Original subtitles

I started the show when I was 21 and I had 14 years of absolute glorious fun.

The choreographer at the time, she must have given my name to Benny because I

didn't know anything about it and I got a phone call in the morning and I didn't

know who this person was and he started chattering away, you know, he was sort

of stumbling and, well, yes darling, well...

looking for girls and need uh that heard about you and blah blah and i said i'm

sorry who is this and he said uh it's benny hill darling um are you free for

lunch today and i said uh well um actually i was thinking very quickly and

said uh i am so is my sister you know so i thought i don't want to come on my

own and we had a super lunch at serpentine gallery lots of champagne,

laughs. He seemed very interested in what we were up to, artist -wise.

I was a professional dancer.

I'd had quite a bit of experience.

He said, yes, you're booked, straight away. He was a lovely, lovely bloke, he

really was.

And that was my audition, really. It was kind of, OK, fine.

I seem to remember we went out for a nice meal.

We had a lovely glass of wine, brilliant meal.

to do. I mean, I thought, oh, this is all right.

I was doing a video for Genesis and Benny Hill happened to be working on the

video with Sue Upton, in fact, who I think you've been talking to as well.

And we were filming the thing for Phil Collins and Sue took me to one side and

she said, I'd like you to come and meet Benny.

I was amazed how warm and friendly and just how down to earth he was.

He was just an amazing character.

He didn't actually say to me on the day, oh, I'd like you to come work on the

show. But he sent me this little note saying it would be great if you could

work on the show a couple of weeks later.

I think he actually picked quite a few people in the show, partly, obviously,

the look he wanted, but also I think he liked to like whoever he was working

with. You know, he was very intuitive, you know, even in conversation. He had a

good way of picking up people's talents.

One of the first few sketches that I remember working with Benny, I was

up as a young girl guide and he's basically, it was quite a funny sketch

actually, and he kept pulling my legs saying how young I looked.

It was my very first day of filming and I said, where's my costume? And I was

handed the tiniest little pair of pants.

a bra and suspenders.

And I was like, fine.

And I just remember toupee taping everything so it didn't move, you know.

Professional, you see there, see the last.

And I, there was lovely Alison Bell was in one house, dressed in a sort of

corset, very revealing.

In fact, I was a bit concerned about how revealing it was.

I was at the top of the house and there was a ladder.

Benny was the fireman.

And I was in the third house on the window ledge and there was a genuine

on fire in the middle with an old elderly fella and his wife desperate for

and Benny and the team arrive and of course they're so distracted by Alison

Bell's gorgeous figure leaning out of the window and me teetering on the edge.

Of course, they leave the hapless people to burn, I think.

It was really funny. The thing is, I was such a huge Benny fan anyway. I used to

find it difficult not to laugh.

Trying to think about that one, I have a feeling it was something to do with

jogging. And while I was a jogger, we were all jumping up and down with milk

bottles. You might know this sketch.

And I think I played a jogger, a traffic warden, a policewoman.

a peculiar housewife, and we were all doing odd things, but we had to jog, and

this went on for days that we were jogging. I think Sue Upton was an old

jogging. Does this ring a bell?

I think that was the first one.

Now, I remember thinking, crikey, is this what's in store?

Dennis Kirkland, the director, always had a huge belly laugh after they'd said

cut, you know, and it was a tremendous family feeling, oddly enough.

It was, it was. Yes, fond, fond memories.

Everyone there, all the sort of make -up people, the cameramen, all the

actors actually in the show were just such nice people.

Oh, it was wonderful.

It was like being a big family there, really. You know, all the make -up and

wardrobe ladies and all Benny's film crew, you know, they'd worked with him

years. Working on the set, going back... Year after year, it was very nice

because it was like a family environment. We all knew each other, Bob

Henry McGee, who still remains a friend.

It was very nice. It was sort of something to look forward to.

My wife.

If I don't stop drinking.

I shall miss her.

Bob Todd acted as if he was drunk nearly all day long, which was quite amusing.

But I think he realised it was to his advantage because he wasn't obviously,

know, drunk, but he liked to give that impression.

And Henry McGee is just one of the world's best gentlemen you could ever

That was a sketch where I sat at the bar and Bob Todd was there. He had a pipe.

back and forth teeth. I didn't realise that at the time because sometimes they

wouldn't tell you what they were going to do and it would be just a horrible

shock.

And I used to say, oh, it's so nice to meet you, you've got lovely teeth.

And he went, thank you, and he took the pipe out and the teeth came with it.

You'd always have a laugh with them.

I mean, as I said earlier, I think Benny, actually it was important to him

he chose people that he liked.

My zip's not undone.

I know, but I bet so far I could make you take your hat off in the lift.

Yes, I mean, you were always aware he was there, sort of, even if he wasn't

actually in the sketch, he'd be sort of watching over you, making sure it was

just right.

When we were rehearsing the dance numbers, he'd be sitting there and he

carry things in a carrier bag and he'd be thumbing through papers and the set

and the other and he'd be biting his nails.

Naughty boy.

Also part of our so -called little family were Henry McGee, Bob Todd and a

little bald -headed chap called Jackie Wright.

And Jackie was amazing because you just simply couldn't understand him.

Here you were working with a little chap who's in his mid -70s who's an Irishman

who's got a very strong Irish accent and I think every time anyone tried to

speak to him it was, Jackie, could you repeat that?

Pardon, Jackie?

Yes, what did you say, Jackie?

I give him his vitamin tonic every day.

I can't think what he does with it if he doesn't take it.

He was a lovely little character.

Of course, we loved working with the ladybirds, with Maggie Streder, and if

there was singing and dancing to do.

the hills angels would always be involved and it would be taken to the

studio and sing along with the maggie streder singers you know which uh really

sort of that was another great experience studio singing and then then

to sort of mime to our playback for the dance routine as well

When we were rehearsing at the rugby ground, a helicopter arrived one time on

the green there, and Freddie Starr got out in a white tracksuit. And you have

remember that Benny had arrived probably on the bus or with a hire cab with a

plastic bag with all his stuff, and you get Freddie Starr arriving by

helicopter.

He obviously wanted to talk to them about something. I'm not sure what that

all about, that meeting, but I'll never forget that. We were all so impressed.

Everything stopped, and we just watched Freddie Starr doing his kind of...

You know, this white tracksuit. It was wonderful.

I feel very sad when people say the show was sexy because it wasn't at all. It

was all done very much tongue -in -cheek.

And at the end of the day, it was the sexy girls that always came out on top.

We were never ever the losers.

I'm sorry, really. I have other plans for tonight.

More important than spending the night with Superstud?

Oh, come on. What the hell are you doing with the damn importance?

I'm chairing a meeting to decide who's going to be made redundant here.

As I said beforehand, Benny absolutely adores female company.

And every sketch that he actually was involved with, it was actually him being

the loser.

So how can it be sexist? It was never anything against women of this world. He

actually loved women of yesterday, today and tomorrow.

And everything was done so tongue -in -cheek. I just think people, their own

interpretations often mistook things the wrong way.

He lived a good life. He liked eating well.

He wasn't a big drinker because he'd actually lost a kidney, so he had to be

careful how much he drank.

But he did have a good time. He enjoyed himself.

And he was very generous to his friends and the girls, I think.

You know, he would take us out to lunch. He would take us out for little treats.

And he was a good person to be with. He was fun.

He was totally at home in the studio.

I think probably part of the reason for not doing live shows was the costumes.

I mean, he did love the costumes and the makeup and the whole sort of dressing

up thing, which was sort of all part and parcel of the show, really.

You know, the different characters and...

He had such a wide variety of characters that he could play.

Oh, but he hated to do live work.

I think if he was ever asked to appear on a show...

he'd be quivering a week beforehand because he was just so nervous. People

didn't realise that Benny was a very nervous figure.

And because he actually enjoyed doing his TV work, he enjoyed his TV work

because he was totally in control.

So if we did a scene and it didn't work very well, he'd just say, oh, blow it, I

wasn't happy with that, let's do it again.

And he used to quite rightly say, if I was in stage, you only ever get one

chance.

When you're filming, you can do a take half a dozen times.

Ladies and gentlemen, just to say thank you very much for being with us. You've

been a super audience, and we look forward to seeing you all again very,

soon. And until... That's very rude.

What? Oh, two minutes.

Two minutes under.

It can't be two. We've never... Excuse us. We've never been two minutes under.

Yeah, yeah.

What was the pillow say out there?

Get on with it.

But that was because he was a perfectionist.

And I think he did find it quite difficult.

People would say, you know, he didn't seem in the least bit nervous, but he

He wanted to get it absolutely right.

And obviously in front of a studio audience, you know, if you do something

wrong, you know, you do it again, but you've done it wrong.

He liked to get it sort of right first time. So I think he was a little

apprehensive, but, you know, he was always great.

When you did sketches with him, it was quite bizarre because I never remember

actually rehearsing with him.

And the one time I did, I had some lines actually in one of the sketches I did

with him where I was a nurse and he was playing a deep south kind of old mama in

bed, you know.

And all I remember is the director said to me, can you do a southern accent,

American southern accent?

And I said, well, I sure can, honey.

And he went, good, right.

And then it wasn't until the night of the show, I'd been given a script, that

they said, okay,

right, ready to do the sketch.

And in front of an audience.

So you certainly had to be on your toes. But I think it went very well,

actually. I'm quite proud of myself for that.

Has the pottery gone yet?

He's gone, but it wasn't the Padre. It was the doctor.

I thought he was a bit damn familiar for a Padre.

Have one yourself.

Oh, thank you.

Goddammit. I caught another one of them damn blackberry ones. I can't stand them

blackberry ones. I just hate them damn blackberry ones. Mine's a blackberry

I like them fine.

Gee, I can't stand them. I always put them back.

It was sort of, at the time, you don't think of it as being fun, but looking

back on it, it was fun. I mean, there were a lot of laughs. And we used to do

the location work at Thorpe Park, which, for our American viewers, is a

leisure centre. It's a sort of, you know, there are rides, it's a park.

And we took over this park for about three to four weeks every year.

And we did have some hugely funny times. It nearly always rained. It always

chose to rain while we were doing it. And we would be walking on duck boards

to our knees in mud, and people rushing about trying to hose us down.

It was good. It used to get very cold as well, but we were always having to

smile, you know, troopers.

He used to tell wonderful stories about girls that worked on the show that had

boyfriends that wanted to control their careers and things, and he used to say,

and I say to them, what does your boyfriend know if he's a used car

knows nothing about the business.

Well, I think it was always mixed up.

You know, everything was tongue -in -cheek, and it was great fun. I have to

I look back very fondly on those days. It was great, great fun, and there were

some lovely girls that worked on the show.

I'd love to see them again, you know.