Who's Who Of
The Benny Hill Show

Page 16
(Prowse - Rickard)

A Special Thanks must go to contributing editor William Brown for submitting these photos and information on each of these actors / actresses. Many of them were regulars and some were actually guest stars. I have added links to the Internet Movie Database where I could find them. Hope you can find many of those stars you've been wondering about and maybe a few you hadn't thought of. If you don't find what you are looking for, fear not. This section will continue to expand. Thanks again to William Brown, who wrote all of the information. I have also taken this section and put all of the entries in alphabetical order. If you are looking for someone specific, simply place your cursor on the links on the right hand side of the page. A caption will pop up letting you know which names that link will take you to. Enjoy!

David Prowse

IMDB Entry

Legendary strongman David Prowse (top) as seen in the famous "Ye Olde Wishing Well" sketch from Benny's first Thames show of Nov. 19, 1969. Two years after this appearance, he landed the role of Julian the bodyguard in Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange; but he is perhaps most famous for being the body of Darth Vader in the first three (released) Star Wars movies that came out between 1977 and 1983. He is also believed (bottom) to be the strongman who gets a lethal arrow towards the end of the Jan. 16, 1984 "Stupid Cupid" routine. Had also appeared in a 1968 episode of the U.S. sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies, and was Christopher Reeve's physical trainer for the first of the Superman movies in 1978.

John Quayle

IMDB Entry

John Quayle as seen in the Dec. 26, 1978 "Wheelchair Race" sketch. He also played a Sam Spade-esque detective on the plane in the April 25, 1979 "The Police Raid in Waterloo Station" sketch.

Victoria Quilter

IMDB Entry

This has been determined to be Australian actress Victoria Quilter, seen here from the made-in-Australia Benny Hill Down Under from 1977, as the grieving woman in the "Benny Kelly, son of Ned Kelly" sketch. She also appeared in a few of the quickies which opened the "Hold Back the Wind: No Time to Dicker" sketch (the opening of which was in the video compilation Benny Hill's Video Sideshow, but was cut out of the U.S. half-hour syndicated episodes). She had been in the Australian TV series Bluey, which ended around the time this special was made.

Katie Randall

From the 1985/86 edition of The Spotlight (London), a headshot of Katie Randall who was one of the 1986 Hill's Angels. Not much more is known about her, or what else she appeared in on stage, film or TV. One of the half-hour syndicated episodes credited her as Cathy Randall.

RCA TK-47 camera

Two shots of the American-made RCA TK-47 camera. This three-tube Plumbicon color camera made history upon its introduction in 1978 as the first fully automated studio camera, with color alignment function and setup adjusted and set by computer rather than hours of manual tweaking by studio engineers. RCA won a technical Emmy® for the TK-47 in 1981, and Thames selected this camera to replace the venerable EMI 2001's (q.v.) at their Teddington studios (where TBHS was produced) around 1982, and would be used for the rest of Benny's run with the company. (Their Euston Road studios, where news and public affairs programming were produced, went with another camera, the Link 110.) As none of Mr. Hill's regular shows from circa 1983 onwards had this camera in view, the stills seen here were taken from a newly-taped segue in the 1988 U.S. broadcast version of The Crazy World of Benny Hill which featured highlights from his 1986 series of specials.

Ellie Reece-Knight (b.1946)

IMDB Entry

By all appearances, this is Ellie Reece-Knight from the "Casanova" sketch of her only TBHS appearance on March 23, 1977. The IMDB lists her under the name "Andrea Allan (I)," with the appendage "(as Ellie Reece-Knight)" pertaining to her one-shot stint here.

Reflections

The pop vocal group Reflections, in a full shot from their only appearance on Jan. 26, 1977 (seen here performing "Higher And Higher," which preceded Rita Coolidge's rendition of the Jackie Wilson soul classic by a matter of months). They, along with Eddie Buchanan, Jenny Lee-Wright and Diana Darvey, backed Benny up on his opening "Bianca Malone" number on the same edition. The only member positively identified was Linda Robinson (second left), who played "Purdie" in the "New Avengers" parody, and may have also appeared as the girl approached by Benny in the Feb. 23, 1977 "Candid Camera" quickie. If anybody has I.D. for the other three members (closeups of all members below), and what became of them, please E-mail us.

Pippa Reynauld

Two shots of dancer Pippa Reynaud from her only TBHS appearance on March 11, 1970: (top) as seen in "The Sound of Frankenstein" sketch, and (bottom) near the end of the "Cotillion Dancing" segment. One year after her appearance here, she would be one of the dancers in the movie version of the Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof.

Marilyn Rickard (Monika Ringwald)

IMDB Entry

From the looks of things, this is Marilyn Rickard, as seen in the Nov. 24, 1971 "Cruising on the S.S. Rumpo" sketch. She also did a walk-on in the opening "Elevator" quickie, and chased Benny around the park in the runoff. The IMDB has suggested that this gal is the same as ...

Marilyn Rickard (Monika Ringwald)

...Monika Ringwald (as seen here in the Dec. 17, 1975 "Shopping Centre" sketch), but I don't see the resemblance. Was also on the March 24, 1976 show. (Apologies for the type over her.) On both her appearances, her name was spelled as "Monica" Ringwald in the end credits. Bottom: Monika Ringwald, seen here from the "El Paso" sketch, Dec. 17, 1975.