After reading Greg's viewing i thought i would dig our print out and have a good laugh for half an hour.

Originally supplied as 3 x 200ft releases from Walton these are a selection of the sketches from the full movie "The best of Benny Hill from 1974. The sketches are from the TV series from 1969 to 1973.

Walton did well to get this out on 8mm as Benny Hill was one of the most popular TV comedy stars for years until ITV treated the man disgracefully by sacking him in a meeting lasting less then five minutes. He made millions of pounds for the TV company in revenue and was, and is loved all around the world.

These Walton excerpts all have great colours and very good sound. The image is pin sharp although our part three does have a few light black lines which are of no bother to us. We bought all three over many years and have joined them as one 30 minute show as i assume most collectors would do.
After a generous helping of titles this 600ft reel comprises of,
Whats that in road? A-head? blooper
Lower Tidmarsh Hospital Service (19 November 1969)
Fred Scuttle's Health Farm and Keep Fit Brigade (23 February 1972)
Escaped Convict Chase Sequence (23 February 1972) (abridged to a short length)
Plus a few others.
Many of today's audiences dont appear to find this sort of humour funny, but i do and i really couldn't give a monkeys about the PC brigade or what they think. At the end of the day this man was one of the biggest TV stars for several decades and he is much loved today by huge audiences around the world. This is harmless, non offensive fun that most ages from 12 years up can have a laugh at.
Many people said his sketches degraded women!!!! Really??? Were they forced into his shows? No. When interviewed on TV programme celebrating his career, one of the ladies said they had great fun and lots of laughs and all were like his family.
If you can get all three, (and i know Barry at Indi 8 has all three on his latest list) i would recommend it highly.

Tom,

Really nice pics there! Benny Hill is definitely one of the classic comedians of all time, in my view. From what I understand, he was a true gentleman to the ladies on the show, and as you correctly stated, they enjoyed working with him and never had concerns about anything inappropriate.

This is a "must have" set for anyone who appreciates good comedy--the kind of comedy that doesn't rely on nasty four-letter words etc...

Thanks, Tom! Great screenshots too! I have added it to S8D: https://super8database.com/films/547

I think it's weird how things that were harmless then are considered inappropriate today, yet if the F word was mentioned on TV 30 years ago there would be an outcry.
Today's stand ups cant do a sentence without saying it today. Its all toilet humour and nonsense. All Benny hill was guilty of was making millions of people around the world laugh without any filth or bad language. As hard as i try, i cannot see a single offensive item in any of BH's shows.
These reels do turn up quite often, there a great way to start any comedy films, if only they did just one more.

Tom,

Ive got these 3 200ft as well - colour and sound still good - although the 3 extracts need a clean and then ill mount them as you have on a 600ft reel.

definatly better together on one reel. It's almost like watching one of the 30 minute shows he use to do.

My favorite Benny Hill skit:

If I remember correctly, these are from the 1974 film The best of Benny Hill, I saw it at our local ABC with my Brother all those years ago.

The original programs were recorded on videotape (studio interiors) and shot on 16 mm film (location footage); the videotaped material was transferred to 35 mm film as a telerecording, and the 16 mm footage was blown up to 35 mm.

Walton did a good job getting this out on super 8, Because it's only sketches, Walton simply selected them to release as these three 200ft films. All three together make a very good half hour, almost like the TV programmes they put out. Fortunately, the colour is very good with no fade.

It was a big hit here in the U.S. when they started showing it in the mid to late 70s. So much can be seen on youtube now -- I'm not sure if any TV channels or streaming services have it. As a pre-teen, I found it to be very "adult" and titilating with the scantily clad girls! I believe it never aired earlier than about 11p.m. on the TV stations I had back then, so I usually only saw it on a Friday night.

It's low-brow humor, but who cares?!?!? It's gut-busting funny.

It's the best humour, todays PC humourless talentless comedians are just bollocks.
Benny hill and the likes would make you laugh as a youngster because it appealed to them for its visual comedy and adults for it's saucy comedy without being rude and crude, and not a curse word to be heard.

It's the best humour, todays PC humourless talentless comedians are just bollocks.
Benny hill and the likes would make you laugh as a youngster because it appealed to them for its visual comedy and adults for it's saucy comedy without being rude and crude, and not a curse word to be heard.

For whatever reason, stuff like The Benny Hill Show faded away. Too bad.
I'm guessing that 99% of the viewership was male, though!