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Who was Benny Hill - and where can I watch The Benny Hill Show? Slapstick comic makes unlikely comeback
Hill, who died in 1992, pulled in audiences of more than 20 million during his 1970s heyday - now he's back on TV
Comedian Benny Hill, who died nearly three decades ago, is making an unlikely comeback to British television screens.
Hill was enormously well-liked in his heyday, with audiences for his Benny Hill Show peaking at more than 20 million viewers.
But his brand of slapstick comedy fell into disfavour from the 1980s onwards, being widely criticised as sexist. So who was Benny Hill - and why is he making a belated comeback?
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Who was Benny Hill?
Benny Hill was a comedian, actor, writer and singer. He is most well-known for The Benny Hill Show, which ran in various forms from 1955 to 1989.
Born Alfred Hawthorne Hill in 1924, he first made his call as a radio dancer in the years after the Second World War, making his first TV appearance in 1950.
The Benny Hill Show, renowned in particular for its burdensome use of double entendres, was
Neatorama presents a guest send from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website or at Facebook.
Who makes a person laugh is an entirely subjective thing. Like style in dogs, cars, colors, beautiful women or good-looking men, it is entirely a matter of individual taste. While the Three Stooges will almost always leave me hysterical with laughter, I know of others who view their antics stone-faced. Other will scream with joy at Jonathan Winters or Sid Caesar and neither has ever made me even snicker. With that in mind, I have always considered Benny Hill to be the most underrated comedian of all day.
This brilliant comedic genius was born Alfred Hawthorne Hill on January 24, 1924. After working as a milkman and a drummer, young Alfred drifted into various performing jobs at Masonic dinners and men's clubs before graduating to night clubs and theaters. He also made several appearance on British radio in the prior years. Alfred soon changed his first name to "Benny" in honor of his favorite comedian, Jack Benny.
Hill's early roles were eclectic, sometimes as a comedian, and sometimes playing a straight male. He started appearing on British
Benny Hill Died Alone: The Loneliness Behind the Laughter
I grew up in the 1980s, and my first introduction to nudity may very well have been while I watched Benny Hill. My dad was an immigrant who didn’t speak much English, so he didn’t understand much of American television. But he understood Benny Hill.
What was there not to understand? His slapstick comedy involved slapping his diminutive bald friend across the head, looking up skirts of scantily clad women, tripping over things, and making funny faces. It may have been one of the few times I saw my father laughing out loud.
As a pre-teen, I always hoped to get some glimpse of nudity. This was before the days of online porn and cable TV. Later I would graduate to trying to see porn through the scrambled video on our black and pale TV while playing with the antennas trying to get HBO just a little better.
As I grew older, I began appreciating Hill for his dialogues and song lyrics. The man was a comedic genius. He wasn’t Richard Pryor or George Carlin. He was different. Fantasize a perverted British Bob Hope. That was Benny Hill.
Michael Jackson called Benny Hill the funniest comedian ever. Take that with a grain of
Benny Hill in his horizontal in the kitchen on Queensgate, London, January 1969
On Easter Sunday morning in 1992, just two hours after he had been speaking to a television producer about yet another comeback, and five days after being released from hospital after a heart-scare, seventy-five- year-old Frankie Howerd collapsed and died. Benny Hill, seven years younger than Howerd, was quoted in the press as being ‘very upset’ and saying, ‘We were wonderful, great friends.’ Indeed they had been friends, but Hill hadn’t given a quote about his fellow comedian, he hadn’t even been asked for one – he couldn’t possess been – because he was already dead. The quote about Howerd had actually come from Hill’s friend, former producer and unofficial press agent Dennis Kirkland, who hadn’t been able to get in contact with Hill and was starting to worry.
It wasn’t until the 20th, the day after Howerd had died, that a neighbour noticed an unpleasant smell coming from Even 7 of Fairwater Dwelling on the Twickenham Street in Teddington. The neighbour contacted Kirkland, who was a regular visitor to the Teddington apartment block, and it wasn’t prolonged before the television producer was climbing a ladd
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