Top of the Tops

Top of the Tops

Production

Episode: 7
Date: January 27, 1971
Time: 51:23
Musical Director:
Vocals: The Ladybirds
Choreography:
Producer: John Robins
Director: John Robins
Writer: Benny Hill

Episode

• Quickie: Yes M'Lady
• Ballad: Flying South For The Summer
• Shameful Moments of Sport
• Guests: Petticoat And Vine - World of Love and Laughter
• Henry and Alice and Bob And Mary
• Bloopers: 8
• Guest: Kiki Dee - You Made Me So Happy
• Crime Does Not Pay
  • Fred Scuttle - Law And Order
• Love Will Find A Way
• Top of the Tops
• Tag: The Dreamer

Highlights

• Henry and Alice and Bob And Mary
• Crime Does Not Pay
• The Dreamer

Cast

• Benny Hill
• Nicholas Parsons
• Patricia Hayes
• Rita Webb
• Jenny Lee Wright
• George Roderick
• Jack Wright
• Sue Bond
• Lesley Goldie
• Mia Martin
• Pete O'Dell
• Linda Cunningham (uncredited)

Quotes

• TV Announcer - "Why is this virile young man going to marry this wizened old hag? The answer is simple; she owns the house."

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• Alice - "Exercise gets rid of fat."
  Henry - "How come you have a double chin then?"

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• Alice - "That's not my 25-piece tea set, is it?"
  Henry - "More like 500-piece tea set now...."

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• Alice - "Henry, I don't look thirty-eight now, do I?"
  Henry - "Not any more you don't."

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• Bob - "Your wife?"
  Henry - "Would I hire a maid as ugly as that?"

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• Bob - "Two's company, three's a crowd, four's a lot more fun."

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• Mary - "But I'll be like that in thirty years time!"
  Henry - "In thirty years, I won't care!!!"

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• Unseen Announcer - "Why doesn't his father show him the right way?"
  Mother - "He does, but he still gets caught."

Trivia

• The opening "Yes, M'Lady" quickie with a butler overhearing a conversation was later included in The Herd on March 31, 1986 with Bob Todd in the role.
  • The lady's voice is uncredited, but it might be Rita Webb.
• The mismatched news footage gag was also used in the Edith Packet sketch on November 19, 1969 and repeated March 14, 1979.
• Kiki Dee introduces a string of quickies of fake screen gaffes:
  • An actress (Leslie Goldie) has a phone that rings after she picks up up, wanders too far to reveal back stage (Jackie Wright) and suffers with mismatched footage involving a coat (Benny Hill)
  • A woman (Rita Webb) flashes her under skirt to a commercial spokesman (Benny Hill)
  • An actress's (Leslie) attire changes between shots
  • A newscaster (Benny) suffers through mismatched news footage
  • A Benovite spokesman (Benny) with badly-designed simulation
  • Exposed film mars a performance between two actors (Leslie and Benny)
  • A faulty microphone for a world leader (Benny)
  • A fatal mistake between two actors (Jenny Lee Wright and (Nicholas Parsons (Benny is the director)
• Benovite was last mentioned on March 11, 1970 with the similar two-sided face gag from Duffo commercial parody in Leprechaun TV on March 14, 1979.
• The Claude and Fifi sketch ("Love Will Find A Way") is repeated intact in Benny Hill: Down Under. It's remade in Carmen with Alison Bell replacing Leslie Goldie.
• Several clips from this episode made it into the The Best of Benny Hill.

Sequence

• Last Episode: Opportunity's Knocking
• Next Episode: Undercover Sanitary Inspector

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