Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5853 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-09-24
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Full Screen, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 83 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Benny Hill was always best at quasi-silent slapstick, so it's no surprise that some of the best stuff on The Best of Benny Hill seems to owe more to the work of Mack Sennett and Fatty Arbuckle than to mainstream TV comedy. It may also be no coincidence that, unusually, this release began life in the cinema. There's some classic material on offer here: the extended opening item, "Hospital Care" for example, almost transcends buffoonery to become social comment, but best of all is the sketch which features Hill as a chat-show host (people really used to wear matching shirts and ties) attempting to deal with a West End star and starlet, the former monosyllabic, the latter catastrophically plastered.

Among the 15 other items featured, the knowing send-up of the pretentiousness of avant-garde French cinema is also very funny, while the short linking items include a wicked parody of Alan Whicker and a sideswipe at barely literate actresses ("What's that in the road? A head?"). Fans will be pleased to know that Hill's regular supporting cast, including Patricia Hayes, Nicholas Parsons and Rita Webb, are all present.

On the DVD: The Best of Benny Hill on DVD comes with full-frame picture as expected but no extras, which is a shame as at the very least some biographical material would have been welcome. --Roger Thomas

Video Description

DVD Special Features: Scene Index

Language: English, Dolby Digital 2.0
Subtitles: None

Synopsis
All of Benny Hill's best-known comic characters are featured in this British TV special. He stars in a variety of sketches and songs, supported by his own usual comedy ensemble cast.

Customer Reviews

Naughty but nice
The very fact that he is the personification of the movement against political correctness should see a full Benny Hill revival any day now, much as Frankie Howerd (who died in the same week as Benny Hill) among many other comic actors have received overdue adulation long after their deaths. True, when you revisit this material - which is a very mixed bag and not necessarily the true essence of Hill's comedy - you will find much that is patchy, dated and repetitive, and some that is simply not funny. There is also, thankfully, plenty that is sublime.

Hill's work may seem to the layman unsophisticated and vulgar, including as it did slapstick from the era of music hall, naughty-but-nice double-entendres, silent chase gags deriving straight from Chaplin, cheeky songs, impressions, scantily-clad women (collectively Hills' Angels), plenty of misogeny and racial stereotyping. It was also hugely influential to the following generation of comics: I defy you to see Harry Enfield's repertoire of comic characters without seeing shades of Benny Hill's stable of beautifully observed alter egos.

In fact, Hill was a man of rare intelligence and serious intent, dedicated to his very studied rabelaisian art form as an artist might be to his school. In other words, Hill was quite deliberate his work and concerned about how it was perceived. The eventual loss of his Thames TV contract as the tide of humour turned was a huge blow to an unmarried man for whom work was his life, and undoubtedly contributed to his untimely demise.

There are plenty of compensations in this record of Hill the performer, not least his wonderfully mobile face, that of a man who scarcely grew from being a naughty schoolboy. The young boy's monologue is a classic, artfully written and timed with the same perfection you would expect of his own comic heroes from the burlesque shows - particularly Jack Benny, the source of Hill's stage name. And remember that he will be resurrected. Don't say I didn't warn you!

Good value Benny but no extras
A good compilation which has a diverse collection of Benny skethches including Chow Mein and plenty of head slapping but there are no extras and it would be nice to have complete episodes

Benny is still the best!
This is one of the funniest videos around by the true master of comedy, Benny Hill. Side-splitting humour! A terrific selection of sketches are featured and every one a gem! It's little wonder that a Benny Hill show was always regarded as a 'special event' for the viewing public! He makes you laugh out loud, he was so funny!