When not touring in the theatre he worked on BBC radio, including playing the character parts in the science fiction comedy series The Scarifyers.
His most famous roles, impersonating comic actor Kenneth Williams, comedian Frankie Howerd, and playwright and composer Noël Coward, have all used his talent for mimicking well-known stars of stage and screen.
[2] It was this initial writing credit, which only by chance was performed by Williams (Benson had written the piece with Spike Milligan in mind), that later influenced him when he was trying to decide on a subject for his first one-man show at the Edinburgh Fringe.
After leaving college, Benson moved to Edinburgh where he held down various jobs, including working as a "skivvy" in a restaurant kitchen and as an assistant in Scotland's first gay and lesbian bookshop.
Between 1990 and 1996 he worked in the Edinburgh-based Grassmarket Project Theatre Company, performing in a series of award-winning semi-documentary dramas, often improvised, ranging from homeless men (Glad, 1990–92) to pensioners (One Moment, 1993), and a young lady whose brother was killed in police custody (20/52, 1995).
Titled Nothing But Pleasure, it was timed to coincide with the first anniversary of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, and consisted mainly of a detailed description of the events at her funeral.
As well as being an examination of the life and career of Howerd, the show, like all of Benson's work, had a strong autobiographical element: he gave an uncompromising account of his "period of theatrical inactivity" in a sequence which culminated in the uproarious "slaughter" of a collection of "irritating television personalities".
He stepped into the breach to take a role in the Peepolykus production of Eugène Ionesco's absurdist classic Rhinoceros, which toured the UK for the first half of the year, before returning for a season at the Lyric Hammersmith and Battersea Arts Centre.
In 2003 he directed (and co-created) All the Rage, the first solo stage show by the media personality Janet Street-Porter, which premiered at that year's Edinburgh Fringe.
During 2009 he also appeared in a play, with author Clayton Littlewood and singer Alexis Gerred, portraying a number of character roles in an adaptation of Littlewood's best-selling book Dirty White Boy (a book which became a favourite of Elton John), about the crazy Soho characters, all played by Benson, who the author came to know during his time running a clothes shop in London's Old Compton Street.
[16] Having done initial performances in July 2009, Benson returned in a longer version of the play for a month's run in 2010, appearing at London's Trafalgar Studios until 26 May.
[21] The other show which he premiered at the 2010 Fringe was a drama, written by himself, titled Lockerbie – Unfinished Business,[22] telling the story of Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora was killed in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.
[26][27] He ultimately had a dozen one-man shows in his theatrical repertoire, with which he was regularly touring, including Think No Evil Of Us: My Life With Kenneth Williams; Nothing But Pleasure (a.k.a.
For Easter 2011 he did a London season at the Warehouse, Croydon from 6 to 17 April, presenting Lockerbie: Unfinished Business and his two most enduring shows: Think No Evil of Us – My Life With Kenneth Williams and To Be Frank – Frankie Howerd and the Secret of Happiness.
From 2017 to 2020 he co-starred with actor Jack Lane in a two-hander stage comedy, entitled Dad's Army Radio Show, in which the two performers played 25 characters between them.
[35] To the relief of Benson and Lane the show was very much enjoyed by Michael Knowles and Harold Snoad who originally adapted the scripts for radio.
After four years research and study of the Cato Street conspiracy and discovery of forgotten music in the British Library, the new production is detailed on its own website: http://www.catostreet1820.co.uk In December 2019 Benson again starred alongside Jack Lane in a two man show of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens at The Capitol Theatre, Horsham.
In April 2022 Benson joined the cast of the popular Jukebox musical by Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran, Dreamboats and Petticoats for its UK tour.
In the first of these, in July 2006, he narrated the BBC Radio 1 documentary Waiting for Superman,[38] a history of the DC Comics character, which he performed in an authentic American accent.
David Warner and Philip Madoc have recorded further serials alongside Terry Molloy, in which Benson once again played the character parts.
He played the recurring role of Panda in the Iris Wildthyme series, a collection of humorous audio dramas made by Big Finish Productions, released exclusively on CD.
The Scarifyers serials also cast him in one highly camp role, as psychic investigator Aleister Crowley: a part with strongly emphasised similarities to his high-camp comedic style on stage, when portraying Kenneth Williams and Frankie Howerd in his one-man show.
This was another engagement, as with his 1990s television work, which he obtained as a result of his one-man stage show, Think No Evil of Us – My Life with Kenneth Williams: Liberace being one of the American stars of whom he did impressions in the Hollywood Party sequence.