too. The local ABC channel  decided to start an 11pm newscast. The newscast would run to 11:30pm and be a lead-in to Koppel's national program. The only problem was Benny Hill's syndicated series aired on the local channel at 11pm and the program director didn't want to push Benny's hugely successful series to 12:30am. He cited that Benny's series at 11pm had attracted more than 50,000 viewers on average and Koppel's series attracted nearly 10,000 and so the removal of Ted Koppel's program in favor of the higher rated Benny Hill series made perfect business sense to him.

Benny Hill's birthday is coming up...born on January 21, 1924. He died on April 20, 1992 at the age of 68.

Benny Hill...a Further Celebration...

A couple of years ago I did a blog post about a DVD release that's referred to as a Mega-Set. The collection contains comedy sketches and songs lifted from Benny Hill's television programs for Thames Television (1969-1989). The selling price is still rather high...even nearly 2 years later...but I did write a blog entry about the Mega-Set complete with the titles of each DVD installment. A and E had been releasing Benny Hill DVD's under the title of The Naughty Early Years- Benny Hill: Complete and Unadulterated. There were three volumes released with that title in the mid-late 2000's. Each DVD represented a specific time-frame. The first Volume, which I have, represents the years of 1969 through 1971. Volume 2, the other one I have, represents the years of 1972 through 1974. Two important documentaries on Benny Hill appear as extra's. On Set 1 there's the celebrity-driven tribute titled The World's Favorite Clown which features interviews and footage of Hill during his final years. On Set 2, DVD 3, there's the episode of A&E's Biography focusing on his life, career, and social impact in Europe, America, and all over the globe titled Benny Hill: Laughter and Controversy. I'll post some more pics further down the blog entry. I didn't purchase any of the other DVD's in the A&E series because there was lack of publicity for them and by the time I found out that more Volumes had been released I searched for them on Amazon and the selling price was a bit too much at that point in time. Volume Four, titled The Hill's Angels Years, represents 1979 through 1981 and the selling price for that particular release is only $18.51...down considerably from it's original selling price in 2006 of $49.95. Volume Five, also titled The Hill's Angels Years, represents 1982 through 1985. This particular volume is not in stock but used copies are available for as low as $14.00. The last Volume, set 6, concentrates on the final three years, 1986-1989.

For quick reference: The first three sets are referred to The Naughty Early Years and the second three sets are called The Hill's Angels Years.

Benny Hill DVD Megaset This link will take you to my 2010 blog entry when I wrote about the then upcoming Mega-Set. I didn't post any images from my personal collection but this time around, as you can see, I decided to do so.

For a lot of people in the United States, Benny Hill didn't hit the airwaves until 1979 and when he did the show was often scheduled in a late-night slot and in some places it aired numerous times during the overnight hours. I assume a reason for this was because the program was an import from another country and another reason was that it was syndicated which left it's air-time in the lap of local stations that carried the show. I don't recall ever seeing an episode of his show any earlier than 11pm. During summer break from school I'd be a night-owl and would see his show on a couple of television stations. Each program that had aired on the same night, but on different channels, were different...a perfect example of the unique aspect of Benny's programs that aired in America. The America broadcasts were compilations of sketches that appeared originally in the television specials that Hill put together throughout the '70s and '80s. As it's been pointed out by several people more knowledgeable about television programming than I am, a typical half-hour Benny Hill program in America could feature a sketch from 1973 followed by a sketch from 1982 and then followed by a song/poem recitation from 1976. The sketches were all strung together, edited flawlessly, and presented as if it were an actual live production. Each episode would end with Benny, in character, being chased by a crowd of people to the tune of Boots Randolph's rendition of "Yakety Sax". The two VHS videos in this picture were released by HBO in the 1980's when his syndicated program in America was in it's peak. I have several more VHS tapes that HBO released but those are the first two I purchased in the late '90s from an outlet mall that specialized in selling VHS tapes...it was right around the time DVD's were just starting to become the preferred choice and so a lot of the tapes were selling for incredibly low prices. I bought all my Vincent Price horror movies, well, 95% of them, from that same outlet store...but that's another topic altogether!

I purchased these particular VHS tapes because I had never seen his BBC material. These three VHS videos are filled with hilarity and show a younger Benny Hill...from the early and mid '60s...experimenting and having all kinds of fun with the recording and audio techniques of the day. He'd been doing television specials since 1951 but it wasn't until later that decade that he began appearing with more and more frequency. These VHS tapes were released in the late 1990's and a DVD set became available in 2005. One of the highlights on practically any episode is when he tackles other celebrities...from those in England to those in Canada and America. A lot of the BBC episodes feature topical humor, too, which will perhaps go over a lot of people's heads. I didn't understand quite a few of the jokes that got thunderous applause and laughter until I did some research. There's an uproariously funny parody of the American series, Bonanza, featured on one of the tapes. The parody is titled Bo-Peep. The straight-man during these BBC shows was Jeremy Hawk but because these shows weren't reran and shown all over the world he isn't as well remembered as a Benny Hill cast-member; but Jeremy Hawk was a good straight-man...he rarely, if ever, broke up on camera. I don't think Henry McGee ever cracked a bit of laughter while working in the sketches (unless it was scripted). There was a scene that takes place during breakfast and Hill, apparently ad-libbing based on McGee's reaction, quotes a line from a cereal commercial that McGee appeared on. The camera shows a glimpse of McGee in near-laughter but he pulls himself back together before completely breaking up. One of the funniest sketches among the many was an offering called 'Hotel Sordide' which had been used as the name of a couple of other sketches...but in this particular one Hill plays a French waiter in the hotel who delivers food to a couple who are obviously not husband and wife but are seeing one another in secret. Hill, whose character can hardly speak any English, ends up mixed in with the lovers spat as Henry McGee and the woman in the sketch scream at one another about cheating, affairs, poor sexual performance and stuff like that there. It's a very funny sketch and one that I assume took place in the late '70s.

A look at Hill's years at the BBC can be explored further Here. On April 20th the BBC took a look back at Hill's career on the 20th anniversary of his death. Their information can be found Here. 

This VHS is something that I bought because the back of the cover shown some screen shots featuring Benny in sketches that I hadn't seen at that point in time. I was way more familiar with his late '70s and early '80s sketches that were on the HBO videos...I hadn't seen the earliest of the Thames material (1969-1975) and so I purchased this VHS. I loved the sketches that I saw and it wasn't too long afterward that the A&E company began releasing their Benny Hill DVD series which I wrote about at the top of this blog entry. When I purchased the A and E set I was introduced to complete episodes of his shows. His programs ran like your standard variety show: songs, dances, comedy sketches...but I was so used to the edited sketch formula of the syndicated series in America that it was like watching a completely different show. In many episodes there would be a musical number performed by a group known as The Ladybirds. These music performances never appeared in the America broadcasts (1979-1989) and they hadn't appeared on the HBO video tapes or the one you see in the image above. So, when I saw the clips in The Best of Benny Hill tape and then the full episodes on Sets 1 and 2 of the A and E company, in addition to the 3-Volume set of the BBC material and those HBO released video tapes, I felt as if my viewing of all things Benny Hill was complete...and then came the Mega-Set in 2007...combining all the A and E DVD releases in one collection...and then that Mega-Set was re-released in 2010 with new cover art but same selling price.

In the documentaries I wrote of earlier you'll learn about Benny's childhood, his comic influences, his rise to stardom, and his personal life...and you'll hear candid commentary from his supporting cast on their experiences working on Benny's programs and working with the man himself. Since the Thames material is what's more well-known all over the world that's mostly what appears in the documentaries...with a clip or two from the BBC shows added in to highlight his earliest performances on television. Hill had a regular cast of supporting players in all of his shows. The one that gets the most attention is Jackie Wright, the Irish comedian known by millions of Benny Hill fans as the "little bald man in the Benny Hill sketches" who is forever being slapped on the head and kicked in the rear by any number of cast-members...mostly by Hill but there's been times when any number of Hill's Angels have slapped and kicked Jackie Wright, too. Often, Hill's character would do something naughty toward one of the Angel's and, in error, the Angel would take her anger out on innocent bystander, Jackie Wright.

One of the most popular sketches that would surface at various times during the Thames Television run (1969-1989) would involve Hill at a bus stop wearing a trench coat and at first glance it would appear that he was holding up a newspaper as if he's reading it. Standing in the middle of Hill and Wright, in the same bus line, would be one of the Hill's Angels. Seconds later the woman would shriek, touch her bottom as she reacted to being pinched, and because Hill's hands were supposedly occupied holding up the newspaper, the woman would slap Jackie Wright, instead. After another incident involving a female in line at the bus stop, the woman would storm off after slapping Jackie Wright. These kinds of sketches were often played in mime fashion...usually with an up-tempo instrumental playing in the background. The loud slaps and other sound-effects were inserted, obviously, for comic effect. The mime/fast-paced chase routines that appeared regularly enabled many of his skits to transcend the language barrier, too.

I don't know too much about the BBC cast other than Jeremy Hawk and Patricia Hayes appearing frequently in the programs. In some of the earliest Thames episodes Nicholas Parsons was Hill's straight-man. Henry McGee remained the permanent straight-man, though, and remained a fixture on all of Hill's subsequent programs. Bob Todd often appeared. He was the big guy who also had hardly any hair. Sue Upton and Louise English were a couple of the Hill's Angels that have become synonymous with the series...but I don't know the names of any of the others off the top of my head....but....

I came across a web-site called Benny's Place and for those who want in-depth analysis and information about all things Benny Hill as well as the names of his cast-members through the years click the following Link. Along the left side of the page you'll see pics of Benny as different characters as well as pics of other cast-members, too. 

Nicholas Parsons is still among the living and heard regularly on radio. June Whitfield, who appeared on a few of the BBC specials, is also still among the living. The main cast is no longer living. Jackie Wright passed away in January 1989 but had stopped appearing on Hill's specials in 1983. Bob Todd passed away in October of 1992. Patricia Hayes, also from the BBC era, passed away in September 1998. Jeremy Hawk passed away in January 2002. Henry McGee passed away in January 2006...     

Benny Hill passed away on April 20, 1992. This salute, used many times by Hill in his programs, is one of his most recognizable. It didn't really matter which hand he used...whether right or left...it was sure to appear during any number of sketches revolving around his character, Fred Scuttle.