Benny Hill

[darren]

Re: Benny Hill

A show i doubt very much would be shown on the main tv channels now.

I enjoyed myself.

i never knew it lasted so many yrs.

[George 1978]

Re: Benny Hill

Rowan Martin were a good double act
Dan Rowan and Dick Martin ... famous for hosting the Lagh In cult show from the 60s ...
They had a good repartee... which is what a double act is all about

Dan the suave straight man and Dick Martin a little bit zany

We didn't see too much of them in Great Britain, although they were shown on Sunday night BBC 2 before my time - I am certain that they were made in the United States by the same company that made Sesame Street.

[tex]

Re: Benny Hill

Rowan Martin were a good double act
Dan Rowan and Dick Martin ... famous for hosting the Lagh In cult show from the 60s ...
They had a good repartee... which is what a double act is all about

Dan the suave straight man and Dick Martin a little bit zany

Good repartee...maybe but the type of sickly American 60s humour which i personally found BLEUGHH!!

[silverbirch]

Re: Benny Hill

Rowan Martin were a good double act
Dan Rowan and Dick Martin ... famous for hosting the Lagh In cult show from the 60s ...
They had a good repartee... which is what a double act is all about

Dan the suave straight man and Dick Martin a little bit zany

[George 1978]

Re: Benny Hill

just today on sat tv saw Laurie talking in an american accent....
just dont seem right ....

The things actors do to make themselves internationally well-known. Tsk.

[silverbirch]

Re: Benny Hill

just today on sat tv saw Laurie talking in an american accent....
just dont seem right ....

[George 1978]

Re: Benny Hill

Again, Fry and Laurie are probably more famous for doing their own thing rather than being a double act.

Funnily enough, I have always wondered if one had put two comedians and made them work together, which one would be the straight man and which one would be the funny man? Take Frankie Howerd for example - he would have been the funny man to Bruce Forsyth, but the straight man to Tommy Cooper. It depends on who would have worked with who back then.

[Richard1978]

Re: Benny Hill

You are right - comedy double acts seem to stem from the past, probably because it takes two people to do a double act, and have that straightman-funnyman divide, although in double acts like Hale and Pace, there wasn't really the straightman in that double act. When they appeared on Des O'Connor Tonight, he made the same observation, although Pace was the closes to being a straightman. The Two Ronnies were almost like two straightmen together, although they were two comedians working together. Morecambe and Wise did the "in bed" sketches without a whiff of assumptions that they could be gay, and I think that Cannon and Ball copied them as well as other same-gender double acts.

From an alternative comedy perspective, there were French and Saunders, Reeves and Mortimer, and also Mel Smith and Griff Rhys-Jones - again semi-official as they also did separate shows.

Yes that's very true.

Fry & Laurie were another semi-official duo, as were Harry Enfield & Paul Whitehouse.

[George 1978]

Re: Benny Hill

When you think how much Eric and Ernie thrived on the repartee of a double act
its always surprised me that there are so few around today.... like none.... unless you count Ant and Flippin Eck ?

Maybe todays comics are more independently minded and just dont like splitting the theatre fee....?

You are right - comedy double acts seem to stem from the past, probably because it takes two people to do a double act, and have that straightman-funnyman divide, although in double acts like Hale and Pace, there wasn't really the straightman in that double act. When they appeared on Des O'Connor Tonight, he made the same observation, although Pace was the closes to being a straightman. The Two Ronnies were almost like two straightmen together, although they were two comedians working together. Morecambe and Wise did the "in bed" sketches without a whiff of assumptions that they could be gay, and I think that Cannon and Ball copied them as well as other same-gender double acts.

From an alternative comedy perspective, there were French and Saunders, Reeves and Mortimer, and also Mel Smith and Griff Rhys-Jones - again semi-official as they also did separate shows.

[Richard1978]

Re: Benny Hill

James Corden & Mathew Horne tried being a double act on the back of Gavin & Stacey but it didn't work out so well.

[silverbirch]

Re: Benny Hill

When you think how much Eric and Ernie thrived on the repartee of a double act
its always surprised me that there are so few around today.... like none.... unless you count Ant and Flippin Eck ?

Maybe todays comics are more independently minded and just dont like splitting the theatre fee....?

[George 1978]

Re: Benny Hill

To be honest, I always thought of Hale and Pace as being an alternative to comedy rather than alternative comedy.

A lot of things in life are alternative to comedy but they are just as funny.

[George 1978]

Re: Benny Hill

At one didn't Cannon or Ball become a born again Christian & give up performing for a few years?

Yes, they were appearing in pantomime at the Alhambra Theatre in Bradford one year and the theatre's chaplain Max Wrigley introduced himself to them both, and talked to them about God and Christianity - the story goes that it was because of the chat with the Reverend which influenced Cannon and Ball into religion and apparently they even introduced some of it into some of their shows. They might have had some in their Bridlington Spa shows, who knows? Should I bought a ticket to find out!

Hale and Pace were probably an alternative to comedy, but I still watched them - Billy and Johnny were my favourite characters.

[teepee]

Re: Benny Hill

Regarding the gap between mainstream and alternative, I regard Hale and Pace to almost be on the borderline between the two ...

To be honest, I always thought of Hale and Pace as being an alternative to comedy rather than alternative comedy.

[Richard1978]

Re: Benny Hill

At one didn't Cannon or Ball become a born again Christian & give up performing for a few years?

I remember Hale & Pace being around until the mid 1990s before slowly fading away by the end of the decade.