Benny Hill Stars Q&A
Jon Jon Keefe

An Exclusive Interview with
Jon Jon Keefe

I was very happy to be contacted by the talented Jon Jon Keefe who was with the Benny Hill Show for nineteen years. He began his time on the series in 1973 and gives us his personal memories and thoughts in this interview. A Special thanks to Jon Jon for this interview. Enjoy!

When did you start on the Benny Hill Show and what was it like working with a comic genius like Benny Hill?
I started on the BH show on November 1973, all my experiences I have illustrated in my book. I arrived on the outside location nervous and rather shy, the show was made up of artists and technicians who all knew one another and had worked together for a long time. The cast and crew were so friendly and Benny was warm and encouraging and I soon settled in.

Were you always interested in working in Show Business? Did you have other areas you were interested in working?
I was always interested in singing and entered all the singing contests at the local Saturday morning picture Palace The Mayfair. I was in the choir at the local church and my brother and I were always encouraged to get up and sing at family parties or any other event I was nine. Music and films were an escape in and after the war and not knowing what show-business was I just soaked up as much joy and entertainment from films and music that I could not knowing that one day it would be my whole life.

Can you tell us about your audition for the Benny Hill show and how that came about?
I did not have to audition for The Benny Hill show. I was appearing as the leading vocalist at London's most prestigious nightspot the Talk of the Town in London's Leicester Square. It was a huge production 36 musicians 40 male and female dancers and soubrettes and myself and some girl singers .The show was a huge extravaganza prior to the top of the bill, Judy Garland, or Johnnie Mathis, or Sammy Davis etc. The audience was always filled with show business personalities and Benny was always there with a bevy of beautiful girls enjoying the show. Benny was the most appreciative supporter of entertainment and entertainers. I did my show and was racing out of the stage door to one of three other shows I did every night in London when the stage door keeper gave me an envelope it was from Benny saying how much he had enjoyed my performance and would I like to appear on his show .Now I thought that some one was pulling a gag on me and this just seemed like some old Hollywood cliché and did not respond to his letter for a day or two. When I did this warm and bubbly voice said how pleased he would be if I would come on his show to sing and join in with the sketches I said thank you Mr Hill and he said Ben dear chap he was kindness itself.

How long were you with the series and can you tell us any special memories of working on the show?
Of the nineteen years I was attached to the show I had a period of three years when two other performers took my place so from 1973 until the final show. So I spent a total of 16 years on the show. There are so many memories that's why I wrote the book. It was more than a show it was a family we were tied to each other whilst doing the show and went off to pursue our career waiting for the show to come around again, usually from November to February the coldest darkest months, when myself and the cast and the girls would be filming outside in a big theme park in swimming trunks pretending we were on a beach under arc lamps but the gags and the banter kept us going.

I think you appeared alongside Hill's Angels a few times. What was it like working with them?
Hills Angels were a beautiful group of girls. Talented hard working girls not stuck up or unfriendly. Their routines were really hard and they amazed all the actors at the speed with which they learned their choreography they were just a joy and Ben encouraged them to extend themselves into other areas of the biz like acting and commercials and modelling to extend the life in the biz when their dancing was over. Benny loved the company of women more than men. Asked why he had never married he said "Why buy a book when you can join the library"

Did you ever get a chance to date any members of Hill's Angels?
Two adages I learned very early in my career were, be careful how you treat people in the Biz because you meet the same people going up as you do coming down! And never mix business with pleasure. As alluring as a man might find those beautiful girls on the show I always considered them as Mr Hills ladies and made sure that nothing would come between my ambition to get on in the business, and I never deviated from that principle but it was really tough to do so. AAAHHH!

Can you tell us how working on the show affected your career?
I had had a very successful career up until joining The Benny Hill show I had been in a well known vocal group and we had travelled all over the Continent and appeared on radio TV and records. The mainstay of our work was live in Cabaret. What the Benny Hill show did for me was allow me to publicise my solo talents and concentrate on working around London .I realised that with time maybe never being famous might be my role but appearing on The Benny Hill show gave me some notoriety and I would be part of one of the great comedians entourage and go down in history captured on celluloid along with Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and W.C.Fields.

Are you married or do you have any children?
I am married to a glorious woman the light of my life. I have three of the greatest children two girls and a boy who are all in showbiz .One is an Actress one is in the films and has been personal assistant to some of the biggest stars in films and my son runs the biggest rock festival on the Island of Ibiza.

What kind of work did you do after the Benny Hill Show?
I was still appearing in shows while I was doing the Benny Hill show. We filmed in the daytime and I rushed away from the studios to appear in three or four different shows a night in clubs in London. I eventually became The Entertainment Director of one of England's Top Cabaret night clubs, booking the acts and Comparing the shows for the biggest acts in showbiz Mr Tony Bennett, Billy Eckstein, Tommy Cooper, Bob Monkhouse, Jack Jones and many, many more.

You have a book coming out, can you tell us a little about that and how it came about?
I was berated by a friend of mine for taking for granted the fact that I had been a member of one of the Greatest Comedians of all time and that I had also been a Part of Showbiz from the late fifties until the practical death of Variety and that I should write a book about Benny Hill. I procrastinate and if there is any diversion that I can find to build something then that is what takes preference so built a Summer house and when it was finished I set about writing a book in it. Initially it was to be just about Benny Hill. Having read some of the books that had been written about him I soon found out that nobody really knew what Benny was all about; many of the books were of dates and listings about his career. As much as I tried I could only write about my experience of sharing 16 sporadic periods of my life with him and they were all the same. There is so little to say about this great kind man except that he was never bad tempered never pulled star status and the great love of his life was his career and his love of good food and wine and holidays .The only indication that Benny might be displeased with the way work was going would be that he would start whistling and picking his nails. Benny was petrified about appearing in front of live audiences. The fallacy that he was lonely was so far from the truth he loved to wander around alone searching for ideas for sketches. It has been said that he travelled with plastic bags when we were rehearsing with yoghurts and apples and slimming stuff "Got to watch the weight dear heart" he would say. Benny was a genuinely contented happy soul he wanted for nothing more than to do his show with all his mates and from the outside what might look like loneliness was a man content with his jolly life who wanted for nothing he was to be envied at the simplicity of his existence. Having completed the book my friend said I had missed an opportunity and I should have just concentrated on my life with Benny But there was no more for me to tell except what he was like and how his friends loved him. So I wrote of how I came to grow into the person I became and how I got to be one of Benny's mates as we both shared the same birthday 21st of January.

Did you have any friendships with other people on the show?
As I said the show was like a family, my best friend was Dennis Kirkland the Director. Our mission always was to come to work with a new set of gags to pull on each other to keep the spirit of the show on tiptoes. I had only a very fertile imagination to dream up stunts to pull on Dennis every day on the set. Having said that Dennis had the whole of the production team at his disposal to make my life a comedy hell. We usually roped Henry Mcgee and Bob Todd into some of the strokes we pulled and until the show ended and I had the unenviable yet fondest memories it was possible to have of going to their funerals and crying tears of laughter and joy I really miss them.

Have you been able to keep in touch with the other stars on the show?
Unfortunately all the people I had close contact with have now all passed away. Benny Dennis Kirkland Dear Henry Mcgee the nutty Bob Todd Ted Taylor Benny's rehearsal pianist Who's funeral was one of the best attended happy funerals full of the Benny Hill cast and famous recording and jazz musicians Teds parting shot to life was a large banner on his grand piano which read "If at first you don't succeed, lower your standards" he rocked the house with that. Dear Dennis left the church in his coffin to the strains of Jerry Lee Lewis rocking "Great balls of fire" Dear Henry Mcgee's funeral was full of poetic hushed tones delivered by Knights of the theatre very posh. Henry would have been laughing his socks off at the solemnest of it all consummate thespian that he was.

Would you be interested in being a part of a bonus feature on any upcoming Benny Hill DVD's?
Would you be interested in being a part of a bonus feature on any upcoming Benny Hill DVD's? I would be most interested to be included in any part of a bonus feature on any up-coming Benny Hill DVD. Shawn I hope I haven't gone on too long and that you are able to include me on the wonderful website of yours. There are lots of references to things that happened on the show in my book. I hope you have the opportunity to read it.

Kindest regards,
Jon Jon