Benny Hill in Conclusion

A few more thoughts on Benny Hill, before leaving the subject.  As I've mentioned before, I've recently had the opportunity to watch all fifty eight episodes of The Benny Hill Show that were made for  Thames over a near twenty year period, in broadcast order.  It's been an interesting experience, as Benny Hill seemed to be a big part of my childhood: certainly, his shows were seen as 'must see' events in the early seventies, when he was probably the UK's most popular comic. In retrospect, the shows are problematic, not just for their oft-cited sexism and objectification of women, but also the casual racism, (unfortunately very typical of seventies UK TV output).  But, as I mentioned in an earlier post on the subject, as the show entered the eighties, there did seem to be an attempt on Hill's part to change the format, with more emphasis on the parodies of contemporary TV shows and personalities and the black and yellow face dialed down.  But, there seemed to be regression - after experimenting with replacing that stock Chinaman (Hill in yellow face and false teeth) who couldn't pronounce English properly for comic effect variously with thickly accented Irishmen and badly congested Englishmen, the character made a sudden return.  It seemed more jarring than ever to see this routine repeated in the eighties.  Of course, Hill later maintained that his attempts to change the show were constantly met with resistance from Thames, who feared that changing what had previously been a winning formula might threaten the ratings.  

Perhaps this was the case.  In its later years there was a clear tension between newer material that tried to be innovative and older style sketches and routines featuring lots of female flesh, unsubtle double-entendres and sexual stereotyping.  There is no doubt that hill was right in wanting to update the format: there was a growing backlash, initially from critics, later from the public, to the cruder aspects of his show.  Yet there was a double standard at work - at the same time as Hill was being criticise, the self same critics were lavishing praise on Kenny Everett's TV shows (The Kenny Everett Video Show on ITV,, The Kenny Everett Television Show when it moved to the BBC), which contained just as much unsubtle sexual innuendo, objectification of women and also feature a troupe of scantily clad female dancers performing provocative routines.  A situation which Hill addressed on his own show with a sketch parodying the Everett shoes (featuring Henry McGee as a surrogate Kenny Everett).  Hill also seemed to address the sexist nature of much of his output with sketches such as the one featuring a woman and her troupe of 'performing men' - composed of Hill and his usual sidekicks dressed in long underwear and socks performing like big cats in a circus.  Some of the new material was innovative, (for a prime time comedy show aimed at a mass audience, at least), like the sketch featuring a handyman which is being edited (we hear the editors in voiceover, discussing how to cut it down to length) as we watch it, the narrative and action constantly being reshaped, (often to the annoyance of the lead character).

Ultimately, of course, the problem with The Benny Hill Show is that comes from another era, when standards were different. Back in the seventies the sort of casual sexism and racism of the show represented the accepted norm.  Hill himself, though, was right to recognise that, as his show entered the eighties, he had to reshape the material in line with changing times.  But it always seemed to be one step forward, two steps back, possibly due to pressure from Thames.  Taken in its proper historical context, The Benny Hill Show can still amuse: Hill was a great physical comedian and the sketches highlighting this and the carefully arranged sight gags still work well today.  The parodies are also often highly perceptive (if you are old enough to remember the shows and personalities being parodied), frequently playing on the conventions of TV production for comic effect and can still amuse.  His love of old cinema and comedians like W C Fields and Laurel and Hardy also comes through strongly and is still effective.  Likewise, his occasional monologues, delivered out of character and in front of the curtain are still amusing and often clever, giving us the closest to a glimpse of the real Benny Hill that we are ever likely to get.  The bottom line is that I retain an enormous soft spot for Benny Hill.  While some of the material might now make me flinch, there is never any real harm or malice in it: it is all delivered by Hill with the glee of a naughty schoolboy.  Which, in essence, sums up the whole ethos of his show: schoolboy smut and humour designed simply to get a laugh or even a snigger from a grown up audience.  It is all in a tradition of such British humour, which includes Carry On films and seventies sex comedies - we might profess not to approve of it, but we laugh anyway.  

By all accounts, in real life Benny hill was actually a very nice guy, modest and somewhat introverted, his work - making people laugh - was very much his life.  Moreover, according to the ladies themselves, he never tried it on with any of his female cast.  He was also - to me - a local lad, coming from Eastleigh and living in the Southampton area for much of his life.  Finally, his obvious dislike of Jim Davidson, (famously expressed in his diaries, but also in several disparaging references to the 'comic' in sketches in some of the later shows), is something I can always love him for.