And now for something completely different, a biography about one of the best comics in the world, Benny Hill! I will finish scribbling a few words about my travels over the next couple of weeks but as I finished this book last night I thought I’d go back to the raison d’etre of this blog and say a few words about it.

Benny Hill was born Alfred Hawthorne Hill on 21st January 1924 and died on 20th April 1992, he was known world wide as a comedic actor and despite his modest needs he died a millionaire. You can see some of his genius in this short video, one of the comments underneath I found fascinating as they were talking about how many beauties Hill must have scored when in actual fact it was very few. This book tells us the how and why, it gives us a fairly objective insight into why he was so famous and what made him tick.

This book has taken me some time to read as it’s very detailed and just when you think you need more detail you get to turn to your bookmarked appendix called “Notes” and read more detail. It seems to be fairly objective the only thing I object to is the author telling us how much of a genius Hill was, I would have preferred to have had more quotes from people telling us that.

Hill got into Television in 1949 and was one of the first to do comedy on that medium, it turned out to be the best thing for him. He’d already spent years on the stage, sometimes as straight man to Reg Varney and sometimes in other roles but he always had trouble as he struggled to reach beyond the first few rows, television was made for him his face was most expressive and suitable for the small screen but he couldn’t make those expressions larger than life to enable people further away from the stage to see them, Reg Varney could.

I loved this book, not just for the insight it gives us into Benny Hill but also for the insight it gives into the world of show business, the machinations, the politics and the way Hill cribbed from everyone. Hill was a fascinating person having been brought up to be careful with every ha’penny, and to make money wherever possible, it meant that Hill put very little money into furniture unless he could get it free, he opened a number of new furniture shops taking a chair or table as payment and ending up with an eclectic mix in his home.

Hill’s cousin was in charge of the language department at a Melbourne School and one time he came out here and visited the school which promptly emptied to greet him. If I could remember the name of the cousin I could look it up and tell you which school. His sister lived most of her life in Sydney and he visited her when he could swing a working visit to Australia one time taking back a photo of the two of them looking like twins his comment was ‘There’s me and there’s me in drag’, this photo is reproduced in the book.

One of the reasons I love this book is because of the detail but also it has some good references at the back. If I was inclined to continue reading more about Benny Hill I could follow up with some of the books mentioned including one written by his brother, Leonard. I could also obtain and watch all the movies he made as a list is included in the back, as is a list of his appearances on stage, British Radio and British Television as well as a list of the records he released. I could then stalk him by visiting every address Hill lived as there is a lengthy list printed. I think the most important thing to do is to reread the Introduction after reading the book as it gives a totally different perspective of how the book has been written. Despite Lewisohn telling us he liked much of Hill’s work but found a good deal of it unfunny I felt  there was a definite bias towards telling us what a genius Hill was and if the author had put in more quotes and then some balanced quotes on the other side I would have felt as if it had more balance. Apart from that I’d still recommend it, it’s a fantastic read and I’m glad I picked it up.