Jolly Good Benny

The Brits had exposure to Jack Benny during World War Two through radio transcriptions. And he played the Palladium in London several times after the war ended. But it wasn’t until 1956 that he made his TV debut there.

It seems, perhaps with one exception, the British came away more impressed with Jack than noted Englishman Ronald Colman did on the Benny radio show.

Here is a sampling of stories and opinions about the broadcast on Sunday, June 3, 1956.

British TV Critics Hail Jack Benny
LONDON, June 4 — (UP) — Television critics hailed Jack Benny today for teaching British comedians how to be funny.
The veteran American comedian appeared Sunday night on an uproariously funny "spectacular" on the British Broadcasting Company [sic] television program that drew loud cheers from all the critics.
"Irresistible," said The Daily Herald.
"Now I know why the Jack Benny show has been a favorite on American television for six years. His sedate drollery brought a gust of badly needed new life to British comedy."
Benny used every trick in his veteran bag during the hour-long show. He tossed out the names of Dennis Day and Phil Harris — unfamiliar to many of Britain's viewers — and brought roars of laughter.
He was on for 53 of the 60 minutes and drew a solid string of laughs from start to finish.
The program was the first of a series Benny is doing for the BBC. Last night's program, however, was "live." All the rest will be on film.
This was TV comedy deluxe —a superb exhibition of the art of comedy by a world master," said The Daily Express.
"The Jack Benny show must rank very, very high in TV comedy — and I hope all the TV comedians of Britain were watching to see how it really can be done," The Express said.
Benny combined his "reputation" of being a violin player with being a penny pincher in one of the show's best laugh getters:
"It (his violin) has been in the family for years," he said. "Great-Grandfather gave it to grandfather. Grandfather gave it to father. Father sold it to me."

Under the headline “Good Fun From Jack Benny,” the Eastern Daily Press reviewer wrote the next day:

UNDOUBTEDLY the event of the week-end on television was the appearance last night of Jack Benny, the celebrated American comedian, in his own show. Most viewers would be asking if he would live up to his reputation, which is always unenviable ice for a great comedian to break, so let it be said at once that he did. His opening two turns, when he was interrupted by singer Teddy Johnson and schoolgirl-violinist Yvonne Larvin, gave the show an unorthodox and ingenious start. Jack Benny's comedy is individual and original, backed by perfect timing and a face that is at its most expressive when it seems to be frozen solid. If the film series to come is of the same standard as last night's live show, viewers can look forward to some rattling good fun.

G.A. Olden wrote in the The Irish Times:

A GREAT comedian made his first British television appearance last Sunday. For years, Jack Benny reigned almost unchallenged in American vaudeville and radio; his film roles have been as memorable as they were rare.
Now "The Jack Benny Show" has come to television; and this clever man’s hypnotic control of an audience can be seen as well as heard. What makes Benny a comedian among comedians? His patter is not explosively witty, nor is it crammed with the topical and local allusions so beloved of Bob Hope's script writers. Far from exerting himself to entertain us at all costs there are moments when. Mr. Benny almost falls asleep on his feet. Yet the laughter comes rolling in from audiences that may well.be unaware of the superb technique that excited it.
All great clowns work in a convention of their own devising—they create a comic personality and then live up (or down) to it. Mr. Benny has created the legend that he is mean, vain and slow of understanding. His insincere smile, the air of pensive bewilderment with which he reacts to the points scored off him by the supporting players, the dawn of comprehension in his sad eyes as he savours some outrageous insult are all great strokes of comic acting, Relaxation is his keyword, which is, perhaps, why Sunday's biggest laugh came when, after very chastely kissing Moira Lister, he announced, without a trace of expression: "I feel a wreck."
Aspiring comedians would do well to note that Jack Benny, far from trying to "hog"' the comedy, gives most of the best lines to his stooges. His function is to react, and there are few funnier spectacles than a Benny reaction. He is not in the great creative class of Chaplin or Danny Kaye, but among the vaudeville-trained technicians — a worthy group that includes Bob Hope, Fred Allen and George Burns—he is still supreme in any medium.

And after reviewing other televised offerings of the evening, Stephen Potter of the Evening Standard of London wrote:

[T]he programme honours of the evening went to Jack Benny. This was Mr. Benny's first appearance on TV here, but we attach to him so many vague but pleasant memories, film and radio, that his name seems like a household word, even if we are not quite sure which one.
Every now and then a leg is kicked, a song is sung, in this speeding programme hour. But mostly it is Benny, and Benny making his joke.
For that is the key to Benny. I believe that, basically, he has only one joke. The question is asked, hopefully, expecting the answer "Yes "—and back comes the answer "No."
"Does the glamorous lady film star think he would make a good lover?" Well, actually, not. "Was he asked to dine at No. 10, Downing Street like some other U.S. celebrities?" Not absolutely—but he got a very good invitation from No. 9.
The rebuff
It scarcely seems funny at all in print. But watching Mr. Benny's face, motionless with rebuff, we yet somehow see, mounting beneath it, the sense of inexplicable wrong. The tragedy of the unappreciated. The personification of the unwanted. And we laugh, and we shall go on laughing, because Mr. Benny is a fine artist and a first-class comedian.

A Reuters dispatch from London the next day observed:

Last night Benny—operating without Rochester—spoofed British institutions and made fun of himself. One critic calculated that he appeared on the screen for 53 minutes of an hour-long show.
Only the Daily Mail critic could find cause for complaint for the show which was seen by an estimated 20,000,000 Britons.
"Mr. Benny," he said, "revealed few visual humors other than a periodic display of his profile in mock affront, but he was obviously such a nice man that it would be captious to complain."
All the critics commented on the lack of dialogue they usually associate with comedians from the United States.

The day before, the European wire service reported on a Benny news conference, where Jack joked about Rochester, and explained a flair-up involving one person not happy with the show.

Jack Benny Greets England
LONDON, June 3 (Reuters) — Hush-hush arrangements prevailed tonight as Londoners got set for another B-K visit.
But this time the laughs would be intentional as Benny Kubelsky — better known as Jack Benny — presented an hour-long evening TV show for the British Broadcasting Corp.
Benny has made a tremendous impression on the British during his stay in London rehearsing for his show.
Consistently over-tipping doormen at his expensive hotel, Benny has nevertheless managed to retain his reputation as a tightwad.
While being interviewed, Benny casually ordered a meal—for one—and ate it while he chatted with the hungry reporter.
Asked why his faithful valet, Rochester, had not accompanied him, the 62-year-old comedian replied: "Think of the expense."
Benny also made news when a British expert in Cockney dialect angrily walked out of the show rehearsals because American writers tried to teach him the "correct" Cockney accent.
"I speak five different dialects of Cockney," he exclaimed indignantly.
"I feel real mean about that," said Benny. "What we wanted, you see, was a Cockney who would be understood by Americans."
Benny was remembered on top in the United States since 1932 because he has built up an audience of loyal fans who know that inconsequential remarks made early in the show may become the theme of later jokes. They know that Benny gets a maximum of effect from a monosyllabic "hmnn" or "yipe" or even a slight change of facial expression rather than the joke-a-sentence type of humor Britons associate with American TV comedians.

The person who grumbled “I think I know more about [a Cockney accent] than any American” was Peter Sellers.