RUN FOR THE HILL
As Benny Hill’s saucy, end-of-the-pier brand of humour returns to our screens, MARION McMULLEN looks back at his life and successful career
IT IS nearly two decades since Benny Hill was last on national television, but he is back on the box again for Christmas.
He is part of a nostalgia-fest on seasonal channel That’s TV Christmas which has launched on Freeview, Sky and Freesat. The station’s schedule also includes hidden-camera show Beadle’s About and Christmas TV specials from Kenny Everett, Mike Yarwood, Tommy Cooper and the Carry On team.
Benny Hill is cited as an inspiration by many modern comedians.
Tim Vine, of Not Going Out fame, claims to have kept all his old Benny Hill VHS tapes saying: “I never tire of it, and I think he’s hugely underrated.” Meanwhile, comedian and actor Ben Miller has said of him: “His early work was ground-breaking. He is the most successful comedian on a world-wide stage that Britain has ever produced.”
Benny Hill was a primetime feature of British TV for four decades, first on the BBC and then on ITV, where his shows ran for a further 20 years until 1989. They offered British burlesque comedy and won 11 top awards during the ITV era.
Benny was born Alfred Hall in 1925 in Southampton and dropped out of school as a teenager, working as a milkman before serving in the British Army during the Second World War. During this time, he entertained the troops in variety shows and adopted the name Benny Hill, in homage to American comedian Jack Benny.
When Benny passed away in 1992 at the age of 68, double Oscar winner Jack Lemmon said of the comic: “In recent years my favourite comedian above all was Benny Hill, who was a master in his field. Most comedians deliver a barrage of powder puffs; Benny gave you a cannon shot.”