English comedian Benny Hill was famous for his "saucy seaside postcard" type of humour, in an era before "politically correct" was a mainstream term. His career spanned more than five decades, during which time he was one of the best-loved stars of television and radio.

People enjoyed his visual brand of comedy, which revolved around innuendo - and often being chased by scantily-clad young ladies, known as the Hill's Angels, to his famous theme tune, Yakety Sax!

 

Comedy background

Born in January 1924 in Southampton, the comedian came from a circus background, as both his father Alfred and Grandfather Henry Hill had worked as clowns. His father later managed a surgical goods store in Canal Walk.

Benny's grandfather introduced him to burlesque shows. The whole family loved going to the music hall - they went to the Hippodrome in Ogle Road, or the Palace Theatre in Above Bar Street, every week to watch the live shows. The youngster loved the stand-up comedians.

He didn't immediately follow a life in entertainment. On leaving school, he became a stockroom boy at Woolworths, worked for the Phoenix Coal Company and then became a milkman at Hann's Dairy in Eastleigh, Hampshire.

His job as a milkman, in a horse-drawn cart, became the basis for one of his most successful-ever characters - the milkman won Hill his only chart success with the novelty record, Ernie, the Fastest Milkman in the West.

 

First stand-up show

Long before Hill had a number one chart hit, he had taken his fledgling steps on the show business ladder. He had already moved out of the family home in his teens because he started work so early as a milkman. Children in the 1930s left school at 14, so Hill was classed as an adult at an age where today's teens are studying for their GCSEs.

He lodged in the Nook, Eastleigh, where he joined a local theatrical group. He was interested in becoming a stand-up comedian and persuaded the group to let him perform some comedy routines on the stage. He soon gained a local following.

At the age of 17, in 1941, he moved to London to try and break into show business. His first acting role was when he played a vicar in a comedy play presented by Bobbie’s Concert Party.

Hill joined the British Army in 1942, during the Second World War, first training as a mechanic and then becoming a searchlight operator in Normandy. He went on to join the Combined Services Entertainment Division to entertain the troops.

 

Post-war career

In 1945, after the war, Hill launched his radio career, making the move to television in 1950. He actually wrote the song, Ernie the Fastest Milkman in the West, in 1955, as the introduction to his play about a milkman's life, but the screenplay was never made, and the song didn't see the light of day.

His own TV show, The Benny Hill Show, was first launched by the BBC in January 1955. The weekly hour-long show featured sketches and songs by other stars of the day, while Hill played a variety of comedy characters, including his most famous, Fred Scuttle.

Mary Whitehouse, the self-appointed guardian of Britain's morals from the 1960s to the 1980s, often took exception to Hill's show, in particular targeting his use of the Hill's Angels, but viewers loved his "nudge nudge, wink wink" style of humour.

 

Chart-topping hit

In 1970, Hill resurrected Ernie the Fastest Milkman in the West as a one-off sketch on his show. It was a big hit, even though the original was filmed in black and white, due to a technicians' strike at the time. It proved so popular that Hill released the song as a seven-inch single on Columbia Records in 1971, after recording it at London's Abbey Road Studios.

He sang about Ernie Price, a 52-year-old milkman, who had an ongoing feud with his rival, bread delivery driver "Two-Ton Ted" from Teddington. They are both wooing the same customer, a widow called Sue, at 22 Linley Lane.

It was said that Hill used to work with a milkman called Ernie Carrington at Hann's Dairy - and one of the routes mentioned in the song, Market Street, was part of Hill's old milk round in Eastleigh. However, the Ernie character in the song was purely fictional and not based on any real person.

Ted realises that Ernie is having more romantic success than he is, as his horse-drawn milk float is spotted outside Sue's house in the afternoon. A furious Ted kicks Trigger, the milk float horse, leading to a duel between the two tradesmen.

 

Fatal food fight

Of course, it's a comedy fight, when they throw food items at each other, but things turn serious when Ernie is fatally struck by a rock cake near his heart and a meat pie in his face!

Once the dust has settled, Ted continues to woo Sue and they get married, but their wedding night is ruined when Ernie the milkman's ghost returns to haunt the happy couple!

The song topped the UK singles chart for four weeks over the Christmas period in 1971. The video, starring Hill as Ernie, Jan Butlin as Sue and Henry McGee as Ted, is still watched on YouTube today, more than four decades later.

As well as his success as a comedian with his own show, Hill also enjoyed a successful acting career and had roles in a number of popular films, including Light up the Sky 9with British actor Tommy Steele) in 1960, Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines in 1965, and the legendary musical, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in 1968.

 

End of an era

The Benny Hill Show was taken over by Thames Television for the ITV network until it was scrapped in 1989, after more than three decades on air. It was reported that Hill was called in to see Thames Television's head of light entertainment, John Davies, for a chat. Hill assumed the meeting was to discuss a new series, so was shocked to learn his show was being axed and he was being dismissed by the studio.

At its peak, the show had 22.1 million viewers in 1977 and was still attracting 9.58 million viewers at the end of its run, according to a subsequent documentary called Living Famously. It was said to be Davies' decision to cancel the show because he felt the humour had become dated. Hill was 65 and it was reported that Davies felt the star and his show were looking "a little tired".

In April 1992, Hill died of a heart attack, but his contribution to the world of comedy will never be forgotten. The Benny Hill Show remains one of the most successful and famous series in television history. It was broadcast in 97 different countries around the world and is still fondly remembered to this day.

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