Live long enough and all your cherished memories of childhood will end up besmirched somehow. For many of us Boomers the 1970s are now nothing but a long, brownish and noisome stain. We might have expected Gary Glitter would be outed as a nonce and ditto the unequivocally foul Jimmy Savile. But come on, who would have thought there was a darker side to Benny Hill? His harmless and uplifting degradation of women was one of our regular delights, especially the bits where semi-naked babes chased him around parks, with a silly expression on his face, accompanied by fruity music. How we laughed. And so to find out now that all the time he was living a double life as a murderous IRA terrorist is kind of too much to bear.

We know this because he has been named by another 1970s light entertainer – or, perhaps more properly, Armalite entertainer – the famous and likeable Gerry Adams. Gerry was challenged that during the 1970s he was seen wearing a black beret, part of the IRA’s military uniform. He admitted it and added: ‘So did Benny Hill.’ It is rare for members of the IRA to give up the names of their colleagues so easily, but Gerry hadn’t even been waterboarded before he dobbed in Benny.

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