TVSquad

The Royal Mail in the U.K. have decided against producing a series of stamps based on The Benny Hill Show which will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the British channel ITV. The subject matter of the show was deemed to be too politically incorrect for the purposes of putting on a stamp.

Anybody who watches the show nowadays would acknowledge that the show contained sketches that were blatantly sexist. Somehow I doubt ITV or the Royal Mail or anyone would put any of the racier scenes of the show on the stamp. It would just be Benny himself mugging for the camera, so to speak.

For the Royal Mail, it likely boils down to this: when you have a program noted for women whose clothes fly off at any given moment and they're left running around in their underwear and that show is put on a stamp, the last thing you want to ask people to do is lick it.

If you've been enjoying the antics of Benny Hill on BBC America, I have sad news for you: the series is being removed from the channel.

The decision to remove The Benny Hill Show from the channel's lineup is just part of a new makeover that's discarding many older shows for newer ones. The channel hopes to give American audiences more modern shows instead of older fare such as Hill and Are You Being Served? and replace them with newer shows like Torchwood and Hollyoaks.

I must say, I never really understood the appeal of Benny Hill, though that certainly doesn't mean it was a bad show. Obviously, a lot of people liked the series, and how many of us can watch a scene shot in high speed and not start humming that goofy Benny Hill chase music?

I have to ask: will any of you miss Benny once he's gone? Or is he an artifact of an earlier age and no longer relevant?

[via CC Insider]

Here are the new TV DVDs in stores tomorrow.

• The Benny Hill Show - Hill's Angels, Set 6
• The Big Valley - Season 2, Vol. 1
• Dallas - Season 6
• I Dream of Jeannie - Season 3
• Law and Order: SVU - Season 3
• Lucky Louie - Complete Series
• Murder, She Wrote - Season 5
• Three's Company - Jack's Favorites

Every Tuesday here on TV Squad , we will highlight the week's TV-on-DVD releases. Some noteworthy releases today, January 31, 2006:

• All-American Girl - Complete Series
• Archie Bunker's Place - The Complete 1st Season
• The A-Team - Season 3
• The Benny Hill Show - Benny Hill, Complete And Unadulterated: The Hill's Angels Years - Set 4
• Dark Shadows - DVD Collection 22
• Diff'rent Strokes - The Complete 2nd Season
• Gastineau Girls - The Complete 1st Season
• Here Comes the Grump - Here Comes The Grump
• Hetty Wainthropp Investigates - The Complete 3rd Series
• Hill Street Blues - The Complete 1st Season
• Inked - The Best of Season 1
• Knight Rider - Season 3
• Magnum, P.I. - The Complete 3rd Season
• MI-5 - Volume 3
• The Pink Panther Show - Classic Cartoon Collection
• The Rat Patrol - The Complete 1st Season
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Volume 20: Turtles Against H.A.T.E.
• Two's Company - Series 4
• The X-Files - Season 1 (New); Season 2 (New); Season 3 (New)