Opportunity's Knocking

## Production

**Episode:** 6

**Date:** December 23, 1970

**Time:** 48:18

**Musical Director:**

**Vocals:** The Ladybirds

**Choreography:**

**Producer:** John Robins

**Director:** John Robins

**Writer:** Benny Hill

## Episode

* Quickie - Rubber Balloons
* Ballad - Broken Hearted Lover's Stew (with The Ladybirds)
* Quickies - 7
* Fred Scuttle: The Holiday King
* Dickie Dido
	+ The Story of Grand Pappy Blooper
* Ballad - Rachel (with The Ladybirds)
* Quickie - Bank Robbery
* Bloopers - 8
* Guest - Trisha Noble - Leaving on a Jet Plane
* A Tribute to the Lower Tidmarsh Fire Brigade
* Opportunity's Knocking
* Ballad - Ernie - The Fastest Milkman In The West
* Tag - Push-Pull-Ring-Pat

## Highlights

* A Tribute to the Lower Tidmarsh Fire Brigade
* Opportunity's Knocking
* Ernie - The Fastest Milkman In The West

## Cast

* Benny Hill
* Nicholas Parsons
* The Ladybirds
* Jack Wright
* Tommy Mann
* Sue Bond
* Jan Butlin
* Verne Morgan
* Kay Frazer
* Charmaine Seal
* Liz Fraser
* Connie Georges - Lower Tidmarsh Volunteer Fire Brigade member (uncredited)
* Lesley Goldie - Lower Tidmarsh Volunteer Fire Brigade member (uncredited)
* Walter Goodman - Lower Tidmarsh Volunteer Fire Brigade member (uncredited)

## Quotes

* **Nicholas Parsons**  - "Now, if I came to you and said I had a month to holiday and only seven pounds to spend, could you tell me where to go?"
**Fred Scuttle**  - "Yes sir, but I would not be so rude."

* **Nicholas Parsons**  - "But I only have seven pounds!"
**Fred Scuttle**  - "I understand. You're from Thames Television. We get a lot of them!"

* **Nicholas Parsons**  - "Fishing and tennis?"
**Fred Scuttle**  - "Fishing OR tennis.... It's the same net."

* **Dickie Dido**  - "Now, Pythagoras had a theorum.... and it hurt!"

* **Huey Crane**  - "Did anything interesting or exciting happen?"
**Ivor Burles**  - "Yes, the wife had twins. A boy and a girl."
**Huey Crane**  - "Anything else?"
**Ivor Burles**  - "No, just the boy and the girl."

* **Huey Crane**  - "I've never used buttons. There's no flies on me."

## Trivia

* The opening sketch features Sue Bond in Rubber Balloons; this was her first appearance in the series.
* This is the first of three black and white programs that were produced as a result of a wage dispute at Thames TV.
* The first string of Quickies features more examples of Look Number Seven
	+ The "Egyptian Flu" quickie was later repeated with Benny and Jane Leeves on January 5, 1985.
* Dickie Dido last appeared in a sketch with Patricia Hayes in 1970.
* The second string of Quickies feature:
	+ A bungled robbery by a trio of thieves (Nicholas Parsons, Benny and Trisha Noble)
	+ Sign hangers (Benny and Jackie Wright) foiled by a bicyclist (Bob Todd)
	+ A singer (Trisha Noble) flying off a swing
	+ Splash detergent erasing the pattern off a floor (with Benny and Jan Butlin)
	+ A dancer (Benny) sailing past his back-up dancers (Lesley Goldie and Kay Frazer
	+ A TV host (Benny) reveals the hidden word in a Theatre Royal poster
	+ A TV cook (Benny) breaking a bowl with a soup can
	+ A dancer (Benny) loses his partner (Kay Frazer) and finds a studio employee (Nicholas Parsons) (The singer is Trisha Noble)
	+ A lack of difference between Fair Deal Ben and the competing detergent (Benny does the voice)
* "A Tribute to the Lower Tidmarsh Fire Brigade' was later remade in A Tribute to the Lower Tidmarsh Fire Brigade.
* Benny does a parody of the British talent show "Opportunity's Knocking." He also parodied it with a German version called "Opportunite Knokkes" in 1971.
* Benny performs his song, Ernie - The Fastest Milkman In The West which includes the lyrics "Ernie was only 68. He didn't want to die." Ironically, Benny passed away at the age of 68.
* Bob Todd doesn't appear in this episode.
* In the closing tag, Sue Bond can be seen laughing as she chases after Benny around and through (possibly) the Teddington Studios parking lot.

## Sequence

* **Last Episode:** The Underwater World of Jacques Custard
* **Next Episode:** Top of the Tops