Original subtitles

Benny Hill was one of Britain's most popular entertainers ever.

Apparently one of his specials got more viewers than the Moonlanders. His brand

of risque slapstick dominated primetime TV for nearly two decades.

Brilliantly timed. It's brilliantly acted.

It's just a classic bit of clowning. Winning him the admiration of pop icons

even gangster rappers.

Lots of the hip -hop style of Benny Hill fans to this day.

But you don't see much of him nowadays.

He's been quietly forgotten about. Some might say cancelled.

Some of the attitudes have dated terribly.

There's no subtlety at all. It's just purely titillation.

But is he the victim of modern sensibilities?

Or should some of this stuff never have been broadcast in the first place?

So just when you think it's a bit sexist, it becomes a bit racist as well.

We're going to be showing some of his classic moments.

It's just a beautiful piece of comic performance. That is comedy genius at

best. And a few things that you just can't show now.

Just still.

For the generation who watched it first time round.

There's something about his face that makes me laugh. That was a bit small

wasn't it?

And some unimpressed members of Generation Z.

That would not fly today either. Yeah, that was not.

As we tell the story of a very British entertainer.

In May of 1989, Benny is called into Thames Television headquarters for a ten

-minute meeting with the boss in which he's told his show is cancelled.

Ten -minute meeting.

That's all they gave him after all that he had done for them, all the millions

he'd made for them.

I think the rug was really pulled out and he felt that...

Although he was a man with no massive ego, that there might be farewell drinks

or a bunch of flowers or something, but I think it was really quite a quick,

thanks for your time, this is done.

He was just gobsmacked, couldn't believe it.

So unfair.

The reason Thames gave for axing Benny was that it was an expensive show to

make, it was getting too expensive, the ratings were falling, and that Benny was

looking tired.

By 1989, Benny Hill was a man out of time.

But in his day, well, this was his day.

In the early 70s, 21 million Brits gathered around their new colour TV sets

some good old family entertainment.

The Benny Hill Show.

I actually loved the ballerina sketch.

Because it's one of his silly ones.

You know, the kind of back and forth and she comes out and he doesn't, he misses

this and he misses that.

It's his physicality that's funny doing that sketch.

And I love that he was so brave.

He'll dress up in anything to get a laugh.

I think that's probably the crux of the matter.

I actually remember the bike pump sketch and my dad going, Benny Hill, no!

Her bosoms get bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger, which is basically

funny. Seaside humour.

And we have some very modern comedy palettes.

i think they're known as young people to see what they think of dear old benny

looking at it then it can be quite funny it's

very much part of that whole seaside postcard tradition which he loved very

benny's world but some of benny's sketches would be unacceptable by

standards

Oh, my God. I didn't even close. I was going to say, but I wasn't sure.

Oh,

and the other guy. Oh, my God.

That was just like the worst of both worlds. There's a lot to unpack in that

video. Wow. You have the whole black face, whatever was going on there, which

was a bit outrageous as well.

Not a bit, very.

I mean, what the hell?

that racist there we are what a shame that is uh such a huge part of his

what a shame no you have been telling my colleague that you are going to the

isle of wight for what purpose bleeding cows no that is where i wish to know

why that is that is why i'm going there bleeding cows looking at that sketch

nowadays it's just just not on, is it?

It's kind of a double whammy of cultural misappropriation, if you like.

I know Farmer Brown.

He's angrier.

Why is he angrier?

Because he's angrier!

He's angrier! He's angrier!

It wasn't funny at all.

It was too... It was so over the top and just so racist.

It wasn't funny whatsoever.

So what was going on back then?

To find out more about Benny's triumphant highs and troubling lows,

back to the 1920s, when this saucy, scarred story began.

It was a mild Monday in Southampton when Benny made his entrance.

He was born Alfred Hawthorne Hill on January 21, 1924, to Mum Helen and Dad

Alfred. the manager of a surgical appliance shop.

When he came from a humble background, he was the middle child.

His dad had been a clown. His paternal grandfather had been in the circus too.

Even as a kid, he saw it as his role to try and entertain the rest of the

family, try and make them laugh, which he did often by dressing up in his mum's

clothes. A habit he never grew out of.

Benny's dad's shop also sold, of all things, condoms.

So he would have been aware of sort of sexual embarrassment at quite a young

age. So that maybe tells you something about where he gets his sense of humour

from. He'd have also grown up with, you know, saucy seaside postcards typified

by Donald McGill. You know, these kind of lurid paintings of a gag that's to do

with sex, marriage, infidelity, all of those things.

After leaving school, Benny's jobs included one at Woolworths and another

milk round.

He would come back from his round and he would do his impressions of the

customers. He'd actually do perfect take -offs of these people who got milk from

him. And he had that natural knack for just making people laugh.

Watching stage shows as a kid, Benny's eye was on one guy.

The comedian used to come on. He used to get more applause than anybody else.

He was always surrounded by pretty dancing ladies.

And I thought, hey, he must get more money than anybody else because he's got

top billing.

Surrounded by beautiful girls.

Everybody loves him.

That's for me.

In 1941, at age 17, Benny packed his suitcase and headed to London, where he

got a job with a touring review.

His soberest dream was about to come true.

By 1942, Benning's stage career was on the rise, but his plan for world

domination was about to be scuppered by none other than Adolf Hitler.

He's in the wings in Cardiff, and two coppers turn up for Nicky because

He's had his conscription papers, he's been called up, and he hasn't gone, but

he hasn't been able to see the call -up papers.

Unlucky, Benny.

After four years with the troops, Benny was back out performing on stage and on

radio.

He took on the name Benny Hill, a tribute to his comedy idol, Jack Benny.

When he first started out, he had quite bad stage fright when he was doing

theatre. There's a great...

quote here about Benny Hill from Ronald Waldman from 1947, October

1947.

The only trouble with him was that he didn't make me laugh at all, at all

italicised. And for a comedian, that's not very good.

It's a mixture of lack of comedy personality and lack of comedy material.

So his material's rubbish and he performs it badly.

So Benny has this scathing review from Roddy Waldman. He then goes off and he's

touring the country.

And in Sunderland, he dies so badly with the audience, he gets the slow hand

clap. It's the worst he's ever felt about himself. He's just dying out

literally.

I mean, he's not literally dying, is he, Gary? Because then he'd be dead.

But Benny wasn't going to let stage fright and a couple of bad reviews

him.

He believed that his future was in TV, and he set about writing his own

sketches. When you get to the post -war period, TV comes back, but it's still

one channel, BBC One, that's it.

There was literally nowhere else to go for a television comedian than the BBC.

I think Benny Hill had, of course, liked to see where TV was going, definitely.

A lot of people still thought of comedy as a stage medium or even a radio

medium. Not many people thought in terms of TV like Benny Hill did.

Benny was determined to get his foot in the door at the BBC.

But one man stood in his path.

He was about to come face to face with his harshest critic, Ronnie Waldman.

In 1951, at age 27, Benny Hill arrived at the BBC.

armed with 40 freshly written comedy sketches.

He had a lot of chutzpah. He did. He really did.

He doesn't give it up easily. He's determined.

But, of course, the one person standing in his way is Ronnie Waldman, who

criticised him in 1947 and now happens to be the head of BBC Light

Entertainment.

So I did these sketches for him. I was only there about half an hour, I

And he said, who do you think this material would suit?

And I thought, shall I say Arthur Askey, or who shall I say? And I said, well,

who do you think they would suit? And he said, I think they'd suit you.

Roddy is now so impressed with him, he gives him a job on the spot.

Benny's luck was in, and his TV predictions were spot on.

During the 1950s, telly ownership went through the roof.

as Brits gathered round their sets to watch Liz take the throne.

British comedy in the 1950s is still very much in the

kind of era of variety.

There were certain things in variety which were just funny.

Innuendo was funny.

Jokes about wives and mothers -in -law was funny.

Benny was making his name at the BBC.

And in 1955, he was given his very own series, The Benny Hill Show.

Oh, there's a rose for the rain.

Rose when we met.

But forget me not to remind me.

To remember not to forget.

Then he was always very, very good at wordplay. He was great at songs. He

language and the double meanings of language.

And the way he sort of riffs on the names of flowers in The Garden of Love

that. But Gus the gardener's gone now And you went with him too

The fungus here reminds me Of the fungus he's having with

you This is where he goes back to musical.

in that influence on him, the fact that, you know, people loved a jaunty little

song, and this is what he provides all the time.

It was very normal for comedians to have a song number, but of course he makes

it comedic, there's slapstick in it.

And

the

whole thing about that bit that really impressed me was...

It's the detail of his reaction.

People think of slapstick as a sort of simple, childish form, but slapstick is

the most beautiful form of comedy in some ways because it's all about detail.

Benny was the first comedian to parody TV shows and stars of the time.

One hit sketch was Soapbox Jury.

Soapbox Jury was a parody of Jukebox Jury.

huge kind of pop show at the time. It was like a pop review show. They would

play kind of the new records of the day.

Welcome to another edition of Soapbox Jury.

And let's see who we have on tonight's panel, shall we?

Fred Curry, dish jockeying.

Hello there.

Music gets on with the film star.

Evening. Benny's parody of it, looking back, was actually...

Pretty close, pretty spot on. He played, you know, all the panel and he played

the host. And that was kind of groundbreaking.

The camera would sort of cut to members of the audience and people would

gradually realise they were on camera and kind of start to look all 50 and

And Benny did sort of parody that really well. They'd be like, that's Benny!

And that one's Benny!

And the woman's Benny, surely!

The presenter is, oh, and that's Benny. Everyone was Benny.

It's the first time anyone had played four characters on screen at the same

using the split -screen techniques.

So he was always looking to innovate.

If you can make one person play several characters and you can believe in those

characters as well, then you've got a good sketch.

BV made Benny a household name, but his next move would bring global fame as he

was asked to star in five feature films.

including two of the biggest hits of the 60s, The Italian Job and Chitty Chitty

Bang Bang.

Cubby Broccoli, who was famous for the Bond films, but he was producing Chitty

Chitty Bang Bang, and he asked Benny to do a bit of a comedy rewrite on the

script, which is, you know, a real accolade.

In 1969, Benny broke free from the traditional and cautious BBC.

and move his show to the brash, younger upstart, ITV.

By the time he gets to Thames TV for ITV, Benny is now writing the whole

It's his baby entirely, his vision, and he's making it work to millions of

viewers. Apparently one of his specials on Thames got more viewers than the moon

landings.

In 1971...

Benny was awarded ITV Personality of the Year and viewing figures for the show

topped 21 million.

All right, show -off.

As the 70s progressed, so did Benny's saucy content.

Vickers, Vickers playing football.

Whatever next?

Anything like that was just hilarious.

Someone's flies being undone, you know, in the days before.

internet pornography where you just see like organic willies here there and

everywhere the very idea of someone's flies being undone it's hilarious the

expressions of comedy timing are brilliant i mean they really are

feel that we in the church should show that we're just the same as everyone

i mean that we're human they're both kind of really allowing that

laugh to go and go and go, and then they do something to prod it, and it goes

again. And it's just a beautiful piece of comic performance.

They do it brilliantly.

We all have our little differences, I mean, as an industry, but I think the

important thing is to air one's differences from time to time.

That was funny.

Yeah, that was more funny, yeah.

And I think when he was trying to, like, cover it up with the flowerpot or

whatever it was...

That was funny as well, just like the awkwardness of it all.

He does everything that you kind of feel like, oh, God, how would I do that?

Just a little bit more, a little bit bigger.

Well, Vicar, you know, this is really, look, your fly's undone. And then you're

uttering under the breath, your fly's undone, your fly's undone. You know,

just perfect Benny Hill comedy, that is. Just a lovely little sketch.

There's something so British about the quiet panic when there's a faux pas.

And what would be even worse than the faux pas is if you bought it to their

attention in any way publicly.

I think that really hit home with the British sensibility of things being

and proper.

2044.

2045.

The fact that that was on TV as well, like prime time TV, I'm insane.

And, like, if that came up on the TV while you were watching with the

That would, yeah, definitely be very weird. Your pants would go off quickly.

Turn it off.

So

this

is purely a male fantasy of what a secretary is. So, subservient, bend over

when required.

It's so sleazy, just so sleazy.

It's sad that it had to be, you know, again, a woman with spenders on that

distracts him, but it kind of works in that sketch. It works for me because the

punchline is funny.

Anything else that could have distracted him, but I guess because of the time

and because it was a Benny Hill show, it had to be a woman doing that.

Women certainly featured frequently in Benny's show, in every unlikely

The two -time feud is quite funny, like when they're running behind the fire

engine, that's quite funny.

You had this whole sketch about these sort of firemen trying to save people,

it was more about the firemen just wanting to do what they want to do as

to actually going to save people. Benny's sort of like taking the mickey

everybody. It's not like handsome young guys, it's beautiful young women and

very old, creepy men.

Brace yourselves, folks.

I mean, the way she goes up and down on the pole, that's the gynaecological bit.

I just can't bear.

They said they were going up and down and up and down with it, you know,

of the suspender.

And they do it in slow motion.

Not everyone's a fan, Benny. It's just filth.

I couldn't help but laugh at seeing...

that when they did get to the house to rescue the people from the burning

building that the female firefighters were wearing short skirts and spiked

going up the ladder.

It's ludicrous to think of it as something that would have just been not

questioned at the time. One of the male firefighters got in through the window

in order to canoodle with one of the women who was supposed to be dragging

of the burning building.

They're all very realistic, but actually some really funny bits as well. Clever

writing. No, you're right.

It's not very realistic, is it?

You see one girl in the window in lingerie, and then, like, literally a

minute later, there's another girl all of a sudden in lingerie in the window.

There's not a common occurrence that happens.

Yeah, like, that's not, like, a casual afternoon thing. It was, like, night

when you think, like...

It's kind of a combination of almost a silent film and smut. There are

definitely moments where I'm watching it thinking, like, there's no way that

this was put on TV.

It was what the 70s were about. It was about showing as much as you can get

with showing on television.

I think partly it's to do with...

you know, a loosening of social morals, you know, a less censorious attitude

towards sex.

And because society was much more structurally sexist than it is now, the

that manifests is in a kind of show that sort of objectifies women.

At the time that Benny Hill was at its peak, we also had the Miss World so

-called beauty competition, and it was telling us that girls and women are

judged only by one thing.

If you turned over your newspaper page, you got page three of the front. And,

you know, a semi -native woman. That was completely, completely normal at that

time. And as society became less prudish, Benny would raise the

maximum.

In his show, Benny Hill played characters from across the globe.

One of the regulars was Chow Min from China.

That

would

not fly today, I don't think. Yeah, that would not fly. Oh, wow.

Yeah.

That caught me off guard, to be honest. I was not expecting that. The accent as

well. The accent and him squinting his eyes like that, that was really loud.

me ask you a question.

When was the last time that you had an election?

He thinks he's saying erection and not election.

So the joke is on the English guy who can't understand what's being said.

You couldn't use the word erection in a sexual context in those days.

So it's almost Benny Hill getting away with flouting the conventions of the

time. But because it's all framed in racial stereotyping, that risque

I think, is a loss.

You mean a parliamentary election?

Of course.

Wait a minute, you didn't think I made a council election?

So the humour with the miscommunication, I think, was actually quite funny. But

then the miscommunication was because of race is what made it, like, unfunny.

Are accents funny? I think accents are funny. I think accents have always been

funny and always will be funny. And I think we're fooling ourselves if we

pretend they're not.

I think there's an ignorance to it, but there's also an innocence to it, I

think. I think it's like a sort of a child doing a funny voice.

I don't think Benny Hill was a nasty racist. I think he was just sort of lazy

and had the prevailing view at the time.

The 1971 Immigration Act gave Commonwealth citizens living in the UK

permanent right to stay. This included the Windrush generation and those from

other former British colonies.

The UK population was changing, but not everyone was ready for it.

It was a very parochial time. Britain was very British in the 70s.

Air travel wasn't widespread.

There was no internet.

So anything foreign seemed really foreign and really exotic and would

remarked upon.

If you have 21 million people tuning in... to watch someone who is portraying

characters that you think are inappropriate.

It's a sign of the times. Why is it Benny Hill would get blamed for

society was laughing at it?

Fortunately, not all of Benny's characters were so controversial.

One in particular would win the hearts of many viewers, Fred Scuffle.

Fred Scottle, that guy with the thing? Yeah, that's my guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

He was my top character that Benny Hill played.

It was basically an idiot who thought he was a genius, and that's quite a funny

combination.

I find that funny, like, we do it ourselves, like... If you have a good

you feed it to each other. It is really funny.

Because he's so animated as a person anyway.

When it's in double speed, it makes you look even more energetic.

Scott will look like he hasn't done one press -up in his life. How he can

literally get involved in these scenarios is beyond me. Because Scott

does not look like he's fit.

I like Scott because he was a bit mad and daft.

Of all the characters, I think that's the one that probably went right through

from the 60s, 68, right through to the end. Scuttle was always somewhere around

the show.

And old Fred often made some dodgy business decisions.

Fred Scuttle is now opening his own escort service.

So Nicholas Parsons goes to interview him about it.

If a lady came to you and said that she wanted a night of excitement, glamour,

sensuality and unforgettable ecstasy...

..Nicholas

Parsons asked him something and there's just a really, really long reaction.

where they milk it between the two of them so beautifully, and he does it

really, really well.

If she wanted all these things... Yes, sir.

Would you give her one?

Not necessarily, sir.

There's something about his face that makes you laugh, and you see the two of

them interacting, and you know they're both on the verge of bursting out. How

many takes did that take?

Nicholas Parkins and Benny do have this great chemistry machine,

They dance around the innuendos and do Blond Tondras in a very clever way and

sort of bring each other to fits of giggles.

There they are. Come on, lads.

Held in the return of the Romantic era.

Look at that.

Scuttle brings in his male escorts, and it's Frank and Bob and all these old

boys. And the male escorts were old as shit.

Literally, he must have dug them up from a graveyard, but they were old.

So that was funny, that they're not like Chippendale fit.

The male escorts are all kind of frail -looking old men,

and the female escorts are much younger, much more glamorous females, which is

textbook Benny Hill and a little bit uncomfortable.

It's the worst escort service ever.

He's got his wife working for the escort service.

Can you see how this was seen as misogynistic to women?

His wife.

Yeah, I don't think that, that's not the line of work for old Fred. I think he

needs to find something else.

For women, it's a terribly inappropriate sketch.

But as a comic creation, he obviously loved that character because he had him

throughout the entire series. And a lot of people I know loved that character.

After imitating film stars and performers as a kid, Benny Sykes were

stars of the small screen.

Fanny Craddock was a very well -known TV cook and a sidekick with her husband,

Johnny, who sometimes came in and talked about wine.

And they were, in a way, they were almost a parody of themselves.

And so she would talk to Camera Wars, knocking up dinner, with her husband,

Johnny, kind of bumbling about in the background.

And Benny nailed that in this sketch.

Hello, everyone. Well, here we are once again at the festive season and the time

of the year when Johnny likes to get his hands on a nice, plump young bird.

making a change from the old boiler he gets the rest of the year.

This is classic Benny Hall, the classic double ensemble with the nice young bird

and the old boiler. It's wonderful wordplay, really. Even though he's quite

expressive in his face, he doesn't overplay things, which is what makes

funny. He's sort of kind of just under.

I'm just going to give that to Johnny and he's going to dump it into the oven

and we are going to don't do that, Johnny.

LAUGHTER

I loved the fact that he really attempted to make the cooking quite real

quite, you know, well, this is what you do. And keep that quite simple. And the

real comedy is in what the husband's doing.

Now, I just put a little, a little tiny, just a little tiny drop in there like

that, you see. And I go and put this now on a high, on a high ring.

A smoothie, little one.

Classic pantomime drunkenness, classic old -school variety, acting out the

effects of the demon booze.

He does it so well.

And Fanny's reaction to him is always avoiding the situation.

She knows he's pissed, but she's not going to say anything about it.

You know, she's got a programme to do. You know, it's always one of those.

And we'll have a little look at that later on.

There was like some random scene where he cracked an egg on the head. Yeah,

was quite funny.

I think it's endearing when they laugh at their own comedy, because I think

you're watching it, you're with them anyway, you're laughing, they're

everyone's laughing, and it just all flows together. Whether he intended to

crack the egg on his head or that was something he improvised at the time, I

couldn't tell you, but it was a wonderful piece of comedy.

We must put in just a little tiny spot of absence.

Because absence makes hard to watch!

Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Still to this day, I love that sketch

that reason.

It's just the husband getting more and more drunk and she's trying to stay

really clear and still kind of noticing behind her. That is comedy genius at its

best. Benny was an innovator who stretched the visual medium, but he

the credit he deserved.

Always keen to push the boundaries, even the TV news became a target for his

mockery. Benny even did a sketch that was a parody of the News at Ten with

booze, and he was sort of helping himself to kind of, I think, brown ale

the news bulletin, which then led to all the clips getting mixed up.

The opening of Parliament.

The Queen seen here leaving Buckingham Palace. The film

clips out of sync were just hilarious, especially the ones about Queen

and Prince Philip when they're two old tramps.

She was helped into the royal coach by Prince Philip.

As he accompanied her on their journey down the mouth, thousands of well

-wishers, many of them tourists, wished her Godspeed.

It's one thing to send up a show, but to include clip, actual clip, real -life

clips, not comedy clips, that you've made specially for her, I think that's

another level.

Once again, the sad side of two young people being a coach.

These young people, defeated by inflation and rising prices, have had to

the house which has been their home for so long.

And this does happen with the news, but then he just adds to it, doesn't he?

Adds more and more and more to it. So in the end, it's really funny. And

sketches like that are comedy gold.

But certain news items would be unacceptable by today's standards.

But any moment now, there is bound to be a military coup.

However, the president, Magano, so far refuses office of assistance and aid.

And we don't want the United Nations... That cannot run.

Pistol, pistol, pistol.

We don't want P... No.

Pistol.

In today's world, if that came up on TV...

100 % cancelled, like, no career. There's other shows that did similar

and they've been completely cancelled. Exactly. Yeah.

It's a really hammy, clichéd, racist, probably,

portrayal of African leaders.

It's a difficult watch.

I mean, this is sort of 20 years after Windrush.

There was immigration, but again, it took a long time for TV to catch up,

non -white faces on TV were still quite rare and blackface was quite widespread.

I think one of the problems people have, even today actually, with prejudice is

situating it in the individual.

Now, I'm not trying to absolve individuals. We all have individual

responsibility. But actually, things like racism and sexism and homophobia,

are social problems and they're structural.

So to see Benny Hill as being uniquely flawed would be a mistake.

There were other people doing things like he was doing all around him at the

time, and nobody, not performers, not writers, not producers, directors, not

audiences, would have seen that as being, for the most part, troubling. Of

course, people who were affected by the comedy might have done.

No celebrities were off -limits for Benny's impressions.

And this gets Terry Wobegon, who's a...

with Terry Wogan, who's a huge figure at the time. He's got the Radio 2

Breakfast Show, he's got his own track show.

Benny played him judging a kind of come -dancing -alike competition with the

usual hilarious consequences.

And the top of the evening, tell you. Now, here's where the... Now, he's got

ask for a vaccine.

Stop trying to fight the flower.

Because the young 'uns are going to take the floor.

I hope they bring it back when they're done with it.

He's actually got Terry...

quite well with the accent a bit and also terry's demeanor and attitude to

audience and the performance terry wogan was a very very laconic figure and

benny hill pulled this off brilliantly he also does this sort of sped up quick

step and charleston sequences as one of the dancers couple number 69 obviously

it was actually very

clever technically because The dancers were going at normal speed, but he and

his partner were whizzing about.

And to this day, I don't know how they do that. That would have been in those

days. People going, oh, my God, look at that. How did that happen?

Inexplicably, her knickers fall down and you think, oh, yes.

This is Benny Hill. It has to end like that. Couldn't end any other way.

That was a bit saucy, wasn't it? It's like muttering up Terry's name.

As long as Terry hadn't had words with him, do you know what I mean?

And Benny's about to enter his most controversial period yet.

It's really quite near the knuckle for primetime telly, family viewing.

Benny Hill's many impersonations were not limited to British shows.

They were international TV detectives.

Because

Benny

watched so much television, and he would have researched it so thoroughly, he

knew that all of these big 70s, like... were hugely popular and hugely well

-known. And so then to see them sent up in that way was just a nice bit of

comedy gold.

Say, either of you two fellas know anything about a murder?

Come on, sweetheart.

I'm on vacation, do you mind?

I mean, he looked so much like Kojak, I loved it. He studies them quite

carefully before he does all this make -up and the accent and everything else.

He does his research, and I think he succeeds.

And anyone remember these guys?

The A -Team is a huge sort of action drama at the time. It's about these four

renegade ex -soldiers who go around America kind of solving crimes and

correcting injustices.

And so Benny's parody is the B -Team.

They can't have a lot of trouble with it. It was a big production number. You

know, they recreated quite a lot of sort of, certainly the look.

But is that cultural appropriation or is it not?

I was such a massive fan of the

A -team that I quite liked the B -team.

I loved his B .A. Baracus. You know, you look back at Nango, was it appropriate

for him to have...

Done that, now you look back on it and you go, I don't know, I don't think it

at this point, at the time I thought it was.

Well, our class of blackface, the old school films and that, where they'd just

be jet black with these wide eyes and red, red lips, that's different. But if

they're made up to look similar to a black guy, yeah, I've got no problem. He

played B .A. Baraka's good.

Benny was also a skilled songwriter. He composed his show's original music, and

this 1971 classic became a surprise hit.

You could hear their feet pound as they raced across the ground, and the clatter

of the wheels as they spun round and round, and he galloped into Market

he's badgered upon his chest, his name was Ernie, and he drove the fastest milk

cart in the West.

Ernie, the fastest milk cart in the West, dates right back to when...

Benny was a milkman himself when he was going out and coming back and making all

the lads laugh with his impersonations of the people he met on his round. If

listen to the words, it's a very, very clever song. And he could sing.

Benny Hill could sing.

Ernie and his love rival, who's the bread delivery man, are fighting for the

affections of the widow at number 22.

You know, it was the whole thing about bored housewife having off with the

milkman. I thought you all had a milkman.

It was nice to imagine this life for them. And it was brilliant. And the film

that they made with it was fantastic.

Every

time

you saw the video, it made you laugh.

And it was totally brilliant.

You know, such a parody and so cleverly written.

She was on Ted from Teddington. It was just very clever. He ran the bakers'

I mean, it was a very, very funny, very funny song and rhyme.

It became a surprise hit. It was number one for five weeks, I think, and

Christmas number one, which took even Benny by surprise.

So catchy. That's going to be stuck in my head. It was quite catchy.

Yeah.

Earning the fastest moment of the West is actually one of David Cameron's

choices on Desert Island Discs.

Former Prime Minister.

Apparently he does it in his party piece. He can recite all the lyrics. So

there's an image to conjure with.

Well, here's one he didn't write, Benny.

Ready, everyone?

Come

on,

who don't know that theme?

You know, running in and out of shrubbery and trees, parks and stuff.

classic Benny Hill.

You've got this array of women chasing these poor, harassed men in kilts. And

it's speeded up, and somehow that makes it really funny.

I think you have to start to really feel his choice.

It lends itself really well to physical comedy.

If you ask anyone anywhere in the world, they'll start humming that tune because

of the show.

It's one of those songs you can't hear without wanting to smile.

It's just perfect, absolutely wonderful.

Physical comedy with Benny Forte. And the visual gags got pretty bold.

These Benny Hillerty's finest, they use props brilliantly, whether it's the

flying crockery, whether it's the slamming doors.

He's very good at kind of rolling with the punches and incorporating those

little moments and mistakes into the script, which only makes it funnier.

It had every classic, clichéd, slapstick thing. You know, there was the

mistress, the wife, the this, the that.

Almost like a Hollywood production of a Benny Hill sketch.

You want him? You can have him. Just don't ever come back to me.

It's brilliantly

timed. It's brilliantly acted.

And it just builds and builds and builds until Benny's getting hit over the head

with all sorts of stuff.

It's just a classic bit of clowning.

The bald man constantly slapped on his head. That is iconic.

There you see in that sketch the relationship between Benny and old

silent movie comedy.

It's just beautiful the way it's done.

And the head slapping became such a Benny Hill trademark that he really

in the sketch. There's an extraordinary amount of slapping. Poor Jackie's head,

often sped up.

for even further comic effect.

I'm sure it's hugely inappropriate.

I certainly wouldn't do it myself, but watching someone else do it and him

taking it is just hilarious.

I've not got much left.

I'm in a danger zone here.

There was exaggerated sound effects, which, of course, made it funnier still,

added Jackie Wright's bewildered face.

He literally came in, sat down, got abused.

paid for it, left and got injured.

So that weren't a good trip to the barbers for him.

In 1979, the Benny Hill Show was broadcast in the US.

Back then, it was notoriously difficult for British comedy to sell in America,

but Benny's show was an enormous success.

He was the first British TV comedian to crack the States.

10th Television hadn't had anyone that sold like he did.

It was massive, really. No one else had conquered America, and he did.

I remember going over to America in, like, 1985, 1986, and there being a 24

-hour Benny Hill channel, and thinking, wow, is there enough of this for 24

hours? They said, if you want to sell that until America, there's got to be

something they ain't got, and they did not have a Benny Hill.

Almost every...

American actor or musician I've ever spoken to has professed a great love for

Benny Hill. Michael Jackson's big fan, people like Clint Eastwood and Frank

Sinatra are big fans.

Johnny Carson, who had the biggest catch in America, was always trying to get

Benny Hill on his show.

So everyone loved Benny, but did anyone really know him?

Who was the real Benny Hill?

Benny was probably not how people would imagine him to be off camera.

He was very humble, really humble, really modest.

He wasn't a big I am, he wasn't a big shot, he was ever so generous with

friends, but he wasn't interested in money. He was actually quite shy in many

ways, but people didn't realise it.

Because he had a facade of being Benny Hill, etc.

People say he was lonely, but he wasn't lonely.

He was a loner by choice. He liked his own company.

He just liked being on his own. He just liked watching telly, he liked writing

comedy, and he liked relaxing. That was what he did.

Benny lived in a rented flat in Teddington, close to his beloved TV

Flat. in teddington was extremely basic by anybody's standards but really that

wasn't because he was a miser i didn't want to spend his money it was because

didn't need anything or particularly want anything he loved traveling he

seeing other cultures that he loved going around the world he could speak

pretty well he could speak german so he got a lot of his inspirations from just

watching the world and seeing people very observant man much more than you

realize

Because he kept it to himself, but he was very observant. It's amazing that

Benny Hill, the real man, who none of us knew anything about at all, ever, was

obviously a much more sophisticated, well -travelled, well -read person than

imagined. There was a lot of speculation about him and his sex life and

whatever, but in truth, he was just an ordinary guy. He was never one for the

show of his life.

He never wanted fame for himself.

He shunned all that.

There was speculation, is he gay? Because he's obviously not married and

haven't seen him photographed with a girlfriend.

No, he definitely wasn't gay. He was definitely into women and he probably

have been very happily married to one of the two women that he fell in love

with, but it just didn't happen.

And he certainly did love being around the ladies.

especially on set.

And in 1980, a troupe of glamorous young women were introduced to the series,

known as the Hills Angels.

Hills Angels came about was really through Kenny Everett.

Kenny Everett, how you remember, had hot gossip on his show.

And in an interview in the press, somebody said to him, you're getting

good ratings, aren't you? He said, thank God for hot gossip. And I thought, if

you can't beat him, find him.

Watching the dance group, it just seems so extreme and obvious.

It's just purely titillation.

It was always a bit of boobs here and a bit of boobs there, and that was fine,

but then the Hills Angels, and that's when I started to go... Could this be

step too far for Benny?

At the 80s dawned, international audiences couldn't get enough of Benny

Angels.

The camera is shooting very suggestively and lasciviously.

It makes me feel sort of slightly uncomfortable, because this is served up

family entertainment, and if it's family entertainment, it's for Dad, really,

isn't it?

OK, you're very clearly...

sexualizing women for, like, no reason whatsoever.

And so they intercut between Hill of Angels kind of doing sexy dancing on

and these mini skits with Benny as the waiter serving food.

Here we've got, like, completely explicit sexualization.

And then a little bit of comedy.

Before it was, like, complete reverse of that.

There used to be...

a point to the humour.

But by the time it just got to the disco dancing babes and birds, what can you

say? It was just a parade of women's bodies and a tittering about

women's breasts.

I knew a lot of girls who were Hills Angels and they loved working with

Absolutely loved it. I mean, three or four people who I know very, very well.

adored working with it. They kept saying, please, you know, you'll have

riot. And I probably would. But they didn't even think of it like that. I

think it even entered their heads.

And the routines got even more risque.

You may want to look away now.

There's just 20 girls in bikinis just all dancing, like, for, like, no reason

whatsoever. Like, the fact that that was just on TV is a bit crazy, but, yeah, a

bunch of, like, basically naked women, like, it's a bit strange.

The Hills Angels and Swimwear was at a time where, you know, there was still

Miss World competitions on TV, and it was kind of normal to see that.

Not entirely sure what the place of it was in a comedy show.

The drunken old folks

at the bar, which he did brilliantly. I can watch that now and kind of

appreciate it. But I think just in terms of telly family viewing

wouldn't happen today. Women in bikinis writhing around.

all over each other.

I see a big change, how we went from end of the pier, which is funny, you know,

chasing a girl round the block, looking up her skirt, which is not very good,

but even all of that lot, to this, which is overtly, really very, very sexual.

It hasn't got the same fun in it. That's what it is. It's now become seriously

sexy as opposed to the other, which was fun.

By the mid -80s, The Benny Hill Show had been exported to over 100 countries

worldwide.

But in Britain, times were changing.

Women were coming more to the forefront.

You've seen women CEOs more than you've ever done before.

Women comedians more so than we've seen for a while.

I think by the time Hills Angel were on our TV screens, those that were

applauding this and thinking this was great fun,

were dinosaurs.

Yes, there was definitely the view that, well, this is just a bit of

entertainment, lighten up.

But people were recognising that women really shouldn't be viewed as sexual

playthings for men.

You've had, you know, feminist pop stars.

You know, you've had feminist comedians. You know, the idea that the only place

for women in comedy is just sexual display, that feels both wrong and old

-fashioned. In the 80s, there was a kind of revolution in comedy because younger

people came up who didn't have those same crude, stereotypical ideas.

And I think the tide turned.

I think alternative comedy and people like Billy Connolly began to make

Benny Hill look frayed and old school and what the

old people liked.

whereas alternative comedy was youthful and it was punk.

The weird thing about the show is the complaints came from two directions.

came from the merry White House, the traditionalists, the people who didn't

nudity, didn't want sexy girls on the telly, and they also came from young

people going, actually, this is sexist, you shouldn't...

women shouldn't be portrayed like this and race shouldn't be portrayed like

this. So, weirdly, he was cornered, really, by both sides.

In an attempt to move with the times, the Hills Angels' performances were

down and Benny introduced some new members to the cast.

Hill Little Angels.

My dad, Dennis Kirkland, was Benny's director and I was the oldest of five

children in the show and we just...

got to come to work with our parents.

Basically, have a lovely old time.

And in this sketch, it's like a country house weekend, and Benny plays the put

-upon butler, being kind of bullied and abused by these spoiled little brats.

You've got to love the little angels. What little rascals. I mean, this is the

watering down of Benny that Thames asked for, but even so, he makes it work.

There's the chap in this element again, the hitting of the head, the ball coming

out the other side.

The eyes rolling round, that clever technical stuff. I mean, it's just

It's just lovely.

He would still come out as the loser, even with five tiny little people. We

would always win.

It's kind of textbook Benny. There's lots of looks to camera and physical

and kind of comedy sound effects and a kind of soundtrack to the fall.

But it's maybe lost the spark of the old days.

And the good times weren't going to last forever.

In late May 1989, after almost 34 years as a fixture on British TV screens, The

Benny Hill Show was cancelled.

It's kind of sad looking back to see how TV just drops

you when they're done.

And that was it. He was gone.

I think people get very attached to TV. In a way, they don't. about other

mediums because it's in your living room and you watch it as a family and it

feels like part of the family. And so, you know, the lovable Uncle Benny Hill

being axed, people took that quite personally.

I wrote a piece saying, Thames, who the hell do you think you are? Why have you

done this to Benny Hill, one of our most treasured comedy icons?

Why have you done this? I was really angry, genuinely angry. It wasn't

anger.

Benny's show had earned Thames TV an estimated £100 million.

Despite declining ratings in the UK, the last episode in 1989 still attracted

over 9 .5 million viewers.

No, no, no!

Well, it's wonderful.

Benny, isn't it? He's got the same leotard and titan as the girls have,

like Benny, a little large, but he does the whole number with them. He just had

fun, and it's fun to watch.

This is a wonderful end for the Benny Hill show because it's just what he does

so well. Putting those letters, you know you're watching at home, you know what

it's going to spell out. You're like, no, don't do that, don't do that! And

it goes ahead and he does it and he just saves the day so you don't actually see

testicles or whatever.

It's just a lovely piece of choreography.

I thought that was very clever, actually, and that's something to go out

that's a good thing to finish with.

He kept the simplicity of...

Without his beloved TV show to write, what would come next for Benny?

was to write and to make people laugh.

And they'd taken away his baby. They'd taken away the thing he lived for.

As the 90s dawned, Benny Hill was still reeling over his show ending.

Benny was never quite the same after that. I mean, he still had that fight in

him, the fight he'd had right back from the 40s.

But there was a sadness in him too.

I think Benny kind of retreated after that. And I know the girls still saw

They still loved him. Those girls loved him. And that's a testament to him, I

think, as a person.

But, you know, it felt like it was showbiz and he couldn't live without it.

In 1991, Benny filmed a show for America, Benny Hill's World Tour.

But privately, his health was failing.

In February 1992...

Benny had a mild heart attack.

Days later, a surprise guest paid him a visit, Michael Jackson.

Michael was a huge fan and he had heard he was in hospital and he wanted to go

and visit.

And there's these wonderful photos of them together, these two giants from

completely different worlds.

One who was possibly the most famous man in the world at the time, just an

enormous fan wanting to meet his idol.

Benny had finally struck a deal for a new British TV show, but this wasn't to

be.

My dad hadn't heard from Benny for a couple of days and neighbours were

that lights were on and the TV had been on constantly.

So he went to the flat and they talked about bashing the door in, but that

seemed like something that Benny would hate.

So they got a ladder and dad began to climb.

And he climbed up onto a balcony and he looked in through the window and he saw

that he was clearly dead.

In front of his television, on his sofa, and I think Dad felt even then that

that's exactly what Benny would have wanted, to die privately, to die

the television in the place where he was most comfortable.

On April 18th, 1992, Benny Hill died at his flat in Peddington.

At age 68.

A post -mortem has found that the comedian Benny Hill died of a heart

His body was found at his home in South West London last night.

On April 28th, Benny's funeral was held in his hometown of Southampton.

The coffin went all around Southampton and I think we followed in cars.

It was very, very...

It was, I can't describe it really because all the cast were there and the

were there.

It was a bit of sweet really.

The church was packed with the great and the good of comedy and life

entertainment.

It was kind of a wonderful day, which he would have wanted to laugh in the face

of the sadness.

That's an important thing for him to do and so that is what we all did.

At the time of his death, Benny Hill was one of Britain's biggest comedy

exports.

As the years passed, Benny still had his loyal supporters worldwide, perhaps the

most unlikely being members of the US hip -hop community.

Famously, Snoop Dogg loves him. Lots of the hip -hop stars are Benny Hill fans

to this day.

When I went to LA in 2004,

Black America, African America, even thugs.

Knew who he was. You know, Crips and Blood know who Benny Hill is.

Benny Hill was our favourite back then.

And he wasn't just our favourite here, he was our favourite in the States.

Benny Hill is still our favourite. To this day, I don't think anybody is as

funny or as charismatic as Benny Hill.

Though the Benny Hill show was still broadcast across the globe.

Today in Britain, the series remains mostly on the shelf.

Some of the characters have dated terribly.

Some of the actives have dated terribly.

But some of the funniness hasn't dated.

It just annoys me all the time that such a negative view of him has been allowed

to foster, because Benny's humour included subtle stuff.

It included clever stuff. It included stuff that was groundbreaking.

I don't think Benny Hill is given enough credit from comedians,

certainly of my generation.

I get why, because the racist stuff and

the misogyny overshadowed the really beautiful, artistic, creative

side, and that is a great shame.

I've been described as the last man standing at the end of the pier.

as the peer crumbled away.

You know, he was born 101 years ago, and so, you know, you can understand some

of the views might seem inappropriate now.

And I think it's a shame that his kind of skill as a sort of clown, as a

comedian, as a writer, as a musician, some of that has been lost in the rush

cancel him.

Not a lot of people hear Benny Hill and don't give a little smile.

He was the cheeky chappy for Britain, and he'd done it really well.

So, yeah.

Rest in peace, Benny.

To this day, I will chase my dog around the kitchen going...

My children used to find it hilarious, and they're not sure why I

do that tune, but I know.

More celebration of the 70s next weekend with When Anne Married Marks, the Royal

Wedding of the 70s, brand new Saturday at 7 .30, and on Sunday the cancellation

of Kenny Everett, brand new at 9.