Complete & Unadulterated
The Hill's Angels Years - Set 5

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1. Benny Quickie: Two Saxophones!
2. Benny Quickies: Telly Antics
3. School Teacher: Homework Howlers and a History Lesson
4. Brand Names
5. Benny Quickies: Cheeky Girls
6. Sauce at Benito's
7. The B-Team
8. B-Team Chase (not in the menu)

In Brand Names Benny is in drag and works in a pharmacy with Erica Lynley and Lorraine Doyle. (Lorraine Doyle, in her return to the show since her days with "Love Machine" in 1977. - WB). This is a cute idea for a sketch with Benny chatting with the girls and many of the words and phrases he uses match the names of the products he holds for the camera. Henry McGee also appears. I just wish it was funnier. Benny Quickies: Cheeky Girls starts with Benny doing up Lorraine Doyle's zipper, but she opens her mouth about someone else doing it up that morning! Erica, Louise and another girl find a way to improve their TV reception, but decide against it. (The other girl was Helen Tozer, and part of one of the "Golden Shoot" bloopers of 12/25/69 (with Benny impersonating Bob Monkhouse) is shown on the TV briefly. - WB). Finally, Henry McGee is at the doctor's office and is about to get a shot from Emma Bryant.

Sauce at Benito's is supposed to be another extravaganza with a Hill's Angels segment in it. This is a pretty low key affair with Benny as the doorman. The time is around the turn of the century. The costumes are all period dress and the sets are pretty lavish. Benny kisses Len Keyes' wife at the door and helps Bob Todd with his coat. A redhead loses a dress but we don't get to see very much. She has mouse traps attached to her garters. In the club there is a clumsy waiter and Sue is the coat check girl. Sue and Henry have dinner at one table while Louise, Len Keyes and another girl sit at another table. While the girls put on their makeup, Len Keyes decides to have a shave. Louise and Erica then sing "Please don't Pull our Privy down". It's a pretty traditional tune. Finally, Hill's Angels come out and perform a can-can, (to Khachaturian's "Sabre Dance." - WB). This routine just doesn't measure up to previous Hill's Angels routines like "Chez Ben Grand Gala". There are no closeups of the girls and the costumes are very conservative. It also lacks an exciting musical arrangement like "Runaway" and certainly won't get too many viewers excited. There must have been an awful lot of pressure on Benny to make the show more conservative and this is the result. (As if to underscore this, look at the overhead bird's-eye view with the girls doing a kaleidoscopic dance pattern - which appeared derivative of many a June Taylor Dancers number that used to open every edition of The Jackie Gleason Show in the 1950's and '60's. - WB).

This program closes with The B-Team and is obviously a parody of the hit series "The A-Team". Benny plays two roles, that of "Hannibal" Smith, originally played by George Peppard and the famous Mr. T charcter, B.A."Baracus". Henry McGee plays "Howling Mad" Murdock and Carl Wayne is "faceman". (Lorraine Doyle is Amy Amanda Allen, a.k.a. "Triple-A." - WB). Bob Todd and Jon Jon Keefe are the villians who steal the "Golden Eagle" from Derek Royle and Emma Bryant. The B-Team are hired to recover the Golden Statuette. The B-Team find the hideout where the statue is being held and break in to recover it. They disguise themselves as guards. Amy (Lorraine Doyle), proves smarter and tougher than them all and they finally manage to recover the stolen statuette. There is a pretty cool gag with a ladder you should watch for. Benny is also pretty convincing as the Mr. T character. They even have the original A-Team music for the sketch. In the end Mr. T has the statue and is the one chased in the closing B-Team Chase (not in the menu). This is actually a pretty good sketch, although it does go on a little too long at the end. Certainly this is the best thing in this episode.

1. Benny Quickie: Just Married
2. Benny's Ballad: What a World
3. Bill Posters
4. Benny Quickies: A Big Hand!/Flowers/Sleeping Pills
5. For Ever Love
6. School Mistress: Female for Male
7. Hill's Angels: Oddball's Club Cabaret
8. Fred Scuttle: In Dependent Cinema
9. Hullo Sailor
10. Close: Rocket Launch (not in the menu)

Benny Quickies: A Big Hand!/Flowers/Sleeping Pills starts with Benny necking with Louise in front of the TV. Benny finds a simple solution to change the TV channel. A pretty funny gag, actually. Then it's Bob Todd and an unknown actor who is all bandaged up going for flowers for his wife. He forget her birthday. Then it's Benny with his wife Lorraine Doyle in bed and Benny offers her chamapagne but she prefers sleeping pills!

For Ever Love is actually the strongest sketch in this episode. It's a send-up of all of those TV-only record offers that are geared to the easy listening crowd. Benny does an excellent parody of the internationally recognised flute player, James Galway as "James Gaulstone". Galway was principal flute player with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Herbert von Karajan from 1969 - 1975 and left that Orchestra to pursue a solo career. Galway had a huge hit with "Annie's Song", written by the late John Denver and that is the main tune heard throughout this send-up, apart from "Try To Remember" which is sent up by Johnny Dankworth and Cleo Laine. Henry McGee is the announcer throughout. (With clips from previous shows spotlighting Benny's impersonations of various MOR music personalities of the time. - WB). Benny is dead-on as the famed Irish flute player, complete with the hair, beard and blue tuxedo which Galway always wore. There are silent semgents throughout chroncling Benny and Jenny Lee-Wright's love story. First with Benny as a gas attendant falling in love. Clips include camping trips, Benny's proposal at a Restaurant and their honeymoon. Bob Todd is a priest who is supposed to christen their baby and shaves with the baptismal water! Watch Benny's descent into alcoholism and Jenny starts to look like a mop. Check out Benny as Galway playing the flute and at the end going seriously out of tune. Lots of fun stuff in this one. (Also check out the ending announcement, with reference to a calling service in India. This appears to be a comment on the trend of many companies moving their call services to offshore venues such as India, Pakistan, China et al. - WB).

Benny steps out in drag in School Mistress: Female for Male at an all-girl's school. Benny reviews the students general knowledge papers and then reads a winning poem designed to launch the new feminine dictionary. Everything masculine is replaced by a feminine equivalent. The poem is "Sandy and Womandy". This is actually the first poem Benny has done like this in a while where there is some fun word-play and even a few double entendres to bring a smile.

Hill's Angels: Oddball's Club Cabaret is another segment which takes place on a beach with Sue Upton nailing a Hill's Angels poster on the wall, Louise English sweeping up and Benny, Jon Jon Keefe and two girls preparing toast and coffee in time with the music. The tune is "The Heat Is On" which was a hit for Agnetha Fältskog in 1983, but originally recorded by Noosha Fox in 1979. Benny is paired up with Bob Todd as his wife and Henry McGee is with Jenny Lee-Wright. Louise serves ice cream and does some body language imitating Mr. Scuttle. Benny takes photos of Len Keyes and Sue Upton. Jon Jon Keefe is a drinker and saves Bob Todd the priest after a heart attack with mouth-to mouth. The Hill's Angels dance segment in this one is pretty lukewarm and the costumes just don't fit the Hill's Angels style. The dancing is okay, but this routine won't generate very much excitement, especially with the "Shake Your Tambourine" song. (The full title was actually "Dance And Shake Your Tambourine," first recorded in 1976 by the "Universal Robot Band." - WB). Louise steps out and sings "Atmosphere", which is a nice tune but ends very quickly and closes this routine.

We're then taken to the street in front of a cinema with Henry McGee in Fred Scuttle: In Dependent Cinema with Scuttle launching his new Empire Cinema. It's Scuttle's response to the new trend at the time to Home Video. Scuttle is found behind the ticket booth with Jenny Lee-Wright. Jenny is the ticket girl and she steps out to retrieve her shoe! Bob Todd plays the usher who has been there for thirty years in the same job. This Scuttle segment is not as good as the classic Scuttle segments, but does have some good gags and jokes. Then Scuttle introduces a new film Hullo Sailor which features Benny as a sailor on shore leave, I would expect. There are plenty of great looking girls Benny spots, but he winds up with Bob Todd in drag. Bob looks better and better the more Benny drinks. Eventually, they wind up in bed and Benny sneaks out the next morning and is confronted by Henry and Jon Jon Keefe, also in drag, who want to be his bridesmaids! This leads right into the chase sequence, which is much longer than usual. Benny hops a plane, takes off and jumps out without a parachute, magically landing safely on a rooftop. He scales a rope to the ground and then goes water-skiing with the whole troup chasing him on small motorized boats. He then goes Para Skiing and this leads into the last chapter Close: Rocket Launch (not in the menu), with Benny landing at a Space Center and boarding a rocket launch and going into space, ending this program.

1. Benny Quickies: Cheeky Birds!
2. Benny's Ballad: Costa Coco
3. The Weather Hut
4. Benny Quickie: Religious Intervention
5. The Lover
6. Benny Quickie: Jury Service
7. Carmen
8. Benny Quickie: Cheeky Birds 2!
9. Dibbles Health Farm
10. Health Farm Chase (not in the menu)

The Weather Hut features Benny and Erica Lynley as the "cuckoos" that come out of a clock to a tune sung by Benny. I think many will recognize this as the tune from "Pepsy's Diary". Erica comes out when it is sunny and Benny comes out when it rains. Naturally, Benny is in love with Erica. Watch Benny accidentally raise Erica's skirt with an umbrella! At the end, Benny and Erica kiss, but Sue Upton comes along and pours water on them. (Previously known as "Weather Boy and Girl." - WB).

Benny Quickie: Religious Intervention features Benny as a Street Punk and Bob Todd as a priest telling him to leave his life of debauchery and "offering the kingdom of heaven". Notable here is Louise English and Jane Leeves as his "groupies" Just look at Louise's face as Bob offers his sermon! One of Jackie Wright's few appearances in this episode. (Originally called "Roughnecks." Another "groupie" was Jenny Lee-Wright, who's uncredited in this show. - WB).

The Lover is the highlight of this program and features the lovely Alison Bell with Benny as her Lover. It tracks Benny's character as a naughty schoolboy and striking out with a girl as a teenager. Finally, while in the park one day, he meets Alison (Bell), Jackie Wright's wife. She gives him his first kiss! Benny sneaks into the house with Alison after Jackie is gone to work. Jackie returns to look for his hat. (Which was a redo of the old "Unfaithful Wife" quickie which opened the 03/24/71 edition. - WB). Naturally, Benny is caught on her zipper with his tie! (Which was a reworking of the 02/22/73 runoff "Scottish Adulterers." - WB). Benny decides to return to continue his affair with Alison in various disguises. Benny is of course hired by Alison's husband, Jackie Wright, and, as in previous sketches like this one, Benny plays a Butler, the Gardener and a Female Housekeeper. There is one brief instance of several girls disrobing here. In the end, Benny is a nervous wreck with Jackie Wright getting the lovely Alison all to himself. (All of which was a scene-for-scene remake of the 01/27/71 B&W sketch "Love Will Find A Way," which was the only such sketch ever shown in syndication; while Jackie reprised his earlier role of the older husband, Alison Bell was essentially playing Lesley Goldie's old role from this point out. - WB). (The name of Benny's character, Jaimie McPhaimie, appears to be a pun on a children's book character, Jaimie McPheeters (as in "The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters"). It follows in the tradition of earlier "pun" names such as "Humphrey Bumphrey." - WB).

Benny Quickie: Jury Service features Bob Todd as Judge and Benny as Head Juror, ruling on the moral fiber of a novel. The Jurors must decide if the book will corrupt readers, but the Jurors come across as pretty depraved themeslves. Louise English, Jenny Lee-Wright and Jane Leeves and one other girl are in their bras and stockings and are basically having a party with the guys! (Which Golden Smiles referred to as "The Scarlet Woman." - WB).

Carmen is a reworking of the opera by Georges Bizet. It's basically a medley of tunes set to a series of gags, but it plays slowly and lacks energy and there is a lot of padding. Bob Todd leads the army with his voice looped by Benny. The Cigar Girls are sexy, but I recognize none of them and Louise's role in this one is very much in the background. There is a Flamenco dancing sequence that is nice, but is out of place and gives the sketch more the feeling of a variety show than comedy. At 17 minutes, it's just far too long and slow. (Indeed, it almost has the feel of a live-action equivalent of the 1957 Bugs Bunny cartoon What's Opera, Doc?, with Elmer Fudd singing "Kill the Wabbit" in a 6-minute condensation of Richard Wagner's 20-hour Ring of the Nibelung. As for the title character, she was played by Kerry Gallagher, in her only TBHS appearance. And as for the "Cigar Girls," some of them include Lorraine Doyle, Emma Bryant and Cheryl Mortimer. The 1979 version of "Carmen" played a bit better. - WB).

We get several shorts in Benny Quickie: Cheeky Birds 2!, starting with Emma Bryant and Benny as the Doctor telling her she is pregnant. (This was called "Just a Wee Bit Pregnant" in Golden Smiles. - WB). Louse is the star of one brief gag involving a flushing TV Set. (And Clive James, still pictures of whom are used in this quickie previously called "Flush TV," had been impersonated by Benny back in 1973 (as "Clive Janes") - only at the time, James apparently wore a beard as Hill did in the bit in question, whereas by 1985 Clive was clean-shaven, thus ruling out any use of Benny's earlier impersonation for this new gag. - WB). Bob Todd is the Priest once again with Benny and another guy as two street urchins fighting over a hat. (In what was called "It's My Hat" in the earlier issue of this show, the other vagrant was Derek Royle. - WB). Then it's Henry McGee puzzled at his wife's new love of beer and sports on TV, but only we can see Benny under the bed! (The wife in "Underneath The Covers" (per the Golden DVD) was Helen Tozer - WB). Another short has Benny telling Len Keyes his "draws" have come up. Len is happy until he sees the guys carrying some drawers for furniture. (Formerly known as "His Draws Have Come Up." - WB). Then it's Benny and a pal as drunks with Benny asking "Do you Drink" to Bob Todd as the priest. (As the quickie was called in the prior set. - WB). Finally, Benny and Erica Lynley are in bed and Erica is actually funnier than Benny as the annoyed wife when Benny asks, "Have you had any other Lovers?" You can actually see Benny trying not to laugh at the end. (Indeed, Golden Smiles indexed this quickie as "Any Other Lovers?" - WB).

"Dibble's Health Farm" begins with Benny trying to impress some girls with his physical strength. There is a little girl in this sketch that gambles with Henry, Len and Jon Jon and beats them at strip poker. (The little girl was Jade Westbrook from the last year's "On the Beach." - WB). There is one memorable moment when Jon Jon Keefe is swimming in the pool and pretends to drown. Two beautiful ladies undress to rescue him and reveal their stockings, garters and knickers as he quickly pulls out his camera and snaps some picks of them! The Lady in the red nylons and bra was Alison Thomas. Bob Todd once again is the priest and Sue Upton is the old lady. Benny winds up going to an outdoor restaurant and orders a big meal. The little girl slaps him when he smokes a cigarette and sprays him with a water pistol! Benny talks to priest Bob Todd and she drinks his beer behind his back! While watcing some water skiing the little girl sticks a lollipop on Benny's pants and rips a hole in the seat. Sue and Bob Todd see the hole in Benny's pants and this leads into the Health Farm Chase (not in the menu), which ends up as a boat ride around the park, closing this program.

Summary

This collection of The Benny Hill Show from A&E and NewVideo marks a turning point in the series. There are some of the sexiest and most daring moments in these programs, particularly the presence of Corinne Russell and her appearances in the Holiday program and in the Superteech segments. Benny was pushing the envelope of what was acceptable on British Television at that time. Some of Benny's funniest moments are here as well, including the brilliant Monte Carbolic Show, Cleaning Up Dimpton, The Video Machine, Learning All The Time, as well as some of those classic Hill's Angels moments including the Hotel Splendide, The Little Dimpton Street Party, Mimed Striptease, Hill's Angels: Cruise Liner and the newly restored Hill's Angels: Wild, Wild West, now complete and uncut. However, Benny's fortunes were about to change and the series would never be the same.

An important episode in this collection is Episode 45 which was broadcasted on March 16, 1983. That episode featured more nudity, I think, than any other episode of The Benny Hill Show up to that time. Although male viewers loved it, many female viewers did not want this kind of content on their Televisions. Today, there would be some kind of rating attached to the shows and it would also be on later at night, I think. Unfortunately, Thames Television must have decided that the complaints from certain viewers were justified and that Benny should change the direction of the program. Benny finally decided he would do that and when the series returned on January 16, 1984, it was a different program. As time would go on, the Hill's Angels routines would not be as sexy or exciting and even the comedic elements of the show were changed. Benny would eventually add the "Little Angels" segments to the series and I think he did this to make the programs more acceptable to prime time audiences. The show was Benny's life and he was determined to keep the show going as long as he could.

Although I really enjoyed the first half of this collection, the second half clearly shows the series moving towards a more conservative audience. The comedy elements were much simpler and reduced to one-liners and more slap-stick style humor. We don't have the more elaborate and well written sketches like Cleaning Up Dimpton or The Video Machine and the Hill's Angels segments became much more subdued. Even Benny's opening songs did not have beautiful girls in bikinis and Benny even started repeating his jokes more often than usual. With the introduction of many newer cast members, we can see the old favorites like Bob Todd, Henry McGee and Jackie Wright fading into the background or repeating one or two characters on a regular basis.

Technical Note by William Brown: Actually, the true terminology for that glitch in the "Hotel Splendide" at the commencement of "This Will Be" would be "video dropouts." The picture is also a massive improvement over HBO Video's sets, which had used old-fashioned PAL-to-NTSC transfers, with resulting artifacts such as "galloping" images (double images moving fast) whenever the camera moves or end credits show. There is more of a smoothness of movement on the A&E set, possibly as the result of a program which may have gone by a field-based transposition (in this case, 5:6, as PAL is 25 frames per second/50 fields per second, while NTSC is 29.97 frames per second/59.94 fields per second - or if rounded off to the nearest whole numbers, 30/60). - WB.

Audio

Although the sound is certainly not up to the grade of contemporary material, we do get a pretty impressive audio track in this collection. This is particularly noticeable in the Hill's Angels segments where the music is such an integral part of the presentation. Never too distorted or thin, you can turn up the Hill's Angels segments on your amplifier and get a great deal more detail and clarity than before. Listening to the Hotel Splendide or Wild, Wild West routines with the amp turned up is very impressive for a program of this vintage. However, I do notice there is a distinct lack of weight in the bass that one could wish for. Overall though, dialogue is distinct and clear throughout.

Bonus Features

As with the previous collection, NewVideo and A&E must be commended for finding some of the Hill's Angels and getting them involved in these featurettes. There was probably one long program made and it has been divided into several shorter ones for the series of DVD's. I think it must be stated that finding many of these women would obviously be very difficult after all of this time. We as fans can be thankful that the girls in these featurettes did make an appearance. Sadly, since the last set was released, we saw the deaths of two key players in the history of the series, Benny's right-hand man, Henry McGee and Producer and Director, Dennis Kirkland. It would have been great to see them involved in some bonus features. Louise English, who is a fan favorite, has still not appeared in any bonus features, so hopefully, the next collection will see Louise taking part. Sadly, there is still no sign of the "Beny Hill Down Under" Special which many fans are requesting. Let's hope that A&E will get this bonus added to the last collection, although there should be a release of it some point on DVD. How about it A&E?

I Was A Hill's Angel
"Off The Record" Featurette (12min.)

Carla De Wansey reflects on how innocent the shows were compared to television today. She also points out how earlier programs featured more scantily clad girls and that, by the time she was a part of the show, Benny did not want the girls wearing clothes like that anymore. She also indicates that there were "certain powers behind the scenes" that were encouraging Benny to make these changes. Sue Upton points out that the shows weren't meant to be nasty or rude. That came from people's own interpretations of the program.

This is certainly another welcome bonus to this series of DVD's. To have these five women appearing again gives us another glimpse behind the scenes of The Benny Hill Show. There are plenty of other Angels that many fans would like to see appear on these DVD's, but I am sure that tracking many of them down after all of these years is not easy. Hopefully we will see more members of Hill's Angels appearing on a future DVD release. A special thanks to Alison Bell, Alison Thomas, Jo Thomas, Sue Upton and Carla De Wansey for appearing in this featurette.

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© April 06, 2002.