Whatever Happened To . . .

When I began this blog, it was my intention to post something every week, but that rarely happens. Life tends to get in the way. I still have a full time job, and that cuts into my free time. My outside interests also cut into my free time. I love to read, but my reading speed is not very fast, so keeping up with my reading tends to take more time than it should. And then, there are the odd things that strike my fancy. Recently, one odd thing was an article published in August, 2021, in the American Journal of Physics that addressed the force necessary to operate the plunger on a French press. (Feel free to read the paper yourself: The force required to operate the plunger on a French press: American Journal of Physics: Vol 89, No 8 (scitation.org). I looked, but as best I can tell, none of my tax dollars were used by any of the 11 authors in the four or five countries they inhabit to come up with this very simple equation.)

Because of these distractions, I find it necessary to write notes to myself about what may (or, more likely, may not) be good topics for this blog. Some time ago, I wrote a note about two lovely and talented singers who appeared on episode 2, season 17 of The Benny Hill Show (March 31, 1986). These twin sisters, Alison and Rebecca Marsh, were featured as cabaret performers singing "Money Makes The World Go Around", but also showed up in other skits, and were in the opening scene as dancers. I was astounded that I had never seen this pair in any other television show, and after doing a little research, I filed my notes away somewhere near a stack of unread books on the coffee table in my office.

That must have been a couple of years ago. In the meantime, the stack of unread books on the coffee table was replaced with a new stack of unread books, which was eventually moved to make room for something else. So today, when I decided that the time was right to do that column about the Marsh sisters, I could not find my notes.

My notes could not have been very substantial, because there is very little available on the world wide web about these two. Aside from this 1986 appearance on The Benny Hill Show, I found one 1993 appearance on a British television show called Red Dwarf (November 4, 1993), in which they played, ahem, concubines. There is also a video of their performance on Spanish television (year unknown) in which they are introduced in Spanish but perform in English. I was able to find video of yet another television performance, but the show and the date are not documented.

Although we do not know their birthday, we do know that they are two of the six children of Reginald Marsh, a well-known British television actor. Marsh was married twice; Alison and Rebecca were issues from his second marriage (1960 - 2001), to Rosemary Murray.

Given the mores of the 1960s, I suspect that the twins were born in 1960 or later. That would have made them at most 23 years of age when the show was taped, and probably younger. I am terrible at guessing ages from appearances, but this does appear to me to be a reasonable guess.

Their appearance on The Benny Hill Show impressed me greatly; the two videos I saw on the web were somewhat less impressive. They may have disappeared from view because they were simply not that good at their craft. Such a pity.

The DVDs of The Benny Hill Show that I purchased covered his Thames Television/ITV years (1969 - 1989). There may be others covering his entire television career (which began in 1955), but given that I have not yet finished all 19 seasons included on the discs, it will be awhile before I search for them. Each show is about one hour in length. Those of you who remember the American broadcasts of The Benny Hill Show (which I first saw in either the very late 1970s or the early 1980s) will recall that those shows fit into a half-hour slot. The American shows were cut-down versions of the British shows: most of the musical segments were removed, as well as the very raciest of his suggestive, yet funny, skits. Benny Hill did love sexual innuendo.

There are other "whatever happened to" questions from The Benny Hill Show. The Ladybirds provided backup vocals, but were also featured periodically in their own segment of the show. After a few years, they disappeared from the screen, although they were still credited with providing background vocals. Why? Hill's best sidekick, Henry McGee, like Hill himself, is long gone, but I am curious as to what has happened to some of the lovely young lasses who were known collectively as "Hill's Angels". Where are my two favorites, Louise English and Sue Upton? And whatever happened to Hill's Little Angel, Jade Westbrook, who showed up in the later years of the broadcast when she was still a small child?

I guess I should do a little more research. But first, I think I will take a listen to Boots Randolph's "Yakety Sax".