Gavin Blod - The Man and his Music

## Production

**Episode:** 22

**Date:** January 8, 1975

**Time:** 50:20

**Musical Director:**

**Vocals:** The Ladybirds

**Choreography:**

**Producer:** Mark Stuart

**Director:**

**Writer:** Benny Hill

## Episode

* Quickie: Escaped Convicts
* A Host of Stars
	+ Swinging Bristols
	+ Gorg and Zola
	+ Marrianne Faceful
	+ The Duo Denal
	+ Nyree Dawn Porker
* Ballad: The Beach of Waikiki
* Gavin Blod: A Man and his Music
* Quickie: Help Wanted
* Guest: Lee Gibson - Moment of Truth
* "The Long Dry Summer" by Tennessee Robbins
* Newer Faces
* Tag: The Fruit Stand

## Highlights

* Gavin Blod: A Man and His Music
* Help Wanted
* The Long Dry Summer
* The Fruit Stand

## Cast

* Benny Hill
* Henry McGee
* Bob Todd
* Stella Moray
* Diana Darvey
* Jack Wright
* Samantha Stevens
* Bill Weston
* Anne Bruzac
* Yvonne Dearman (uncredited)

## Quotes

* "At ports, soldiers left town for the front. Crowds are seen cheering, singing and laughing... because they weren't going." - **Gavin Blod Narrator**

* **Baron Shtuk** - "Communist with knife and fork want to meet capitalist with steak and kidney pie." -

* **Ivy Friske** - "He said he would drink to his favorite composers."
**Gavin Blod Narrator** - "Mozart and Liszt?"
**Ivy Friske** - "No, he only drank sherry!"

* **Cissy** - "I can marry any man I please."
**Cissy's Mother** - "But you don't please any of them!"

* **Cissy's mother** - "Every man has his price."
**Cissy** - "But he gives green stamps!!"

* **Mr. Arbutnis** - "I didn't ask to be born."
**Cissy** - "You didn't want to stay where you were, did you?"

* **Cissy** - "I've never been so insulted in all my life!"
**Mr. Arbutnis** - "That's cause you don't get out much!"

* **Mr. Arbutnis** - "Why are you always scratching yourself?"
**Cissy** - "Because I'm the only one who knows where it itches."

* **Ted Ray** - "Now you see it, now you don't? Sounds like a nudist rolling down a hill!"

* **Ted Ray** - "I believe in life, liberty and the pursuit of Raquel Welch." -

## Trivia

* The opening quickie features {Benny Hill and Jackie Wright as escaped convicts who think a "You Are Here" map applies to them.
* The "Greatest Stars" montage at the start of the show includes:
	+ The Flying Bristols (Benny and Lee Gibson) - Her skirt gets pulled off and she flies off her swing while singing
	+ Gorg and Zola - A female singer (Lee) with her partner (Jackie Wright) under her vloumnious skirt (Bob Todd is the milk man)
	+ Marrianne Faceful (Stella Moray), who steps out from behind her skirt
	+ Duo Denal (Samantha Stevens and Benny) - She spins around; her dress stays in one place; he pulls janitor (Bob Todd) out of smoky back drop
	+ Nyree Dawn Porter (Lee Gibson) - the higher her voice gets, the taller she becomes
* The hospital location in the Gavin Blod sketch looks like the same set from the Lower Tidmarsh Volunteer Hospital sketch from 1969.
* The "communist with knife and fork" quote returns often in the serires. It also appears on the February 11, 1981 episode as part of the Undercover Sanitary Inspector sketch.
* This episodes features very few quickies. Other than the opener and "Greatest Stars" intro, there is a brief one after Gavin Blod with Benny Hill and Jackie Wright as Irishmen looking for jobs who can't drive, can't type and turn down a three-man job because "there's only two of us."
* "The Long Dry Summer" is loosely based on the 1958 movie, "The Long Hot Summer," with Paul Newman and Joanne Woodard, which was based on "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" by Tennessee Williams.
* "Newer Faces" is a parody of the pre-"American Idol" talent series "New Faces" which aired on ITV from 1973 to 1978 and from 1986 to 1988. Benny plays four of the judges from the series, namely Derek Hobson, Ted Ray, Mickie Most and Clifford Davis.

## Sequence

* **Last Episode:** Film Time at the National Film Theater
* **Next Episode:** Great Mysteries with Orson Buggy