Michael Bentine
Encyclopedia
Michael Bentine CBE
(26 January 1922 – 26 November 1996 ) was a British comedian
, comic actor
and founding member of the Goons
. A Peruvian Briton
by heritage as a result of his father's nationality, In 1971 Bentine received the Order of Merit of Peru because of his fund-raising work for the 1970 Great Peruvian Earthquake.
, Hertfordshire
, of Anglo
-Peru
vian parentage. and grew up in Folkestone
, Kent
, one of his friends being the young David Tomlinson
. He was educated at Eton College
. He spoke fluent Spanish
and French
. His father was an early aeronautical engineer for Sopwith aircraft during and after World War I
.
In World War II
he volunteered for all services when the war broke out (the RAF
was his first choice owing to the influence of his father's experience), but was rejected because of his father's Peru
vian nationality.
He started his acting career in 1940, in a touring company in Cardiff
playing a juvenile lead in Sweet Lavender. He went on to join Robert Atkin's
Shakespearean company in Regent's Park
, London until he was called up for service in the RAF. He was appearing in a Shakespearean play in doublet and hose in the open-air theatre in London
's Hyde Park
when two RAF MP
s marched on stage and arrested him for desertion. Unknown to him, an RAF conscription notice had been following him for a month as his company toured.
Once in the RAF he went through flight training. He was the penultimate man going through a medical line receiving inoculations for typhoid with the other flight candidates in his class (they were going to Canada
to receive new aircraft) when the vaccine
ran out. They refilled the bottle to inoculate him and the other man as well. By mistake they loaded a pure culture of typhoid. The other man died immediately, and Bentine was in a coma
for six weeks. When he regained consciousness his eyesight was ruined, leaving him myopic for the rest of his life. Since he was no longer physically qualified for flight, he was transferred to RAF Intelligence
and seconded to MI9
a unit that was dedicated to supporting resistance movements and help prisoners escape. His immediate superior was the Colditz
escapee Airey Neave
.
At the end of the war, he took part in the liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp
. He said about this experience:
and the Starlight Roof revues where he met and married his second wife Clementina with whom he had four children. He decided to become a comedian, specialising in off-the-wall humour, often involving cartoons and other types of animation
.
He co-founded The Goon Show
radio show with Spike Milligan
, Peter Sellers
and Harry Secombe
, but appeared in only the first 38 shows on the BBC Light Programme
from 1951–53. He also appeared in The Goon Show film Down Among the Z Men
. He parted amicably from his partners and remained close to Secombe and Sellers for the rest of his life. In 1972, Secombe and Sellers told Michael Parkinson
that Bentine was "always calling everyone a genius" and, since he was the only one of the four with a "proper education", they always believed him.
He left the Goons to work on his own radio series. Bentine spent two years in Australia
(1954–55).
In 1954, he began as a television presenter with a BBC children's series, The Bumblies. These were three small creatures from outer space who slept on "Professor Bentine's" ceiling and who had come to Earth to learn the ways of Earthling children. He also appeared in the film comedy Raising a Riot
, starring Kenneth More
, which featured his five year old daughter "Fusty". He joked that she got better billing.
During 1959, he worked on the radio series Round the Bend in 30 Minutes. From 1960 to 1964, he had a television series It's a Square World
, which won a BAFTA award in 1962 and Grand Prix de la Presse at Montreux
in 1963. A prominent feature of the series was the imaginary flea circus
where plays were enacted on tiny sets using nothing but special effects to show the movement of things too small to see and sounds with Bentine's commentary. The plays were not serious. One, titled The Beast of the Black Bog Tarn, was set in a (miniature) haunted house.
From 1974 to 1980 he wrote, designed, narrated and presented the children's television programme Michael Bentine's Potty Time
and made one-off comedy specials.
He was also the best-selling writer of 16 novels, comedies and non-fiction books. Four of his books, The Long Banana Skin
(1975), The Door Marked Summer (1981), Doors to the Mind and The Reluctant Jester (1992) are autobiographical.
expedition up the River Amazon.
In 1995, Bentine received a CBE
from Queen Elizabeth II "for services to entertainment". He was also a holder of the Peruvian Order of Merit, as was his grandfather, Don Antonio Bentin Palamero, for his work leading the fundraising for the Peruvian Earthquake Appeal.
Bentine was a crack pistol shot and helped to start the idea of a counter-terrorist
wing within 22 SAS
Regiment. In doing so, he became the first non-SAS person ever to fire a gun inside the close-quarters battle training house at Hereford
.
His interests included parapsychology
. This was as a result of his and his family's extensive research into the paranormal, which resulted in his writing The Door Marked Summer and The Doors of the Mind. He was, for the final years of his life, president of the Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena
.
Bentine was also interested in science. On 14 December 1977, he appeared with Arthur C. Clarke
on Patrick Moore
's BBC The Sky At Night
programme. The broadcast was entitled "Suns, Spaceships and Bug-Eyed Monsters" - a light-hearted look at how science fiction
had become science fact, as well as how ideas of space travel had become reality through the 20th century. Bentine appeared in a subsequent broadcast on a similar theme with Patrick Moore in 1980. Following the death of Arthur C. Clarke, BBC Sky At Night magazine released a copy of the 1977 archive programme on the cover of their May 2008 edition.
dancer, for over fifty years. He had a child from his first marriage, Elaine from whom he has a granddaughter Marie Laurence and three great-grandsons, William, Arthur and Nicholas. His children from his second marriage were better known by their family nicknames than their birth names; Gus (real name Stewart), Fusty (real name Marylla), Suki (real name Serena) and Peski (real name Richard). Two of his five children, his eldest daughters, died from cancer
(breast cancer
and lymphoma
), while his elder son, Gus, was killed when a Piper PA-18 (Super Cub, registration G-AYPN) crashed into a hillside at Ditcham Woods near Petersfield, Hampshire
, on 28 August 1971. His body, together with that of the pilot and the aircraft, were found on 31 October 1971. Bentine's subsequent investigation into regulations governing private airfields resulted in his writing a report for the Special Branch
of the British police into the use of personal aircraft in smuggling operations. He fictionalised much of the material in his novel Lords of the Levels.
When his son Richard's first boy Elliot was born, he tried to give him an MG 08 machine gun
, which his daughter-in-law refused to accept. When Richard's second son Harry was born, Michael bought him a train set.
From 1975 until his death in 1996, he and his wife spent their winters at a second home in Palm Springs, California
, USA.
Shortly before his death from prostate cancer
at the age of 74, he was visited in hospital in England
by the Prince of Wales
, who was a close personal friend.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(26 January 1922 – 26 November 1996 ) was a British comedian
Comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...
, comic actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
and founding member of the Goons
The Goon Show
The Goon Show was a British radio comedy programme, originally produced and broadcast by the BBC Home Service from 1951 to 1960, with occasional repeats on the BBC Light Programme...
. A Peruvian Briton
Peruvian Briton
This article is about Peruvian people living in the United Kingdom, for Peruvian people of British descent, see "British Peruvian"Peruvians in the United Kingdom are Peruvian immigrants to the United Kingdom, who form part of the larger Latin American community in the UK...
by heritage as a result of his father's nationality, In 1971 Bentine received the Order of Merit of Peru because of his fund-raising work for the 1970 Great Peruvian Earthquake.
Biography
Bentine was born Michael James Bentin in WatfordWatford
Watford is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, situated northwest of central London and within the bounds of the M25 motorway. The borough is separated from Greater London to the south by the urbanised parish of Watford Rural in the Three Rivers District.Watford was created as an urban...
, Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
, of Anglo
Anglo
Anglo is a prefix indicating a relation to the Angles, England or the English people, as in the terms Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-American, Anglo-Celtic, Anglo-African and Anglo-Indian. It is often used alone, somewhat loosely, to refer to people of British Isles descent in The Americas, Australia and...
-Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
vian parentage. and grew up in Folkestone
Folkestone
Folkestone is the principal town in the Shepway District of Kent, England. Its original site was in a valley in the sea cliffs and it developed through fishing and its closeness to the Continent as a landing place and trading port. The coming of the railways, the building of a ferry port, and its...
, Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, one of his friends being the young David Tomlinson
David Tomlinson
David Cecil MacAlister Tomlinson was an English film actor. He is primarily remembered for his roles as authority figure George Banks in Mary Poppins, fraudulent magician Professor Emelius Browne in Bedknobs and Broomsticks and as hapless antagonist Peter Thorndyke in The Love Bug.-Early life:Born...
. He was educated at Eton College
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
. He spoke fluent Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
and French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
. His father was an early aeronautical engineer for Sopwith aircraft during and after World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
.
In World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
he volunteered for all services when the war broke out (the RAF
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
was his first choice owing to the influence of his father's experience), but was rejected because of his father's Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
vian nationality.
He started his acting career in 1940, in a touring company in Cardiff
Cardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...
playing a juvenile lead in Sweet Lavender. He went on to join Robert Atkin's
Robert Atkins (actor)
Sir Robert Atkins, CBE was an English actor, producer and director.Born in Dulwich, London, England, Atkins was most famous for his participation in the theatre. An early graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he also appeared many times on film and in television, though not with the...
Shakespearean company in Regent's Park
Regent's Park
Regent's Park is one of the Royal Parks of London. It is in the north-western part of central London, partly in the City of Westminster and partly in the London Borough of Camden...
, London until he was called up for service in the RAF. He was appearing in a Shakespearean play in doublet and hose in the open-air theatre in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
's Hyde Park
Hyde Park, London
Hyde Park is one of the largest parks in central London, United Kingdom, and one of the Royal Parks of London, famous for its Speakers' Corner.The park is divided in two by the Serpentine...
when two RAF MP
Military police
Military police are police organisations connected with, or part of, the military of a state. The word can have different meanings in different countries, and may refer to:...
s marched on stage and arrested him for desertion. Unknown to him, an RAF conscription notice had been following him for a month as his company toured.
Once in the RAF he went through flight training. He was the penultimate man going through a medical line receiving inoculations for typhoid with the other flight candidates in his class (they were going to Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
to receive new aircraft) when the vaccine
Vaccine
A vaccine is a biological preparation that improves immunity to a particular disease. A vaccine typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism, and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe or its toxins...
ran out. They refilled the bottle to inoculate him and the other man as well. By mistake they loaded a pure culture of typhoid. The other man died immediately, and Bentine was in a coma
Coma
In medicine, a coma is a state of unconsciousness, lasting more than 6 hours in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light or sound, lacks a normal sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. A person in a state of coma is described as...
for six weeks. When he regained consciousness his eyesight was ruined, leaving him myopic for the rest of his life. Since he was no longer physically qualified for flight, he was transferred to RAF Intelligence
RAF Intelligence
Intelligence services in the Royal Air Force is delivered by Officers of the Royal Air Force Operations Support Intelligence Branch and Airmen from the Intelligence Analyst Trade and Intelligence Analyst Trade...
and seconded to MI9
MI9
MI9, the British Military Intelligence Section 9, was a department of the British Directorate of Military Intelligence, part of the War Office...
a unit that was dedicated to supporting resistance movements and help prisoners escape. His immediate superior was the Colditz
Colditz
Colditz is a town in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, near Leipzig, located on the banks of the river Mulde. The town has a population of 5,188 ....
escapee Airey Neave
Airey Neave
Airey Middleton Sheffield Neave DSO, OBE, MC was a British soldier, barrister and politician.During World War II, Neave was one of the few servicemen to escape from the German prisoner-of-war camp Oflag IV-C at Colditz Castle...
.
At the end of the war, he took part in the liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp
Bergen-Belsen was a Nazi concentration camp in Lower Saxony in northwestern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle...
. He said about this experience:
- Millions of words have been written about these horror camps, many of them by inmates of those unbelievable places. I’ve tried, without success, to describe it from my own point of view, but the words won’t come. To me Belsen was the ultimate blasphemy.
Comedy career
After the war he worked in the Windmill TheatreWindmill Theatre
The Windmill Theatre, later The Windmill International, was a variety and revue theatre in Great Windmill Street, London. The theatre was famous for its nude tableaux vivants...
and the Starlight Roof revues where he met and married his second wife Clementina with whom he had four children. He decided to become a comedian, specialising in off-the-wall humour, often involving cartoons and other types of animation
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
.
He co-founded The Goon Show
The Goon Show
The Goon Show was a British radio comedy programme, originally produced and broadcast by the BBC Home Service from 1951 to 1960, with occasional repeats on the BBC Light Programme...
radio show with Spike Milligan
Spike Milligan
Terence Alan Patrick Seán "Spike" Milligan Hon. KBE was a comedian, writer, musician, poet, playwright, soldier and actor. His early life was spent in India, where he was born, but the majority of his working life was spent in the United Kingdom. He became an Irish citizen in 1962 after the...
, Peter Sellers
Peter Sellers
Richard Henry Sellers, CBE , known as Peter Sellers, was a British comedian and actor. Perhaps best known as Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther film series, he is also notable for playing three different characters in Dr...
and Harry Secombe
Harry Secombe
Sir Harry Donald Secombe CBE was a Welsh entertainer with a talent for comedy and a noted fine tenor singing voice. He is best known for playing Neddie Seagoon, the central character in the BBC radio comedy series The Goon Show...
, but appeared in only the first 38 shows on the BBC Light Programme
BBC Light Programme
The Light Programme was a BBC radio station which broadcast mainstream light entertainment and music from 1945 until 1967, when it was rebranded as BBC Radio 2...
from 1951–53. He also appeared in The Goon Show film Down Among the Z Men
Down Among the Z Men
Down Among the Z Men is a B/W 1952 British comedy film starring The Goons; Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers, Michael Bentine and Harry Secombe.-Plot:...
. He parted amicably from his partners and remained close to Secombe and Sellers for the rest of his life. In 1972, Secombe and Sellers told Michael Parkinson
Michael Parkinson
Sir Michael Parkinson, CBE is an English broadcaster, journalist and author. He presented his interview programme, Parkinson, from 1971 to 1982 and from 1998 to 2007.- Early life :...
that Bentine was "always calling everyone a genius" and, since he was the only one of the four with a "proper education", they always believed him.
He left the Goons to work on his own radio series. Bentine spent two years in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
(1954–55).
In 1954, he began as a television presenter with a BBC children's series, The Bumblies. These were three small creatures from outer space who slept on "Professor Bentine's" ceiling and who had come to Earth to learn the ways of Earthling children. He also appeared in the film comedy Raising a Riot
Raising a Riot
Raising a Riot is a 1955 British comedy film directed by Wendy Toye and starring Kenneth More, Shelagh Fraser and Mandy Miller. A naval officer attempts to look after his three children in his wife's absence.-Cast:* Kenneth More - Peter Kent...
, starring Kenneth More
Kenneth More
Kenneth Gilbert More CBE was a highly successful English film actor during the post-World War II era and starred in many feature films, often in the role of an archetypal carefree and happy-go-lucky middle-class gentleman.-Early life:Kenneth More was born in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, the...
, which featured his five year old daughter "Fusty". He joked that she got better billing.
During 1959, he worked on the radio series Round the Bend in 30 Minutes. From 1960 to 1964, he had a television series It's a Square World
It's a Square World
It's a Square World was a groundbreaking British comedy show starring Michael Bentine and was produced by the BBC. It ran from 1960 till 1964. The series led Bentine to a BAFTA award in 1962 for Light Entertainment and a compilation show, screened by the BBC in 1963, won that year's Press Prize at...
, which won a BAFTA award in 1962 and Grand Prix de la Presse at Montreux
Montreux
Montreux is a municipality in the district of Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland.It is located on Lake Geneva at the foot of the Alps and has a population, , of and nearly 90,000 in the agglomeration.- History :...
in 1963. A prominent feature of the series was the imaginary flea circus
Flea circus
A flea circus refers to a circus sideshow attraction in which fleas are attached to miniature carts and other items, and encouraged to perform circus acts within a small housing...
where plays were enacted on tiny sets using nothing but special effects to show the movement of things too small to see and sounds with Bentine's commentary. The plays were not serious. One, titled The Beast of the Black Bog Tarn, was set in a (miniature) haunted house.
From 1974 to 1980 he wrote, designed, narrated and presented the children's television programme Michael Bentine's Potty Time
Michael Bentine's Potty Time
Michael Bentine's Potty Time was a long-running British children's show, starring Michael Bentine, directed and produced by Leon Thau for Thames Television on ITV...
and made one-off comedy specials.
He was also the best-selling writer of 16 novels, comedies and non-fiction books. Four of his books, The Long Banana Skin
The Long Banana Skin
The Long Banana Skin is the first of three autobiographies by Michael Bentine, comedy entertainer, particularly known as a member of The Goons and for his television shows It's a Square World. It covers his life and entertainment career up to 1975...
(1975), The Door Marked Summer (1981), Doors to the Mind and The Reluctant Jester (1992) are autobiographical.
Other interests
During the 1960s he took part in the first hovercraftHovercraft
A hovercraft is a craft capable of traveling over surfaces while supported by a cushion of slow moving, high-pressure air which is ejected against the surface below and contained within a "skirt." Although supported by air, a hovercraft is not considered an aircraft.Hovercraft are used throughout...
expedition up the River Amazon.
In 1995, Bentine received a CBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
from Queen Elizabeth II "for services to entertainment". He was also a holder of the Peruvian Order of Merit, as was his grandfather, Don Antonio Bentin Palamero, for his work leading the fundraising for the Peruvian Earthquake Appeal.
Bentine was a crack pistol shot and helped to start the idea of a counter-terrorist
Counter-terrorism
Counter-terrorism is the practices, tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, militaries, police departments and corporations adopt to prevent or in response to terrorist threats and/or acts, both real and imputed.The tactic of terrorism is available to insurgents and governments...
wing within 22 SAS
Special Air Service
Special Air Service or SAS is a corps of the British Army constituted on 31 May 1950. They are part of the United Kingdom Special Forces and have served as a model for the special forces of many other countries all over the world...
Regiment. In doing so, he became the first non-SAS person ever to fire a gun inside the close-quarters battle training house at Hereford
Hereford
Hereford is a cathedral city, civil parish and county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, southwest of Worcester, and northwest of Gloucester...
.
His interests included parapsychology
Parapsychology
The term parapsychology was coined in or around 1889 by philosopher Max Dessoir, and originates from para meaning "alongside", and psychology. The term was adopted by J.B. Rhine in the 1930s as a replacement for the term psychical research...
. This was as a result of his and his family's extensive research into the paranormal, which resulted in his writing The Door Marked Summer and The Doors of the Mind. He was, for the final years of his life, president of the Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena
Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena
The Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena is a United Kingdom-based education and research charity, and professional body whose mission is to scientifically investigate alleged paranormal and anomalous phenomena....
.
Bentine was also interested in science. On 14 December 1977, he appeared with Arthur C. Clarke
Arthur C. Clarke
Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, CBE, FRAS was a British science fiction author, inventor, and futurist, famous for his short stories and novels, among them 2001: A Space Odyssey, and as a host and commentator in the British television series Mysterious World. For many years, Robert A. Heinlein,...
on Patrick Moore
Patrick Moore
Sir Patrick Alfred Caldwell-Moore, CBE, FRS, FRAS is a British amateur astronomer who has attained prominent status in astronomy as a writer, researcher, radio commentator and television presenter of the subject, and who is credited as having done more than any other person to raise the profile of...
's BBC The Sky At Night
The Sky at Night
The Sky at Night is a monthly documentary television programme on astronomy produced by the BBC. The show has had the same permanent presenter, Sir Patrick Moore, from its first airing on 24 April 1957, making it the longest-running programme with the same presenter in television history.The...
programme. The broadcast was entitled "Suns, Spaceships and Bug-Eyed Monsters" - a light-hearted look at how science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
had become science fact, as well as how ideas of space travel had become reality through the 20th century. Bentine appeared in a subsequent broadcast on a similar theme with Patrick Moore in 1980. Following the death of Arthur C. Clarke, BBC Sky At Night magazine released a copy of the 1977 archive programme on the cover of their May 2008 edition.
Family and health
He was married twice, remaining with his second wife Clementina Stuart, a Royal BalletRoyal Ballet, London
The Royal Ballet is an internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, England. The largest of the four major ballet companies in Great Britain, the Royal Ballet was founded in 1931 by Dame Ninette de Valois, it became the resident ballet...
dancer, for over fifty years. He had a child from his first marriage, Elaine from whom he has a granddaughter Marie Laurence and three great-grandsons, William, Arthur and Nicholas. His children from his second marriage were better known by their family nicknames than their birth names; Gus (real name Stewart), Fusty (real name Marylla), Suki (real name Serena) and Peski (real name Richard). Two of his five children, his eldest daughters, died from cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
(breast cancer
Breast cancer
Breast cancer is cancer originating from breast tissue, most commonly from the inner lining of milk ducts or the lobules that supply the ducts with milk. Cancers originating from ducts are known as ductal carcinomas; those originating from lobules are known as lobular carcinomas...
and lymphoma
Lymphoma
Lymphoma is a cancer in the lymphatic cells of the immune system. Typically, lymphomas present as a solid tumor of lymphoid cells. Treatment might involve chemotherapy and in some cases radiotherapy and/or bone marrow transplantation, and can be curable depending on the histology, type, and stage...
), while his elder son, Gus, was killed when a Piper PA-18 (Super Cub, registration G-AYPN) crashed into a hillside at Ditcham Woods near Petersfield, Hampshire
Petersfield, Hampshire
Petersfield is a market town and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It is north of Portsmouth, on the A3 road. The town has its own railway station on the Portsmouth Direct Line, the mainline rail link connecting Portsmouth and London. The town is situated on the...
, on 28 August 1971. His body, together with that of the pilot and the aircraft, were found on 31 October 1971. Bentine's subsequent investigation into regulations governing private airfields resulted in his writing a report for the Special Branch
Special Branch
Special Branch is a label customarily used to identify units responsible for matters of national security in British and Commonwealth police forces, as well as in the Royal Thai Police...
of the British police into the use of personal aircraft in smuggling operations. He fictionalised much of the material in his novel Lords of the Levels.
When his son Richard's first boy Elliot was born, he tried to give him an MG 08 machine gun
Machine gun
A machine gun is a fully automatic mounted or portable firearm, usually designed to fire rounds in quick succession from an ammunition belt or large-capacity magazine, typically at a rate of several hundred rounds per minute....
, which his daughter-in-law refused to accept. When Richard's second son Harry was born, Michael bought him a train set.
From 1975 until his death in 1996, he and his wife spent their winters at a second home in Palm Springs, California
Palm Springs, California
Palm Springs is a desert city in Riverside County, California, within the Coachella Valley. It is located approximately 37 miles east of San Bernardino, 111 miles east of Los Angeles and 136 miles northeast of San Diego...
, USA.
Shortly before his death from prostate cancer
Prostate cancer
Prostate cancer is a form of cancer that develops in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system. Most prostate cancers are slow growing; however, there are cases of aggressive prostate cancers. The cancer cells may metastasize from the prostate to other parts of the body, particularly...
at the age of 74, he was visited in hospital in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
by the Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales is a title traditionally granted to the heir apparent to the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the 15 other independent Commonwealth realms...
, who was a close personal friend.
Programmes
Some of the programmes Bentine appeared in were:- The Great Bong (1993)
- The Sky At NightThe Sky at NightThe Sky at Night is a monthly documentary television programme on astronomy produced by the BBC. The show has had the same permanent presenter, Sir Patrick Moore, from its first airing on 24 April 1957, making it the longest-running programme with the same presenter in television history.The...
(1980) - The Sky At NightThe Sky at NightThe Sky at Night is a monthly documentary television programme on astronomy produced by the BBC. The show has had the same permanent presenter, Sir Patrick Moore, from its first airing on 24 April 1957, making it the longest-running programme with the same presenter in television history.The...
(1977) - Bentine (1975)
- Michael Bentine's Potty TimeMichael Bentine's Potty TimeMichael Bentine's Potty Time was a long-running British children's show, starring Michael Bentine, directed and produced by Leon Thau for Thames Television on ITV...
(1973–80) - All Square (1966)
- The Golden Silents (1965)
- It's a Square WorldIt's a Square WorldIt's a Square World was a groundbreaking British comedy show starring Michael Bentine and was produced by the BBC. It ran from 1960 till 1964. The series led Bentine to a BAFTA award in 1962 for Light Entertainment and a compilation show, screened by the BBC in 1963, won that year's Press Prize at...
(1960–64) - Round the Bend in Thirty Minutes (1959)
- After HoursAfter Hours- Television and film :* After Hours , a 1985 movie directed by Martin Scorsese* After Hours , a 1953 Canadian television series* After Hours , a 2007 television drama broadcasted in Singapore...
(1958–59) - Yes, It's the Cathode-Ray Tube Show! (1957)
- The Bumblies (1954)
- Goonreel (1952)
- The Goon ShowThe Goon ShowThe Goon Show was a British radio comedy programme, originally produced and broadcast by the BBC Home Service from 1951 to 1960, with occasional repeats on the BBC Light Programme...
(1950–52)
Films
- RentadickRentadickRentadick is a 1972 British comedy film directed by Jim Clark and starring James Booth, Richard Briers, Julie Ege, Ronald Fraser and Donald Sinden. It is a spoof spy/detective picture, involving the the attempts to protect a new experimental nerve gas....
(1972) - Bachelor of ArtsBachelor of ArtsA Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
(1971) - The Sandwich ManThe Sandwich ManThe Sandwich Man is a 1966 British comedy film starring Michael Bentine, Dora Bryan, Harry H. Corbett, Bernard Cribbins, Diana Dors, Norman Wisdom, Terry-Thomas and Ian Hendry. It was written by Bentine in conjunction with Robert Hartford-Davis...
(1966) - We Joined the NavyWe Joined the NavyWe Joined the Navy is a 1962 British CinemaScope comedy film based on the novel of the same name by John Winton, directed by Wendy Toye and starring Kenneth More, Lloyd Nolan, Joan O'Brien, Derek Fowlds, Graham Crowden, Esma Cannon and John Le Mesurier....
(1962) - The Do-It-Yourself Cartoon Kit (1961)
- I Only Arsked!I Only Arsked!I Only Arsked! is a 1958 British comedy film directed by Montgomery Tully and starring Bernard Bresslaw, Michael Medwin and Alfie Bass. It was based on the television series The Army Game and was made by Hammer Films.-Cast:...
(1958) - Raising a RiotRaising a RiotRaising a Riot is a 1955 British comedy film directed by Wendy Toye and starring Kenneth More, Shelagh Fraser and Mandy Miller. A naval officer attempts to look after his three children in his wife's absence.-Cast:* Kenneth More - Peter Kent...
(1955) - John and JulieJohn and JulieJohn and Julie was a 1955 British comedy film. It featured Peter Sellers and Sid James in early screen roles-Plot:John and Julie are two children who personally want to see The Queen's coronation in spite of the fact that their parents have no intention of going. The two decide to run off to...
(1955) - Forces' Sweetheart (1953)
- Down Among the Z MenDown Among the Z MenDown Among the Z Men is a B/W 1952 British comedy film starring The Goons; Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers, Michael Bentine and Harry Secombe.-Plot:...
aka The Goon Movie (1952) - Cookery Nook (1951)
Books
- The Reluctant Jester sub-title My Head-on Collision with the 20th Century - Bantam Press - 1992 - ISBN 0-593-02042-1
- Open Your Mind sub-title The quest for creative thinking - Bantam Press - 1990 - ISBN 0-593-01538-X
- Templar - Bantam Press - 1988 - ISBN 0-593-01339-5
- The Condor and The Cross sub-title An Adventure Novel of the Conquistadors - Bantam Press - 1987 - ISBN 0-593-01265-8
- Lords of The Levels - Grafton - 1986 - ISBN 0-586-06643-8
- The Shy Person's Guide To Life - Grafton - 1984 - ISBN 0-586-06167-3
- Doors of The Mind - Granada - 1984 - ISBN 0-246-11845-8
- The Door Marked Summer - Granada - 1981 - ISBN 0-246-11405-3
- Smith & Son Removers - Corgi - 1981 - ISBN 0-552-12074-X
- The Long Banana SkinThe Long Banana SkinThe Long Banana Skin is the first of three autobiographies by Michael Bentine, comedy entertainer, particularly known as a member of The Goons and for his television shows It's a Square World. It covers his life and entertainment career up to 1975...
- New English Library - 1976 - ISBN 0-450-02882-8 - Madame's Girls and other stories (1980)
- The Best of Bentine (1984) Panther
- The Potty Encyclopedia (1985)
- The Potty Khyber Pass (1974)
- The Potty Treasure Island (1973)
- Square Games (1966) Wolfe SBN 0723400806
- Michael Bentine's Book of Square Holidays M. Bentine & J. Ennis (1968) Wolfe SBN 72340019 9
- Fifty Years on the Streets Michael Bentine & John Ennis (1964) New English Library, A Four Square Book