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Left: Henry McGee interviews Chow-Mein in
"At Home With Henry McGee".
Broadcast: Nov. 24, 1971.
Henry Henry McGee, longtime straight man to Benny Hill and anchor of the show's "core cast" which also consisted of Bob Todd and Jackie Wright, died on Saturday, Jan. 28, 2006 after a battle with Alzheimer's disease. His age was given as 77.
Left: Henry McGee as Cliff Michelmore in the
'Holiday' sketch of March 16, 1983.
He was born in Kensington, London, with an ancestry going back as far as the 18th-century stage actress Kitty Clive; he was educated at Stonehurst and got into acting after serving in the British Navy. Early in his career, he had been in the Comédie Française, playing a spear carrier in his first role and going on to Feydeau farces; and another early role was a two-week stint in the long-running London stage play, Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap, about which he later commented about his having the shortest stint in the longest-running show.
Left: Henry McGee in as Mad Dog in 'The B-Team'
Broadcast: January 2, 1985.
But it was on TV that Mr. McGee made his biggest impression. There was his role as Mr. Pugh in the 1965-1970 Charlie Drake comedy series The Worker. (Benny Hill, in his March 24, 1976 "Cooking with Fanee and Jonee Claddock" sketch, actually made a reference to "Mr. Puuuuugh," which had been the catchphrase in The Worker.) There was his playing opposite Ronnie Corbett (later, one-half of The Two Ronnies) in No, That's Me Over There!, which ran on Rediffusion London in 1967 and one more series on London Weekend in 1970. There was the 1973 comedy series Up the Workers (the title of which Benny's Chow-Mein character called out at the end of the "At Home with Henry McGee" sketch from Feb. 22, 1973). There was working, on TV and/or stage, with the likes of such other figures of British comedy as Tommy Cooper, Dick Emery, Jimmy Tarbuck, Dickie Henderson, Frankie Howerd, Reg Varney (to whom Hill had once been straight man on stage in the late 1940's), Eric Sykes, and The Goodies. There was his work on drama shows such as Z Cars and The Avengers. (His last known TV work was as "Goff Helliwell" in a 2003 episode of the long-running Last of the Summer Wine.) There were roles in films such as The Pink Panther, Holiday On The Buses and Carry On Emmannuelle.
Left: Henry McGee as Johnny Dankworth from
the 'Musical Favorites' Opening.
Broadcast: April 25, 1979.
But most famously, there was his work with Benny Hill, in the last three shows Hill ever did for the BBC (on Nov. 20, 1968; Dec. 11, 1968; and Dec. 26, 1968); 45 out of the 58 hour-long comedy/variety shows Benny produced for Thames; Hill's very last hour-long comedy show, the independently-produced Benny Hill's World Tour: New York, and the documentary Benny Hill: The World's Favourite Clown. By McGee's own admission, it took him about two years to get accustomed to Mr. Hill's style of comedy (presumably, this period included the 1970-71 TBHS series on which he didn't appear, during which alternating straight man Nicholas Parsons filled the gap). But he finally fell into the rhythm of the Hill style, and from 1973 to the show's demise appeared in all but two shows (March 13, 1974 and April 21, 1976).
(TRIVIA: McGee also had a role in the 1969 movie version of The Italian Job in which Mr. Hill co-starred, but they did not have any scenes together.)
Left: Henry McGee as he appeared in the "Phone In With Ludovic Kennedy and Humphrey Bumphrey".
Broadcast: Dec. 5, 1973.
Mr. McGee - nicknamed "SuperStooge" or "Double-S" by the cast and crew - had an appearance that no-one could forget. His distinctive vocal delivery. His particular clipped appearance. His ability to convey unflappability in the face of idiocy whether coming from Fred Scuttle, Chow-Mein or various sundry characters (Irishmen, people with colds, etc.). His character roles, whether as artist managers in the Middle Ages, or bumpkin idiots, or the occasional impersonation (news broadcaster Ludovic Kennedy, radio disk jockey Kenny Everett, travel show cohort John Carter) were as memorable as his straight-man endeavors. And of course, his opening announcement: "Yes, it's The Benny Hill Show . . . "
He is the third person in this core cast in the Hill stock company (known within Hill players as "the family") to pass on, following little, bald Irishman Jackie Wright (who died in 1989) and tall, bald Bob Todd (who passed away in 1992). Not to mention The Lad Himself, Benny Hill ("The Lad Himself, Benny Hill?" "I said not to mention him!") - plus Rita Webb, Patricia Hayes and some others . . .