[Greenman]

Monty Python started at a time where it was not unusual for a group of Cambridge Footlights friends to put on sketches and write songs(Jonathan Miller, Peter Cook & Dudley Moore for three also considered alternative), then luckily for them being were brought to the BBC by Bill Cotton-their humour bemused him and he was worried about their style but okay look at what they did-dressed up as women and had some girls wearing not a lot or even a pair of boobs on show for seconds-I don't think it corrupted the youth of the day-why do you think it was so popular in America-yup because their tv didn't show breasts-and that included the madcap cartoon styles of Terry Gilliam.

PC started where else? in America and crossed over here around the mid 80's but Benny Hill was unaffected until the 90's when he was stabbed in the back by Thames-however he didn't notice the climate was changing-even as you say Ben Elton began to question the logic of an old man chasing pretty scantily-clad girls about. I don't think you can lump him in with Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise OR Tommy Cooper because they were entertainers in their own right whereas Benny always surrounded himself with his sort of repetory company of various 'stooges' like Jack(ie) Wright, Bob Todd, Henry McGee, Anna Dawson etc and of course later the Hills Angels. M&W's only gimmick was either a harmonica player coming on at the end and being cut off as he was about to play OR Janet Evans proclaiming it was her show and hoped we'd all enjoyed it, whereupon she would sit on a throne whilst puffing on a cigar lit by Eric.

PC killed off the old vaudevilian/music hall based comedians like them, who had learned their craft treading the boards of theatres and doing countless summer seasons. What really killed off that sort of comedian was the likes of do-gooding busybodies like Mary Whitehouse and her crusades and campaigns-now taken up by another pain in the arse John Beyer (National Viewers and Listeners Association) and people back then who would be wearing horn-rimmed glasses and calling foul of the BBC. Mind you it didn't stop the Sex Pistols disgracing themselves on national tv by swearing on the now infamous Bill Grundy show-but it showed some were not going to kowtow to that interfering busybody Whitehouse. What might not be known is The Goodies fell foul of her but they did it deliberately to annoy her

Today Benny is missed by many of us and not just because he used to bring gorgeous women into our bedrooms. Stephen Fry has turned it on its head because now he makes so many gay jokes and innuendos it is tiresome-come back Benny and the girls all is forgiven.