St. John Thomas Hospital

## Bio

**St. John Thomas Hospital** is a medical convalescence hospital located somewhere in England, possibly Teddington, Little Dimpton or Lower Tidmarsh. By comparison, it seems slightly more professional over the Lower Tidmarsh Volunteer Hospital in Lower Tidmarsh.

Opening on April 25, 1984, the ribbon to the hospital is cut by Lady Shaver (Abigail Higgins) in front of officials and patients (Jackie Wright and Henry McGee) standing on crutches. Inside the hospital, a sexy nurse (Allison Bell) strides into the men's ward carrying things and exciting all the men (Henry McGee, Ken Sedd, Benny Hill as Ginger Thompkins and one unidentified) but an old timer (Jackie Wright) watching. When a male nurse (Jon Jon Keefe) bends over to clean up the mess, there is suddenly a ruckus from the old-timer's bed.

When the sexy nurse stars coughing, an idle doctor (Benny Hill) takes it upon himself to diagnose her, but when a blonde nurse (Erica Lynley) needs him, his stethoscope in her cleavage snaps back and hits him like a sling shot. Meanwhile, a brunette nurse (Karan David) uses Karate to remove a cast on a patient's (Henry McGee) leg. Another nurse (Louise English) tries to peacefully rouse an old man (Benny Hill) from his sleep to take his medicine, but the other nurse (Karan) instead uses a trumpet to wake him up.

On the other side of the room, the formerly idle doctor is giving an examination to a nurse (Erica), but when he checks her reflexes, she inadvertently kicks him in the groin. The old man (Benny) entertains himself by playing ping-pong with a paddle in his foot while the brunette nurse (Karan again) hoists a trauma patient (Jackie Wright) covered in bandages up in the rig on his bed to adjust his sheets.

By this point, Lady Shaver (Abigail Higgins) has been welcomed inside to meet the patients by a hospital executive Henry McGee and the head nurse Bob Todd. The old man in bed (Benny) is forced to wave when the blonde nurse (Erica again) pulls a lever to make his injured arm go up and down. As Lady Shaver starts to meet the patients, the formerly idle doctor notices the sexy nurse (Alison) coming in to give sponge baths to the patients. Quickly changing clothes to masquerade as a patient, he kicks one man (Ken Sedd) out of bed to get his sponge bath and then a concussion patient (Jon Jon Keefe), even bandaging his head to complete the disguise, but when he tries impersonating a black patient (Andrew Francis) by covering himself with polish and a black mop as a wig, he gets discovered as his disguise doesn't go beneath his head. The nurse is even surprised and runs away, but the doctor is caught by the head nurse who uncovers his disguise. Forced to change back to his regular clothes, the "doctor" turns out to just a painter who was supposed to finish a job. He even tries fleeing the hospital through the women's ward in his escape.

## Trivia

* Former Hill's Angel and Pan's People member Abigail Higgins plays Lady Shaver. By this point in her career, dancing had taken such a toil on her body she was barely able to even work as a choreographer. Afterward, Benny gave her bit parts in sketches to keep her working in the series.
* At the opening, Henry McGee plays the announcer, Bob Todd is the huge burly head nurse and Jackie Wright is a patient seen briefly clapping with Henry off to the side. (Jon Jon Keefe can be seen slightly to Jackie's left.) Karan David is the official in the red hat. In the long shot, Jon Jon and Ken Sedd might be the two patients with the "ribbon" stretched across the entrance.
* The exterior looks like the grounds of Teddington Studios. They were also seen in Hill Department Store on March 29, 1973.
* Karan David also played a nurse in the British TV series, "Angels" which ran from 1975 to 1983 alongside Julie Dawn Cole of "Willie Wonka" fame.
* The four ladies in the women's ward are unidentified; the Hill's Angels for this episode were Lisa Jackman, Lindsay Neil, Lesley Woods, Tracy Smith, Noreen Bothan and Fiona Sloman. At least one of them, seen clearly in the run, is Sue Upton.
* The runners in the tag include Benny, Bob, Henry, Abigail, Jon Jon, Ken Sedd, Andrew Francis and an unidentified extra standing in for Jackie. (Jackie does however show up outside suggesting the chase was taped much earlier.) Although Erica, Louise and Alison were in this sketch, they are not part of the chase unless they were the other three female patients..
* During the chase, Benny notices a hair stuck in the footage and stops the run to pluck it out as if it was a large wire and throw it away before resuming the chase. According to William Brown at "Benny's Place," the gag was from the 1952 MGM cartoon, "Magical Maestro," directed by legendary animation director Tex Avery.
* A ambulance with its siren ringing and a tractor join the chase.
* An unidentified actor (possibly Ken Sedd) shows up dressed as an old soldier pushed in a wheelchair by Karan David. This character was added in order to reuse the footage with the soldier going off a cliff from the Grand Wheelchair Rally on December 26, 1978. Benny often reused old footage of Jackie in later sketches so he could still keep getting residuals after leaving the series for reasons of health.
* Bob Todd keeps up with the runners on a bicycle.
* Jackie re-appears as an old man in glasses coming out of his home after the runners have passed.
* Other hospital sketches include the Lower Tidmarsh Volunteer Hospital (1969), Memory Lane Hospital (1972), National Health Clinic (1976) and Little Dimpton Hospital (1986).

## Gallery

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