JOHNSTONE – The ‘Benny Hill’ Thumb Placing Etude – SOLO CELLO

Other Identification:
Alfred Hawthorne Hill (born 21st January, 1924 – Southampton; died in April 1992 -Teddington), was known with the artistic name BENNY HILL. He was a famed British actor and comedian who, for more than three decades, starred in his own ‘The Benny Hill Show’, generally considered one of the best comedy shows in history. In 1969 the programme was transferred from the BBC to Thames Television, where it remained uninterruptedly until 1989.
A man of many talents, he was equally at home in many fields, as his performances of Shakespeare displayed. Benny’s songwriting career also proved a great success with ‘Gather in the Mushrooms’, ‘Transistor Radio’ and ‘Harvest of Love’, all becoming Top 20 hits – however, his great No 1 hit was “Ernie: The Fastest Milkman in the West”, which topped the pop charts for many weeks and included numerous appearances on BBC’s ‘Top of the Pops’.
Some, towards the very end of his life, called his show sexist, although today that is now easy to do a half-a-century later. However, it is worth noting that the great Charles Chaplin and the American singer Michael Jackson were but just two high fans of Benny Hill’s works. So many celebrities expressed their admiration for the Englishman’s work: Burt Reynolds, Michael Caine, John Mortimer, Mickey Rooney and Walter Cronkite, among others.