Bio[]
Top of the Tops is a British pop music and dance program running the top songs from the most famous singers in England with psychedelic imagery and weird camera work.
Hosted by Jimmy Saveloy (Benny Hill), the program starts out with an unidentified singer (Benny Hill) performing In The Papers with members of Petticoat And Vine before Saveloy comes out with several beautiful ladies. Talking in a quick uncontrolled voice, he manages to introduce Roger Twitaker (Benny Hill) who sings "The Whistle Song," but his performance is bothered by two dancers (Mia Martin and Linda Cunningham) eating lemons and by the smoke from the pipe of a gentleman (Nicholas Parsons).
Saveloy also introduces Tony Blackbum (Benny Hill) who shows off a blonde dancer (Jenny Lee Wright) before introducing Bobbie Gently (Benny Hill) singing "The Dustbins of Your Mind." Saveloy next introduces Roy Orpington (Benny Hill) from America; the two of them talking over each other as Jimmy gestures profusely with his cigar. Singing "Only The Lonely," Roy is filmed with several weird and overdone angles followed by a performance of the Spatchelors (Benny Hill, Jackie Wright and Pete O'Dell) quarreling over their microphone and singing I'll Never Know.
Saveloy wraps the show with music from Ronnie Aldrich and the Layabouts.
Trivia[]
- This sketch was a parody of "Top of the Pops," the BBC music chart television program which ran from January 1, 1964 to July 30, 2006.
- The sketch starts out with several fictional entertainers with likenesses taken from older 1890s photographs, some of who seem to be parodies of famous Seventies entertainers. These characters include Dusty Stringvest (Dusty Springfield), Simon and Carbuncle (Simon and Garfunkel), Sonny and Share (Sonny and Cher), Faith, Hope and Chastity, Ship, Shape and Bristol Fashion, The Unmarried Fathers, Grumble and Grunt, Joe Cockup (Joe Cocker), Freeman, Hardy and Willing, and Cobblers.
- Though not mentioned, it is possible the Faith, Hope and Chastity reference was a play on an American R&B vocal group, Faith, Hope and Charity, who would have a major U.S. hit in 1975 with "To Each His Own (That's My Philosophy)."
- Jimmy Saveloy was a parody of legendary British radio personality (and recurring "Top of the Pops" host) Jimmy Savile.
- Roger Twitaker is a spoof of British folk singer Roger Whitaker; Benny also spoofs him in the opener on March 24, 1976.
- Tony Blackbum is a parody of Tony Blackburn, another British radio personality. Benny would play him again in running 'Fairly Liquid' bloopers on March 29, 1973.
- Bobbie Gently is a parody of American singer-songwriter Bobbie Gentry.
- Roy Orpington is a parody of American singer-songwriter and musician Roy Orbison; Benny also plays him in Sale of the Half Century.
- The dancers are Jenny Lee Wright, Sue Bond, Mia Martin, Lesley Goldie and Geraldine Burnett. The other two girls are unrevealed. The six girls together seem to be a very early predecessor to the Hill's Angels of the Eighties.
- One of the male dancers bears a slight resemblance to Michael Palin of "Monty Python's Flying Circus."
- Orpington's bizarre camera angles return in the Tex Cymbal biography on March 26, 1975.
- "I'll Never Know" was also performed by Benny Hill and Eddie Buchanan on April 21, 1976, and by Benny, Vanessa Biddulph and Anna Dawson on March 31, 1986.
- Ginger Thompkins (the wild-haired orange-topped soccer player Benny Hill played on December 25, 1969) returns to put his moves on a dancer only for it to turn out to be Nicholas Parsons.
- The Spatchelors (a parody of the Irish vocal group The Bachelors) return on March 24, 1976 with Henry McGee replacing Pete O'Dell.
- Benny plays seven characters in this sketch.
