Paul Henry (actor)

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For other persons named Paul Henry, see Paul Henry (disambiguation).

Paul Henry, born 1947 in Birmingham, is a British actor whose best-known role was Benny Hawkins, a bumbling semi-rustic handyman he played from 1975 to 1988 in the soap opera Crossroads.

This led to the name Benny being used as a pejorative slang term to describe anyone of apparent mental slowness, especially by children.

According to newspaper accounts such as Slang ranger (The Sunday Times, October 6, 1996) the character gave rise to the pejorative nickname, 'Bennies', applied to locals by British troops serving in the Falkland Islands during the Falklands War in 1982. When ordered not to do this by their commanding officers, the troops took to referring to the islanders as 'Stills', on the grounds that they were 'Still Bennies'.

In 1977, Henry recorded Benny's Theme with the Mayson Glen Orchestra, on Pye Records. He is in character as Benny in the song, but speaks rather than sings.

Henry's post-Crossroads career included minor stage roles and running a nightclub in Whitchurch, Shropshire, but in 1994 he returned to television briefly in a tribute to Crossroads, called "30 years on". In a 2002 interview, Henry declared that the public still love Benny and during a shopping trip, he came back to his car and found a person had left piece of paper on it saying "Benny, we miss you".^[1]

In 2004 he was returned to acting on TV in an episode of the British hospital series Doctors. He then played a regular character, a delivery man, in the series of the ITV1 prison drama Bad Girls.

Comedian Ronnie Barker later in his life revealed that he had suggested Henry should be cast as the character Lennie Godber opposite him in the sitcom Porridge, but the actor Richard Beckinsale was chosen by the producer instead.