TV Series

Series Name:	The Benny Hill Show
Format:	TV Series
IMDB:	IMDB Page
Years:	1955 - 1989
Country:	UK
Language:	English
Genre:	Comedy
Rating:	7.1 Rate
Collection:	Seen It Wishlist
Community:	36 Have Seen
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Selected Cast	Benny Hill
	Jack Wright
	Bob Todd
	Henry McGee

On DVD & Blu-ray World

VHS

Benny Hill, Golden Sniggers - HBO Home Video - USA (1984)

VHS

Benny Hill, Golden Guffaws - HBO Home Video - USA (1989)

VHS

Benny Hill, Golden Chuckles - HBO Home Video - USA (1988)

DVD Box Set

Benny Hill Annuals: The Complete 70's 1970-1979 - Network - UK (2008)

DVD

Benny Hill: Double Helpings - Umbrella Entertainment - Australia (2003)

DVD Box Set

Benny Hill: The Complete And Unadulterated Megaset 1969-1989 - New Video - USA (2007)

DVD

The Complete Benny Hill Collection: Benny Hill's One Night Video Stand - Time-Life Video - USA (2000)

Comments and Reviews


W.B.lbl 15th Oct 2019		If you were to ask me, the show irrevocably jumped the shark in 1979 after Dennis Kirkland took over as producer/director. It is most likely *not* a coincidence that under his reign, the T&A quotient took a hard turn, done in such a way as to pander to the crowd that read the likes of Playboy, Penthouse, Hustler and Mayfair. And had little or nothing to do with comedy or making people laugh. But what Ben Elton and the others did to him was a forerunner of what in America would be characterized as "the politics of personal destruction" that became SOP starting in the 1990's. Too, as to the repetition factor, in the '80's Hill, besides becoming "old" and "tired" (and also bloated - not unlike his show), began approaching said repetition in an increasingly lifeless, rote, formulaic, perfunctory, been-there-done-that, going-through-the-motions, phoning/mailing it in, running-on-fumes, operating on autopilot and bordering on robotic form that is positively deadly in terms of attracting audiences. It was similar to the last years of The Jackie Gleason Show after The Great One moved to Miami Beach in 1964 and several of his shows were so bad that even he admitted they looked like "they had been made on the way to the men's room" - which pretty much describes much of Hill's output especially post-1982. In terms of the "bawdiness," the one American variety show that came closest (as could be permitted under the strictures to which American network TV was subjected in those days) was Dean Martin's, after he divorced his second wife Jeannie in 1970; it was not long after that, that The Dean Martin Show came increasingly under the radar of NOW, even so far as to that group bestowing a "Put Her In Her Place" "award" to the show a few years later. (One Martin bio cited one edition where he, Art Carney and Liberace did a routine about "hot pants.")



Neil Forbes 16th Sep 2015		I've said my bit, I'll leave it at that.



Record Collector 15th Sep 2015		Not a big deal Neil



Neil Forbes 13th Sep 2015		@23Skiddoo and RC, What I was getting at is when you start a format at one station, like The Mike Walsh Show as an example, which, in Sydney at least(through its early years up to 1975) was live to air, but delayed when carried by any regional station which carried it, by anything up to a week or more after the original broadcast, then, after perhaps, a dispute between Walsh, the company producing the show(Screen Gems[Australia] Ltd.) and the station, TEN-Sydney, in which studios the show was made, up to 1975, the dispute leads to a falling-out between the named parties, Walsh, now producing the show himself, takes it to Station TCN-Sydney from 1976 on to 1984, that's the point at which the "counter is reset to zero", even though the format hadn't changed, the studios in which it was made have changed. It's not just the production company "packaging" the show, the station has a stake in the show as well, thus, different station = different show! Same with Benny Hill, he used BBC facilities from 1955 to 1968, then used the facilities of Thames TV from 1969 to 1984 to produce his shows. With shows like "Bionic Woman" or "MAS*H", these are pre-packaged shows that are produced independently of any broadcast station, they use no TV station facilities(or if they do, it's sparingly at most) The shows are produced in a company's(like Paramount's or Columbia Pictures) own back-lot, the finished product is then offered up to the stations to accept or reject, the stations had little or no part in the production, so the count of episodes continue regardless of which network is screening it, CBS, NBC, ABC, A & E, Fox, whichever!



Record Collector 12th Sep 2015		Sorry have to disagree with Neil on this one changing networks wouldn't cause a huge impact at all at least the the format stays the same



TopPopper 12th Sep 2015		I've changed the start date to 1955. Although it did change channels, it seems to make more sense to keep the whole thing on one page, which is what we did for Morcambe and Wise, which also switched during its run.



RadoxTheGreen 11th Sep 2015		I'm surprised you didn't post this 23Skidoo



23skidoo 11th Sep 2015		@Neil When The Bionic Woman changed networks it didn't reset the counter, and most other shows that have done so haven't either. The problem though is we've been doing this all along. In fact somewhere in either a PM or even a comments areas someone from 45worlds instructed me that if the title and format stay the same and there are carryover cast members - and it's not considered a remake like the different Twilight Zones, for example - then it's listed as one. See what I did with Candid Camera. Then compare with the three versions of Tomorrow People where the 2nd and 3rd series are explicitly remakes so they are listed separately and I'm about to do a new entry for the remake of The Outer Limits. But had Rod Serling not died and he came back to host the 1990s version of Twilight Zone, odds are we'd have listed it as 1959-1995 (or whatever year the first remake ended). You can see where the confusion is.



Record Collector 11th Sep 2015		Ok then at the ready and on your marks.......get set.......go starts the music haha



Neil Forbes 11th Sep 2015		@RC, If you want to start running, I've got an MP3 of Boots Randolph's version I'll play for ya! Ha-ha!



Record Collector 11th Sep 2015		Feels like going for run around the park as he starts the benny hill theme haha



Neil Forbes 11th Sep 2015		The BBC shows from 1955 to 1968 and the ITV(Thames Television) shows from 1969 to 1989 should really be seen as two separate entities as they were on different stations. When you switch a show from one station or network to a rival, the "counter is reset to zero", as it were, and all that went before should not be associated with the newer show. A similar situation in Australia existed with *The Mike Walsh Show*, a talk/variety show which started on Station TEN-Sydney in 1971, then in 1976 Walsh took his show across to Station TCN-Sydney. The TEN shows should NOT be connected in history to the TCN shows. Even though the format was the same(mostly), the fact that one show ended on one station, then a new show started on another should completely separate the two shows.



Record Collector 11th Sep 2015		The benny hill show I have seen here Australia is from the 1977 series



23skidoo 11th Sep 2015		@Harley. That's my feeling too. I'm going to submit a correction on the start year.



harley 10th Sep 2015		To what I understand the Benny Hill Show ran from 1955 to 1968 on the BBC and then from 1969 to 1989 on Thames (ITV) so really it did start from 1955 but changed channel midway.



23skidoo 10th Sep 2015		Is that 1969 start date correct? Wikipedia says 1955 and I know I've seen clips online from around 1965.



zabadak 28th Jun 2015		This got unbelievable ratings at the time, even given there were only three channels! Was a guaranteed show chez nous. I remember almost being in tears when one ep coincided with a power cut and we missed the whole thing! :sad:



GEMSMFAN 27th Jun 2015		The theme is "Yakety Sax" by Boots Randolph, but for "Benny Hill", it is performed by someone else.



Record Collector 27th Jun 2015		When I was trying out (then new) VCR there was a sketch he was a news reader he sat on his glasses by accident and had to read the news with out them he had me on the floor laughing classic benny hill



Record Collector 27th Jun 2015		So you saying he did what George Harrison do to my sweet lord



TheJudge 27th Jun 2015		Not a 'rewritten' version of The Ballad Of Irving at all. It follows a fairly similar story-line, perhaps, but the suggestion in your comment that Hill plagiarised is pretty wide of the mark.



Record Collector 27th Jun 2015		Earnie is actually a rewritten version of Irving (The fastest gunman in the west)



Record Collector 17th May 2015		Park trees girls and a naughty man chasing them ahhh it's all coming back now haha



Neil Forbes 17th May 2015		Greg, did Benny do battle with "Two-Ton Ted From Tiddington"?(as suggested in Ernie[The Fastest Milkcart In The West])



gregs45s SUBS 17th May 2015		Benny was a local (to me,in Southampton) milkman for a while,you could always spot his float,it was the one chasing a line of scantily-clad women;)



biffbampow 17th May 2015		A show unlikely to ever be screened again on British TV in spite of the fact they're now all on DVD and he remains popular around the world. I enjoy the first 4 or 5 series for Thames... after that, it gets too much of a muchness and the older and fatter he got, the less funny it is for me. The PC brigade and the likes of Ben Elton and co not only helped destroy Benny's TV career but caused irreparable damage to the man's name and legacy that even today the mere mention of Benny's name can provoke rather hostile reactions.



shnozzle 17th May 2015

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