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.

A roundup of TV people from in front of the camera and behind the scenes who have passed away.

• Christopher Allport: He was a veteran actor who most recently played Pete's father on Mad Men. He was a regular on such shows as Felicity, Days of Our Lives, and Commander-In-Chief, and also appeared in many other shows, including Without A Trace, Shark, NCIS, ER, 7th Heaven, Judging Amy, The Practice, JAG, Chicago Hope, Party of Five, Walker, Texas Ranger, Picket Fences, The X-Files, The Pretender, Quantum Leap, Hunter, China Beach, and many others. He died in an avalanche while skiing in California. He was 60.