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The Benny Hill Show

by: Benny Hill

Topics: Benny Hill, British comedy, British television, male gaze, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 20th century

Language: English

Rights: **FAIR USE NOTICE**

The Benny Hill Show

- The alternative comedian Ben Elton made a headline-grabbing allegation, both on the TV show Saturday Live and in the pages of Q magazine (in its January 1987 issue), that The Benny Hill Show incited crimes and misdemeanours. "We know in Britain, women can't even walk safe in a park anymore. That, for me, is worrying."

- A spokesman for the Broadcasting Standards Authority commented that "the convention is becoming increasingly offensive [...] It's not as funny as it was to have half-naked girls chased across the screen by a dirty old man."

- John Howard Davies, the head of Light Entertainment at Thames Television, was cited by the British press as the man who sacked Benny Hill when the company decided not to renew Hill's contract. "The show was past its sell-by date", Davies told The Guardian newspaper. "Benny was all right when he was young, but when you're in your 60s, it's a slightly different matter to leer at a pretty girl."

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- Recently, actress Debbie Arnold accused The Benny Hill Show of being “sexist”, "ridiculous" and “terrible” when she appeared on Good Morning Britain. "I mean, looking up girls' skirts, how can that be right for people to see that today?”

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- As the show became more and more out of touch, audiences plummeted [citation needed] until it was finally cancelled by ITV in 1989 - here are four jokes deemed horrendous by today’s standards:

“Girls are like pianos. When they’re not upright, they’re grand.”

“I’m not against half naked girls – not as often as I’d like to be.”

“Roses are reddish, violets are bluish. If it weren't for Christmas, we'd all be Jewish.”

“Did you hear about the actress who was so dumb, she couldn’t count to two without taking off her blouse?”

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Reviews

Reviewer: Vinícius Maia - - May 30, 2024
Subject: Great comedian funniest sketches.

Wikipedia says there were 58 programs, so why are there 78? and why are these compilations different from the originals? I'm from Brazil and I bought these same editions (with copyright from 1980), are they editions made for international sale? I would appreciate it if someone could clarify it for me.

Reviewer: mark017m - - May 17, 2024
Subject: I Loved this as a kid!

This was a great show! We all used to stay up late to watch it. Ben Elton was being a hypocrite when he trashed Benny Hill. The same time he was doing it, He(and Rowan Atkinson) were producing "Blackadder"! Which was just as trashy. What nerve!

Reviewer: craftyrighty - - May 1, 2024
Subject: Nice! How do I find the pre Thames shows from 1968 and before?

Looking for pre Thames Benny

Reviewer: TacoMan521 - - February 25, 2024
Subject: Seems like episodes are missing.

Shouldn't there be 91 episodes? That is what it says on Wikipedia.
It is a good idead to archive this. The dvds are becoming hard to find and expensive.

Reviewer: Sipan1973 - - February 16, 2024
Subject: My Opinion

Fantastic.

Reviewer: Niel Dickinson - - January 27, 2024
Subject: LET'S CELEBRATE, NOT DESECRATE!

Benny Hill was an English comedian who was a prominent figure in television for several decades.
He is best remembered for his programme, The Benny Hill Show, an amalgam of slapstick, burlesque and double entendre in a format that included live comedy and filmed segments, with Hill at the focus of almost every segment.

His show was among the most-watched programmes in the UK, and his audience was more than 21 million in 1971.
The Benny Hill Show was also exported to many countries around the world.

He received a BAFTA Award for Best Writer and a Rose d'Or, and was nominated for the BAFTA for Best Entertainment Performance and for two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Variety.
Outside television, Hill starred in films including the Ealing comedy Who Done It? (1956), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) and The Italian Job (1969).

His comedy song, "Ernie (The Fastest Milkman in the West)", was 1971's number one Christmas song on the UK Singles Chart, and earned Hill an Ivor Novello Award from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors in 1972.

Hill's Legacy:
In 1998, Hill was featured in the Heroes of Comedy programme, and in 2002, he was ranked the third greatest British comedian of the 20th century, after Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel.
In 2006, Hill was voted number 17 in a poll of TV's 50 Greatest Stars by the British public.

On 28 December 2006, the documentary, Is Benny Hill Still Funny?, was broadcast.
The programme featured an audience that comprised a cross-section of young adults who had little or no knowledge of Hill, to discover whether his comedy was valid to a generation that enjoyed the likes of Little Britain, The Catherine Tate Show and Borat.
The participants favourably rated a 30-minute compilation that included examples of Hill's humour from his TV shows.

In November 2021, The Benny Hill Show would feature in a Christmas schedule on Freeview, alongside other programmes, such as Beadle's About and Kenny Everett's New Year Specials. Benny Hill is still widely celebrated to this day.

So contrary to what has been written above, let's remember his talents and celebrate, instead of trying to cancel him, there's too much of that nowadays!

Reviewer: scourge2150 - - May 30, 2023
Subject: This is a great collection!!!!

But I'm looking for an EP and its driving me crazy,this collection
is just like what's on (Antenna TV) on my converter box.But looking for a specific EP singing in the background "New York New York so great they named it twice" can not find it any place. Anybody come across this on archive? Early eighties?

Never mind I found it..........

Reviewer: wisc lawnracer - - February 22, 2023
Subject: Thanks

Thanks for the Benny Hill videos. Just wish they were smaller files. 11 and 24 Gigs will take for ever to download.

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