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Harry Hill
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Matthew Keith Hall (born October 1, 1964), better known as Harry Hill, is a BAFTA award-winning English comedian, author and television presenter and former medical doctor, who began his career in comedy with the popular radio show Harry Hill's Fruit Corner.
's humour is quirky and surreal, with comedy historian Oliver Double describing Hill's performance as that of "Ronnie Corbett possessed by the ghost of Salvador Dalí." His character has a trademark appearance, comprising a bald head, thick black spectacles, pens in his top pocket, small badges on his lapel, a comically oversized shirt collar and brothel creeper shoes.
y Hill has established a tight and successful standup structure in which he employs the comedic process of 'reincorporation' to a uniquely obsessive degree.
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Matthew Keith Hall (born October 1, 1964), better known as Harry Hill, is a BAFTA award-winning English comedian, author and television presenter and former medical doctor, who began his career in comedy with the popular radio show Harry Hill's Fruit Corner.
Humour
Hill's humour is quirky and surreal, with comedy historian Oliver Double describing Hill's performance as that of "Ronnie Corbett possessed by the ghost of Salvador Dalí." His character has a trademark appearance, comprising a bald head, thick black spectacles, pens in his top pocket, small badges on his lapel, a comically oversized shirt collar and brothel creeper shoes.
Standup
Harry Hill has established a tight and successful standup structure in which he employs the comedic process of 'reincorporation' to a uniquely obsessive degree. He sets up a number of running themes and slips in and out of each thread without warning. Hill is one of the comedians set on his way by Malcolm Hardee, and is one of many alternative British comics associated with the Avalon Promotions comedy family.
Hill's routines are usually smut-free and he seldom employs harsh language. There is often a sexual undertone to his work but his humour appears grounded in 'old time' attitudes and conservatism.
Occasionally, such as in his 1997 Man Alive show he employs video footage. In this case, a short movie featuring himself and Matt Bradstock called The Boy with the Big Face was presented at the beginning of the show.
Stouffer the cat usually appears in his standup; in later shows, riding on the success of his TV series, Burt Kwouk and other characters from the TV show would also show up.
Hill has also developed many catchphrases over the years including "What are the chances of that happening?" after a bizarre routine, "Aw, Mum, what'd you have to go and do that for?" and "pork and lamb: they're the main two" in relation to chops. This also led to "you've got to have a system".
Career
Harry Hill's Fruit Corner
Starting in 1993 and running for four series, Hill starred in his own BBC Radio 4 programme, Harry Hill's Fruit Corner.
In 1994 he made the transition to television, where he produced and starred in six episodes of a show called Fruit Fancies, transmitted on BBC Two in 1994. This was a series of ten minute episodes, and was filmed in black and white with little or no dialogue. One of the episodes documented Gandhi's twin brother Alan, who ran a car dealership.
The Harry Hill Show
From 1997 Hill had his own Channel 4. television series called The Harry Hill Show (listed simply as Harry Hill on screen) which ran to three series. The show was essentially a reworking of the Radio series Harry Hill's Fruit Corner. Among the regular characters were Harry's big brother, 'Alan' (played by the comedian Al Murray) and his adopted son 'Little Alan' (played by Dr. Matt Bradstock). A DVD of the show, consisting of all three series, is currently in production.
Burt Kwouk appeared in many episodes of the Harry Hill Show and occasionally in Harry's major live standup shows. Kwouk plays Harry's "Chicken Catcher" and each week he will have an excuse as to why he has not yet captured a chicken, followed by a performance of the song Hey Little Hen. In later series Hill and Kwouk appeared in sketches as Karl Lagerfeld and Gianni Versace.
Harry's wife May Sung also made appearances on the show, mainly around the theme of trying to steal Harry's bank savings book.
Another favourite on the show was Stouffer the cat, a curious-looking cat glove puppet made of blue rubber. Stouffer normally sits in a throne supported by a rubber arm in the style of Rod Hull, and is employed to intimidate guests during Hill's standup routines and as part of a strange children's TV parody sketch on his TV show. Stouffer's catchphrases are "he got a big face" and "sorted — respect due".
The end of each episode was supposed to include an event called "The Badger Parade", a parade of puppet badgers that includes Gareth Southgate badger and Tasmin Archer badger, among others. But every week there would be some kind of problem resulting in the badgers being unable to perform. In place of the badger parade, Harry would usually sing a song, with a guest he had invited onto the show.
Harry Hill's TV Burp
2001 saw Hill move to ITV presenting an all-new show Harry Hill's TV Burp, which started its eighth series in 2008. The show is a comic look at the week's television, picking out and commenting on lines and scenes from various programmes. Also on ITV1 was The All New Harry Hill Show, similar to his Channel 4 show, but with a bigger budget and more celebrity guests. Regular features included the Hamilton Challenge (featuring the disgraced political couple Neil and Christine Hamilton), and a Butterfly in Blue Jeans finale.
2005 saw Hill move into new territory with Harry Hill's Shark Infested Custard, a 13-part show broadcast in the CITV slot. While many of his previous characters including Stouffer and Garry Hill (Hill's fictional layabout son from his first marriage) remained, it also showcased several new characters including Speed Camera Boy, about an outsider who is half boy and half speed camera, and Evelynne Hussey and her Amazing Instruments. While the show featured a game show element, Help the Aged, it was very similar in structure to The Harry Hill Show.
Other television work
In 1999 Hill starred in an episode of Celebrity Stars In Their Eyes for ITV as Morrissey of The Smiths, one of his favourite bands, and he sang This Charming Man.
In 2004 Hill became the new narrator and fourth presenter of ITV's You've Been Framed, a programme in the "funny home videos" genre.
In 2006 he appeared in Children's Party at the Palace for Queen Elizabeth II's 80th birthday.
He also appeared on Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway on October 14 2006, alongside Al Murray, and on November 8 2006 he appeared on The New Paul O'Grady Show.
On 28 January, 2008, Harry Hill guest starred in an interactive version of Chucklevision shown on BBCi. He portrayed a rich investor known as Simon Chortle, who was after purchasing Chuckle Manor and preventing the Chuckle Brothers from collecting the two goblets which would prevent him from purchasing it.
He has appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman seven times with Letterman saying of him, "I like that guy, there is something wrong with him." At one point he held the record for the British comedian with the most appearances on Letterman, before being overtaken by Ricky Gervais. .
On 4 February, 2009, Harry Hill guest starred in the CBBC show Blue Peter. He also did a Blue Peter parody Harry Hill's TV Burp. He guest starred along with the cast from MI High.
Voiceovers
Hill's instantly recognisable voice has led to work in voice-over roles on television commercials, such as the Christmas adverts for Boots in 2004. Hill also provides the voice over for You've Been Framed and once sang a song entitled "Bring on the Branston!" for the Branston Pickle adverts.
Books
In 2002 Harry Hill's first novel, Flight from Deathrow, was published. It is based around the unlikely antics of real-life celebrities and politicians as seen through the eyes of the storyteller, whilst in and out of a coma.
His second book, Tim the Tiny Horse, was published in October 2006, and his third, The Further Adventures of the Queen Mum, in October 2007. Also available is Harry Hill's Fun Book, a Christmas spin-off from his Channel 4 TV show.
Awards
In 2003, he was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy. In a 2005 poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, he was voted amongst the top 50 comedy acts ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders. In 2007 he was voted number five on Channel 4's hundred greatest stand-ups. On December 13 2006, he won two Highland Spring British Comedy Awards, over the favourites Ant and Dec, which Harry made light of in his acceptance speeches.. In 2008 he won two Baftas.
Personal life
He was born in Woking, Surrey and educated at Cranbrook School in Kent, and holds a medical degree from St George's Hospital Medical School, University of London. He married illustator Magda Archer in 1996 in Wandsworth, London. They have three children, all born in Kensington and Chelsea, London: Kitty Clover (born 1997), Winifred Millicent (born 1998) and Frederica Aster (born 2004). Hill currently owns property in West Beach in the seaside town Whitstable in Kent. In February 2006, Hill was a victim of identity theft; a sum of £280,000 was stolen from his bank account. In September 2008, Hill worked with Fairtrade to release Harry's Nuts, a brand of fairtrade peanuts.
External links
- - Avalon
- Harry Hill on Chortle
- Free tickets to Harry Hill's TV shows
- - Unofficial Fansite for Harry Hill
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