As somebody who grew up in Britain in the 80s, the popularity of Benny Hill on your side of the Atlantic was regarded with general incredulity and astonishment.
As an American who grew up an Anglophile even though I've only been to the U.K. once on my Fiftieth birthday? That THE BENNY HILL SHOW was even a thing on the BBC is regarded with general incredulity and astonishment.
Then again, I'm still trying to wrap my head around a twenty-year old BBC television show called THE BLACK AND WHITE MINSTREL SHOW, starring British actors in Blackface!
Or that the entire cast of MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS did Blackface at least once....
It's worth tracking down the episode of The Goodies — a Python-adjacent comedy series ostensibly aimed at a younger audience, I loved it when I was 10 or 11 — that took savage satiric jabs at both the appalling Black & White Minstrel Show (which ran until 1978!) and Apartheid (not just appalling, but catastrophic). It's kind of a mindblower.
I've been reading Sir! Michael Palin*'s diaries (he's been publishing them over the last several years), and I think The Goodies came up a few times.
I confess, all I know about Bill Oddie is that he's some kind of environmentalist that Jeremy Clarkson (who seems determined to become the British Glenn Beck—lower than that I cannot go) repeatedly mocks.
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* Yes, Michael Palin is for-real an English Kn-niggit—the only member of the Python troupe to be so honored...possibly because he's lived in the same London neighborhood all his adult life, and in the same house for most of it! He and his wife Helen drove to Buckingham Palace in their nearly twenty-year old Morris Mini for some charity comedy 'do that Prince Edward roped him into, which to me is the most Michael Palin thing ever.
FWIW, I saw Samantha Fox in concert and got to meet her after the show. I distinctly remember her taking a banana from a fruit bowl backstage, holding it up to her ear, then saying with a grin, "It's for you!" and handing it to me. Some memories never leave you.
I really enjoyed Presence but this looks way better and am looking forward to this. His movies are always interesting and original regardless of what genre he is in. Also a book about the Onion/ AV Club that doesn't mention you would be a shame.
And Presence was also great! Soderbergh and Koepp are the MVPs of 2025. They’ve teamed up on two movies this year and they’re both making my best of the year list.
As somebody who grew up in Britain in the 80s, the popularity of Benny Hill on your side of the Atlantic was regarded with general incredulity and astonishment.
As an American who grew up an Anglophile even though I've only been to the U.K. once on my Fiftieth birthday? That THE BENNY HILL SHOW was even a thing on the BBC is regarded with general incredulity and astonishment.
Then again, I'm still trying to wrap my head around a twenty-year old BBC television show called THE BLACK AND WHITE MINSTREL SHOW, starring British actors in Blackface!
Or that the entire cast of MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS did Blackface at least once....
https://montypython.fandom.com/wiki/Blackface_in_Monty_Python
It's worth tracking down the episode of The Goodies — a Python-adjacent comedy series ostensibly aimed at a younger audience, I loved it when I was 10 or 11 — that took savage satiric jabs at both the appalling Black & White Minstrel Show (which ran until 1978!) and Apartheid (not just appalling, but catastrophic). It's kind of a mindblower.
I've been reading Sir! Michael Palin*'s diaries (he's been publishing them over the last several years), and I think The Goodies came up a few times.
I confess, all I know about Bill Oddie is that he's some kind of environmentalist that Jeremy Clarkson (who seems determined to become the British Glenn Beck—lower than that I cannot go) repeatedly mocks.
____
* Yes, Michael Palin is for-real an English Kn-niggit—the only member of the Python troupe to be so honored...possibly because he's lived in the same London neighborhood all his adult life, and in the same house for most of it! He and his wife Helen drove to Buckingham Palace in their nearly twenty-year old Morris Mini for some charity comedy 'do that Prince Edward roped him into, which to me is the most Michael Palin thing ever.
FWIW, I saw Samantha Fox in concert and got to meet her after the show. I distinctly remember her taking a banana from a fruit bowl backstage, holding it up to her ear, then saying with a grin, "It's for you!" and handing it to me. Some memories never leave you.
I really enjoyed Presence but this looks way better and am looking forward to this. His movies are always interesting and original regardless of what genre he is in. Also a book about the Onion/ AV Club that doesn't mention you would be a shame.
::Soderbergh is a box set director. At the end of his long and life career, someone should release a giant box set of all his films. ::
I'm not sure most people could afford a box set of ALL of Soderbergh's films.
If it included KAFKA, I'd take out a second mortgage.
...Enjoy...?
I gotta see about getting a bunch of his movies on DVD- like, I have The Limey on VHS but nowhere to play it now.
And Presence was also great! Soderbergh and Koepp are the MVPs of 2025. They’ve teamed up on two movies this year and they’re both making my best of the year list.