EPILOGUE

With the death of Benny Hill, British comedy lost one of its most prized assets. His talent, overshadowed to some extent by the feverish debate about the effects of his work, was more than enough to endear him to an international audience of billions. He is the most widely known comic of all time. However, after the tributes had been paid and the blame for his decline allotted, nothing had really changed. Benny Hill was still a touchstone for the crass, unacceptable face of humour. However, political correctness was quickly condemned as taking the freedom out of comedy, and although, jokesters were careful to avoid dubious subject matter, at the end of the day a joke is a joke.

Following Hill’s death, the cultural shifts that had begun in the late 1980s became a clear sea change in what was and what wasn’t acceptable. Comedy like Men Behaving Badly and They Think It’s All Over reinvented the ideals of ‘laddish’ attitudes as the ultimate in cool. Pop stars, politicians and fashion icons embraced the feelgood passion for football and lager. It was cool to love old macho values. Britpop and Loaded magazine ushered in the age of ‘New Lad’, with New Labour and new everything else making it great to be different. Even the Spice Girls, symbols of the ‘laddette’ attitude of Girl Power, still played to every male fantasy in tight dresses and panty-revealing poses. It was all intended to be trendily ironic and postmodernist, but Girl Power’s fashions revealed just as much as Hill’s Angels ever did.

However, despite this, Benny Hill was still noticeably absent from British television. Across the world, he still reigned supreme, but in his home country an almost blanket denial was in force. He cropped up briefly in John Fisher’s 1992 New Year’s Eve salute to British humour, Heroes of Comedy on Channel 4, although again he was questioned rather than praised. Ironically, Fisher, who had been John Howard Davies’s deputy at Thames, launched the unconvincing Hill renaissance.

In 1993, Channel 4 presented six half-hour compilations of his 1988–89 work as a new series of repeats, Benny Hill – Hero of Comedy. Despite Fisher’s guidance, this was nothing but an unedited rehash of Thames programmes, while the Classic Pictures video release The Golden Years of British Comedy – From the 60s simply relied on familiar clips from The Best of Benny Hill. That same year, on 4 October 1993, The Dead Comics Society paid tribute to Benny Hill with a blue plaque unveiled by Phil Collins at Hill’s luxury flat in Queensgate, Knightsbridge. Hill’s was the star event on a day that also marked the society’s tribute to, fittingly enough, Charlie Chaplin. But even with this blue-plaque respectability, further repeats were not forthcoming, and even that haven for classic old television, the satellite channel UK Gold, didn’t buck the trend. The National Film Theatre celebrated Benny Hill’s underrated gems from the vintage BBC archive in their praiseworthy ‘Funny Men’ season – at home in the five-week season with Marty Feldman, Frankie Howerd, Sid James and Peter Sellers. Nevertheless, Hill’s rehabilitation was still stuck in neutral.

Cheers!

By 1994, an overwhelming obsession with postwar British comedians resulted in the masterly Terry Johnson play Dead Funny. Although it namechecked everybody from Tony Hancock to Eric Morecambe, it focused on Benny Hill, with perverse fantasies, affairs with ex-Hill’s Angels and a sad, obsessive Dead Comics Society which pandered to the sad people who worshipped at the Hill shrine. This was hardly the sort of image fans needed, but the play’s brilliance was enough to fan the flame of serious interest in old comedy, with the nation hitting nostalgic overdrive as we rocketed towards the new millenium. Thames bowed to public pressure and released a massive 100-minute compilation video, Benny Hill’s Big Time Bonanza. The following year, Thames Video repackaged and re-released Benny Hill and Friends. Also in 1997, in a metamorphosis from the old society, Comic Heritage unveiled a blue plaque to Benny Hill at the old Thames studios at Teddington. Although rather overburdened by the multiple unveiling – which also included Eric Morecambe, Tony Hancock and Irene Handl – Phil Collins once again did the deed for Hill.

Still cited as the epitome of uncool humour, Hill’s reputation in the media world had become a joke, a byword for naff British comedy. Even now, the world-wide popularity could not break through the deaf ears of some people. By now, of course, Ben Elton had entered the mainstream, happy to praise Morecambe and Wise, the Two Ronnies and the Carry On movies, resurrecting the spirit of Dad’s Army with his sitcom The Thin Blue Line, still as sharp as a box of knives live on stage, and a prolific writer of best-selling novels and successful West End plays. Therefore, vehement Hill devotees took Elton’s guest appearance in the first ever Harry Enfield and Chums as a real slap in the face. Combining a brilliant parody of Benny Hill with a classic piece of self-mockery, Elton’s shiny-suited ranter of old speeds through a park covering up scantily clad women, splitting up loving couples and spouting a barrage of ‘little bit of politics’ aggression.

Thames, on die other hand, were not having a laugh when they signed up Freddie Starr for a semi-regular series of comedy specials. The gangster/cowboy/police routines chock full with visual gags, speeded-up film and innuendo-stuffed one-liners could have been Benny Hill resurrected. Even Derek Deadman and Bella Emberg were enlisted to join in the fun. With the fan (Freddie Starr) and the old cohort (Dennis Kirkland) writing the scripts, Kirkland back in harness as producer/director and the spirit of Hill apparent in every frame, this was a weak fulfilment of the aborted Central contract the star comedian never signed.

While the recorded legacy collected dust in the archives, the image of Benny Hill in the collective consciousness grew in stature. Channel 4’s 1992 series of The Jack Dee Show included his observation that Tony Hart, the children’s television artist for a generation, was like ‘Benny Hill on acid’, while singer-songwriter Donovan’s comparison of Benny Hill’s television parody to Trevor and Simon’s comic version of ‘Jennifer Juniper’ was received with snooty arrogance by the duo. Glamour model Jo Guest, appearing on The Jack Doherty Show (Channel 5, 20 November 1997), cited her sort of work as typically British and ‘as innocent as Benny Hill’. VH-1’s American Classics trailer ended with the sight of a young flasher revealing his underpants, holding out the promise of ‘enough subtle humour to appease the land of Benny Hill’. The very first episode of detective serial Jonathan Creek, ‘Joker in the Pack’, cast John Bluthal as the ill-fated, old-fashioned comedian whose dubious sight gags and un-PC style are frowned upon. Grey-haired, rotund and dismayed at the reaction to his slapstick routine, this is the spectre of Benny Hill having his quiet say again. At the close of The Lily Savage Show, television critic and Hill admirer Garry Bushell chased Janet Street-Porter outside Television Centre in typical, speeded-up Benny fashion, and even the new advertising campaign for Kleenex’s family-sized tissues burst into high-speed antics and the ‘Yakety Sax’ theme (it even included homage touches, with one of the girls stripped down to her bra and the three female friends chasing the man – here a naughty young boy). Soccer A.M. on Sky 1 presented scantily clad glam girls, mock beauty contest questioning, and the offer of a date with a famous milkman – naturally Ernie’s name was blasted out by all audience members. Fan Jim Davidson named Benny Hill as the first choice of comic heroes on Steve Wright’s Show, Saturday 31 January 1998, protecting the memory of a fine comedian.

As part of British heritage, Benny Hill had remained a cultural icon through reputation alone. In an age of leggy bimbos on that ultimate of bad taste, Endurance UK on Challenge TV, wall-to-wall soft porn on cable, imported Italian Stripping Housewives on Bravo and Topless Darts in the Millennium Dome on Live TV, old Benny Hill plays like an innocent, naive and coyly funny breath of fresh, restrained air. Finally, John Fisher stepped back into the ring to present a full documentary tribute to Benny Hill.

Heroes of Comedy – Benny Hill

Eventually reaching Benny Hill in his whistle-stop celebrations of British comedy greats, John Fisher had started the tradition with a Frankie Howerd pilot, an initial batch of four (Max Miller, Terry-Thomas, Arthur Haynes and Joyce Grenfell) and another quartet (The Goons, Kenny Everett, Les Dawson and Alastair Sim) before headlining his third season with this tribute (the next subjects were Peter Cook, Arthur Askey and, at long last, Tony Hancock).

This Benny Hill showcase broke a major British television dearth for the comedian, but really had very little to say that had not been said already. A thumbnail gallop past early variety and BBC television allowed the vast majority of (cheaper) clips to be culled from the Thames years, while friends, colleagues and fans discussed the great man. Still the sexist debate made up about a quarter of the airtime, and Caroline Aherne stood up for the ‘harmless’ angle with charming pride. Hill soundbites came from the familiar Omnibus programme, but the show’s two chief rarities were a glorious (albeit brief) interview at the unveiling of his Madame Tussaud’s model and a heartwarming (if poignant) snippet of him leaving hospital in February 1992. The perfect introductory package for any non-follower, Benny Hill was back on television, where he belonged, but this oasis caused no major re-evaluation of the man’s work.

Heroes of Comedy – Benny Hill: Thames – Pearson TV Company production for Channel 4, 12 January 1998, 9–10 p.m. Contributions from CAROLINE AHERNE, STEVE ALLEN, PETER CHARLESWORTH, PHYLLIS DILLER, JEREMY HAWK, DENNIS KIRKLAND, HENRY McGEE, BOB MONKHOUSE OBE, ANTHONY NEWLEY, RICHARD STONE, DON TAFFNER, BARRY TOOK, SUE UPTON, DICK VAN DYKE, REG VARNEY. Also featuring GILLIAN ADAMS, SUSI BAKER, KATIE BOYLE, JAN BUTLIN, FANNY and JOHNNY CRADDOCK, DEREK DEADMAN, CONNIE GEORGES, LEE GIBSON, JON JON KEEFE, SHARON KIEL, MAX MILLER, HUGH PADDICK, DAVE PROWSE, PAM RATTIGAN, CORINNE RUSSELL, CHARMAINE SEAL, KATHY STAFF, ELAINE TAYLOR, BOB TODD, DILYS WATLING, PAULA WILCOX, JACKIE WRIGHT. With special thanks to the Benny Hill estate, DAVE FREEMAN, MARGARET FORWOOD and PHILIP JONES. Written and produced by John Fisher. Director: Tom Atkinson.

This long-overdue tribute to Hill’s career seemed to make little difference, for on Easter Monday 1998, BBC2 gave their evening over to a look at politically incorrect television. Hill clips were branded as some of the worst ‘horrors’ of small-screen entertainment, and a Radio Times cartoon pictured Ben Elton pelting Hill, Bernard Manning and John Boulter with tomatoes, but when it finally came down to it, no Hill clips joined comic masters Frankie Howerd, Kenny Everett, Dick Emery and Les Dawson. Perhaps Hill was considered just too unacceptable even in this framework, or perhaps, even in death, Benny Hill just wouldn’t set foot into the minority realms of BBC2. Still, Granada Plus, home of the hits, screened Thames work every week night from 1 March 1999. Postmodernist irony, great swathes of foreign screenings and Hill’s place in British public affection still seem to count for absolutely nothing.

However, let’s be loud and proud and say this once and for all: the man practically invented British television comedy. His work has been seen by more people in more parts of the world than anybody else, and at his very peak, Benny Hill was a comedy actor of extraordinary talent. The most frustrating fact remains that even after such a shift in social acceptability, the moment you mention the fact you admire Benny Hill, you instantly feel the need to justify yourself. Even now, Benny Hill is seen as the benchmark for everything that is bad about British comedy. I just hope that this book goes some way towards redressing the balance.

‘The sun may have gone down on the British Empire but it has yet to go down on Benny Hill.’

Henry McGee

‘I want the show to be a joyous thing. I want everyone to have a giggle.’

Benny Hill