Original subtitles

I've written a picture for Benny and I. I wish Benny and I could do a picture

together. It's called Wait Till the Swelling Goes Down.

I'd watch it with anyone.

I'd watch it with someone I was babysitting for.

But you have no moral.

I'm blown away by his lyrics, the music, and I think he has very good

choices of ladies and garter belts, which we all love a lot.

So I'll go now.

I don't know whether he ever went to Japan, did he?

I wonder how the Japanese would take to him.

Arthur Askey was a star beforehand. They were all stars beforehand.

I was the only one, I think, made by television, yeah.

Ladies and gentlemen, it's time for the Benny Hill Show.

Good evening. Here's the newsflash.

I'd heard all sorts of strange stories about him, about how he lived in one

in a large flat and lived a very eccentric, isolated existence and went

holidays by himself and bought his Christmas dinner from Marks and

ate it all by himself in an empty flat.

I found him very intelligent, very entertaining and very interesting to me

because I'm very interested in English comics, really, who I think are...

some of the most talented artists and entertainers that we produced.

In August this year, I got a very nice letter from Eugene Chaplin, who's

Charlie's son, inviting me to Vevey in Switzerland for the 11th Festival of

Comedy, asking me to be the president of the jury and also informing me that I

was to receive the Charlie Chaplin Award for contributions to comedy.

And I accepted with alacrity and all by myself, as the case may be. Actually, it

was my idea to give this award to Benny for his contribution towards comedy.

And it's the first time we have someone who represents comedy,

laughter, and who is so well loved here in Switzerland and, I think, everywhere

else.

What sort of a child was I?

Yes. Oh, that ticks!

He knew far too many vulgar songs for my liking.

Quite disgusting, some of them were.

I mean, he actually sang them in class.

No, but he whistled them.

Reportedly, I've always had this rather wonderful book.

On child psychology.

I used to belt him around the head with that.

But I blame his probation officer, you know. He was far too laxative.

He wanted to kill a man to boot as well. Or something awfully strange about

that.

Of course, I remember it

when I was a little boy. I used to come here when I was about...

eight or nine years old, and they had dancers on the pier with Charlie Poland

and his band.

And I was a bit cheeky for my age, and I would go up to young ladies, women,

young women, and say, can I have this next dance, please?

And they were sometimes very nice and would let me dance with them. I wasn't

very good, but I was very happy.

And I do remember not so long ago seeing...

Mickey Rooney receiving an award from Jane Mansfield. And I echo what he said

then. There is a lot of compensation to being short.

And if there's anything to be played upon, if there's a trick to be played on

somebody, and someone is to be the goat of whatever gag they're pulling, it's

always on Benny.

It's not on anyone else.

And that's the mark of a genius, too.

I was born in 1924, January the 21st, in Southampton, a town I love very much.

And my parents said, you know, please don't sell the house. I promised I

wouldn't. Most of my memories are about this house during the 1930s, I suppose.

I was always very fond of his mother, Aunty Helen, and she always struck out,

both myself and my sister, as being what more recently has been known as With

It.

Aunty Helen.

always knew about the popular music of the time and things, and we had an

affinity with her on that, I think. Well, this is perhaps a bit strange.

I think of the two, I probably loved my mother more than my father. I was closer

to my mother than my father.

When my father died, I cried buckets, but not when my mother died.

Perhaps I felt a bit guilty of not loving my father as much as I should

done, and not...

Didn't feel guilty because I'd done everything I possibly could for my

That may well be it.

I think Benny's relations with his mother were quite close.

And I think probably they were with his father, but it would be less obvious to

anyone watching.

About nine months before my father died, I took him to Spain for a holiday.

I sort of balked at it a little bit because...

He was a very good man, but he always had to be the governor.

And it would be very difficult, I thought, taking a man around Spain, but

it quite well and he doesn't know it at all, and he's got to be the captain of

the ship, you know, he's got to be the governor.

But he was all right, and I was very glad that I took him. You know, he died

nine months afterwards, and we had a great time.

Regarding the writing of a show, I always have, I don't know because I'm

interviewed, but I normally have a pocket here or somewhere with a pencil

piece of paper.

And I travel around quite a bit and sometimes it's in a French restaurant

get an idea and I get a little notebook out and I start writing. And the service

usually improves because the waiter thinks that I'm perhaps Egon René or

somebody. writing up about the service in the restaurant.

And if I don't have a bit of paper with me, sometimes I write on a paper napkin.

I have been known to send things from abroad written on the white piece of

that contains the shirt.

When it comes back from the laundry, you tear the cellophane off and there's

enough there for a sketch.

Hello, my darling. Have you got any laundry?

Jolly, sir.

I'll leave that with you and I'll pop along and just post this.

To Mickey Rooney, you see, my friend's the star.

There are those who say, oh, he's a recluse.

They should see me reclusing in the south of France at the Palm Beach Casino

with the lovely dancers down there. But you have to be on your own to write. You

cannot write if you're in a crowd of people.

Writing is not necessarily lonely, but you've got to be on your own to mull it

over, work it out.

I'm back.

Absolutely

splendid

and had a lovely week afterwards in Switzerland.

Benny has

ability to make you believe that he would go to tea with you.

whether you knew him or not, that you could knock on the door and say, I was

just passing by, and I'm a very big fan of yours, and I was wondering if you'd

like to play golf or, you know, go outside and chat.

And you feel like he's accessible.

Oh, sorry, I thought it was a money trick.

It's so sticky there.

To Lynn.

To Lynn.

To Nicky. To Nicky. To Nicky. The ant's gone again.

So I left school and came here to Eastleigh to work at Woolworths. My dad

it was a good firm to work for because people who got on at Woolworths didn't

get on because they were somebody's brother -in -law, but because they

boost the profits.

So I came here, there was a nice little manager, Mr Dean, 24 girls and

me.

Lovely, creamy, milky wool.

The cry of the milkman.

Yes, when I left Woolworths, I went on the milk round. I worked for Harry Hand

Dairies, which was situated somewhere in this area here.

And this is the market street that I used to gallop down on my milk cart with

all the empties in. And I was 16 years old. And, of course, I thought I was

driving the safe coach into Dodge City.

You could hear the off -beats pound as they raced across the ground.

And the clatter of the wheels as they spun round and round.

And he galloped into Market Street. His badge upon his chest. His name was

Ernie. And he drove the fastest milk cart in the West.

Now Ernie loved a widow. A lady known as Sue.

She lived all alone in Lindley Lane at number 22.

They said she was too good for him. She was ordinary, proud and chic.

But Ernie got his cocoa there three times every week. They called him Ernie.

and he drove the fastest nook car in the West.

Teddington is very villagey, small -towny, and you get to know everybody in

shops, and after a while, nobody says, well, there's plenty of them, so you go,

how are you going, honestly? I say, fine, Ty, and I'll have a packet of this

a packet of that.

And you're accepted as one of them.

I just don't know you through Times and the Herald Tribune.

And your Mayfair and your men only have arrived for you.

Ooh, that's nice. Cut.

That's nice. Cut,

cut, cut!

Oh, what I'll do, I'll take... Cut!

I hope in a few moments to be able to have a few words with someone who's

probably television's top drama director.

Right, ready?

Action!

And I don't never not wish to not see...

deal with the right... Mr. Scuttle. Oh, I'm... What's the... I'm... Hello,

viewers. I had no idea we were long, sir.

Well, here he is, a very controversial figure, BBC's top television director,

Mr. Fred Scuttle.

Mr. Jean -Paul Scuttle, if you don't mind.

Jean -Paul Scuttle? Yes, sir. I was named after the existing sensualist,

-Paul Sassi.

Well, I first met Benny Hill when he was a...

a private or a corporal, I can't quite remember which, in Stars in Battle

which was the army entertainment units that were sent out to the various

commands. And I was then Colonel Stone of Combined Service Entertainments at

War Office, and I was in Germany inspecting the various shows, and Benny

in one of these shows.

Take it easy tonight, tonight, the show must go on tonight. Tommy and I played

two brothers in the army who were on an attack searchlight site.

And we'd both gone in for this competition as a double act, a song and

act. And as it may want, I sort of wrote the act, but it wasn't meant to be a

great act. I can't remember all the gags we did, but they weren't picked because

they were great gags, but they were suitable, typical gags of two boys

got a little act together.

They are my brother, Sid.

The greatest dancer in the country.

In the town, he's not the good man in the country.

Here's one.

Two bishops in a bed.

Which one wears the nightdress? I don't know. Which one wears the nightdress?

Mrs. Bishop.

And so Benny did his act, and I saw him, and that's how it all started. And I

suppose I said to him, as people always do, keep in touch.

And years later, I became his agent.

Many of them.

Benny's jokes are jokes I heard in grammar school. The first slightly off

joke I'd ever heard, I'm sure that Benny's repeated at some time or

I've caught him at most of them. I'm not catching him because that's some of the

humor. It's cornball stuff, and that's funny.

Well, I think it's very traditional English humor. It's a sort of seaside

postcard, end of the pier.

It's very visual, which is why it's really...

popular all the world over.

And it's very silly, which is very important in this ghastly, grey, serious

you know.

My grandfather, my father's father, loved the musical, loved the theatre.

And if we were very good children, about once a month he would take us to the

Palace Theatre.

And I would go and see these shows, and there'd be the principal comedian, who

was always billed as the star comedian.

He never was the star, but he had top billing. It was Fred Fosdyke in Don't Be

Cheeky with, and there was always a troupe of girls, anything between about

and 16.

There was a straight man who usually doubled baritone. There was a soubrette

played the French maid.

And there was an older comedian and so on. But the comedian used to come on. He

used to get more applause than anybody else.

He was always surrounded by pretty dancing ladies.

And the audience loved him. The fat women in the audience would go, Oh, what

said. Oh, he's awful.

And applaud.

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.

So they go away, and Goldilocks is alone in the house. But this house is the

house of the three bears.

And the three bears are very comical bears.

Two bears were bow -legged.

And one was knuckled.

And when they stand together, they also play.

I was out of work. So for seven weeks I sat...

in the garden of the place where I was indeed.

And it was summertime, and I wrote. I just wrote sketches for television. I

thought, television's growing. They can't keep going on doing the same act.

Comics are going to need different material.

So I thought, as I wasn't doing terribly well as a performer, as a comic, I

thought I'd try my hand at writing. So for seven weeks, I wrote a lot of

sketches. I waited to see that jolly nice Ronnie Waldman.

and who was head of light entertainment, and he said, what's all this about?

And I said, well, there's a lot of sketches there.

I think television's going to need material, and I don't want you to think

chosen the best sketch and put it on the top.

If you like, tell me. I'll flip through. You say stop, and I'll take that sketch

out, and you can read that one.

And he said, all right, go on, flip through. All right, stop.

Take it out. I took it out, and I handed it to him. He said, no, no, work it for

me. I have made a terrible mistake.

Life is very cheap in Casablanca.

Put me down.

You mean we can't send the gold by the railways?

There are no trains.

But you said you heard trains.

I thought I heard trains, but it wasn't trains. It was German prisoners of war

passing sandbags to each other.

And they are very polite.

And they were saying, It wasn't strange at all.

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.

And I had my own show.

I had been with the BBC for about six months and I'd just been promoted to

producer.

And I met Benny for the first time. It really was eyeball to eyeball with

He knew about television, I think he knew more than I did.

He was now in a new medium as far as he was concerned and he was going to milk

it scientifically to the very utmost.

And he did. It was my lucky day because I think Benny taught me more about

television than I would ever admit to.

Hello, Mummy.

Hello, darling.

Got all these bubbles?

They do the washing up, dear.

And they keep Mummy's hands nice and soft.

Bubble.

Don't keep pulling Mummy's dress, dear.

Shut up!

Just flip it off!

Benny Hill left the BBC, I think, lured away, really, by Lou Grade, who was a

very persuasive gentleman.

and he was making variety shows using American and British stars all mixed up.

I think even Lou would admit they weren't highly successful, and Benny was

unhappy. And I thought of Thames, which had only just started then,

from the combination of Rediffusion and ABC.

1969, I suppose.

And the head of light entertainment at Thames was Philip Jones, who was

the best head of light entertainment that any company has ever had.

And I thought it was safe to put many's future into Philip's hands.

Thames suddenly became the biggest ITV company with responsibility for London

weekdays. So instead of, in light entertainment, having a network

about 25 hours a year when we could get it on,

the requirement was for more like 125 hours a year. And we needed programmes

fill this extremely welcome airtime.

Well, the first time I met Ben, really met him, was in a rehearsal room, and I

walked in the rehearsal room, and he was all on his own in a corner doing a

Marcel Marceau thing, you know, locked in a balloon or something.

And I burst out laughing, and he just looked up and said, we'll keep him.

When we're actually rehearsing this, first of all, we do actually read it,

if we've learnt it, we read it, and we put the moves in and that sort of thing.

And sometimes Ben will think that...

Perhaps a particular gag or joke in the middle of a speech or whatever is not

quite right.

Well, he's an extraordinary man in that he's got the most astonishing memory.

And he's got a laser -like mind, really.

And if he thinks he needs something different, he will start quoting other

lines or jokes.

And they can come out one after another, like a waterfall, all absolutely

distinct. And all funny, aren't they?

It's really quite an astonishing thing.

It's a pleasure to be there, you know, because everybody's falling about.

You think I don't know about you and all your fancy women, the ones you go

running to the moment my back is turned?

Veronica, Marcia, Stephanie.

And I'll tell you why I go to them. They're sweeter, they're kinder, they're

prettier than you are.

And I'll tell you this.

I'm sick of your tantrums, do you hear? Dick, it's got to stop now.

How dare you speak to me like that? How dare you?

In front of a servant.

You've gone too far this time.

And whose will you share it with?

There isn't a gentleman in London, or have you?

And there's not a gentleman in the land I'd want, but a man.

Fine talk, my girl. And which man will it be? I swear if you were my mother's

life, I'll not spend this night with you. I'll spend it with him.

Him?

Yes, him.

Benson. I'll share his bed.

But you can't. He deserves it.

And I warrant you, he'll be a kind...

Sleep with that?

Aye. I doubt if the fool would know what to do.

All right.

You've made your choice.

You can lie in it. See if I care.

Susan!

My child! What has happened?

Hill's 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, when somebody said to him, you're getting

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

thought, if you can't beat him, China.

He's a very good dancer. He's a very good mover.

He practices and works hard and tries to do the best of his ability.

But he always maintains he's a very good tap dancer.

He says, watch me.

I'm a very good tap dancer. I can tap with the left foot and I can tap with

right foot.

You don't write with a pen. You write with your head first.

And if I get an idea, I always jot it down on a bit of paper.

because I know that that will then be transferred to some books that I've got.

And on one side of the page is V for visual, and the other side is the spoken

word. So I know when I go through the book, I keep looking this side, you

possibly do it sort of mathematically or the way they would do things in an

office. And when I do get the idea, I mull it around in my mind for an awfully

long time.

He was a perfectionist both in performance from himself and others and

in the mechanics of a joke, you know, the scenery, the props and any technical

tricks.

You see some cats in Brighton Go swimming in the nude As one old cat

and down I heard a passing skate say Goodness, will you look at what they're

using now for bait Laying on the ocean bed Laying by the sea We all lead a

happy life Swimming in the sea

Tap the guy's back of his head, the old man.

Back of his head. That was one of my favorite things.

I like when he slaps the little bald guy on the head. He's funny.

I especially like the little man in the head. He pets him on the head all the

time. You know the way you always pet the bald -headed man on the head like

this?

Everywhere we go around the world, the first person people talk about is little

Jackie. Little Jackie Wright.

And they say, where's the little guy?

Oh, he's so cute. He's back on the head.

He would write a basic joke, and virtually on the way from the caravan to

Thet, he'd say, and another thing. Or the other thing he used to do is I'd go

into make -up in the morning to see him, and he'd say, oh, little heart, or

little totting or whatever.

Any chance of that? And there would be a script this long, props, additional

gags. So he'd gone home last night and gone, ooh, ooh, ooh, that's a good idea,

that's a good idea.

Now, one day, a kid rode into town to get advice from Dr.

Darning, who said, rinse your mouth with a cup of horse manure each morning.

Kid said, will it cure my halitosis? Will that get rid of it?

He said, well, no, it won't, but it'll tone it down a bit.

We were looking for more material from Thames to sell.

And in a discussion with Philip, we said, you know, we can't sell hour

but we might be able to sell half -hour shows.

And he put together a half -hour program editing down one of Benny Hill's hour

shows into a half -hour. And we used that, and we got some pretty good

reactions. When I first went to the Actors Studio, there were 112 Marlon

and 682 Jimmy Deans and 27 Carol Bakers.

if you go to England, there's only one Benny Hill. I had admired him like so

many other people in the United States when he was syndicating his show here by

saying, this is the funniest man and his half hour is absolutely hilarious.

Oh, it's good to be home.

Radio says there's going to be a blizzard tonight.

I hadn't heard about him. I didn't know about his program.

But suddenly here was this man on television doing all the things that I

particularly amusing.

And from there on out, I was hooked.

When I first found out the show was successful, I was absolutely delighted.

was thrilled because America was like the mecca of show business to me. I was

brought up as a little child.

Saturday afternoon, the cinema.

Wednesday night with mum and dad, if I was lucky, and sit in the six pen of the

dark. It was a big deal to me. So places like Hollywood and New York, you know,

were sort of places you only dream about.

For his wonderful contribution to the comedy, we applaud him.

Thank you very much, Eugène.

You know that since I was a little 8 -year -old boy, Charlie Chaplin has

been my idol.

And it's not just a great pleasure, it's a very great honor for me.

And I wish you a thank you very much, a thousand times.

Thank you.

So many times.

Quite unbelievable.

It's not in England, it's in Ireland.

It's not in Ireland, the States.

Here in Switzerland, in France.

And you actually can still see him in France now.

C 'est, en fait, l 'enfant, l 'amant, le grand -père et celui qui vous fait

rire, quand même. Celui qui est là pour, justement, avec cette pointe d 'humour

et ce regard un peu comme ça, un peu pervers.

It was that moment in Lovable on Farts.

This 22 -year -old girl, who for so long had lived in this fantasy world,

suddenly, through the death of her pet tortoise, has to face up to reality.

Suddenly, you change from colour to black and white, right until the end of

film. A masterstroke, showing stark reality. No, no, no, we change from

black and white because we run out of color film.

This girl who had this duende, this savoir -faire, so very nearly perfect,

you gave her a lisp, showing even the most perfect of it.

No, no, no, I don't give her a lisp.

She have a lisp.

The actress who plays the part have always the lisp.

You touched all over Fran.

for an actress with a list. No, I don't search for her. She was discovered,

actually, by the producer, who was living with her at the time.

I sort of think of his jokes, you know, like... And they're very quick, and it's

like the bank raid, you know, and the bank robber comes in and says, everybody

lie down on their stomachs, and there's one girl lying on her back, and he says,

this is a bank raid, not the Christmas party, Miss Jones. You know, I think

that's very, very funny.

But it's bound to cause distress to Joe Mangria.

which is probably a good thing.

He has impeccable and perfect timing, which is... There is an old joke.

You say to someone... Like, for instance, you say to me,

what is the art of comedy now?

Timing.

See what I mean?

Well, that's Benny.

I said, did you know Phil Kelly went out wearing one welly when he heard there

was only going to be one foot of snow?

And did you know that nothing succeeds like a budgie with no teeth?

And she looks up and says, I know, I know.

She says, look, love, don't you see, all this don't interest me.

In fact, I find it positively boring.

I've been sitting here listening so long, my little bottom's gone to sleep.

I said, I know it has. I heard it snoring.

Not a lot of people know that.

I've never seen him do me.

Never seen him do me. I hope he doesn't say not many people know that.

I'm quite happy that I come through. And it's just...

It's an impression rather than an impersonation or an imitation. It's an

impression of the character or the person that I'm impersonating.

I have never permitted strong liquor to pass my lips.

I dare mere choke myself trying to find another way to swallow that.

Mr. Mayor, do you mind if I put your dog down? I think I can feed a flea. Oh,

well, put her down, then. Yeah, I wouldn't like her to get a flea.

Starring Shirley Bassey.

Special guest star, Nana Muscuri.

Special co -star, Dorothy Squire.

Special guest stars co -star Moira Anderson.

There's an awful sort of political feminist snobbery about him, which I

is really why his show was stopped in England, which I think is absurd.

You know, he laughs at women.

I mean, I don't like the idea of anybody laughing at women.

Like... I mean, not that he's laughing at me or at her or anybody in

but the idea of the woman.

It's quite offensive as well.

All this saucy, girly stuff, you know.

What I think the feminists don't have is a sense of humour.

I mean, everything they don't realise, the feminists don't realise, is that

everything serious is sent up.

They think they're the only ones who are being sent up. Everything is sent up.

It was a tremendous surprise to me when Benny was dismissed from Thames

rather summarily after Philip had retired, may I say. It would never have

happened in Philip's day if it would have been...

It was necessary to say to Benny, look, the shows are too expensive. Will you

cut down? Can we make simpler shows? That would have been discussed.

Nothing. He was sent for like a schoolboy and told that

Thames didn't want his shows anymore. This to their biggest export, to the man

who'd made millions for Thames and was still a huge star all over the world.

I and the rest of show business found it incomprehensible.

And I really got quite a surprise.

I went in at 10 o 'clock. I think I came out at about two minutes past 10,

having been told thank you for several, you know, reasons.

Business is business, and I don't mind, you know, them saying we've had enough

or we can't afford it or whatever.

But I would have liked a little bit of a small pat on the back because I'd been

there for 22 years.

All around the world you can go, and there you can see Benny Hill.

He's in some shape, sometimes dubbed, sometimes with subtitles.

The one place you can't see him is here.

And that's typical of us as a nation.

Almost frightened of success, because he is the most successful comedian this

country has ever produced.

I remember a sketch that is not very representative of Benny Hill, but which

was, which struck me because it was a sketch where he was in a clown.

And yes, he undressed, he took off his shoes, he took off after his leg, it was

in black light. It was a poetry, a funny, at the same time a little sad,

was really beautiful.

That's it. The word, it was beautiful.

He has no problem in just being this quiet little person in the corner

life and listening and laughing. And that's unbelievable.

I mean, for someone who is this, we think, from the Benny Hill show,

this extraordinary extrovert, when in fact he's a people

watcher. He's not so shy with people that he knows terribly well. The team

works with him, he's quite confident. But if anyone comes into the studio that

he doesn't know, or perhaps into the rehearsal room, I think he does tend to

withdraw slightly and perhaps become a little bit shy.

Am I shy?

I'm far too shy to answer that. I really am. I just couldn't. I'm sorry.

He's a very gentle man.

And you'll find most of it's much like tough guys.

The real tough guys are very quiet, and the real funny men are very gentlemanly.

My impression of him was someone who was an extremely good workman and a good

artist, and someone who I worked with for a long time, and I know exactly the

same about him as before, which is purely a public persona. I know nothing

personal about him at all.

Living in Southampton and living in the family home, it's still the family home.

And when I'm down there, every time I go down, I take flowers up to my parents'

graves. And this will give you a little insight into what they're like. I can

hear them talking.

Because when I put the flowers on, I can hear mum saying, you spent £12 on

flowers, you want your brains testing, you've got more money than cents you

have. And dad always got annoyed when we did things, if we weren't doing it

properly, he used to say, give us it, dear, I'll do it.

dear, that's all you've got to do. And he'd show how easy it was because we

fumbling with it. And when I'm breaking the stems at the base of the flowers so

they suck up the water better, I should hear him say, oh, give it to me, I'll do

it.

So I took Mum and Dad to lunch at Lyons and we went to the matinee performance

at the Palladium and saw Sophie Tucker.

And I thought I'd cheer him up a little bit.

I have some pictures taken with Jean -Marc Thibault in the south of France a

couple of years ago.

We will go around and say hello to the people. This is my agent.

One is that when I was in Italy doing the Italian job, which was a film with

Rossano Grazzi and Raffi Bologna and Michael Caine, who's too handsome to be

true. I think he has a face like an evil cherub.

I think it's a cherub sent by the devil. That's what he looks like to me.

In amongst all the other good cherubs, you know, from up there, there's this

Benny Hill sitting there waiting.

Am I?

Are you used to go to the British embassies wherever you go?

Nobody anywhere has ever invited me. I've been to most of the countries in

world, and the UN is the only one who's invited me. Thank you very much indeed,

sir. That's a big thrill, I promise you.

So Ewan Ferguson, Lady Ferguson, Ewan Ferguson, Jr., Anna Ferguson, and Iona

Ferguson are all passionate viewers of Mr. Hill's performances.

I'm very pleased to hear that. But what good taste you have, sir.

See, there's nothing as tasteful as good taste. There's nothing ever,

anything that Benny Hill does that embarrasses you nor himself.

That's brilliant. Thank you very much indeed.

You forget how enormous a star he is all over the world. We tend to forget it

because we are so parochial and we live in England all the time.

There must be in the long term a memory, as there is for Charlie Chaplin, and I

would put Benny Hill in the same league as Charlie Chaplin.

I've been very influenced by Charlie Chaplin, as I said before. I admire him

tremendously. I think he's the...

one and only genius in my book. I admire Buster Keaton, Harry Langdon, Chester

Conklin, Charlie Chase, Lauren Hardy, you know, the silent comics and the

others. A little bit rubs off on you, and I'm interested in comedy, and I

quite a lot of television, and as I say, it rubs off on you.