Southampton: Sculptor's centenary hope for Benny Hill statue

The Benny Hill Show was first broadcast in 1955

A sculptor has expressed renewed hope for a large-scale memorial to Benny Hill, on the centenary of the comedian's birth.

The Benny Hill Show ran on BBC and ITV from 1955 to 1989, making the Southampton-born star a household name.

Barnsley sculptor Graham Ibbeson was commissioned to make a fibreglass mould of the late comedian in 2004, but it has remained in storage ever since.

He said a public statue would be a fitting tribute to Hill's talent.

Graham Ibbeson's fibreglass statue of Benny Hill has been in storage since 2004

Mr Ibbeson said: "He was a comic genius. His stage was everybody's living room.

"He made people feel joyous and deserves a statue because of the impact he had in the UK and the United States."

Alfred Hawthorn Hill was born on 21 January 1924 in Bridge Street, Southampton.

He later changed his first name to Benny in homage to his favourite comedian, Jack Benny.

Benny Hill was a household name at the height of his TV fame in the 1970s

An early job driving milk carts in Eastleigh inspired his 1971 hit Ernie, The Fastest Milkman in the West - a song chosen by future prime minister David Cameron as one of his Desert Island Discs on the BBC Radio 4 programme.

At the height of his popularity in the 1970s, The Benny Hill Show on Thames Television was one of the biggest shows on British TV.

However, by the late 1980s his routines were increasingly branded as smutty, sexist and politically incorrect and ITV dropped him from the schedules.

TV critic Garry Bushell led a previous Benny Hill statue campaign

TV critic Garry Bushell previously championed a campaign for Mr Ibbeson's statue to be cast in bronze and put on display.

He said: "We raised the first £8,000 to get the fibreglass statue made, but the campaign to raise the next part was derailed by Covid."

Mr Bushell said he abandoned his efforts due to work pressures and resistance from a venue where he had planned to hold a fundraiser.

Mr Ibbeson acknowledged that the comedian's trademark routines, involving "scantily-clad women" and occasional racism, might offend people now.

However, he said: "I liked the play on words, his attitude to television.

"We celebrate liars - there's a lot of politicians on pedestals.

"If people look at the sculpture, it could make them smile."