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Despite their lack of screen time, the supporting characters in cartoon TV comedies are sometimes funnier than the animated leads. Animated comedies are free from many of the limitations that hinder their live-action brethren. For starters, an animated show's cast can be much more extensive thanks to the magic of voice acting. This difference means cartoons have more recurring side characters who shine alongside — and sometimes outshine — the series' protagonists.

While boasting more side characters than traditional live-action sitcoms can be great, that doesn't mean animated comedies aren't guilty of producing some terrible bottle episodes centered on these fringe personalities. Still, there are generally more upsides than downsides to an eclectic cartoon cast. Whether they're a one-off gag character with unexplored potential or a recurring supporting star who's never gotten a plot to themselves, these side characters made their shows even more worth the watch.

Hans Moleman (The Simpsons)

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Forever remembered as the dolly bird prone to wardrobe malfunctions, the actor was a survivor whose career was forged in groundbreaking 60s realism

Michael Billington on a stage sensation

For a certain generation, she is pub landlady Peggy Mitchell in the BBC TV soap EastEnders, commanding wrongdoers to get out of the Queen Vic with the same defiant and imperious passion as Evita singing from the balcony (and I think she could have done that role). Barbara Windsor was the matriarchal pop-culture exemplar of the white working class with a Cockney accent flavoured by a certain kind of showbiz-nasal quiver – Bruce Forsyth had something similar

I myself as a kid saw her in panto as a wonderful Cinderella at north London’s Golders Green Hippodrome in the 1970s on the bill with Benny Hill’s straight man Bob Todd and wrestler Jackie “Mr TV” Pallo. And I met her in...

Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun?May is an interesting time for a film festival. In a sense, the calendar year for cinema is starting over in May, since that’s when two major international festivals occur—Cannes and Oberhausen. Where Cannes showcases the latest work from global arthouse auteurs—your Almodóvars and von Triers and Hanekes and the like—Oberhausen specifically focuses on short films, some of them by the world’s most prominent avant-garde filmmakers. A significant portion of what screens at both Cannes and Oberhausen will set the agenda for other film festivals in the coming year, in terms of which films and filmmakers ought to be shown.San Francisco’s Crossroads happens during May as well, and this puts it in a unique position with respect to other, larger festivals. Artistic director Steve Polta is able to assemble an experimental film festival comprised of older,...

Sometimes, to appreciate what you are watching, you must first appreciate those featured within. Benny Hill, along with his rather obscure but phenomenally talented cast, transformed British television comedy at a time when many else had tried and failed.

The Benny Hill Show was one of the most successful programmes ever shown on British television, transforming Hill into a global household name as a result.

The Benny Hills Annuals 1982 and 1983 feature two fifty minute episodes of the most non-pc, risqué comedy you will ever have seen. Armed with his entourage of bikini-clad women, and his trio of hopeless helpers (Henry McGee, Bob Todd and Jackie Lee Wright), Benny seamlessly works his way through a large variety of different styles of comedy, an ability that very few have been able to replicate.

As you become engrossed within each episode it becomes very clear to see why the show was just so successful: Benny himself.