Dennis Kirkland
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dennis Kirkland (December 2, 1942 – February 16, 2006) was a British television producer and director who was best known for his long association with comedian Benny Hill.
Born in North Shields, Tyne and Wear, England, Kirkland started out as a child actor, appearing in television advertisements that aired on the then-new Independent Television upon its start-up in the 1950s. He then went behind-the-scenes, first as a property master for Tyne Tees Television, and then on to short stints with the Windmill Theatre and Royal Opera House in London. Later he was hired by Associated TeleVision as a floor manager, where he worked at the time Benny Hill hosted some TV programmes for ATV in 1967.
In 1968, Kirkland joined Thames Television as a floor manager, working first in that capacity and then as a warm-up man on The Benny Hill Show. He then moved up the ranks, directing such children's shows as Rainbow and The Tomorrow People, as well as a sketch comedy show called What's On Next? Finally, in 1979 Kirkland was named producer/director of The Benny Hill Show, remaining in those positions for the remainder of its run at Thames. During this period, he also worked with such top comics as Tommy Cooper, Ken Dodd, Jim Davidson and Eric Sykes, whose 1979 remake of The Plank (directed by Sykes and produced by Kirkland) won at the Montreux TV Festival. But it was with Hill that Kirkland became most famous, and it was under his direction that the comedian became an international superstar, seen in over 100 countries as of 1989. However, it was also during his run with the Hill show that the programme first became dogged by charges of sexism, in no small part due to the addition of the dancing and singing troupe Hill's Angels on his watch, and after years of steadily declining ratings and rising production costs, and amid a growing climate of political correctness, Thames cancelled the Hill show in 1989; not long afterward, Kirkland's association with the company ended as well.
He continued to work with Hill, directing a TV special in 1990 with outdoor scenes taped in New York, and was to direct a new Hill series for Central Independent Television when Hill died in 1992. Central went ahead with the show anyway, directed by Kirkland and fronted by Freddie Starr. Critics called it "The Benny Hill Show without Benny." In 1993, he published a memoir about his friendship with Hill, Benny: The True Story, which would be re-released in 2002 as The Strange and Saucy World of Benny Hill. He continued to work in television in Britain and Ireland until ill health forced him to retire in 2005.
Kirkland was married twice and had two sons and a daughter - the latter of whom, Joanna Kirkland, was a member of Hill's Little Angels (which was comprised of children of key Hill cast and crew members) in the final years of the Hill show, and went on to act in such productions as the 1994 miniseries Martin Chuzzlewit, four episodes of the television serial Holby City in 1999, and Emily's Dance (2001).
Kirkland died in London after a short illness at age 63.
