Benny Hill The Lost Years - The Memorable TV DVD Review

Benny Hill's huge popularity in America derives largely from the shows he made in the 1970's and early 80's, when he had refined his act to the nth degree, a comic song here, a girl in lingerie there, a slap and a tickle here and a chase around the set to end proceedings but Hill's real comic skills were honed back in the fifties and sixties, part of

the post war stand up comedy scene that also gave us The Goons, Tony Hancock and Eric Sykes and the like, a regular face on TV Benny had his own show from the late 1950's onwards hitting his prime in the 1960's, most of the material from that time hasn't been seen outside the UK and even there most of it hasn't been seen since its original broadcast.

This collection from BBC America pulls together a lot of great stuff including sketches from his first 1955 BBC series, Hill's oeuvre is much more restrained relying more on impressions, spoofs of commercial television and wry musical interludes. The level of humour is pretty high, Hill co-wrote a lot of the material with Carry On writer Dave Freeman.

I suppose these days Hill's reputation has been tarnished by the late 80's political

correctness backlash that took a dislike to his blokiness, this release should prove though that he was a talented comic who could make an audience laugh with just the raise of a well timed eyebrow.

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