The Benny Hill Show (1969)

Whether wokies like it or not, Benny Hill is our heritage

Alternative comedy has come and gone, but how has Hill - invariably being pursued into woods by young women who would lose their clothing on tree branches - sidestepped the more ferocious forces of wokeness? I think it's precisely because of cancel culture that he's made a comeback from beyond the grave. He's a giant raspberry to the current climate of fear and loathing.

Benny Hill's The Strolling Ones

The Strolling Ones never made it as part of the British invasion. Here, singing "Rose" as Mick Jagger, Benny is also the drummer, the guitar player, the rest of the band, a man in the audience and a screaming girl.

This very human tendency to love the lowest when he sees it may have prevented him watching Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected. One sketch in the Benny Hill Show (Thames) was a remarkably close copy of Mrs Blixby and the Colonel's Coat, shown in this series a year ago.

the Benny Hill Show (Thames) showed no more signs than usual of being significantly different from the worst. The trailer was all I could stand.

One of the endearing things about the Benny Hill Show (Thames repeat) is his relish for truly terrible TV, old jokes, awful old films, commercials, westerns, action replays, repeats. All this is a solace not to say poultice at a time like this, when there is nothing much on but truly terrible TV.

All comedians are thieves (so are writers - I should know). As a comedian who writes his own script, Benny Hill is bound to be a compulsive gag-snatcher. One could date the vintage of many of his jokes in The Benny Hill Show (Thames) like a conoisseur appreciating good old port.

All is grist to Mr Hill's mill. He prefers show business with its bloomers showing.

The endearing thing about Benny Hill for me is that he obviously watches a great deal of television, unlike many performers who are too busy doing it to view it. Those who watch too much TV learn to enjoy even its awfulness. Particularly its awfulness.