TWO MORE BENNY HILL QUESTIONS - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

HelloLarry · 10-03-2006, 10:37 PM

Is the Charlie's Angles spoof (Charlene's Angels I believe) on the A&E volume 5 set? If so, is this the one where Benny is running in a robe in a park I believe and comes up to a woman who opens her robe and her breasts shoot off. Benny then opens his robe and you hear a gatling gun go off. I think I'm remembering that right. I saw this a LONG time ago and am doing this from memory.

Also...I just got through watching the first set and was wondering if anyone had more information on the Ladybirds. I looked them up on Amazon.com but don't see any CDs or anything from them. Were they hired specifically for the Benny Hill Show or were they an established group? What was their history and does anyone know what happened to them.

When I was a kid, I used to tape BH on audio and listen to the shows when I went to bed. Its funny how many of the songs I remember sections of the lyrics when I hear them now.

W.B. · 10-04-2006, 02:53 AM

In answer to your first question: "Charlene's Angels" first aired on the Feb. 6, 1980, thus was in A&E's Set 4. That scene was pretty much part of it, as you say.

As to the second question: The Ladybirds were session singers who did backups for other pop stars of the time including Sandie Shaw on her 1967 Eurovision Song Contest entry "Puppet on a String," and also sang on some of Hill show orchestra leader Ronnie Aldrich's late 1970's musical bums - er, music albums. I.I.N.M., their being hired by Mr. Hill once he came to Thames in 1969 may have had something to do with the group's leader, Maggie Stredder ("The Girl with the Glasses"), having duetted with him on a Sonny & Cher takeoff song called "Those Days" as on his Benny Hill Sings? album issued in late 1965 on the (UK) Pye label. The group itself had been around from the mid-'60's on and changed personnel many times, with Ms. Stredder being the only constant. Most of the shows where they appeared on-camera, she was joined by Marian Davies (the light blonde one) and Gloria George (the darker-haired one); however, by the March 13, 1974 show Ms. George had left and Penny Lister (who would later appear as a singer in the Doctor Who episode "The Talons of Weng Chiang" from 1977) took her place. Many came and went after that, one of whom was Ann Simmons who'd been in a prior vocal group with Ms. Stredder, The Vernons Girls. In the '80's they were strictly off-camera vocal backing on the show.

10-03-2006, 10:37 PM	#1
HelloLarry Meathead Frequent Poster Join Date: Aug 21, 2006 Posts: 273	TWO MORE BENNY HILL QUESTIONS Is the Charlie's Angles spoof (Charlene's Angels I believe) on the A&E volume 5 set? If so, is this the one where Benny is running in a robe in a park I believe and comes up to a woman who opens her robe and her breasts shoot off. Benny then opens his robe and you hear a gatling gun go off. I think I'm remembering that right. I saw this a LONG time ago and am doing this from memory. Also...I just got through watching the first set and was wondering if anyone had more information on the Ladybirds. I looked them up on Amazon.com but don't see any CDs or anything from them. Were they hired specifically for the Benny Hill Show or were they an established group? What was their history and does anyone know what happened to them. When I was a kid, I used to tape BH on audio and listen to the shows when I went to bed. Its funny how many of the songs I remember sections of the lyrics when I hear them now.

10-04-2006, 02:53 AM	#2
W.B. Member Frequent Poster Join Date: Jun 23, 2005 Location: New York, New York, USA Posts: 389	In answer to your first question: "Charlene's Angels" first aired on the Feb. 6, 1980, thus was in A&E's Set 4. That scene was pretty much part of it, as you say. As to the second question: The Ladybirds were session singers who did backups for other pop stars of the time including Sandie Shaw on her 1967 Eurovision Song Contest entry "Puppet on a String," and also sang on some of Hill show orchestra leader Ronnie Aldrich's late 1970's musical bums - er, music albums. I.I.N.M., their being hired by Mr. Hill once he came to Thames in 1969 may have had something to do with the group's leader, Maggie Stredder ("The Girl with the Glasses"), having duetted with him on a Sonny & Cher takeoff song called "Those Days" as on his Benny Hill Sings? album issued in late 1965 on the (UK) Pye label. The group itself had been around from the mid-'60's on and changed personnel many times, with Ms. Stredder being the only constant. Most of the shows where they appeared on-camera, she was joined by Marian Davies (the light blonde one) and Gloria George (the darker-haired one); however, by the March 13, 1974 show Ms. George had left and Penny Lister (who would later appear as a singer in the Doctor Who episode "The Talons of Weng Chiang" from 1977) took her place. Many came and went after that, one of whom was Ann Simmons who'd been in a prior vocal group with Ms. Stredder, The Vernons Girls. In the '80's they were strictly off-camera vocal backing on the show.