Benny Hill Episode name? (Hole in Bucket)

[Austin Tripper]

Ok.. That is NOT the name of it, well I dont think.. But I am looking for the episode of the Benny Show when....

Benny had a Bucket he was playing a character, and basically this bucket around the country side where it would be from place to place... where ever it landed there was a skit about it.. then it would maybe go on a truck and then another skit..

ONE of the skits with the bucket was a lazy guy who had his grandmother holding a unbrella for Benny and he made his wife do all this work, his grandmother was lifting logs ans firewood... the bucket was involved somehow.. (while benny was just sitting in a chair and never lifted a finger)

damn this is vague, I am sorry maybe someone that is a huge fan knows the name or the Youtube Clip of this skit

OR maybe a hardcore Benny Hill message board where you think maybe they would know the name of this skit.

( The reason I want to see it is because benny hill played this character in it.. the lazy guy and it reminded me and my brother of my uncle. He acted just like him.)

Help please

[Jack Gomez]

Yeah, I think I remember this episode. The part I recall is the bucket having water in it and then some guy with a gun shoots it and it looks like Benny is peeing behind a tree. The guy then shoots it again and there are two streams of water and people look at Benny very strangely. It was pretty funny. Sorry, I don't know the name of it.

[W.B.]

In fact the sketch was titled "The Bucket," and it first aired on his March 12, 1986 special. It'll come out on DVD next January, in the sixth and final set of A&E Video's Complete & Unadulterated series. It should be noted that in the part where Benny was the "lazy" guy, the grandmother was played by the late diminutive character actor Sydney Arnold, in drag. (Apparently, along with the late Len Keyes, a potential Jackie Wright replacement at the time.)

[Austin Tripper]

wow thanks for the info wow!!!

Hey I think your the person to talk too about this!! Let me ask you what is the Best Era from benny??? I got a vhs tape from maybe the early 1970's (1971-1973 ish) and it sucked!!

Benny I think was in his peak I believe in the late 1970s (1978 -mid 1980s???) Is this correct

Are these Dvd's every single episode or just skits from that year?

What are the best ones to get??

Thanks so much for the help

[W.B.]

Originally Posted by Austin Tripper

wow thanks for the info wow!!!

Hey I think your the person to talk too about this!! Let me ask you what is the Best Era from benny??? I got a vhs tape from maybe the early 1970's (1971-1973 ish) and it sucked!!

Benny I think was in his peak I believe in the late 1970s (1978 -mid 1980s???) Is this correct

Are these Dvd's every single episode or just skits from that year?

What are the best ones to get??

Thanks so much for the help

It is obvious from your points, that different people who are Hill fans prefer different eras of TBHS, as well as different parts, and for different reasons, that's what makes the world go round. There are those who go for that era (most dominated by Hill's Angels), others the earlier years - and a very small minority enjoy the last few years of the show, which featured sketches with "Hill's Little Angels" (children of key cast and crew members). It shows, from my observations, that people who like TBHS tend to be more individualistic, and more varied, than fans of some other British shows (the collectivist-oriented Monty Python in particular comes to mind).

As for my favorite era, I'd say in terms of the larger picture, the first half (1969-78) of his run with Thames. Many fan favorites - poems such as "The Birds and the Bees"; his parodies of TV cop shows such as Ironside, Kojak and Starsky & Hutch; cradle-to-grave sketches such as "The Short Happy Life of Maurice Dribble" and "Gavin Blod: The Man and His Music"; his look at singer Tex Cymbal; his Kung Fu parody "Behind the Bamboo Certain"; and his 1930's film spoof Passengers of Love, all as just a few examples - emanated from that "first" era. I've also taken to some of the musical numbers from that first half - Los Zafiros' "Maria Isabel" performance from Oct. 28, 1970, f'rinstance, or The Orange Blossom Sound singing "What Am I Doin' Hangin' 'Round" on Feb. 22, 1973, or The Cotton Mill Boys' unorthodox rendition of "Orange Blossom Special" from May 30, 1978. I'm of the camp that believes the show began to "jump the shark," if you will, when the emphasis became more T&A based (most exemplified by the Hill's Angels), rather than his comedic abilities, during the second half (1979-89). Certainly the last few years of the show (from early to late 1980's) aren't as interesting, I.M.H.O.

It sounds like you probably got a tape of The Best of Benny Hill (1974), a theatrically released (in Britain) compilation of sketches from his shows as first aired between 1969 and 1972; the common thread of the source shows was that they were all produced and directed by John Robins. None of the shows from "other" producers/directors up to that point were even considered, let alone used, for inclusion in the film, I regret to say. While the film-based stuff looked a tad better than on the original shows, I say splurge on the A&E sets (the video stuff on TBOBH looked like color kinescopes).

The DVD sets put out by A&E Video (Complete & Unadulterated) consist of the entire individual episodes as in their original hour-long configuration before they were chopped up and rearranged a la the deck chairs on the Titanic, for U.S. syndication. There are five out in the market now (1969-1971, 1972-1974, 1975-1977, 1978-1981, 1982-1985), with a sixth (1986-1989) due next January.

[FredScuttle]

They also did a similar scene with a bucket with 2 holes in it behind a tree, making it look like he's taking a leak on the Down Under special (seen on Volume 3 of the Best of tapes back in the 80's, and also in syndication) on the skit "Benny Kelly".

Allthough WB alluded to it, I'll mention it specifically. When the January release comes out, the entire Thames "The Benny Hill Show" (1969-1989) will be available on DVD, in case you are interested in getting the whole series (in 6 sets, of course )

[storrs19]

Great to hear that soon all of The Benny Hill Show will be available. I have bought each set the day it came out and now next January I can have them all. I have to agree that my favorite years would be from 1974 to 1984. Just my preference but some of my favorite scenes were from A&E's Set 4. That seems to be the one I watch the most repeatedly.