Early Benny Hill

I saw "The Italian Job" on flight while travelling on business back in January. Was surprised to see him in the movie. Truth is I was only familiar with him from the shows my Father used to watch when I was growing up in the 70s.

 

I've got the Ernie lp.

 

It's a Cue dot to alert the stations that an add break is soon. All ITV shows have them, including Benny Hill, it's nothing odd with the DVD's, they're on the master tapes.

 

On another note, I've always found it odd that the show never changed to Stereo. For such a big budget show, it stayed mono througout it's run, and yet cheaper shows like Last of the Summer Wine, and The Two Ronnies Australian Series changed to stereo in 1988 and 1986 respectively.

 

I found a photo of him from 1954:

 

Been recently rewatching many of the later material (1985 onwards) and apart from the New York Special, it's all not too bad, and there's some real gems among them.

 

Found myself a copy of the Region 2 release of Double Helpings for $7!



The bitrate is higher than the Umbrella Entertainment Region 4:


But the chapter points are more comprehensive on the Umbrella disc and on the Region 2 They have freeze framed the end of each the end credits, whereas the umbrella dvd's end as normal, with the screen cutting to black at the end, with the audio continuing for 5 or so seconds until it fades out, which is how they appear on the original VHS releases (which I also own!)

If I was to pick one of the two, I'd go for the Region 4, even if the bit-rate is slightly lower.

 

I still hope that one day I am able to track down locally the two HBO sets:




They're compilations, and in NTSC, but I'm a Hill collector, and the end chases are without the chroma-keyed in credits from the original shows, plus the first one contains the 1985 shows, which I am missing on DVD. I'm still unable to find copies of the 1985 and 1988 Annuals. They are the only 2 years I'm missing Plus it's got the great 1991 doco, although I've got the 1992 VHS released just after his death for that one.

The one NZ online retailer that had them didn't do bank deposits

Comedy Central are once again showing Hill again. I was getting excited that they'd show the Aussie special last time, until they stopped at the end of 1977 and didn't go on any further. Hopefully they go the whole run this time. I do know that Aussie/NZ channel UK-TV aired the Aussie special complete in the late 90's as the complete ending has circulated on then net from an UK-TV airing.

 

Here's Benny busy watch television writing down new ideas:

 

A rarity, here's The Springfields (with Dusty Springfield) rehearsing for The Benny Hill Show:



With Micheal Caine:


Here's a rare color snap from the first of the trilogy of black and white shows during the technicians strike:

 

He lived just down the road from me. His flat was conveniently located 5 minutes walking distance from Thames TV studios.
Also occasionally some wag puts up a sign at Teddington railway station underneath 'Teddington' saying "Home of Two-Ton Ted".

 

One of his lesser known characters, but one of my favorites, Ginger Tomkins:

 

Benny as Mr. T!

 

Maybe W.B. can chime in on this photo. This is actually the first glimpse I ever saw of Benny when I rented the Double Helpings DVD all those years ago. To this date I haven't seen it on any of his programs to my memory and am guessing it's from a sketck or quickie that didn't make the cut?

 

Superteech from 1983:

 

The Halitosis Kid from 1988:

 

A BBC era shot, but don't know what sketch:

 

Friend and fellow comedian/tv host Bob Monkhouse talks about Benny Hill:

 

Stanley Baxter's parody from 1972:

 

What could be the earliest surviving color footage of Benny Hill, him among others such as Harry Secombe.

 

Here's a promo he made for American TV:

 

Taken from the 1992 series "Television's Greatest Hits" This show's the top show's of 1970. The Benny Hill Show was the biggest comedy show of the year, and In overall (including all genres) came only second to the Miss World competition with Bob Hope. The following year he would get a record breaking 21 million views.

Comedy Shows:


Overall:

 

I'm hoping W.B. will chime in here, cause he might be able to answer who the cast are in this video:



I may be wrong, but I think the man front right might be Peter Vernon, who was one of his straightmen, but that wouldn't make sense, as this is on Australian TV, and the rest of the cast are clearly Australian.

 

Great interview

 

Part 2