International Airings
In the late 1970s, Thames Television purchased a week's transmission time on two stations owned by RKO General which were offering a "Thames Week" schedule and were in the two largest American television markets; New York City's WOR-TV and KHJ-TV in Los Angeles. This introduced the show to American audiences and was immediately popular; subsequent screenings involved a series of re-edited half-hour programmes culled from the ITV specials. Due to heavy editing, the U.S. versions of his show have far less risqué material than those aired in the UK.
The show was awarded the 'Special Prize of the City of Montreux' at the Rose d'Or festival in 1984. Selected sketches from the first four years (1969–1972) of the Thames run were also edited into a feature film, The Best of Benny Hill (1974).
In 1977, Hill produced a special in Australia (see below) whose contents found their way into scattered episodes of the U.S. half-hour syndicated edits. The cast of that Australian show included Barry Otto and Ron Shand.
The programme also aired on GBC TV in the British Overseas territory of Gibraltar.
In Spain, the programme was made popular in the early/mid-1990s with the arrival of the commercial stations. Telecinco in its first guise, depended heavily on old programming from across the globe, and The Benny Hill Show would usually air for 60 - 90 minutes every night before the 20:30 news programme.
Read more about this topic: The Benny Hill Show