That’s something I’ve read. A lot of the early Doctor Who episodes were lost because they were recording over tapes for a long time.
The BBC is known to have recorded over Doctor Who episodes from before 1970 (and is now offering a reward if anyone can find a copy of one!) so I’d imagine they did the same to other shows.
My TARDIS got there first… 
I really wouldn’t worry about that score. It is probably only our wittiest and classiest that make it across the Atlantic, but I’m sure we have as many dullards as anyone else.
“Heil Honey, I’m home” is quite possibly worse, but not half as well known.
Our PBS used to carry it alongside The Two Ronnies. I grew up with an impression of most Brits that was a tad… off.
Holy shit, I know what I’m doing for the rest of the day…
Fancy a laugh, set any of the Genki Sudo, World Order videos to the Benny Hill music, a great laugh.
Well, I liked it anyway.
It was used in a “show within a show” scene of the movie V for Vendetta, too, if memory serves.
If Yakety Sax is good enough for Eminem, it’s good enough for me. And throw some Doctor Who into the mix and you win the Internet!
The Brits pretend to be embarrassed by Benny Hill but still consider the Carry On films to be cultural treasures. I don’t understand that at all.
Let me ask my friends Roger and Dick what they think.
Oo-er, missus.
I have recently watched a number of Carry On films from different eras - the earlier ones (say before ‘Carry On Doctor’, such as Carry On Constable or Carry On Regardless) seem funnier (a lot funnier) than the later ones such as Carry on Behind or Carry On Abroad (from the 1970s), which seemed mostly to be proto-Benny Hill/proto-Man About the House/proto-Are You Being Served ‘sex’ comedies based on misunderstandings. The earlier Carry Ons, for all their faults, are still decent comedies.
I am not entirely sure what to think about ‘Carry On Columbus’, which was really pretty bad (OK, giving the Indians Yiddish accents was kinda cool), but that was a product of the 1990s.
Benny Hill had some potential, some lines stand out in my memory after all these decades: “They were cheering and waving because they weren’t going” “Preserve Wildlife, Pickle a Squirrel today!”, the English civil war messenger skit (alas, that too fell into the 1970s English Comedy troupe of men-in-drag ), and a few others…the rest were randy nurses, girls being chased, and the old-man being smacked on the head…
OK, maybe one more good Benny Hill joke:
Benny Hill hosting a quiz show:
[To Contestant #1, a very attractive & stacked lady]
Host: What is the name of the major tennis tournament held in London?
Host: [makes sound like “Wimble” while pretending to sneeze]
Contestant #1: Wimbledon!
[To Contestant #2, an average looking man]
Host: How many people attended Wimbledon last year?
Contestant #2: 10,000
Host: I’m sorry, it was 10,002. Thank you for playing.
[To Contestant #3 - Jackie Wright, the bald old man]
Host: What were their names and addresses?"
In the late 1990s I worked in a company along with a bunch of expat Brits. For some reason I mentioned “Are You Being Served” once. The Brits were horrified by this, because the show was at least twenty years old then. But it was a staple on public television in the US for some reason.
There were some interesting goings on with Hill’s estate IIRC. He was filthy rich but lived very modestly in an apartment that wouldn’t have raised eyebrows if owned by a moderately successful banker so he had tons of cash in the bank. He never married and was something of a recluse when not working. In his apartment they found a handwritten will disposing of his estate to various friends and charities but unfortunately for the beneficiaries named it was never witnessed and thus had no legal validity. His only official will was 30 years old, made long before he was rich, and named his parents as his heirs; since they were long dead by the time Hill died as were his siblings it went to some nephews and nieces he didn’t know particularly well. IIRC from the time some of the beneficiaries in the legally invalid will sued over the bequests they felt they were supposed to get (which, remember, was in the millions of pounds); I don’t think any of them won (no leg to stand on really) but some got a bit of money thrown at them to drop the suit.
No idea if this affected the rights to any of his programming, which I assume was owned by the BBC anyway.
Still is. Meanwhile the 20 year old U.S. show Growing Pains is a huge hit in China.
The most distinctive memory I have of a Benny Hill skit was when he was hosting his version of Name That Tune. The contestants were the old man and one of Hill’s Angels, and it was the girl’s turn. “Londonderry Air” came on and the girl had the patented blonde ditz blank look on her face, so Benny turned around and pointed to his ass…“London derriere”.
I have a couple of memories, which I haven’t thought of years. One was a game show format with the little bald guy as the contestant:
BH: “What is an asset?”
LBG: “A little donkey.”
BH: “What is an ascot?”
LBG: “A little donkey’s bed.”
BH: “What is it a man does standing up, a woman does sitting down, and a dog does with one leg raised?”
LBG: “…pass.”
BH: “The answer is shake hands.”
The other one was a spoof of Charlie’s Angels, where Benny in drag wanted to be one of the girls:
“Well Sabrina here has a gorgeous figure.”
BH: “Well, I’ve got a gorgeous figure!”
“Well Sabrina here has strong, white teeth.”
BH: “Well, I’ve got strong white teeth!”
“Well Sabrina here has brains and intelligence.”
BH: “Well…I’ve got strong white teeth!”
So understated. The BBC is offering (last I heard anyway) a freaking Dalek!
I don’t get it. I could see when it ran how men would like it. What’s not to like about beautiful women barely clothed. But with the Internet and all, you can see more a lot easier.
I wouldn’t call the Carry On films “cultural treasures”, but Benny Hill was just a TV show, while the Carry On series were actual films. Yes, films made on a crappy set in Shepperton rather than in Hollywood, but still a much bigger deal. The Carry On series featured notable British comedy actors of the day, bigger names than Benny Hill. Perhaps an appropriate American comparison would be between the film It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, with its all-star cast, and whatever sitcom was popular in the US in 1963.
The Dick Van Dyke Show.
That works so well with “holocaust.”
Joe