Continental Capers Band

## Bio

The **Continental Capers Band** is a ten-piece instrumental band that plays in the bandstand of a large unidentified park (Possibly in Teddington or Lower Tidmarsh). When they arrive, the gate into the bandstand seems to be stuck and a member (Jack Wright) has to help one of the female members (Bella Emberg) climb over the gate. As he turns to help the other female members (Barbara Wise and possibly Malou Cartwright and Leslie Goldie), the conductor races over and helps them over. Once they're in, he opens the gate and everyone else enters.

Through the park, the activity and behavior of visitors and park employees react and respond to the pulse of the music. The gardeners (Benny Hill, Jack Wright and Johnny Greenland) spray the bushes to the beat of the music. An attractive blonde (Kay Frazer) walks by and takes interest in the lone pink flower growing in the park, but the park administrator (Bob Todd) shows up and doesn't like the attention being giving to her and orders his employee back to work. His mood isn't made better when the wheelbarrow is accidentally dumped on his foot. The blonde takes one of the workers on a dance through the grounds, knocking another laborer off his ladder, but the mood is made worse when the administrator purposely stomps the flower into the ground. Her mood ruined by the act, the blonde wanders away, and after seeing her wander by with a handsome young guy (Jon Jon Keefe, the upset employee (Benny Hill) takes out his frustration on his co-worker (Jack Wright).
The park cleaners soon join up picking up the trash in the park, again spiking and collecting the debris to the beat of the music and culminating in an ersatz bullfight mime complete with the victor (Benny Hill taking the lapels of the defeated (Jackie Wright).

Also nearby, three boy scouts (Bob Todd, Benny Hill and Jackie Wright) share a German tap-dance routine, slapping each other at the end, but the short fellow walks away as a girl scout (Kay Frazer) comes closer to investigate. After getting patted to the chest, the middle guy turns to pat the little guy, not knowing he's moved away, and pats the girl scout to her chest. This surprises her as a lady police officer walks up (Leslie Goldie), and she gets patted to the chest, eventually taking the erring offender away.

Meanwhile, the music continues at the nearby church where a large group of kitchen workers (Jon Jon Keefe, Leslie Goldie, Malou Cartwright, Bob Todd and Benny Hill) use everyday kitchen utensils like percussion instruments to an instrumental tune. Nearby, a valet (Benny Hill) checks on guests sitting at the park and ends up dancing with a sultry blonde (Kay Frazer), just before his wife (Bella Emberg) shows up and whacks him with a dinner tray. A priest (Bob Todd) comes to mend the friction between them, but their fighting starts up again and spills out over the others as the band wraps its performing.

## Trivia

* The sketch is identified on the DVD as "The Band in the Park: Continental Capers."
* The members of the band are Benny Hill, Jack Wright, Henry McGee, Jon Jon Keefe, Barbara Wise, Jim Tyson, Bella Emberg and possibly Malou Cartwright and Leslie Goldie.
* The "pants leg full of water" gag seems to be a recreation of one in the "Gilligan's Island" episode "Pass the Vegetables, Please."
* Henry McGee, Nicole Shelby, Jackie Wright and Bella Emberg play patrons in the kitchen.
* The park guests (excluding Benny, Kay, Bella and Bob in their bit) include Jon Jon Keefe, Jim Tyson, Leslie Goldie, Barbara Wise, Malou Cartwright, Henry McGee and Jack Wright.
* The Federales De Los Pueblos tag was possiby part of this bit. It featured Benny Hill, Bob Todd, Henry McGee, Jon Jon Keefe, Earl Stephenson, Jack Wright and three unknowns (possibly the members of Los Zafiros) as a bicycle stunt team in military uniforms. This might be the sketch Jon Jon Keefe describes as his first sketch in "I Was Benny Hill's Boy Toy" when he describes "dressing up as a German soldier filmed at Green Park in Slough."

## Gallery

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