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Post by Rob Moss on Nov 30, 2012 15:01:53 GMT
Benny Hill was ITV's greatest export worldwide because of his visual humour & the manner in which ITV dispensed with his services was nothing less than disgraceful. Why, what happened..?
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Post by garyhaggarty on Nov 30, 2012 15:06:35 GMT
ITV's apparent lack of gratitude in relation to how much revenue his shows generated around the world. His dismissal could've been handled a whole lot better than to be asked to leave 'by the tradesman's entrance' after 20 years at ITV.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 30, 2012 15:36:27 GMT
You know, I do remember the last years of his tenure: He had a rolling contract for three episodes a year, I believe. One would be quite good, one would be iffy, and one would usually be terrible or rehashes of what he'd done already. To be fair, that's a pretty accurate summary of Benny's later years. A heck of a lot of repetition, recycling material he'd done much better years earlier. The very last Thames show had him revisiting the infamous "Pepys Diary" which by then was decades old. There's still a lot of people for whom his BBC work was the only "good" stuff he did, but the first few years at Thames had some terrific work that holds up pretty well. For me, the problems begin once he hit upon Hill's Angels... there was a marked decline in quality after that partly because Benny over-relied on them and the writing got lazy.
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Post by garyhaggarty on Nov 30, 2012 16:08:16 GMT
Benny started his TV career proper in 1951 & drew a lot of his comedy from the greats of the silent era. It was inevitable he'd be prone to repetition 50 years on - He'd done it all by then. In retrospect, a very talented guy who'll go down as one of the greats & should be regarded so by a PC-ravaged UK as he is elsewhere in the world.
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Post by Rob Moss on Nov 30, 2012 16:15:27 GMT
Thing is, by the end of his time on TV, his material was becoming increasingly dated and anachronistic. He'd had his day and he hadn't really adapted much, so it was inevitable that the axe would fall. It's telling that when ITV gave him his marching orders, he didn't have anywhere else to go.
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Post by garyhaggarty on Nov 30, 2012 17:10:31 GMT
In 1989 he'd just returned from a triumphant TV Festival in Cannes & expected a new series when his last show for Thames was watched by 9.58 million viewers. What's regarded as 'dated' has no relevance in syndication & Benny's show has been seen most recently in the US, Australia & India. I imagine ITV still welcome the revenue as opposed to Hill who left all his cheques unbanked on the mantelpiece!
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Post by Richard Marple on Nov 30, 2012 18:28:31 GMT
At the end of the 1980s ITV seemed to have a clearout of shows that were too "dated and/or working class", which might explain things.
Personally I've found his better stuff very amusing, & even the raunchier material far easier to stomach than the average Manning / Davidson routine.
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Post by John Wall on Nov 30, 2012 18:46:02 GMT
Part of the problem I suggest was that he'd aged but his material hadn't. A "young" man with scantily clad young girls is OK, a pensioner with scantily clad young girls is......
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Post by garyhaggarty on Nov 30, 2012 18:50:38 GMT
Bernard Manning was mainly a club act (& owner) who used material not suitable for TV whereas Davidson, in my opinion was never funny. As for Benny Hill, I wasn't actually a fan but strangely enough in hindsight do appreciate his comedy more these days compared to the countless overrated stand-up acts we're lumbered with today.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 30, 2012 19:33:30 GMT
I saw some of those Hill shows in the final Thames years on first broadcast and thought they were ghastly and that he was awful. Fast forward 15 years or so and I gave the early Thames shows a chance and loved them, finally getting to appreciate Benny in better days.
Jim Davidson is as funny as a toothache.
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Post by Chris Barratt on Nov 30, 2012 19:51:39 GMT
Canny how a JS thread turned into a Benny Hill discussion - that 1971 BH spoof of Top Of The Pops is pretty much spot-on, and made me realise that - at that moment - Hill was a gifted comedian and impressionist and not *just* "Ernie" and Hills Angels sketches. As well as spoofing the show he turned out an superbly simpering "Tony Blackbum" and the best impression of Jimmy Savile I've ever seen, capturing perfectly the eccentricities of JS before Savile became a lazy parody of himself in the mid-late 70s and everything went "Rattle Rattle Jewellry Jewellry" (Mike Yarwood, Eddie Large etc)
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Post by Deleted on Nov 30, 2012 20:40:28 GMT
Tony Blackbum ... I remember that ... I'd missed the name and my mum said it was Tony Blackbone (which, in its way, is worse) ... but I kind of knew better ...
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Post by garyhaggarty on Nov 30, 2012 20:43:24 GMT
Canny indeed, it all ties in of course! I think we're merely pre-empting investigations by the Keystone (I'm sorry) Savile cops into Hill's affairs once they've naturally finished with the mega-popular Rolf Harris next (interviewed under caution on the day of the Leveson Report - How convenient). Meanwhile back to the 'thread', the signs are positive for TOTP 1978 to get the go-ahead but it would still be a good idea to offer continued support to the BBC address Paul Watkins kindly posted earlier.
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Post by Peter Stirling on Nov 30, 2012 20:55:32 GMT
You know, I do remember the last years of his tenure: He had a rolling contract for three episodes a year, I believe. One would be quite good, one would be iffy, and one would usually be terrible or rehashes of what he'd done already. To be fair, that's a pretty accurate summary of Benny's later years. A heck of a lot of repetition, recycling material he'd done much better years earlier. The very last Thames show had him revisiting the infamous "Pepys Diary" which by then was decades old. There's still a lot of people for whom his BBC work was the only "good" stuff he did, but the first few years at Thames had some terrific work that holds up pretty well. For me, the problems begin once he hit upon Hill's Angels... there was a marked decline in quality after that partly because Benny over-relied on them and the writing got lazy. Benny Hill was marvelous when he was doing an hour show say every 3 months.It was like a treat you looked forward to.The whole show had an audience warmth about it and not forgeting the old guy who just could not stop laughing in one sketch...lovely stuff For me the rot set in when they took the dollar and started re-editing them into half hour shows complete with obvious canned laughter. There was no respect for these shows, they just got repeated in any plug hole in the schedule, this certainly made Benny look tiresome.Thus I think Thames killed the goose that laid the golden egg.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 30, 2012 20:58:15 GMT
Some of Hill's best work for me is in his '60s BBC shows (a selection from which has only been released on an R1 set so far). Some of it is quite surprising coming from who it does and subtle in comparison to his later Thames work, which is more formularised / slapstick.
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