The Benny Hill Show - DVD

Movie: Unrestrained silly slapstick, ambiguous gags, , satirizing soap operas, celebrities or commercials, scantily clad ladies and lots of running gags - that was the recipe for success of The Benny Hill Show, which ran successfully on various stations in the UK for a total of 33 years. Whether the series was actually cancelled because of the high production costs or because of the accusations of sexism that Hill faced remains to be seen. The fact is that Alfred Hawthorn Hill, born in Sothampton in 1924, created one of the most successful British sketch comedy shows, which revolutionised the genre at the time and continues to have a huge influence on the international comedy scene today.

Also in Germany, The Benny Hill Show enjoys absolute cult status among many fans. Although not all episodes have made it to Germany and some gags have lost a little charm and wit through the dubbing. Nevertheless, the series became an absolute hit in the RTL night program and ran there for a long time in continuous loop. Even if the ravages of time have gnawed a little on the sketches and especially the parodies are hardly comprehensible for many younger viewers, The Benny Hill Show is still damn funny 26 years after the end of the series.

This is primarily because Benny Hill was not too shy for any silliness and he has always fallen back on very simple patterns that are simply timeless in their own way. Sketches, for example, which are completely without words and in which the movements are simply played back faster, accompanied by the unmistakable Yakety Sax, may not be particularly profound, but they make it almost impossible for the audience not to laugh at them. Especially when the men in these clips always turn into the biggest jerks at the sight of attractive ladies and step from one slapstick greaseball into the next, there is really no dry eye.

But to reduce The Benny Hill Show only to this, would not do justice to the series. Because there are some really cleverly constructed parodies, no matter if they take the news, talk shows or soap operas for a ride. Particularly delicious, for example, is a version of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express, in which Benny Hill slips into the roles of various well-known US investigators such as Columbo. But even when extreme editing errors are deliberately incorporated into a really bad soap, it's just timelessly funny.

No question, The Benny Hill Show isn't particularly sophisticated, celebrating classic slapstick, bawdy double entendres and completely over-the-top silliness. But it does so with a timeless charm and humorous playfulness, so that especially as a child of the 80s, you can still laugh heartily at it today. And therefore there is for this box with all the episodes ever shown on German television a very clear: worth seeing!

Picture + Sound: The image and sound quality of the DVD is the age of the series quite noticeable. Presented are the episodes in the original 4:3 full frame format. The colors are quite powerful and the image sharpness is overall on a decent TV level. However, there is also visible picture noise every now and then, from which the sharpness of detail also suffers. In addition, minor smudges can be spotted from time to time. For source material that is up to over 35 years old, however, the overall result is quite decent. The same goes for the mono mix, which lets the voices sound well intelligible from the home theater speakers, but reproduces ambient sounds and minor sound effects relatively dull. It's just a pity that only the German dubbing is available, but not the better original English sound!

Extras: As a bonus, the box has a very interesting documentary about Benny Hill (approx. 52:05 min., with German UT), as well as a bonus episode in the original English (approx. 52:23 min., without UT) that was never broadcast in Germany to offer. Both are absolutely worth watching for fans!

Conclusion: It may be hard to imagine that The Benny Hill Show can still win over new fans today. But for such viewers who saw this comedy cult back in the day when it first aired on TV, the sometimes very ambiguous gags, the delightful persiflage or the uninhibitedly silly sketches of Benny Hill should still be funny enough, even 26 years after the series ended, to justify a purchase of this fine DVD box set. The 38 episodes present themselves in decent picture and sound quality. As a bonus there is a very interesting documentary about Benny Hill, as well as an episode never shown in Germany before in English language version. All in all, enough good reasons to come to this conclusion: Absolutely recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp