Talk:Benny Hill: Difference between revisions

Biography: Arts and Entertainment Start‑class

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography, a collaborative effort to create, develop and organize Wikipedia's articles about people. All interested editors are invited to join the project and contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how to use this banner, please refer to the documentation.BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Biographybiography articles Start This article has been rated as Start-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale. This article is supported by the arts and entertainment work group.

Comedy Start‑class High‑importance

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Comedy, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of comedy on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.ComedyWikipedia:WikiProject ComedyTemplate:WikiProject ComedyComedy articles Start This article has been rated as Start-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale. High This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale.

Hampshire Unassessed

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Hampshire, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Hampshire on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.HampshireWikipedia:WikiProject HampshireTemplate:WikiProject HampshireHampshire articles ??? This article has not yet received a rating on Wikipedia's content assessment scale. ??? This article has not yet received a rating on the project's importance scale.

I have yet to see credit given to Benny Hill for the bit part he played in the 60's movie The Russians are Coming. Part wasn't very big, but it was well played.--Mike White

• I don't think he was in that one, but I do think you're probably confusing that film with Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, in which he actually did appear. -Wbwn 22:46, 1 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Is the doggrel quoted here actually a Benny Hill composition? If not, I think an actual lyric should be used like one of the jokes from "Gather in the Mushrooms" perhaps. 23skidoo 21:21, 2 Nov 2004 (UTC)

It may be just rumor, but I've heard that Benny Hill donated his sperm to a clinic in Christchurch and is the father of dozens of children, including Jude Law, Minnie Driver, Chris Martin, and Noel but not Liam Gallagher. Has anyone else heard this? I'm just dying to know if it might be true.

 Geez, if it is, I hope Jude and Minnie don't get together...

• I've heard that Benny Hill died a virgin. This would be quite interesting considering the use of scantily clad women on the show. I haven't found anything that can confirm or deny this.

--Twintone 16:42, 20 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The claim that the reason for the show's cancellation was pure political correctness is pretty egregiously not NPOV. I've edited it to give Thames' official reason, and cite two competing theories for why the show was killed. Metamatic 17:46, July 31, 2005 (UTC)

A number of English people with whom I've spoken over the years have spoken derisively of Benny Hill; they seemed almost appalled that foreigners might associate their country with him. That's unfortunate. Benny Hill was a wonderfully talented, creative comedian. His doggerel and faux-poetry ("Ted," for example) are absolutely hilarious. He was a master craftsman of the English language, too, exploiting its possibilities to the fullest. And to top it all off, Hill's humor was never malicious or cruel. The politically correct among us who would condemn him simply don't understand the gentle, innocently lecherous nature of his characters. How could any Anglophone not smile at lines like "Three 'hole weeks of fun and sun, sir. Three hundred and fifty pounds." "I'd hardly call that a popular price." "I like it, sir." Or: "Some girls are like Cairo, mysterious and hot/Other girls are like Paree with all the charm she's got/But my girl she is like Tibet with all its ice and snow there/'Cause everyone knows where it is, but no one wants to go there." Benny Hill, you are one of England's greats, and many of us across the pond miss you still. Bamjd3d

• How could anyone with half an ounce of wit raise even a smirk at pedestrian lines like those?? 62.6.139.11

• The English people you talked to much be off their heads. I'm English and love Benny Hill, as do many others. He was the biggest star on Televsion in the UK for 34 years! 152.163.100.68 20:27, 28 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

"The biggest star on television in the UK for 34 years"??? What a pile of crap! What planet are you on?

This is a funny story. My nephew was visiting London and asked several locals if there was a Benny Hill museum. He was constantly told "why would anyone want to visit such a place". It seems that people in the UK did not seem to appreciate Benny's humor. Piercetp 02:45, 7 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

What on earth would a museum for the awful Hill consist of? A load of discarded cami-knickers? He wasn't even from London, anyway. Dolmance (talk) 04:49, 12 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

• As an American, what I've noticed is that in Britain, many of the Benny-haters are more preferential towards the likes of Monty Python, which I've noticed has a more mean-spirited and strident tone to it in spots (or, to put it another way, "malicious and cruel"), not to mention some sketches pushing a certain kind of socio-political agenda. These hypocrites think that sketches like what Mr. Hill did such as looking at a beautiful woman is verboten, but blood gushing freely on a countryside as Python did (the "Salad Days" sketch) or an undertaker proposing to eat a potential customer's dead mother (also from Python) are perfectly okay. And of course the constant "Benny Hill bad" brainwashing and drumbeat over the last two decades in the U.K. - no wonder there are those across the pond who have such a low opinion of this comic genius. –Wbwn 18:33, 26 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

You're wrong. Python was aimed at a totally different audience to Benny Hill -- it had intellectual roots, was written and performed by largely Oxbridge team, and took influences from Peter Cook and Spike Milligan (the latter, incidentally, thoroughly despised Hill and said so in print and on TV). Hill's downmarket, lowest common denominator stuff was aimed at a mass audience, the sort of people who read The Sun and take holidays in Bournemouth, and took its cue from seaside postcards. Look at how his biggest supporter in Britain these days is Garry Bushell, a loud-mouthed and extremely right-wing thug.

Ther's nothing hypocritical about disliking Hill, he seemed to find rape amusing, for a start. You've just got to deal with the fact that, while you may have never heard of Morecambe and Wise, Tommy Cooper, Frankie Howerd or Ronnie Barker, they are contemporaries of Hills' who are remembered with great affection, and still reshown, in Britain -- while he is not. Dolmance (talk) 04:49, 12 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The cancellation of Benny Hill's show was actually nothing to do with so called "political correctness". The Benny Hill show was shown on ITV, and their key agenda was maximising audiance figures in order to gain the maximum advertising revenue. Therefore, if the Benny Hill Show could be guaranteed a mega large audiance, ITV would have screened it. They were still screening Jim Davidson shows at the time, and nobody is less politically correct than him! The reason that the show was scrapped was simply that fewer and fewer people were watching it. Whether that was down to so-called "political-correctness" or whether it was simply down to the fact that people were getting tired of the same old gags time after time after time is debatable. I know that I was a big fan of Benny Hill when I was 9-12 years old, but to be honest if I see a rerun of one of his shows now, I don't find it funny. I don't find it offensive either, its just not funny. It should also be remembered that the heyday of "alternative comedy" and so-called "politically correct comedy", with shows such as The Young Ones, Filthy Rich and Catflap, The Comic Strip Presents and "Saturday Live [with Ben Elton]" was between around 1982 and 1986, and that time Benny Hill's Show was still being shown. It wasn't scrapped until 1989. SimonUK 22:01, 26 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Having been to England twice, and studied the ratings ups and downs over Hill's 20 years at Thames, I can personally attest to this audience erosion being a major factor in Thames' pulling the plug (among other things, the last few years his average audience per show was roughly equal to the highest ratings per show Monty Python ever attained in Britain, in its third [1972-1973] series - and they never even made the weekly Top 20 most-watched shows lists); and living in the U.S. where ratings are every bit as important as with ITV, I can see the parallels. However, neither this fact nor the concern from Thames executives that Hill's show was sliding into perpetual uninspired mediocrity, via the endless repetition of gags which was becoming more and more rote (John Howard Davies, Thames' head of light entertainment at the time, said he felt the qualitative results of Hill's New York special which aired in the U.S. in 1991 and in Britain in two parts of 1994, and which he saw from a special monitor in his office as the studio segments were taped in 1990, justified his decision to ax the show if on that score) has even remotely stopped, dissuaded or deterred the forces of "political correctness" from taking full and complete credit for the cancellation, which they do this day. But as I can see, it wasn't simply for "dramatic effect" as suggested by Mark Lewisohn in his Funny, Peculiar tome; they truly believe their machinations and agitations led to the show's demise, not unlike a dog who barks incessantly out the window, who thinks his/her barking keeps out potential "intruders" from "invading" the house - even though most so-called "intruders" are in fact passersby who have no intention of even visiting, just going through on their way from Point A to Point B.

Nonetheless, this fiction from such forces has been further pushed by their accomplices in the media, many of whom are of that same mentality. One measure of how pervasive their canard has penetrated the debate about Mr. Hill can be found on an online multiple-choice site. There are ten questions dealing with his characters, key members of his cast, how many countries ran the show at its peak, and so on. On the final question, as to the cancellation, are the following possibilities: Declining ratings; accusations that the show was "sexist"; his eagerness to take on more "serious" subjects (one wishes); or his weight gain. I clicked on the declining ratings option, and as far as that site was concerned I was "wrong" and the "correct" answer was the purported "sexism." If not for that, my score would have been 100 instead of 90. –Wbwn 07:51, 18 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Wrong again. Haven't you actually watched Hill's tripe? It's entertainment for dirty old men and masturbating schoolboys, don't tell me Americans watched it for comedy value alone. (Look at how both the BBC and ATV had no luck selling Hill shows to the US in the days when he worked clean.) By the 80's it was like a soft porn video, and what the hell have girls bending over in suspenders have to do with comedy, anyway? And another difference you've failed to consider is that, while it may have been shown late at night in America, there was a real hypocrisy in this stuff, billed as supposed "family entertainment", going out in primetime on ITV, in Britain.

If you knew anything about comedy in Britain (apart from, like so many Americans, thinking it's all either Hill or 'Py-THON') you'd know that it wasn't all alternative comedy on TV in the late 80's, dreadful people like Jim Davidson, the Grumbleweeds, and Bobby Davro were still shown regularly, and in primetime. They can't get arrested now either, like Hill in his last three years. We simply got fed up of Hill, and considering he'd been going for over thirty years, enough was enough. He wasn't canned for being politically incorrect, he was canned for being crap.

Also, even fans of his complained at that time that he was cutting down and down on dialogue until almost every sketch was a silent, speeded-up one, to capitalise on his US fan base, every musical number, too, seemed to be set either in New York or in a farm in the South. If you look in Mark Lewisohn's book, the comment is made that his American success bewildered many in Britain, given that the likes of Morecambe and Wise, "much more admired homegrown comedians" hadn't succeeded there. His success with silly Americans was another good reason to dislike him over here -- nobody likes being patronised.

And your comparing Hill's ratings with Python's don't add up. Python was shown late at night as opposed to Hill's primetime, and in its second series wasn't even fully networked. Yes, Hill may have got better ratings, but at that time, so did stuff like The Black And White Minstrel Show and any number of forgotten sitcoms, stuff nobody would want ever to see again. Dolmance (talk) 04:49, 12 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The cancellation of the show has been reported a number of times as due to sexism. Ratings for the final episode (as also stated in the show's article) were over 9 million - certainly high enough to keep it going (down on its 1970s peak, but all ratings were down in general by the late 1980s anyway). I would imagine it was mainly down to sexism given that Hill was in his 60s by this time and leering at young women was perhaps inappropriate, but I'm sure that factors such as age, health and repetitiveness were also part of it. I don't think ratings were any part of the problem. By the way, the British public certainly don't have a general apathy towards the man - he was a comic genius, people who criticise him need to lighten up (but they probably don't understand what laughter is anyway).--Tuzapicabit (talk) 06:22, 4 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

have done some major reordering. hope the article is better organised now. i think that the benny hill show needs an article of its own (too much detail about its broadcast history, etc, to fit into this article on benny hill). i think the life section can also do with a little less personal information. thoughts, anyone? Doldrums 14:17, 1 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Isn't billions a rather large estimate? I haven't heard of him. Maybe you could cite come sources. 134.250.72.181 23:09, 13 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

most of the "life" section is about his death.

Shouldn't there be something about his being knighted? I believe this is a fairly major biographical point that the article totally omits. The fact that they were knighted is of course prominantly included in the write ups of Sir Elton John, Sir Paul McCartney, etc.

Are you sure he was knighted? I can't find any record of it anywhere reliable chrisboote 14:10, 31 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

As far as I can fathom, he was never honoured by the UK state/royal honours system - not even an MBE, let alone a knighthood. A bit odd given, if nothing else, his contribution to exports, but then the system has always been odd and is increasingly so at the time of writing Sitush 23:54, 29 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

. . . about Carol Cleveland being part of The Benny Hill Show? Unless she was in at least one of his 1960s BBC shows. However (and needless to say), Ms. Cleveland did not appear in any of the 58 editions produced at Thames Television. Nor is the program listed in her resumé (though The Two Ronnies, listed in her biography on Wikipedia, is shown on her official website as part of her overall credits). Wbwn 18:25, 26 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

"Dennis Kirkland died on 16 February 2006, aged 63, after a short illness." Sorry for him, but it had to go. Nothing to do here. 200.55.126.124 03:04, 16 September 2006 (UTC) Nahuel[reply]

• A new entry for Dennis Kirkland has been started up in response to these concerns. –Wbwn 00:12, 2 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Quite a few sources give his year of birth as 1925 [1]. Is there any reason why only 1924 is mentioned in the article? --Dtcdthingy 20:49, 12 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

• Every Hill bio I know of, has given 1924 as his year of birth, including the book his former producer/director Dennis Kirkland wrote, Benny: The True Story (later re-released as The Strange and Saucy World of Benny Hill). Apparently Hill, early in his career, took a year off his age for whatever reason. However, according to another source, anyone who would have been in a position to know exactly which year he was born is, like Benny himself, dead. –Wbwn 02:55, 13 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • That would suggest we leave it as 1924 with a footnote discussing the disagreement. It's not right to not mention it in the article. --Dtcdthingy 23:18, 13 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]
    • The UK's GRO (Births, Marriages and Deaths) have his DoB as 1924 on his death index entry. Ian Cairns 07:02, 19 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]
    • I've now found his Birth index entry as: Alfred H. Hill MAR 1924 2c 52 SOUTHHAMPTON mmn = Cave so, I think 1924 is definite. I'll remove the dubiousness Ian Cairns 07:15, 19 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I recall back in the 1980s, before Crocodile Dundee Paul Hogan had a quite good comedy sketch program. His humor was quite similar to Benny Hill's and I recall reading at the time that he was a great fan of Benny Hill. I can't find any sources for this at the moment, sadly. I'll keep looking. --Tony Sidaway 11:51, 20 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I do not understand the chart in the see also section. What information is being presented there? Does it even belong with this article? Please remove or reformat the chart so it is more easily understood. Thanks Jerry lavoie 01:32, 14 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

As I recall Benny, in his guise as a squint-eyed Japanese caricature would actually use the term "sirry iriot" (silly idiot). If ok I will edit the page to this effect. MichaelGG

• You can expect someone to ask for a citation other than your memory. Wahkeenah 15:25, 16 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

You are correct, the phrase was "sirry iriot". That's the joke, "L" becomes "R". There are web pages that quote "sirry iriot" such as http://sagaalt.blogspot.com/2005/11/puerile-humour-makes-my-day.html and http://www.thebladder.com/content/news/displayContent.asp?CID=3440&EID=349 . The character's name was "Chow Mein" http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/articles/b/bennyhillshowthe_7773365.shtml . I'm adding this to the now separate article The Benny Hill Show. 75.33.75.106 10:20, 26 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Then a possibly subliminal (or else ignorant) part of the joke is that "Chow Mein" suggests Chinese rather than Japanese. Chinese have no trouble saying L's, that's a Japanese thing. Wahkeenah 18:42, 26 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

You're right. The character was a "Chinaman", not Japanese.

The movie A Christmas Story has a scene with waiters in a Chinese restaurant singing in the same manner (fa ra ra ra ra instead of fa la la la la).

75.35.248.181 14:47, 3 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It's pretty sad when they can't even get the stereotypes right. Unless that was the point. Wahkeenah 17:29, 3 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Right now, The Benny Hill Show redirects to Benny Hill. Shouldn't there be separate articles for the man and his programme? —Josiah Rowe (talk • contribs) 05:38, 22 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Agreed. There's already enough information here to have two articles. I'm going to be bold and separate the articles. 75.33.80.150 14:42, 23 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Does anyone know anything about the (Caribbean-style) calypso songs Hill sang (including the one he sang early in his career, as well as the ones he sang on his show)? Badagnani 02:25, 18 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Does anyone really get confused like this? I am going to delete the 'disambiguation' comment again. CanOfWorms 13:35, 26 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I too get really confused with the, it is easy to get the two names mixed up and I imagine a lot of wikipedia readers would also get the two mixed up, and people looking for Benny Hinn that inadvertently come to the Benny Hill page need a small note to send them in right direction. Otherwise this page is a dead end for their search of Benny Hinn. JayKeaton 05:30, 14 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Hello.
On WP-FR and WP-ES (spanish), the death date is not the same day that here on WP-EN. So anyone have a real article (newspaper ?) with the good day ? Died on 18,19,20 of april 1992 ? Draky 10:23, 16 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

His body was found on April 20, 1992. From what I've read and gathered, he'd been dead at least two days (that is, since the 18th) at the time his producer/director, Dennis Kirkland, found him slumped in his chair with the TV on. Hope this clarifies the matter. –Wbwn 07:54, 18 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

There was a piece of music other than Yakety Sax that featured in many of his skits. I'm looking for its title and will add it if I find it, but if anybody knows it I'd be obliged. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.218.64.118 (talk) 18:02, 28 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

There were quite a few. One was a medley of "Doo-Bee-Doo-Bee-Doo" (written by Giorgio Moroder, one of his earlier compositions from the late 1960's) / "Für Elise" (by Beethoven) / "Mah-Na, Mah-Na" (of course) / "Gimme Dat Ding" (a hit for The Pipkins in 1970). Other silent sketches (from 1977 to 1989) featured another medley, of four or five French-based songs, leading off with "One of Those Songs" (co-written by Gerard Calvi and Will Holt; recorded by many artists including Jimmy Durante) and concluding with "Brussels (Bruxelles)" (written by Jacques Brel) - I'm in the dark at this point on the other tunes that make up this particular medley. Check the "Benny's Place" site, as there is a section of the music performed on the show in its 20 years on Thames Television. And I'd put it in the Wikipedia page for TBHS. –Wbwn 06:33, 29 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The piece I was thinking of was "Gimme Dat Ding", but thanks for such a detailed answer 88.218.14.160 10:31, 4 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

IS it true Benny was assigned as a mechanic in British Army-although he knew nothing about cars? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 134.53.145.32 (talk) 22:29, 18 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Image:BennyHill.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images lacking such an explanation can be deleted one week after being tagged, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

BetacommandBot (talk) 19:09, 13 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The "Last Will section opens with the statement that In Hill's will, he left his estimated £10 million (GBP) estate to his late parents. Later the article says ...the money — approximately £7.5 million —.... £10 million is a far sight from £7.5 million. This needs clarification - was it originally estimated at £10 million which turned out to be £7.5 million? Did £2.5 million disappear? Or what? The figures really need citations anyway, and the discrepancy should be explained. Incidentally I assume that he didn't actually leave his money to his late parents, but to his parents who were still in the land of the living when he made the will - this being the case the section needs a little re-writing here as well. Since I'm only assuming that Hill didn't write a very eccentric will I'm not going to make any changes! Tonywalton ^Talk 23:52, 13 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Was Benny Hill gay??? I could have sworn it was common knowledge that he was, yet this Wikipedia article mentions nothing about it. I would have thought that, if he wasn't, the entry should have at least included something to the effect of, "Contrary to widespread rumours, Hill was not gay". But nothing here - just silence. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.152.200.175 (talk) 14:23, 13 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Well, if you can source it. If not, you better be a good runner, Benny had a lot of fans...! Britmax (talk) 11:05, 14 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know but it seems odd that an Englishman born in 1924 would be able to avoid service unless unfit: The Wikipedia makes no mention of any service: During World War II, Hill was one of the scholars evacuated with the school to Bournemouth School, East Way, Bournemouth. After leaving Bournemouth School, Hill worked variously as a milkman in Eastleigh, a bridge operator, a driver and a drummer before he finally got a foot in the door of the entertainment industry by becoming an assistant stage manager I don't know if it's reliable but http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/H/htmlH/hillbenny/hillbenny.htm claims: Hill saw army service in the later years of World War II and it was there that he began to perform as a comedian Someone who knows about Benny Hill should "fix" Wikipedia to either add his military service or explain how he got oout of military service 66.16.148.174 (talk) 21:46, 30 July 2009 (UTC) JJ[reply]