Dennis Kirkland

Dennis Kirkland (2 December 1942 – 16 February 2006) was an English television producer and director best known for his long association with comedian Benny Hill.

Early life and career

Born in

Career

In 1968, Kirkland joined Thames Television as a floor manager, before becoming a warm-up man on The Benny Hill Show. He then moved up the ranks, directing children's shows such 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 top comics including 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 best known. It was also during his run with the Hill show that the programme first became dogged by charges of sexism however, 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, Thames cancelled the Hill show in 1989; not long afterward, Kirkland's association with the company ended as well.

Kirkland 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

Kirkland was admitted to hospital in London in January 2006 because of a low sodium count and died shortly thereafter at the age of 63.

External links

• Dennis Kirkland at
  IMDb
• Obituary at The Independent
• Obituary at The Stage
• Dennis Kirkland tribute page at Benny's Place