Product Description

Benny Hill's saucy smirks and lascivious glances at underdressed women are relished across all continents by all creeds. Yet he cut an unlikely figure of global admiration: he was a deeply private individual, a loner, uninterested in money and the trappings of success. With the circus and sex in his background (his father sold condoms worldwide from a Southampton backstreet shop), Benny combined the two in a career that, after many struggles, took off in the earliest days of television. Acclaimed in the 1950s as the first British TV comedy superstar, loved for his pioneering ideas and mild 'seaside-postcard' humour, Hill's popularity remained undimmed for decades. But in the 1980s, just as he became a hit in more than 100 countries, he was reviled in Britain. His innuendo-strewn humour was branded sexist, a charge he could not comprehend. Unmarried and emotionally enfeebled in his few meaningful relationships, Benny's primary aim was to be seen in the company of scantily clad women. His TV show enabled this, but its sudden end in 1989 was followed by a self-inflicted decline in his health. Benny died in 1992, his body lay undiscovered for two days and the destiny of his GBP7m estate was controversial.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #171636 in Books
• Published on: 2002-04-12
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

About the Author
Critically acclaimed for works such as his encyclopaedic 'Radio Times Guide to TV Comedy', Mark Lewisohn has an enviable reputation as a meticulous and balanced researcher of popular culture: the Telegraph said of Lewisohn's 'The Complete Beatles Chronicle' that it 'borders on a work of genius'. With unprecedented access to archives, intensive research and interviews with friends, family and colleagues, this is the last word on the 'world's most popular comedian'.

Customer Reviews

Absorbing, Recommended
This is a fascinating, first-rate biography of one of the twentieth century's most beloved comedy figures; a man who is now largely overlooked in his home country despite having been its most successful comic export outside of Charlie Chaplin. Benny Hill was a complex man who led a simple (if somewhat peculiar) life, and this book provides tremendous insight into not only his personal foibles and professional endeavors, but also the motivations and reasons for his intriguing private behavior and public rise and fall. Drawing on extensive research and fresh interviews with many of the key figures in Benny's life, Mark Lewisohn's writing combines warmth, empathy and humor with analysis, objectivity and attention to detail -- the comic inventiveness and outright stealing of other artists' ideas; the abnormally excessive frugality; the sexual indulgences and hopelessly failed relationships... whether you want to know about the man's career, his love life or the fact that he just loved a quick game of Kalooki, it's all here. Buy this book!

well worth reading.................
This absorbing biography of Benny Hill the most successful TV comedian the world has ever known is a well written engrossing book which starts with a small history of his family before a well researched beginning of his life before he was famous,Hill was a clown ever since he was a boy and with showbusiness in his families blood it was obvious that he would go into the 'business'.
Unfortunately Benny suffered from bad nerves when 'live' on stage but a salvation was at hand TV from the early 1950's Hill was one of televisions biggest stars a position he would hold for nearly 35 years until his shock sacking by Thames Tv in 1989.This book reveals a lonely man who didnt mind being on his own he lived for his TV shows and it was no surprise that he died just 3 years after they ended refusing potentially life saving heart surgery.All in all a good well written book which gives the reader a real insight into Hills life especially as this isnt the first biography to be published by any means.

Funny, Peculiar: The True Story of Benny Hill
Funny, Peculiar: The True Story of Benny Hill.
A great book and a great talent. Mark lewisohn has done a brilliant job here. The pages jump out at you and you can hear Benny's voice in the words.
Well written.