Bio[]
Poetry Corner is a British TV program promoting high class entertainment to the general public with cuts to other programming.
The program starts with a very drunken announcer (Bob Todd) arguing with himself as he cuts to an episode of "Confrontation" where Henry McGee, Trudy Van Doorn and Bob Todd as themselves interview Merwyn Cruddy, an investigative reporter about his stories and general observations about public life. However, he turns the interview into being a rumor-mongerer and starts spilling secrets on celebrities and politicians:
- Fred Fosdyke is sponging off his sister and brother-in-law
- A local refuse collector isn't doing his job
- A Lorry driver has been blocking Cruddy's driveway
- Ladies underwear ads in the London Underground
- "Mary Jane" use on the potty
- Degradation and vice at Teddington Studios
- Eamonn Andrews' facade of respectability
- A portrait of David Nixon in a sleeveless shirt is mistaken for a "skull and crossbones" coat of arms
- Hughie Green never appears on the BBC
- Harry Secombe never returns to native Scotland
- Reg Varney never speaks of his brother Manto
- Member of Ronnie Aldrich Orchestra changed his sax
- Members of the Black and White Minstrels are illegal immigrants
- The truth about Malcolm Muggeridge and Kathy Kirby
The program is continued with a scene from "Mirror Ballet" as a male ballet dancer (Benny Hill) tries to be the reflection of the female ballet artist (Lee Gibson) outside it. It continues with a male poet (Henry McGee) doing a reading about bras. He is followed by another poet (Benny Hill) doing a reading of They Said It Could Not Be Done, which completes the episode.
Trivia[]
- For some reason, this routine was broken up and edited rather oddly in the episode. It starts out with Bob Todd as a drunken announcer screaming incoherently then cuts to a spoof of "Confrontation" as if it it was part of the same sketch. This is followed by the ballet dancers before going to Henry and Benny both doing recitations. When it was transferred to DVD, the opening is completely ignored in the menu, separating it into "Confrontation," "Reflection Ballet" and "Poetry Corner." It is even odder, as on the Network Video Region 2 DVD "The Benny Hill Annual: 1972-1973," an "End of Part One" adcap is seen after the end of "Confrontation," and a "Part Two" adcap precedes the "Reflection Ballet."
- Jackie Wright and Jim Tyson appear in the background of the sketch's main body
- Reg Varney is Benny's former comedy writing partner. The reference to "his brother Manto" was a play on the name of legendary easy listening conductor Mantovani.
- Harry Secombe was a member of "The Goon Show," which also consisted of Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan and ran on BBC Radio from 1951 to 1960. Their work was one of several influences on "Monty Python's Flying Circus."
- The ladies' underwear and "MaryAnna" references came from Benny's "mockumentary" "The Lonely One" from the 1964 edition of the BBC's "Christmas Night with the Stars." An earlier version of his expose of the "vice and degradation" at his home station was on his very last BBC show of December 26, 1968, in the sketch where, as Merwyn Thud, he details the changes he intends to make to their Radio Times publication if he took it over.
- A photo taken of Benny during the making of the "Confrontation" sketch would become his head shot published in every edition of the British casting directory "Spotlight" beginning with the 1975/76 edition (No. 136), and continuing up until his death in 1992 (the 1993/94 edition).
- Ronnie Aldrich is Benny's music director
