JOY AS BENNY HILL RETURNS TO TELLY
COMEDY fans are rejoicing at the return of Benny Hill to national telly.
The Benny Hill Show and other TV favourites from the past have been brought back by That’s TV Christmas, a nostalgia channel broadcasting for the Christmas season on Freeview, Freesat and Sky.
Other festive treats include Beadle’s About and Christmas TV specials from Kenny Everett, Mike Yarwood, Tommy Cooper and the Carry On team.
That’s TV Christmas is the seasonal rebrand for That’s TV Gold, the archive TV channel broadcasting across the UK on Freeview channel 91, Sky channel 187 and Freesat channel 178.
Many That’s TV Christmas shows will also be available on That’s TV’s local TV network, which is available in 20 areas of the UK on Freeview channel 7 or 8.
Beadle’s About was the hidden camera show presented by prankster Jeremy Beadle, which ran from 1986 for 20 years, making it the world’s longest continuously running hidden camera show.
Neither The Benny Hill Show or Beadle’s About have been broadcast by any TV channel in the UK for 19 years.
Benny Hill is cited as a hero by many modern comedians, including TV star and author David Walliams, who has begged for more of him on TV.
He said on Twitter in 2017: “I wish Benny Hill was celebrated more on TV.”
Comedian Tim Vine, of Not Going Out fame, claims to have kept all his old Benny Hill VHS tapes, saying: “I never tire of it, I think he’s hugely underrated.”
The late Caroline Aherne, writer of The Royle Family, told a Channel 4 documentary in 1998: “I loved Benny Hill so much.”
And comedian Ben Miller commented: “His early work was ground- breaking. He is the most successful comedian on a worldwide stage that Britain has ever produced.”
Benny Hill was a prime- time feature of British TV for four decades, first on the BBC and then on ITV, where his shows ran for a further 20 years to 1989.