The Best of Benny Hill
The Best of Benny Hill is a 1974 film version of material from the television comedy series The Benny Hill Show. This movie features sketches from the early Thames Television years, from 1969 to 1973. The sketches in the film are from episodes produced and directed by John Robins.
Contents
Sketches include:- Ye Olde Wishing Well – including an appearance by David Prowse
- Lower Tidmarsh Hospital Service
- Spuddo Blooper – parodies of television adverts, for products such as margarine and mashed potato.
- "Throw Open" Blooper
- The Life of Maurice Dribble
- Tommy Tupper in Tupper-Time – a parody of Simon Dee and the chat show Dee Time
- Song: "My Garden Of Love"
- The Party Blooper
- "After Dinner with Charlotte Fudge" Blooper
- Boutique Mask Dance
- Love Will Find A Way
- The Grass Is Greener
- Fred Scuttle's Health Farm and Keep Fit Brigade
- Pierre De Tierre: Avant-Garde French Film Director
- Chow-Mein at Customs and Immigration
- Benny's All-Star Finale – including Benny Hill's impersonations of Nana Mouskouri, Moira Anderson and Gilbert O'Sullivan
- Escaped Convict Chase Sequence
Cast
- Benny Hill
- Patricia Hayes
- Henry McGee
- Nicholas Parsons
- Bob Todd
- Jackie Wright
- Andrée Melly
- Rita Webb
- Lesley Goldie
- Jackie Wright
- Penny Meredith
- Michael Sharvell-Martin
- Bettina Le Beau
- Jenny Lee-Wright
- David Prowse
- Pamela Cundell
- Arthur Hewlett
- Roy Scammell
- David Hamilton
- Ken Sedd
- Freddie Wiles
Production
The original programs were recorded on videotape and shot on 16 mm film ; the videotaped material was transferred to 35 mm film as a telerecording, and the 16 mm footage was blown up to 35 mm.Reception
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "This questionably titled anthology features material that has been directly lifted from several series of The Benny Hill Show, some of them quite archaic. The quality of the videotape transfers is variable, with everything that is not in close-up tending towards distortion. The quality of the comedy, however, is consistent: basic British sauce – delivered with much nudging, winking and leering – that reveals Hill's obsession with the comic possibilities of speeded-up film and of being found attractive by both men and women. As a writer, Hill is too often content to contrive his material to fit his jokes; as a performer, he seems to have reached his prime in the late Fifties."Home media releases
The british film distributor Walton Films released a shortened edition of the movie on three Super 8 film reels.Anchor Bay Entertainment released the movie on DVD in 2001 for Region 1 format; it would later be re-released by Lionsgate Home Entertainment following Lionsgate's 2016 acquisition of Anchor Bay.
It was released by Network on DVD and Blu-ray in Region 2 format in 2016.