Bio[]
Portable TV Set is a comedy-musical monologue sung by Benny Hill as a disenchanted husband commiserating about his wife's (Jenny Lee-Wright) devotion and interest to a TV set which she carries around everywhere. The number is an updated version of a 1961 single, "Transistor Radio," in which Benny lampooned various pop acts of the day. Through the song, scenes are sprinkled through the bit with parodies of various TV shows:
- Ironside (Benny Hill) talks about his devotion to his wife (Pat Ashton) as she wanders off with his colleague {Jimmy Thompson). He gets left behind by his assistant (Bob Todd) and left to roll into a ravine.
- It is possible that Pat Ashton was playing Ironside's assistant Eve Whitfield (played on the actual show by Barbara Anderson from 1967 to 1971). Jimmy Thompson played Sgt. Ed Brown in this vignette, and Bob Todd was in blackface as Mark Sanger.
- Clement Freud (Benny) talks about cooking a turkey
- Jess Yates (Benny) sends a spiritual message to his viewers and gets caught with a "wicked" photo.
- In the "Stars on Sunday" parody, the "wicked photo" that is revealed by Jess Yates (Benny) at the end was the centerfold photo of March 1972 Playboy Playmate of the Month, Ellen Michaels.
- The Ladybirds (Bob Todd as Marian Davies, Benny as Maggie Stredder, and Jimmy Thompson as Gloria George) sing a song about their renown as sessions vocalists; the actual Ladybirds provide their own singing vocals
Lyrics[]
- Coming up