Complete & Unadulterated
The Naughty Early Years - Set 3

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1. Eskimo Nell: A Monologue
   Benny Quickie: Candid Camera (not in the menu)
2. Villain Of The Year
3. Zipper Martin: Quick Change Artist
4. The Reluctant Bridegroom
5. Love Machine: Think of the Boys
6. Victorian Scandals
7. Love Machine and The Flash!
8. Double Date
9. Scouts & Guides Annual Fete
10. Closing: Scouts & Guides (not in the menu)

Then it's the memorable Villain Of The Year with Henry McGee in the foyer of the "Eureka" Hotel where the criminal classes have all gathered to see who will be the "Villain Of The Year". Henry interviews Sgt. Fred Scuttle who gives his thoughts on the criminal element and his encounters with them. Benny is also interviewed by Henry while in drag as the wife of a criminal. Jackie Wright is the Chief Inspector (with an eye patch) that is "his" date. After a brief intro by Henry (in a red suit), Benny is the host and starts with several announcements. Each nominee is followed by a brief clip, with the third being the most notable as Benny plays a guy in a bar who cons several people out of their drinks and gets a free one from Libby Roberts, pretending it's his birthday. Watch Benny put that beer down! Jenny Lee-Wright is the sexy barmaid. Just as the winner is to be announced, the statuette is stolen. The lights are lowered to allow the thief to return it. It's when the lights come up, that everyone's clothes are stolen!

Next, Henry McGee introduces Zipper Martin: Quick Change Artist with Benny as a man who can change costumes in a split second! He start off as a comic one would expect to see from the days of Vaudeville and the old-fashioned Music Halls of days gone by. He changes to Rolf Harris, Billy Connoly, Al Joleson (in black face in a tribute to Jolson's "Mame") and finally, Moira Anderson.

Next is the classic, The Reluctant Bridegroom with Benny marrying Rita Webb. We can hear Benny's thoughts in "voice over" as he realises that he will have to go to bed with Rita Webb on his wedding night! Henry McGee is the priest and the members of Love Machine can be seen in the background. Scared out of his wits, he flees the church, takes off in his car and finally meets up with sexy "Elsie" (Jenny Lee-Wright), whose husband has "dearly departed" (Eddie Buchanan). She offers herself to him, but in the end, the reality isn't so pretty.

Terry Dane of the "Love Machine and the Flash" segment can be seen at the ceremony; he's sandwiched between Lorraine Doyle and Ms. Lucas. A truly classic moment from the Benny Hill Show! This was called "The Wedding" in the "One Night Video Stand" portion of HBO Video's "Golden Classics" DVD set; "One Night Video Stand," in turn, was originally released on VHS as "The Best of The Benny Hill Show, Vol. 2." The "dearly departed" gag was remade from one of the quickies of the 12/23/70 "Unexpected Look" section (with Jan Butlin), and when Eddie shows up, we're treated to a reworking of the 2/24/71 "'Night George" quickie (the original of which had Yvonne Paul and Bob Todd).

Next is Love Machine: Think of the Boys with one new member: Lorraine Doyle who is the lead vocalist. This is definitely not as sexy or aggressive as the Hill's Angels routines, but I don't think it was intended to be. It's a cute little song, the girls are certainly entertaining and their is a nice innocence to this performance. Benny then introduces Victorian Scandals with Henry McGee and Jenny Lee-Wright as a "happy couple" on their wedding anniversary. Several guests at their party include Eddie Buchanan, Jackie Wright, Terry Dane and several other cast members that I can't quite pick out. Henry & Jenny's marriage is in trouble, they squabble and Jenny swears she will not spend the night with her husband but with "Benson", the servant (Benny), who is dying to sleep with her! Rita Webb is her mother who even offers to go in her place! I wish I knew who the two girls who are looking to spend the night with Benny at the end are. Another sketch which brings back memories.

Love Machine and The Flash! is another sketch starting with four of the Love Machine dancers ( Libby, Teresa, Claire and Jane Eve (Colthorpe)) doing a sexy dance to Eddie Buchanan singing "The Best is Yet To Come" and then we hear the classic "stripper" music we all know. The girls go behind their blinds and then the guys step out to do the "Flash", dressed in trench coats, the universal symbol of flashers. Benny, Henry, Eddie Buchanan & Terry Dane step out, dance, flash themselves off-camera (complete with well-timed screams!) and do a dance using their trench coats to cover and uncover themselves at strategic moments! "The Best Is Yet To Come" was the title applied to this section in "One Night Video Stand." Truly memorable!

Double Date is a great sketch with Benny going on a date with Jenny Lee-Wright along with Rita Webb and Jackie Wright. Benny expects to go on the date with Jenny, but Jackie gets Jenny and Benny gets Rita, much to his disappointment! Rita is upset that Benny doesn't want her and makes Benny ask her nicely for a date. Lots of fun in this one. Note by William Brown: I'm not sure, but this seemed to be an attempt (albeit one-shot, as the series' run developed) to revive a kind of sketch Benny had done frequently since the 1950's. His character in this was called "Harry" - which he'd played in a series of sketches called "The Layabouts." Back then, Benny and his then-writing partner Dave Freeman (as "Albert" or "Lofty") were the male characters; the female characters were Liz Fraser (probably whose character Jenny L-W played in this one) and Patricia Hayes (whose role was likely taken over here by Rita Webb). Jackie's character, I noticed, was called "Paddy." A variation of these kind of characters was also in the April 24, 1965 sketch which led off the "bonus" material in the "Lost Years" DVD set, with Peter Thomas as Benny's partner and Gloria Paul as the "other" girl alongside Ms. Hayes. One of the exchanges in these sketches ("You won't be under obligation for a peanut!") was in the "More Quickies on the Dance Floor" sketch of Feb. 18, 1976.

Scouts & Guides Annual Fete is another of those classic silent films which starts with Benny and Jackie riding a tandem bike to the "fete" and ripping the police uniform off of Anita Graham and getting a flat on the way (with the often used farting sounds coming from the inner-tube). Benny attempts to feel Jenny Westbrook's arm but touches Ken Sedd instead! There is also a collapsing outhouse gag and Jenny Lee-Wright getting the poke in the rear from a sign and slapping Jackie Wright (who in turn gets chewed out by his wife). Benny and Sue Upton have a game of frisbee (with Jenny Westbrook & Jenny Lee-Wright putting food on the frisbee) with Sue getting it in the face! Jackie Wright washes his face and uses a blonde girls short skirt (most likely Anita Graham) to dry it. Jenny Westbrook runs someone down with her bike and Benny attempts to apply first aid to her! Eddie Connor ogles a sexy girl's black stockings and panties, sawing his table in half! Eddie Connor has his hands all bandaged up, first getting a feel in his pockets from Jenny Westbrook (looking for a donation) and then help from Jenny Lee-Wright cutting off his bandages. Then it's Benny and Jackie raising the flag, complete with several pairs of the Girl Guides underwear, bras and panties attached!

This leads into the final chapter, Closing: Scouts & Guides (not in the menu) with the girls coming out of their tent (Anita Graham, Jenny Westbrook and Sue Upton) and chasing Benny and Jackie as the credits begin to roll. There are lots of classic moments in this episode and some new ones I've never seen and this makes this program one of the best episodes in this entire collection.

1. A Packed Program!
2. Husky & Starch
3. Casanova
   Benny Blooper: Double Bed (not in the menu)
4. Benny Accompanies Dilys Watling: Fever
5. Show-Jumping
6. A Feast On The Beach
7. Deep In My Heart on Television in Wide-Screen
   Benny Quickie: Peeping Tom (not in the menu)
8. Girls, Girls, Girls...
9. Benny's Commercial Blooper
10. Westminster Follies
11. Chinese Package Tours
12. The Milk Marketing Board
13. Closing: Credits (not in the menu)

Casanova is another of the popular silent sequences with Benny as the legendary lover with Jackie Wright as his sidekick. Ellie Reece-Knight is the girl Benny fools around with in this one with Eddie Buchanan as her husband who duels with Benny for her. Jackie Wright also fools around with her and they both end up behind bars. Look for Benny's classic suicide attempt at the end! At the end of this chapter is Benny Blooper: Double Bed (not in the menu) with Eddie Buchanan and Lorraine Doyle enjoying their new bed with Benny as a frustrated director. Next, Benny Accompanies Dilys Watling: Fever with Dilys giving a stirring rendition of the famous torch song. Watch Benny fill in for the missing backup band, including the drummer, trumpet player, the mexican scratcher, hawaiian guitar, temple blocks and various other instruments using only his hands and mouth for these.

Then, in Show-Jumping Henry McGee interviews Col. Llewellyn Todd (Benny) who talks about their show-jumping horses and even competes, riding on the back of an old granny! Then there is the mounties musical ride. This was called "Granny Show Jumping in "One Night Video Stand". A Feast On The Beach features Benny pursuing the lovely Dilys Watling, begging for a kiss, but she won't kiss him until there is a ring on her finger. She does allow him to court her as they have lunch together. Jackie Wright is the waiter. She refuses to eat hardly anything at all. Look for her lip movements as she says "I have to watch my figure", which was what the sketch was called in "One Night Video Stand". Benny is of course a complete pig at lunch and then proposes. They do get married but that's when Benny's troubles really start! A great silent segment with a large cast for the wedding. Henry McGee is the minister with Eddie Buchanan, Jackie Wright, Claire Lutter & Rita Webb as part of the wedding party.

Note by William Brown: This part of the sketch was apparently based on an idea by former TBHS supporting player Cherri Gilham, as she related in her blog, which unfortunately, has been taken down; the description she made matched that of the end of this sketch, though she cited a title that ended up being used for a famous sketch in the preceding program. In a note to me (before she chucked the "comments" sections of her blogs), she wrote that Benny "synthesized" her concept, which was originally about a bride who got uglier rather than fatter; she'd corroborated what one Hill bio pointed out about his particular "creative process" (taking from brainstorming sessions, ideas from supporting players, reading old comic books, watching television, "nicking" from others, etc.).

Next, is perhaps one of Benny's most innovative and original sketches, Deep In My Heart on Television in Wide-Screen which a brilliant send-up of all of those movies on TV that are actually widescreen films that have been cropped to fill the top and bottom of a TV screen. Benny takes Dilys Watling for a ride to see "his" land, but it turns out to be little Jackie Wright's. Since we can only see only small parts of the action and never people's faces, we get to fill in the blanks and use our imaginations as to what may be really happening. A truly memorable moment from the series and one of the highlights from this show! "One Night Video Stand" called this sketch "Pan & Scan".

At the end of this chapter is another Benny Quickie: Peeping Tom (not in the menu), this time with Rita Webb spotting a man peeping into a woman's window and does she get a surprise when she realises who the "dirty beast" really is! Note by William Brown:A reworking of the "Benny Quickie: Peeping Ben" from his second Thames show of Dec. 25, 1969, in which Benny himself is looking out the window and realizes who the "bird" actually is.

In Girls, Girls, Girls... We enter a nightclub with some pretty dancing girls. The band includes Eddie Buchanan doing the lead vocals with Jackie Wright on guitar. Not sure who the piano player is. Benny plays tambourine and ogles a pretty blonde (Suzy Mandel) and daydreams about her. In his fantasy, Benny is married to Eddie Buchanan (in drag) and his mistress (Suzy Mandel, of course) shows up. They dance and Benny spills his drink on her skirt. He attempts to iron it. They fool around (catch Suzy in her stockings and undies!) with Benny's wife showing up! We come back to reality with Benny's attentions going to Anne Bruzac (credited in this show with her nickname, 'Froggie'). Eddie Buchanan sings "Somethin' 'Bout You Baby I Like" (last performed on Sept. 24, 1975 as a basis for the series of quickies of the same name), with Benny's fantasy setting in a dept. store.

Jackie Wright is his boss and it's great to see Jackie slap Benny on the head repeatedly! Benny fools around with Anne in a field and then does his famous victory slow-mo dance to a trumpet fanfare, then there is the shotgun wedding with Benny winding up being the fool for Anne's trick to get him to marry her. She wears a pillow where the baby should be! Eddie sings "When The Saints (Go Marching In)" with Benny's fantasy going back to his naughty school days! The sexy blonde school teacher is Penny Rigden in a wig. Benny makes a complete nuisance of himself drawing a large breast on a picture of the new teacher. Jackie Wright is a kiss-up, giving her a new apple. Watch Benny and Ken Sedd give her the same apple and shake her hand. Her hand isn't the only thing that shakes! Benny also keeps some naughty centerfolds hidden behind a book. It all ends in the night club with everyone in the band getting a girl except Benny.

Benny's Commercial Blooper features a frustrated Benny directing the lovely Anne Bruzac in a commercial for hairbrushes and Anne having trouble with the word "bristles" because of her accent. This is a remake of the same joke that was done with Bettine Le Beau. Westminster Follies is a puppet show that sends up some of England's political leaders of the time, including Margaret Thatcher (the voice of Dilys Watling) with Benny and Eddie Buchanan voicing the remaining puppets. Chinese Package Tours is another classic interview by Henry McGee of Mr. Chow Mein, this time with Claire Lutter as his secretary, Hi Pong. Claire even gets a small speaking part in this one. Chow Mein now offers Chinese Package Tours with excellent prices and receives a trophy for the holiday bargains. This sketch was called "The Henry McGee Travel Show" in "One Night Video Stand."

Next is a classic number with a large cast, The Milk Marketing Board with Benny leading the group in "At The Streaker's Ball". This is one song that will lead your imagination wayward with plenty of sexual innuendos. Look for a large cast of players in back with Suzy Mandel (clarinet), Dilys Watling (triangle), Rita Webb (piccolo), Claire Lutter (cornet), Jackie Wright (trombone), Ken Sedd (trumpet), Lorraine Doyle (flute), Henry McGee (a tuba blowing up Lorraine Doyle's dress), Eddie Buchanan (clarinet), Spencer Shires (cymbals), as well as another girl on flute and another with a clarinet. Benny then leads the group in a march with Suzy Mandel losing her skirt and revealing her sexy legs!

Note by William Brown: The song's title was applied to this bit in "One Night Video Stand." Jackie Wright actually played the trombone, dating back to Prohibition days, according to various Hill bios; as indeed he did in the March 22, 1972"Poor Prunella" bit. This ends another classic show and we then see a simple credit roll with no chase scene! Notes by William Brown: The only show to have this distinction. The variation of "Yakkety Sax" as heard here (and on the previous show) was used for much of the "custom" closing credits of the 111 syndicated shows as constituted after 1987 (that is, with credits unique to the syndicated episodes). Most of the shows in question apparently use the "Yakkety Sax" from this particular show, given the pace of the credits and when it fades out, which more or less corresponds to when it fades out here. There are a few turning points in this episode:

(1) It was the last episode to feature Eddie Buchanan. (2) It was the last show to be produced and directed by Mark Stuart, who helmed a total of ten episodes, second (up to that point) to John Robins' fourteen shows (Dennis Kirkland would end up surpassing both of them in terms of total number of episodes produced and directed). (3) It was the last show on which Tony Borer was a designer; he worked in that capacity (with one show sharing credit with someone else) for a total of fifteen episodes, the most of any designer associated with TBHS. None of the production designers who worked on the thirty-one shows up to this point would be involved with the next twenty-seven editions to follow. (4) It was the last show to reach #1 for the week in the British TV ratings for reasons having more to do with comedy than sex; the next time he reached the top spot, it was on a show that featured a bit called "Hot Gossamer" which was considered by many to be the gateway to the eventual introduction of "Hill's Angels" (more so than the Love Machine bits).

Summary

A&E have continue to do an excellent job of presenting The Benny Hill Show on DVD. As with the first two collections (1969-1971) & (1972-1974), there are three DVD's, this time presenting ten complete and uncut shows. With this set, we again see the usual characters Benny did like Mr. Scuttle and Chow Mein, but fewer musical guests than in previous sets. We get songs from Diana Darvey, Lee Gibson, Dilys Watling & vocal group "Reflections". The tone of the series was changing with the addition of "Love Machine", which would eventually lead to the introduction of "Hill's Angels". There are plenty of shots of women bending over and showing their panties, garters and the trademark black stockings which upped the sexual tone of the series which would eventually create many more fans as well as detractors. Benny continued to lampoon everything including films, commercials, TV shows and famous actors and personalities. Notable sketches in this collection include: The Beach Of Waikiki, Gavin Blod: The Man & His Music, Diana Darvey: It's Nice To Go Travelin', Great Mysteries with Orson Buggy: The Catch, and many other memorable moments too numerous to mention here. This is really a great collection of shows which spotlight the period when The Benny Hill Show was entering the period of it's greatest success. Don't forget that this collection also contains the short film "Eddie In August" which I have reviewed below along with the remaining bonuses.

Picture

Just like the previous sets in this series, we get a pretty good picture throughout. The "in-studio" segments are always superior to the outdoors segments. The studio bits are always sharp and the saturation levels are quite good with deep blacks. It is the outdoor sequences that suffer as usual with higher levels of grain, a softer focus and less detail. All in all, this still looks very good for programs that are around thirty years old. The bonus "Eddie In August" is similar in quality to the outdoors sequences in the TV series as it too was shot on film, with drab colors and plenty of grain. Thankfully, there seems to be little or no print damage. Please note that I have adjusted the quality of the screen captures so that they look good. This does not represent the kind of quality in the DVD's themselves!

"Eddie In August" is a 25-minute film about a bachelor, "Eddie" (Benny Hill) who is chasing down the girl of his dreams. Benny plays the "born loser" in this one and he has plenty of luck. Most of it bad. It all starts with "Eddie" getting up one morning, going for a walk and finally ending up in the city park. He along with several other males spot a sexy nurse in the park with her friend. They lie on the ground and look up her skirt. They are all like Eddie, alone. Eddie stops at a park bench for lunch and drops his garbage on the ground. George Roderick plays the custodian of the park, getting Benny to pick his garbage back up. It's just as he is picking up his garbage that he spots a beautiful dark-haired nurse, "Kathy" played by Nicole Shelby. It's easy to see that Benny falls instantly in love with her and this begins his chase after the girl of his dreams. He hatches scheme after scheme to get the girl and that is mainly the focus of this film. He also goes on a picnic with "Kathy" along with her boyfriend "Roger" (Douglas Hill) and another girl who is actually interested in Benny, "Flo", played by Jill Easter. The passage of time is marked by a simple title-card stating the dates as the month of August progresses.

Notes by William Brown

It was this short film on which Benny was first brought to Thames in 1969. He filmed it (in the very month of '69 as cited in the title) prior to making the first series of his hour-long comedy/variety show. Of the credited actors in this piece, only three did not appear in any subsequent TBHS: Douglas Hill, Jill Easter, and Tommy Godfrey (who played the used-car salesman). It aired, however, after the initial four episodes of TBHS made by Thames, (plus a special edition edited for inclusion in the Montreux TV festival; like five years earlier when his April 10, 1965 BBC show was submitted for Montreux, he did not win; it wasn't until a 1984 edition was put in that he took the Golden Rose). The "sports car" gag with Connie Georges had also been in one of the pre-1987 syndicated shows.

In relation to the ratings his regular shows were pulling, this was something of a letdown: 13th place for the week, seen in 4.5 million households (which, if multiplied by 2.2 as JICTAR, the Joint Industrial Committee for Television Advertising Research, used to adjust their audience measurement calculations in 1977, translated into about 9.9 million viewers; by contrast, his March 11, 1970 show was seen in 9.25 million homes, or by 20.35 million viewers). The reviews ranged from mixed to outright hostile - probably because of the generally "downbeat" tone and absence of a laugh track. Mr. Hill had hoped to parlay his career into the proverbial "something big" with this piece; but its relative failure would ensure that he would only concentrate on the sketch comedy/variety format for the remainder of his career. (I say "relative" because at that point, a program that got started in the same year Benny joined Thames, Monty Python's Flying Circus, was pulling in only about 2 million homes to see their particular brand of humor for the first time. But Mr. Hill, by all accounts, was not one to take failure of any type all too well, as witness his terminal decline after Thames pulled the plug in 1989.) - William Brown.

There are a few routines in the film that are repeated in Benny's TV Series, including Benny fixing a car with Nicole Shelby as a "nurse" and Benny as a "doctor" who performs "surgery" on the car. Most notably, an actual scene that was inserted into one of the episodes where Benny is invited along to watch Nicole Shelby play tennis with her boyfriend, along with Jill Easter.

The tone of this short film is very different from Benny's TV series. It has a rather sad quality and many of us can relate to seeing lots of other people around us at one time or another with a girl or boy on their arm and we are completely alone. It's really a brilliant little film and makes us think a great deal about relationships and what it means to find someone special. Do we go by looks alone or do we look for what's on the inside of a person?

Packaging

The packaging on this third set follows the first two sets with the cardboard case, a small insert booklet and each DVD in its own thin case. The first set made taking the discs out very difficult without bending the disc. This could damage the disc if not done carefully. This time the packaging makes it very easy to remove the disc. Many thanks to the makers of this new packaging, NewVideo. A fine job and keep up the good work.

Menus

As with the first two sets, there are animated menus on this disc which show several clips while Yakkety Sax plays on your speakers. You can access every sketch instantly from the menus, although if you have read my reviews for each program, you will notice that brief sketches like "quickies" do not always get their own chapter. Unlike the first two sets, some of these closing sequences do get their own chapter as opposed to the first two sets in the series. Menus have lots of stills put together in a "collage" effect while you view the list of chapters. Again, very nicely done.

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