I know we may have mentioned him before but I am going to do so again. I happened to hear on our local radio station over the weekend Ernie- (the fastest milkman in the west) by the (to my mind) late great and sadly missed comic genius that was Benny Hill. It was good to hear that song again and it made me laugh and brought back memories of happier times. Then on TV, they were showing a compilation film of many of his famous TV sketches with his faithful crew i.e. Bob Todd and Henry McGhee.
Sadly it appears that now he is only famed for his bawdy, humour and is deemed politically incorrect and non- u. I think he was just extension of 'naughty boy' British seaside-postcard humour.
Indeed I would argue that Hill was actually one of the cleverest and most innovative of comedians working in television in the 1950s and 1960s. The saucy, sex-obsessed sketches seemingly decorated with acres of scantily-clad young women (for which he is mainly remembered) came later; their preponderance in his shows eventually leading to Hill becoming an unworthy victim of political correctness.
Sadly the alternative comedians of the eighties had him mutating from a 'naughty boy' into a 'dirty old man'.
This led. Despite achieving worldwide fame - including in America - with his Thames TV shows, to Benny being ignominiously dropped by that company in 1989, owing to the perceived out-datedness of his comedy. He was never to work in television again. I believe he never fully recovered from this and died a broken man.
Sadly it appears that now he is only famed for his bawdy, humour and is deemed politically incorrect and non- u. I think he was just extension of 'naughty boy' British seaside-postcard humour.
Indeed I would argue that Hill was actually one of the cleverest and most innovative of comedians working in television in the 1950s and 1960s. The saucy, sex-obsessed sketches seemingly decorated with acres of scantily-clad young women (for which he is mainly remembered) came later; their preponderance in his shows eventually leading to Hill becoming an unworthy victim of political correctness.
Sadly the alternative comedians of the eighties had him mutating from a 'naughty boy' into a 'dirty old man'.
This led. Despite achieving worldwide fame - including in America - with his Thames TV shows, to Benny being ignominiously dropped by that company in 1989, owing to the perceived out-datedness of his comedy. He was never to work in television again. I believe he never fully recovered from this and died a broken man.
