Product Description

The definitive biography of the international TV comedy icon; Benny Hill's saucy smirks at underdressed women are relished the world over. Yet the comedian cut an unlikely figure of global admiration: unmarried and emotionally enfeebled in his few relationships, he was a deeply private individual uninterested in the trappings of success, a frugal man content to live in his humble childhood home flooded, freezing and burgled while his building society account bulged with millions of pounds he didn't use and hand't wanted to earn. Funny Peculiar is the first objective and full account of Benny Hill's life and work. Tenaciously researched and yet sensitively reported, it charts the highs, lows and many paradoxes of a man whose professional strengths - observation impression and mime - bought him unimagined success, and whose weakness, especially an inability to change, fashioned his ultimate downfall.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #361670 in Books
• Published on: 2003-04-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 528 pages

Review
'Riveting and unexpectedly sympathetic' Craig Brown, Mail On Sunday; 'A revelation... entertaining and exhaustively researched' Kathryn Flett. Observer

About the Author
Acclaimed for such books as the 'Radio Times Guide to TV Comedy' and 'The Complete Beatles Chronicle', Mark Lewisohn has a worldwide reputation as a meticulous researcher and writer of popular culture. With unprecedented access to archives and 125 interviews with Benny Hill's friends and family, 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.