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Bob Todd as he appeared in
the "Spot Black" sketch of Dec. 5, 1973
William Brown has written a tribute to another of those key cast members of the Benny Hill Show, the late Bob Todd! There are also several pics spread throughout the tribute. Special thanks to William Brown.
Of the key cast of The Benny Hill Show, three names are almost always mentioned in terms of Mr. Hill's supporting regulars: Henry McGee, the straight man/announcer (and, in the early years, Nicholas Parsons); Jackie Wright, the little bald man who was the recipient of many a tap on the head; and a 6' 2" character and comic actor dubbed "the tall bald one" in certain circles, Bob Todd. With his height, wiry frame (in the early years, changed to a more burly frame in later years), a round, moon-like face, pronounced bags around the eyes, and a lugubrious baritone voice that matched his face, Mr. Todd's own visage and presence was as much a part of the show as those of the other "core" performers who graced the show over the course of its long run. His own gallery of characters was every bit as famous as those of the other supporting players, most notably his impersonation of Johnny Craddock, one-half of a husband/wife cooking team; but also of such archetypal characters as the jealous husband, the drunk at a bar, a drill sergeant, a vicar, a German officer (or spy), a Western outlaw, an Army colonel, a Southern moonshiner, an Indian foil to Benny's Chow Mein character, and (especially in the latter half of his run with the show) a battle-axe wife; he also did his share of blackface, notably as a servant in the Civil War sketch "Home Is The Hero," another servant in "Long Dry Summer," and occasional turns as the Mark Sanger character in parodies of the TV cop show Ironside. Also, he was the inspiration for a song called "99% Of Gargoyles Look Like Bob Todd," performed and recorded by a British Merseyside-area band called Half Man Half Biscuit in 1985.
Left: Bob Todd as himself,
from "Confrontation: Mervyn Cruddy Speaks Out"
(March 29, 1973)
He was born in Faversham, Kent, England on Dec. 15, 1921. Not much about his early years is known, but during World War II, he served in the RAF as a squadron leader; after the war, he held many jobs, then settled into life as a cattle farmer. Around 1960, his cattle business failed, and he then turned to comic acting. Different editions of Who's Who on Television books published in Britain in the 1980's pinpointed 1963 as the year Bob made his TV debut, in Citizen James (starring Sid James of Carry On fame), however the show actually ran from 1960 to 1962; the IMDb and other online databases list his earliest credits as from 1961 (including both the aforementioned programme and the TV series It's a Square World). In his first decade of comic acting, he also worked with the likes of Michael Bentine, Dick Emery, Eric Sykes, Ronnie Barker (later to be one-half of The Two Ronnies), Bernard Cribbins and (on and off over the years, in an association as famous in Britain as his future partnership with Hill) Goon Show creative genius/madman Spike Milligan. He started out in minor walk-ons, including an uncredited role in Raising the Wind (1961), and gradually went to larger speaking roles; more notable flicks featuring him will be mentioned later on in this tribute.
Left: Bob Todd in "Poetry Corner".
Broadcast: March 29, 1973.
All the while, Bob really set his sights on appearing with one of the top comics of British TV - Benny Hill. He had written several times to Hill's producers throughout the 1960's with no luck, and had just about given up his quest when he was first given a shot on what turned out to be Mr. Hill's next-to-last BBC show, aired on Dec. 11, 1968; this show also marked the debut of an ex-Lionel Blair dancer then making her initial name as a supporting "glamour stooge" in the comedy/variety field, Jenny Lee-Wright. This core quartet of Henry McGee, Jackie Wright, Mr. Todd and Ms. Lee-Wright would be on many a Hill show (some more frequently than others) through the 1980's. Even so, Bob wouldn't be on the show again for another two years, returning for the Oct. 28, 1970 edition; then another two shows passed before he became a full-fledged regular, effective with the Feb. 24, 1971 show. One early example of Todd's contribution to the particular chemistry for which the show and its cast were known was the March 24, 1971 "Opportunitie Knokkes" sketch where Bob was the drummer, and Benny and Jackie Wright were lederhosen-wearing dancers. Another of his standout performances in his early years on the show was as the frustrated man battling an uncooperative folding lawn chair in the landmark Oct. 25, 1972 "Woodstick" sketch. He even played himself as one of three interviewers quizzing Benny's Mervyn Cruddy character in the March 29, 1973 "Confrontation" sketch.
Left: Bob Todd as a member of the Potts gang
in "Great Mysteries With Orson Buggy: The Catch"
(March 12, 1975)
In the first decade of his involvement with TBHS, Mr. Todd also had a (very) short-lived sitcom of his own, In for a Penny, playing the role of a lavatory man named Dan. In addition, he appeared in a series headlined by veteran entertainer Val Doonican, as well as The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine which also featured former Get Smart co-star Barbara Feldon, onetime TBHS guest Clovissa Newcombe, and animations from Monty Python's resident cartoonist Terry Gilliam (both the Doonican and Feldman shows also aired in the U.S. at the time). He was in a film adaptation of Milligan's somewhat autobiographical Adolf Hitler - My Part in His Downfall (1972); played a funeral director in That's Your Funeral (also 1972); appeared with a few once-and-then-current Hill players in the 1973 British cult classic Digby, The Biggest Dog in the World; and was also featured in Confessions of a Pop Performer (1974) - among others. And for several years in the early 1970's, he appeared in British TV commercials for Knorr beef cubes where he let out the cry, "It's beef!" He parodied this catchphrase (and his involvement in the ads) in the "Uplift With Humphrey Bumphrey" sketch of Feb. 24, 1971, in the section where Benny was playing "quick-change" artist "Speedy Zapper," with him changing into Todd's pitchman for a brief moment.
He worked - and played - real hard on the shows he appeared in (not just TBHS but others), often suffering many injuries in the process. Sharp-eyed viewers will note that in the first three years of Todd's involvement with the Hill show in the Thames years - Oct. 28, 1970 to March 29, 1973 - he had what looked like very bad teeth in moments when he spoke and the camera had him in close-up. (An obituary in The Stage and Television Today that was published in its Nov. 12, 1992 edition, mentioned that he lost 11 teeth while filming a sketch for Dave Allen's show.) He had apparently lost them all by the time the 1973-74 series came around, given his wearing false teeth after the Dec. 5, 1973 edition (most notably as a gypsy fortune teller in a closeup shot on that show). He also once appeared in a stage production where he had fallen on his head and ended up with a fractured skull.
Left: Bob Todd as Rufus the black servant
in the Nov. 24, 1971 "Home Is The Hero" sketch
By all accounts, Todd had a propensity to break out into the giggles while working; his appearance and presence would cause Hill (and other cast members) to likewise crack up uncontrollably in fits of laughter during the filming/taping of sketches and quickies. The "Home Is The Hero" sketch from Nov. 24, 1971 was a prime example of this, as neither he nor Benny were all that able to keep a straight face during the making of the sketch. Often he would bite his tongue (literally) before the cameras rolled so as to resist any temptation to break out into laughter. In one quickie, they ended up filming his part apart from the the other players, so that both he and the rest of the cast would maintain a straight face all through the bit (he was playing a judge at the time). Another case of giggle-laden mishaps involving Bob was the making of the "French" Bonanza blooper from March 24, 1971 (he played a Native American chief at the time), which ended up taking all of 32 takes to get it right.
Left: As Johnny Craddock in the Nov. 24, 1971
sketch "Fun In The Kitchen With Johnny and Cranny Faddock"
One particular standout in Mr. Todd's array of characters, of course, was his impersonation of Johnny Craddock, one-half of the British husband/wife cooking team Fanny and Johnny Craddock (Fanny was played mostly by Benny, except for the 1981 Remote Control Hill's Angels {a.k.a. "Street Dance"} number when she was played by Jackie Wright). In three different variations - regular British, German and Chinese - Bob played Johnny as becoming progressively more blotto (inebriated) with each passing moment, finally going totally haywire towards the end, with more than a hint of anarchic fury lurking beneath the surface. One Hill biography noted that if Todd's portrayals of lushes (including the thoroughly sloshed poet in one of the March 29, 1973 "Poetry Corner" runners) were so convincing, it was because he was one himself, behind-the-scenes. Benny himself, in character as the leader of a German "youth" choir towards the end of the Oct. 25, 1972 show, may have made an allusion to Bob's condition at one point when he mentioned some classical music composers whose works the choir was about to perform and said, "Mozart und Liszt - und that vun {pointing to Todd} is . . . " ('Mozart & Liszt' is one of two variations of Cockney slang for 'drunk.') He was also frequently (at least in the '70's) high on grass, as well. This did not sit all that well with Mr. Hill, a perfectionist who demanded 110% professionalism from all those who were on his show (as well as himself) - especially in the 1970's, when he went through producer/directors the way New York Yankees (baseball team) owner George Steinbrenner used to go through managers before settling on Joe Torre. After featuring Todd in the first two shows of the 1975 series, Benny didn't use Bob again until the March 24, 1976 edition (among his roles on which included an impersonation of Buddy Ebsen's Barnaby Jones character in "Murder on the Oregon Express") - and after that, Hill didn't have him on the show again for the rest of the decade, especially after an incident which made headlines in the papers, whereby Todd had disappeared from a London Palladium show for five days, going on a particularly wild bender and then waking up in a Dublin hospital. In those "wilderness years," Bob appeared as a regular on another Thames sketch show, What's On Next?, which featured amongst the cast such once and/or future Hill players as Anna Dawson, Cheryl Gilham and Anne Bruzac; such film fare as Come Play With Me (1977), perhaps the most famous film to star the late British adult-film actress Mary Millington; and a spell on his old mate Spike Milligan's Q series, in 1979-80. On the other side of the fence, Hill had a hard time filling Todd's shoes, with such varied players as Eddie Buchanan (alternating amongst leading-man roles, his stint as a resident singer, and the kind of burly, beefy character types that were Bob's specialty), one-time-only guest Charles Stapley and burly character actor Cyril Cross filling in at various points. (Cross was the only one in that kind of role to still be on the show after Todd was brought back.)
Left: Bob Todd as Buddy Ebsen in
"Murder on The Oregon Express" (March 24, 1976).
Todd's return to TBHS effective with the 1980 series was instigated by Hill's new producer/director Dennis Kirkland, who advised Benny that Bob had given so much to the show and that his drinking didn't affect his work all that much. But Mr. Todd's affinity for the bottle may have been a contributing factor in the overall toll that was being taken on his physical appearance by this point; he was considerably heavier than in his prior appearances on the show, and would gain even more weight over the next couple of years. Bob essentially picked up where he left off; he would be in every remaining TBHS edition to be made, plus the Benny Hill's World Tour: New York special made after Thames pulled the plug and the documentary Benny Hill: The World's Favourite Clown. One character he occasionally played during this second (and longest-running) go-round was the man who fancied himself a sophisticate with the ladies, but constantly struck out; most famously in the "Hotel Splendide" bit of Jan. 6, 1982 when Jo Thomas complimented him on his smile and he responded by taking out his pipe (and his false teeth to which the pipe was affixed), and again in the "Holiday" sketch of March 16, 1983 (with Corinne Russell not at all impressed). He also played the corner newsagent who was hawking the headlines of the "Great TV Set Mystery" before being "zapped" in the April 16, 1980 sketch "Station 007 New York Presents '1994'," and one of the male dancers in the "Women's Lib Television: The Kitty Everett Show" routine of the same edition; he was one of "Charlene's Angels" in the Feb. 6, 1980 sketch of the same name, and an evil traffic warden in the Jan. 6, 1982 "Cleaning Up Dimpton" sketch (a.k.a. "The Traffic Warden and The Street Cleaner") - among a host of other roles Todd played in Hill's final decade with Thames.
Left: Bob Todd doing his 'impersonation' of Ladybird Marian Davies from the "Portable TV Set" sketch.
Broadcast: Dec. 27, 1972.
Film appearances in the 1980's included a small role in Superman III, which also had in another small role sometime TBHS player Helen Horton; his other most significant TV credits during that decade included The Jim Davidson Show and The Steam Video Company. In 1984 Mr. Todd was the subject of an episode of This Is Your Life, on which Mr. Hill made a very rare TV appearance outside the confines of his own show, reminiscing about his own experiences with the man alternately nicknamed "Toddy" and "Silly Todd." He appeared in two of Eric Sykes' 1980's string of comedies (produced by Kirkland), It's Your Move in 1982 and Mr. H Is Late in 1988; the latter also featuring longtime Hill straight man Henry McGee.
Bob Todd was married for more than four decades and had three children: two sons, John and Patrick, and a daughter, Anne.
After Benny's death in 1992, Bob was all set to attend his funeral, but missed the proceedings due to a series of mishaps including getting stuck in traffic, the tailor's not finding a suit that would fit him, and winding up on the wrong train platform. He ended up drowning his sorrows (both for Benny's passing and his missing the funeral) in a local pub; as another Hill biography so put it, "Benny would have roared with laughter." Six months after Hill's death, on October 21, 1992, Bob Todd himself died, in Sussex, England, at the age of 70 - but his place as a fan favorite among the show's other comic stooges endures to this day.