Dalton Abbott Railway Choir

## Production

**Episode:** 17

**Date:** March 29, 1973

**Time:** 48:34

**Musical Director:** Ronnie Aldrich

**Vocals:** The Ladybirds

**Choreography:**

**Producer:** Peter Frazer-Jones

**Director:** Peter Frazer-Jones

**Writer:** Benny Hill

## Episode

* Quickie: Beanz Meanz Meanz
* Guest: Lee Gibson - Mad About You
* Poetry Corner
	+ Confrontation
	+ Reflection Ballet
* The Deputy
* Guest: Lee Gibson and Jon Jon Keefe - Happy Together
* American Generation Gap
* Quickies - 10
* The Dalton Abbott Railway Choir
* Tag: Hill Department Store

## Highlights

* Lee Gibson oozing sexy in "Mad About You" with Benny
* Confrontation

## Cast

* Benny Hill
* Bob Todd
* Jon Jon Keefe
* Trudi Van Doorn
* The Ladybirds
* Jack Wright
* Bella Emburg
* Jim Tyson
* Bill Weston
* Laraine Humphrys
* Cheryl Gilham
* Chai-Lee
* Sue Bond
* Andee Cromarty
* Bill Weston (uncredied)
* Ted Taylor (uncredited)
* Dennis Kirkland (uncredited)

## Quotes

* **Bob Todd**  - "It's drink that makes you miserable, it's drink that makes you soft. It's drink that makes buy guns that shoot your mother-in-law. It's drink that makes you load it, and once more, I'll tell you this, and it's drink that makes you miss...."

* **Trudi Van Doorn**  - "Meryn Cruddy, you are a reporter and an expose writer for a well-known newspaper."
 **Merwyn Cruddy**  - "Yes, the one that speaks up faces facts and names names."
 **Trudi Van Doorn**  - "And which one is that?"
 **Merwyn Cruddy**  - "I'd rather not say."

* **Harry Fudpucker**  - "She said how can I lose twenty pounds of ugly fat? I said cut off your head."

* **Harry Fudpucker**  - "She said you will drive me to my grave. I had the car out in two minutes!"

* **Lee Gibson**  - "I'm sorry, but I've never worked with a big star before."
 **Tony Blackburn**  - "And you never will either, will you?"

* **Trudi Van Doorn**  - "Who do you have to sleep with to get off this show?"
 **Tony Blackburn**  - "If you hold on a minute, I'll tell you."

* **Henry McGee**  - "And now, ladies and gentlemen...."
 **Ted Crumble** - "The know who they are.... Do you need to tell them?"

## Trivia

* First appearance of John John Keefe
* This was the first and last episode for Peter Frazer-Jones as a producer and director. He would go on to helm "Man About the House" which co-starred one-time Hill guest Paula Wilcox.
* The opening "Beanz Meanz Beanz" quickie is a parody of a long-running ad campaign in Britain for Heinz Baked Beans.
* Benny had previously impersonated Tony Blackburn in the Top of the Tops sketch on January 27, 1971.
* Future "Benny" director Dennis Kirkland appears briefly in the episode when he wanders on camera during a quickie where Benny hurts himself trying to slide on cue.
* Quickies feature Benny as Lord Boothby, Tony Blackburn selling Fairly Liquid, Benny as a beer-drinking German and "a scary old witch." Lee is a French dancer dealing with a hapless dancer, and Jon Jon Keefe is "the girl with the shiny hair."
* The "Fairly Liquid" quickie with Benny and Trudi is a parody of a 1964 ad spoof where Patricia Hayes played the mother.
* Throughout the live audience segments of the show, Benny's voice sounds especially hoarse and ragged throughout, which may explain why the episode opens with Lee Gibson performing Mad About You, which had been recorded the prior year by Bruce Ruffin.
* Henry McGee is the unseen director yelling from off-camera in the Lord Boothby quickie.
* Popular quickies from this episode include Benny as English disc jockey Tony Blackburn trying to sell Fairly Liquid to Lee Gibson and Trudi Van Doorn, trying to slide in from off-stage on cue and as a "scary old witch" with Trudy as his mother.
* Show pianist Ted Taylor walks out on stage at the start of Dalton Abbott Railway Choir

## Sequence

* **Last Episode:** Jackie Wright: Holiday
* **Next Episode:** Coal-Pits