the benny hill show episode 14

1 month ago
36

The alternative comedian Ben Elton made a headline-grabbing allegation, both on the TV show Saturday Live and in the pages of Q magazine (in its January 1987 issue), that The Benny Hill Show incited crimes and misdemeanours. "We know in Britain, women can't even walk safe in a park anymore. That, for me, is worrying."
- A spokesman for the Broadcasting Standards Authority commented that "the convention is becoming increasingly offensive [...] It's not as funny as it was to have half-naked girls chased across the screen by a dirty old man."
- John Howard Davies, the head of Light Entertainment at Thames Television, was cited by the British press as the man who sacked Benny Hill when the company decided not to renew Hill's contract. "The show was past its sell-by date", Davies told The Guardian newspaper. "Benny was all right when he was young, but when you're in your 60s, it's a slightly different matter to leer at a pretty girl."
source

- Recently, actress Debbie Arnold accused The Benny Hill Show of being “sexist”, "ridiculous" and “terrible” when she appeared on Good Morning Britain. "I mean, looking up girls' skirts, how can that be right for people to see that today?”
source

- As the show became more and more out of touch, audiences plummeted [citation needed] until it was finally cancelled by ITV in 1989 - here are four jokes deemed horrendous by today’s standards:
“Girls are like pianos. When they’re not upright, they’re grand.”
“I’m not against half naked girls – not as often as I’d like to be.”
“Roses are reddish, violets are bluish. If it weren't for Christmas, we'd all be Jewish.”
“Did you hear about the actress who was so dumb, she couldn’t count to two without taking off her blouse?”

Loading comments...