Customer Reviews

Benny Hill, The Lost Years - Bennies from Heaven [VHS]

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vintage black and white material taken from 1960s BBC variety shows - there was much more talking in those days and less slap-stick

this video starts (by pure coincidence) with the Alster English Language School in Hamburg/Germany and it is a great joy to hear Benny talk German - in real live he spoke German fluently - and make fun of the Germans (and who doesn't)

i had no problem reading the box and seeing that the shows were all in black and white. having said that, all three collections are hilarious...and not the format millions of people are used to. there's no Henry McGee or Jack Wright. instead we have Jeremy Hawk acting as Benny's straight-man. amazingly, for skits being well over 40 years old when this collection was issued, the film is in great shape given it's age. i love the J Arthur Clinker segment, a satire on cheap film makers more interested in getting films out instead of the quality. another highlight for me is Benny's satire of commercials. On one video, Benny stands on stage and speaks in a perverted campy British voice acting as a director of a soap commercial. He pantomimes, sort of, all the action taking place in the commercial studio including a one sided conversation with an unseen female model in the bath tub. another favorite of mine is the hilarious satire on pop music and the wild imitation of the Rolling Stones...the silent skit in which the body movements of Benny and two others are choreographed to music is brilliant. These black and white classics are what the BBC watched before he joined Thames Television in 1969 and went on to world-wide fame and fortune with the format everyone is more familiar with.

Even though the box is in color, don't expect to see any color in the films. All three hours are old black & white footage. Disappointing quality also.