# The Benny Hill Show (1969)

> A long-running British sketch show where Benny Hill's slapstick, mime and double-entendre sketches made him a worldwide comedy star.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/2855

## Facts

- Seasons: 19
- Episodes: 58
- Episode runtime: 60 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: comedy
- Created by: Benny Hill
- Network: ITV1, BBC One, Associated Television
- Cast: Benny Hill, Henry McGee, Bob Todd, Nicholas Parsons, Jackie Wright, Helen Horton, Bella Emberg, Patricia Hayes
- TMDB rating: 7.6/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063869/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: simple
- Violence: mild
- Tone: cheeky, breezy, nostalgic, irreverent

## What critics say

Audiences broadly rate the show positively for its slapstick sketches, parody and physical comedy, though its double-entendre humour is seen as dated.

## Synopsis

The Benny Hill Show (1969-1989) is a British sketch comedy series created by Benny Hill for ITV1 and BBC One, produced by Thames Television. Benny Hill stars alongside a rotating troupe that includes Henry McGee, Bob Todd, Nicholas Parsons, Jackie Wright, Helen Horton, Bella Emberg, Patricia Hayes, Anna Dawson and Felicity Buirski. Rather than a continuing plot, each episode is a string of short, self-contained sketches built on slapstick, mime, parody and double-entendre. Hill's lanky, bustling persona drives most gags, with fast chases, mistaken identities and music-backed routines carrying the humour forward. The show runs as an anthology of brisk, broad vignettes rather than a single narrative, and its roughly sixty-minute episodes spread across nineteen seasons. The tone is cheeky, bright and deliberately old-fashioned, with innuendo delivered straight-faced and visual gags landing without dialogue. Its variety tradition and silent-comedy roots set it beside Monty Python's Flying Circus and The Two Ronnies, and fans of The Muppet Show and The Keystone Cops will find a similar appetite for physical farce. Produced in the seventies and eighties, the series remains a nostalgic touchstone for classic British television comedy.

## Shows like The Benny Hill Show

- ['Allo 'Allo! (1984)](https://ember.film/tv/2096)
- [Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em (1973)](https://ember.film/tv/5635)
- [Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (1968)](https://ember.film/tv/9185)
- [The Fast Show (1994)](https://ember.film/tv/2410)
- [The Carol Burnett Show (1967)](https://ember.film/tv/964)
- [The Muppet Show (1976)](https://ember.film/tv/4240)
- [Mr. Bean (1990)](https://ember.film/tv/4112)
- [Big Train (1998)](https://ember.film/tv/1356)
- [ChuckleVision (1987)](https://ember.film/tv/1973)
- [Horrible Histories (2009)](https://ember.film/tv/29836)

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