Fred Scuttle

***"Good evening, sir.. Good evening, viewers!"** - Fred Scuttle*

## Bio

**Fred Scuttle** is an English entrepreneur who has taken and attempted several jobs and positions in England, mostly in the entertainment field. He is often seen wearing wire-rimmed granny glasses, a military cap turned sideways on his head, and using his signature open-palmed British Army salute, which he often gives after making a clumsy or exaggerated entry behind the interviewer while he addresses the viewing audience in introduction. He also considers himself bilingual, but when faced with an example, he always adds one more.

Scuttle fancies himself a crackerjack businessman, having worked numerous jobs in multiple industries at various levels including, but not limited to:

* Doctor (he tried to subconsciously train an ordinary man to become the smartest person alive)
* Airline Pilot
* Contractor (he once attempted to bore his own tunnel to France underneath the English Channel)
* Movie/Television executive
* Chief Police Inspector at the Villain Of The Year awards
* Owner/Manager of "The Fun Boy Club" (the girls are dressed like Teddy Bears)
* Owner of an Escort Service
* Astronaut
* Tour Manager
* Musical Impresario (he once recruited Eddie Buchanan to sing with his new vocal group)
* Tabloid News Publisher (he tries to slander Henry McGee for insulting his journalism)
* Circus Manager

Scuttle's personality is jovial, extroverted and somewhat childlike. During interviews, when the host asks him certain questions using complicated words that Scuttle doesn't understand, he perceives innuendo and answers accordingly. For instance, when Nicholas Parsons interviewed Scuttle about his travel tour business in 1970:

* **Parsons:** "Mister Scuttle, if I was to come to you and say that I had a month's holiday and only seven pounds to spend, could you tell me where to go?"
**Scuttle:** "Yes, sir, I could, but I would not be so rude, sir."

And in a later episode in which he is interviewed by Henry McGee:

* **McGee:** "Do you exercise your prerogative?"
**Scuttle:** "If it's slack."

Scuttle often takes pride in the fact that many of his businesses, mainly the travel and tourism attempts, were impossibly inexpensive. On several occasions, when asked how he could keep prices so cheap, his response was "By keeping the overhead down and the undercarriage up!"

## Trivia

* Fred Scuttle was played by Benny Hill. His full name is Frederick Forsyte Scuttle D.B.T.C. (Don't Bend The Card)
* Fred says he studied at Eaton.
* In his interview with Parsons in News At Ten, Scuttle says he has a son who calls him "uncle-father." He is also married; his wife is named Stella, and she worked as one of the girls in his escort service. She was played by Bella Emberg. He also has a brother-in-law named Rex with works with him in Scuttle Security.
* Next to Chow Mein, Fred Scuttle is possibly the most recurring character in the series.
* Fred sometimes makes oft appearances in other sketches, such as a referee in Cross-Country Race and a guest at Dibbles Health Farm.
* In the Is This Your Life sketch, Scuttle turns up as a friend of George Podmore (played by Robertson Hare).
* On February 8, 1989, Scuttle has a newspaper cover about Freddy Starr and a helicopter. This may be in reference to a story told by Alison Thomas where Starr visited Benny on location with a helicopter.
* He has been interviewed by Jeremy Gulliver (at the BBC), Nicholas Parsons and Henry McGee.

## Episode(s)

* Is This Your Life
* The Sound of Frankenstein
* The Underwater World Of Jacques Custard
* Opportunity's Knocking
* Top of the Tops
* News At Ten
* Benny's All-Star Finale
* Down Memory Lane
* The Common Market Square Dance
* Jackie Wright: Holiday
* Coalpits
* Great British Dancing Finals
* Great Mysteries with Orson Buggy
* Tex Cymbal: Golden Boy
* Jack and Jill
* Murder on the Oregon Express
* Benny Hill: Down Under
* The South Blank Show
* The Police Raid in Waterloo Station
* Name That Tune
* Scuttle-Vision
* Forever Love
* Holding Out For A Hero
* The Crook Report
* Benny Hill's World Tour: New York

## Gallery

* Fred Scuttle wax figure
* Benny and his Fred Scuttle figure
* Fred Scuttle statue
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