Harry Hill's TV Burp

...and that's not the only pilot he made for ITV that they rejected.

I miss his old Channel Four shows, if he can do more of that sort of thing at Sky, along with of course the brilliant TV Burp, I'd be happy with it.

Remember what happened to Benny hill and Morecombe and wise.
Mr hill could end up the same way

Dead? That's a bit harsh.

There both jumped shipped so there could do the same while doing other projects, but alas there both failed well not sure about the later

I think the issue with Benny Hill and Morecambe and Wise was that they jumped ship on their own, and didn't take the production teams that had been a huge part of their success with them.

Harry Hill's shows are made by Avalon TV (which is the production division of the Avalon talent agency, who are presumably Harry's agents). As such jumping ship would be very different - as the same team would presumably be involved irrespective of the channel that commissioned them - very different to the examples mentioned above.

Indeed, I can think of at least 2 Avalon shows, Fantasy Football and Frank Skinner's chat show, which have switched channels intact . Both were just as successful on their new channel, ITV (although a switch to Sky would mean lower audiences regardless of anything else)

Benny Hill was probably more successful at Thames than the BBC, Morcambe and Wise less successful at Thames but that was probably because Ernest Maxim their writer was tied to the BBC. ALso of course they didn't have much time to settle in and prove themselves at ITV and as they were Thames' stars not many oppertunities to do Xmas day shows in their few years there (Christmas Day 1981/2/3 were on weekends!)

Benny Hill appeared all over the spectrum in his early career though, hopping between the BBC, ATV and the film industry. It was when he took his Benny Hill Show to Thames that he hit the big time. Central Television even offered him a new contract in 1992. Unfortunately he was already dead when it arrived in the post.

Re: Morecambe and Wise, don't forget they moved from ATV to the BBC in 1968 and back to Thames again in 1978 so jumping ship wasn't a total disaster from ATV to the BBC.

The main reason why M&W left ATV was that they weren't promising to produce their Shows in Colour, where as the BBC were willing to film them in Colour. Where as when they signed up to Thames they were also given the chance to make Movies again through Euston Films, sadly this wasn't successful.

As for Harry Hill I really hope he doesn't go to Sky1, they might give him more creative freedom than ITV, but Sky1 seems to change direction everytime they change Channel controller, and no home produced programme has ever lasted at all, Sky are currently in the mode of getting as much British talent as they can right now, but I don't see it lasting, they'll probably be back to all American output in a couple of years.

So true about Sky1, but perhaps one thing in favour of British talent at the moment is there isn't a wealth of new US shows coming out of America at the moment like there was a couple of years back. Indeed apart from Flash Forward I don't think there's been any massively hyped new show at all this year, and even Flash Forward now looks like it may not make a second season.

It would be a shame if Harry Hill's decision is purely a financial one, and I guess in addition to any fee from Sky the potential for DVD sales probably would rise if he wasn't on ITV week in, week out.

Glee.

True Blood?

Yes, although Central still did the shows anyway, they just did a quick rewrite and Freddie Starr did them. Benny Hill's move to Thames was a highly succesful one for him, he got huge ratings and made loads of money - it all went a bit wrong at the end but for fifteen years or so it worked brilliantly. Everyone talks about Morecambe and Wise but the most hopeless defection is surely Mike Yarwood's move to 1982, which is inexplicable as after Eric and Ern had left the Beeb he was by some distance their biggest star, and his career was already on the wane when Thames signed him.

Just to correct was was said earlier, it wasn't Ernest Maxim who stayed at the Beeb when Morecambe and Wise moved, it was Eddie Braben. Maxim was their producer. In fact Braben followed them not long after, and their first Beeb producer John Ammonds came back at Thames as well. There were other factors why Eric and Ern flopped on ITV - after two shows in 1978, in October and on Christmas Day, Eric had a heart attack and then there was the ITV strike, so they couldn't actually do a show for ages, and the only thing they did in 1979 was an interview with David Frost - which was still shown on Christmas Day because they were so desperate to get them on there.

As was said, their Christmas Day shows only stopped because Christmas was at the weekend in 1981-83. In those years the Christmas show was on Wednesday 23rd, Monday 27th and Boxing Day respectively, but you can be sure that, if they had been weekdays, Thames would have shown it on Christmas Day. They put the Morecambe tribute on Christmas Day in 1984 and showed a million repeats, as well as giving Ernie a load of work afterwards. Thames were still really committed to them, although the viewers had gone off them a bit.