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I'm just remembering that the very first time we went up to the flat, not

knowing what to expect.

No. And the front room was all plush. Plush, wasn't it? All done out. Sort of

a nice blue shag -pile carpet that went up the walls, very Jason King style.

Yes, and we were looking round, sort of quite amazed, and he said, oh, I didn't

do it, it was all done up by a magazine. TV Times.

TV Times. Homes of the Celebrities.

And he said, I've just had it done, they've just decorated it for me. And

rest of the apartment was like a 50s time warp. Yeah, yeah. He just had the

front room done, which was like groovy.

And the room he kind of worked in was full of cardboard boxes.

Full of video tapes in it.

Scripts. Scripts.

All his work. I mean, he was very famous for bringing his scripts to work in a

Tesco carrier bag. Carrier bag, absolutely. He could have afforded a...

anything really, but he... We bought him briefcases, you're right. Yeah, yeah,

no, but it was always a carrier boat, wasn't it? But he used to study, you

the grape.

Yeah, Charlie Chaplin, the big fan.

Huge fan. And he said nothing's original, and you're probably right.

No, but he managed to present it all in a very original way. He did. He created

his own character.

And as you all said, the woman always has the upper hand.

Yeah, he always let us win in the end. Yeah, definitely. The way we like it.

Yeah, exactly.

He knew.

He knew. He loved us women. He did. He did. He did. He idolised us, really. I

mean, he put us on a pedestal. Yeah, definitely.

You know that you said he used to call you at home sometimes?

Yeah. And have a little chat. He did that to me when I was living in Hanford.

Did he? He was really quite sweet. He was very sweet. I mean, I sort of

I did that to myself.

What's he after? But he didn't really ask. He'd do anything. He sort of put

phone down. He'd think.

What was all that about? I guess he just wanted a bit of a chat, really.

It was very sweet.

I mean, he really was a great friend, as well as a boss and a great comedian.

I was the incredible Hulk here.

Believe it or not.

Small and green, and sort of six, eight -inch heels, and I'm sort of five foot

ten as it is.

You towered above the rest of us. I towered above everyone.

You looked amazing. Absolutely amazing.

Didn't you get to pat little Jackie Wright on the head as well? Oh, I was

always... Yeah,

yeah.

I was a whip woman as well.

Whip woman.

I've seen the photographs.

Oh, have you?

Yes, but...

They're amazing outfits, amazing outfits.

And I also remember going up to Harley Street because I was a vampire and, you

know, being fitted for the vampire teeth.

Wow, it's a great theory.

Yeah, amazing.

We worked together at the Talk of the Town.

Jo was lead singer, I was lead dancer.

So we'd see each other at night as well as during the day sometimes because we'd

film at Peddington during the day. And then we'd be out doing the review show

the evening in the West End. So we were pretty busy girls then. We were.

And then the three of us were all in a group together, a dance group. Yeah,

Feeling. Which was a little and odd show later on.

We should have worked together quite a lot. We did. We were never off the box

one time.

And he used to live very close to me, so I used to pop round and see you. That's

right. At one time, we lived in Hampton.

Yeah, we were all very close at one time, weren't we?

And now, 25 years on, or whatever it is.

All got children.

Yeah, it's amazing.

So, we're very thrilled that Benny's very popular still.

Yeah, nice for us. And as Alison was saying, jolly nice getting those repeat

checks. Thank you, Benny. Nice little present there.

Well, we turn up and be given breakfast as soon as we arrived and tea and go

straight into make -up.

And there, there would be an army of makeup and hairdressing girls.

Full body makeup. Full body makeup, usually. Especially for you.

Especially for me. Full body makeup.

Green, usually. And then Benny would often come round to the makeup room and

have a chat with each and every one of us. He'd go round and say, morning, how

are you doing?

Have you read your script?

What do you think of this, that and the other?

And just talk to you generally about, you know, how you've been getting on.

Stuff like that, didn't they? It was very friendly like that.

And then after that, we'd be into wardrobe, fitting.

And then, usually, no rehearsal, straight down to the set, and Benny

you, and then you'd just shoot it, really.

I mean, very rarely I rehearsed anything.

And you generally didn't take that many takes. No, one or two, three takes max,

and that was it, it was done.

It was different with the dancing. Different with Hills Angels. With the

routine.

But even then, you were pressurised. I remember one particular routine. It was

quite tricky. It was about Carmen.

where it was like the opera camp comedy Carmen.

Oh, was that when Benny was wearing the cummerbund? Yeah, it was hilarious.

But also there was one tricky dance bit where we were sort of up, round, all

sort of like... Just like the Menko dance as well. Yeah, sort of like we

rolling the cigar type girls. Cigar girls, really. Yeah, the Cuban cigar

And then all of the girls would sort of spin around and be on the floor and then

twist around and then jump up again.

And I twisted the wrong way.

So, imagine me, I'm right in the middle of it, and they're twisting that way,

and then go down. It happened twice.

Now, you hear of these big stars 15 takes later, you know. I did it twice,

Dennis said, OK, let's do it one more time for Alison.

Good luck, Alison.

Good luck, Alison.

Let's hope we get it right next time. I remember that.

And I was like, oh, my God, what's going on?

Is it right? Is it right? Is it right?

So, you know, yes, it was fun, but at the end of the day, you're a

You know, you do your stuff. You had to do your job properly. And it wasn't very

often that I mucked up, but when you did, you sure felt the heat.

Well, he was being funny, but that was his humour.

It was like a little bit of a dig, you know, but it's like... Yeah.

Yeah, you had to be professional, know your line.

I mean, you'd get sent the script, you know, a couple of weeks before starting.

So you had to...

You know, we made it look a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun. Of course it was.

But we had to be professional as well. Yeah, yeah. And it was a great training,

actually, wasn't it?

Absolutely. It was. You know, you were saying about variety. Yeah. I mean, that

in a way was kind of a variety show because it was great for us because, you

know, I got to dance, I got to dress up in different costumes, be different

people, do some acting, which I was quite keen on doing. Yeah. We got to

go at everything, didn't we, really?

So the girls got to do a bit of everything and I think that was what...

fun about it. There's no sort of opportunities now for dancers coming out

No, very, very few. There's very, very few sort of variety shows with

It's all sort of quiz shows now or reality shows. I mean, the television is

full of kind of amateurs, really. Well, you don't know who can do what. I mean,

you did have to do everything when you worked with Benny. You had to act,

And singing.

We did singing with Maggie Shredder singers.

Great singing.

I remember that.

We had to be all rounders, proper variety performers.

You couldn't turn up there and not know how to dance or not know how to act or

not know how to sing. You had to be able to do everything. Absolutely.

And the strange thing was that the Ladybirds did, of course, the Benny Hill

show, but also one of the Ladybirds was the Maggie Shredder singers, and they

did Little and Large as well. So it was the same woman coaching us singing as

well. It was like...

Different channels.

As we were saying, when we were doing Little and Large together, we got

again after that. And I think you probably thought, oh, they're off doing

and Large. I've got them back.

They're my girls. Because you had a phase of not being used. You thought

been dropped.

Yes, exactly.

Well, obviously, you like sort of change.

He knew a lot of people in the business and he wanted it to look difficult for

everybody. A lot of girls wanted to get on the show. And a lot of girls wanted

to be on the show. I mean, it was a good show to be on.

But it was quite funny after that. He must have watched it and thought, I

I want them back.

Yes, yes.

Because the phone would go. The phone would go.

Yes.

And also, I did one time a musical.

I was trying to get more into musical theatre at the Royal Exchange.

And even then they picked up that I was a Benny Hill girl. So they'd done a

piece in one of the Manchester papers saying, ex -Benny Hill girl stars in a

musical. And then, blow me down, I finished that and I got a phone call

into the show again. So I thought... Oh, he used to pick up all the publicity as

well. Anything where he was mentioned. Any time his name was mentioned, he

know. So if you mentioned him in your CV or anything, he would probably know

about it.

Definitely. That's quite interesting.

Not really, not very often. I mean, not really, no, because, I mean, we just...

went off into different fields and you know i lived abroad for a couple of

and i was traveling and and alison joined a band and was traveling so you

we just we just diversified and went off into different fields yeah but uh we

always thought about him and you know happy days happy days and you know

reminisce and that sort of thing