Benny Hill Show Discussion

[Greenman]

Excellent stuff chrisgoughstuff, in fact practically all my clips I had are in amongst that little lot and better quality too.

Three observations: 1) Why were the only two black dancers Sharon Haywoode and Susan Daly never shown in close up as the white dancers-these girls were gorgeous and yet never really seen up close-shame! 2) It was clear that Louise English had left the series by the time Lorraine Doyle-Greening arrived, and although she was gorgeous, like Louise she had very good comic timing but we missed Louise(she went into the theatre for 'Me and My Girl'). It was also good to Erica Lynley, gorgeous blonde, also sang(turned up as Nadia, the foreign girlfriend in No Place Like Home with a young Martin Clunes).

The 'workout' dance, right at the beginning I thought had one of the girls showing a bit more than normal - difficult to tell even in large scale picture - unless my memory is playing tricks on me, and 3) you get a flash of breasts in the Dracula sketch(girl at the window) and the Holiday spoof with Corinne Russell and Nikki Critcher, although Nikki's breast can't be seen. Of course we all loved seeing these girls losing their clothes and what with Hot Gossip & Hill's Angels around, we didn't do too badly

[larsen525]

I'm in the midst of replacing all the Benny Hill Show screencaps on Sue's site with new ones, taken from the US DVDs.

http://www.sueupton.net/bencaps.html

"1994," "Charlene's Angels," "Hot Gossamer," and "Runaway" are all new, with replacements for the rest and new ones to follow.

E.

[Greenman]

Originally Posted by mishmash

I am just wondering if this Gee Newton is in fact page 3 girl GeeKee(aka Joy Phillips) she looks a lot like her. http://www.vintage-erotica-forum.com...ee#post2234281

[Oswald]

I've recently purchased the first six series (1970 to 1975) of this show on DVD. I had forgotten just how saucy many of the sketches are with the ladies flashing their stocking tops, long long bare legs and assorted very skimpy costumes.

Benny's show is still popular in Germany and in America. In France he's seen as someone akin to Charlie Chaplin and has received many awards.

Of course the feminists deride him as a "sexist". But when you watch the shows it's in fact the women who are powerful, assertive and in control, whereas the men are incompetent bumbling fools.

[Greenman]

Yes true but I recall a later 'sketch' where he had a pregnant woman fetching and carrying for him as an older man and of course having an eye for a younger woman in the process and that was the start of the backlash-perhaps it was a joke too far for the feminists who pressured the newspapers who also led a backlash at him not moving with the times. Men were made to look fools, but on the face of it and for callow youths as we were back then, Benny was no fool and knew what would be good television-nothing like a gorgeous babe in stockings and suspenders to get one going. I wonder if he had moved with the times would his shows have been so popular-look at Paul Hogan, he virtually copied characters that Benny dreamt up or maybe was inspired(he also had a tramp like character that wandered about the town and ogling pretty girls as he went)

[richardoe]

Last time I saw a Benny Hill show was in July in Toronto.

As for the programme about his money I was actually annoyed with Louise English when she said she wasnt bothered about not getting a share of his money that he had supposedly promised her. If she wasnt bothered then why did she talk about it? Of course it could have been the editing and her quotes may have been out of context, but it didnt make her look good.

[Charlie Black]

Originally Posted by welshman

Am I right in saying there is no evidence Benny was ever in a relationship with a woman. If that was the case, I find it odd that someone whose shows features scantily clad women and saucy humour seemed to have no interests in relationships with women in his private life and he seemed asexual.

It appears Benny was a very private man who enjoyed his own company, which doesn't mean he was unhappy. Who knows what he got up to, but so many of the women he worked with sum him up as an utter gentleman. He certainly wasn't gay.

On the often discussed question of why his shows were taken off, it has to be admitted that there was a sharp decline in their quality from around 1984. This, plus the expense, the constant sniping from odious tabloid journalists, as well as the fatuous attacks from the PC lot finally did or him. Then there was the 'tall poppy syndrome' he was such a fantastic success in the US and the rest of the world, he had to be cut down to size.

What's sickening is that he's become a 'non person' in the eyes of the Brit comedy establishment, only mentioned as someone whose work epitomises all that is unacceptable. His brilliance is ignored, he's just condemned by know- alls who boast they've never actually watched him.

[Greenman]

That last bit you could lay the blame squarely on the 'alternative' comedians like French & Saunders, Ben Elton, Rik Mayall & Adrian Edmondson(The Dangerous Brothers) and yes even Alan Davies. They were anti Benny Hill and the type of humour they saw as sexist & outdated. The papers jumped on this, when I say papers I mean tabloids like The Sun & Daily Mail, who started a campaign against him. Thames TV treated him very badly, the way they let him go was disgraceful and although I will admit that Benny never moved with the times, it was not the way to treat a man that sold his shows worldwide and made Thames very rich.

In the documentary that went out on Benny Hill, one woman ex page 3 girl Cheryl(Cherry) Gilham virtually admitted to giving him a blowjob or two when she went round to see him. Anyone that says that Benny might have been gay is laughable. He got most of us through puberty in a way we won't see the like of which again.

[stardust2003]

Im sure I read somewhere that Benny saw Louise English when she was in Pan's People ... can that be true ?

Sarah Brightman was supposed to have been in Pans People too, but Ive never seen any vid !

[Greenman]

I think Sarah Brightman was more in Hot Gossip not Pan's People. I also don't remember seeing Louise in Pan's People either.