Grand Wheelchair Rally

## Bio

The **Grand Wheelchair Rally** is a special racing event featuring old-timers at an unidentified castle, possibly in Little Dimpton.

The unnamed wheelchair recipients in the rally are a chubby fellow (Benny Hill) pushed by a nurse (Debbie Linden and Sue Upton), a fellow in glasses (Eddie Connor ("Specks") with Sue Upton), two bearded fellows (Henry McGee and Roger Finch), a younger man (Ken Sedd) in a motorized wheelchair, an old soldier and a Hindu fellow in a turban (both unidentified).

Before the start of the rally, the chubby fellow (Benny Hill) takes the press badge on a reporter (Stephanie Marrian?) too literal; he is later left to take his medicine which he takes by the bottle instead of by the spoon. Meanwhile, one of the old-timers (Henry McGee) tries balancing on his wheelchair and tumbles off of it before spectators (Sandra Hamilton, two unknown, Roger Finch and another unknown). Meanwhile, a nurse (Lee Gibson) takes donations while fatally impaling her donators (Ronald Fouracre? and several unknowns) with her pins as the chubby fellow eats a police officer's (Cyril Cross) held behind his back and accidentally bites his finger. A pick-pocket (Benny Hill) moves through the spectators accosting the women (Caroline Sargeant) and lifting purses (Jenny Lee Wright) before getting trapped in someone's (John Quayle) pocket. The nurse also chides a painter (unidentified actor) for a grammatical error in a sign.

The nurse signifies the start of the rally by ringing an officer's (Ronald Fouracre?) cap like a bell. When she fires the starter gun, the Hindu racer is accidentally shot. On his way, the chubby racer (Benny Hill) spots by the road a blonde hitch-hiker (Lynn Morgan), a dirty vagrant (Roger Finch) and a nudist (Ken Sedd). The young racer (Ken Sedd) in the motorized wheelchair picks up an hitch-hiker (Sue Upton) with curly hair who later gets flung forward when he stops for a traffic cop (Lee Gibson). Up the road, the chubby racer stops for a call of nature while further up the road, Specks is stopped by a banjo player (Ronald Fouracre?) looking for donations before he gets caught by a meter maid (Lee Gibson). The young racer also stops for a call of nature, but gets ticketed by the meter maid. Reaching the lead, the chubby racer warns the others of a traffic cop ("smokey") up ahead just before they all run a roadblock.

Up the road, the chubby racer's nurse (Debbie Linden) is distracted by a traveler (Ken Sedd), and he's left rolling down hill and up the ramp of an empty truck that drivers off with him in back. One of the bearded racers (Roger Finch) goes into a pit stop where one of the nurses (unidentified) distracts the other bearded racer (Henry McGee). The chubby racer soon catches up with the others, plowing past an old lady (Lee Gibson) at a crosswalk. She gets knocked unconscious by the ball on the pole on the curb and is attended by two paramedic workers (Benny Hill and John Quayle), but they get distracted by two young ladies (Lee Gibson and Erica Lynley?).

After storming through a detour, the bearded racer (Henry McGee) is sent off the road into the ditch. The chubby racer and the old soldier then struggle for the lead with the soldier getting rolled off the cliff. The chubby racer then rolls through the finish line and gets the trophy from Miss Dipton (unidentified actress) and two ladies in swimsuits (Sue Bond and Victoria Shellard). However, when the arrow in the sign comes down and impales him in the chest, everyone wanders away unsure what to do.

## Trivia

* The location for this sketch looks like it might be the castle and grounds from Bionic Boy which also appears in the Scout Jamboree on June 26, 1977, the beach scenes of the Body Building tag from June 26, 1977, the Girls Hostel on May 30, 1978 and the home of The Widow on May 30, 1978.
* This sketch seems to have the largest number of uncredited former and future cast members at one time.
* Benny's medicine sketch is taken from Spanky McFarland in the short Hook And Ladder.
* Benny's nurse in the race tends to alternate between Sue Upton and Debbie Linden.
* As one of the paramedics, Benny does the Fred Scuttle salute.
* The song with the motorcycle cop is "Convoy" by C. W. McCall.
* The scene with the old soldier going off the cliff is reused in the St. John Thomas Hospital tag on April 25, 1984.
* Benny Hill plays three characters (the chubby old man, the pickpocket and the ambulance driver) in the short.
* Sue Upton plays four characters (a spectator, a nurse, a hitchhiker and a swimsuit model) in the short.
* Ken Sedd plays four characters (the racer, a spectator, the nudist and the traveler) in the short.
* Jon Quayle plays a spectator whose pocket traps Benny and an ambulance driver.

## Gallery

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