Harry Hill

 ( 1964 Births ) 

In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, Hill nearly returned to work at the temporary NHS Nightingale Hospital London, after filling in the form after "A few drinks". He was asked if he could start immediately due to his last medical specialism being in Respiratory Emergencies. However, he turned down the role due to travel issues.

The series ran for six episodes on BBC2 between October and December 1994. For Christmas that year, a VHS containing a 100-minute compilation of the best material from the series, as well as unseen sketches, was released by BBC Video.

Hill's screen wife Mai Sung also made several appearances on the show, mainly on the theme of trying to steal his Abbey National bank savings book. Another character that featured on the show was Stouffer the Cat, a glove puppet cat made from blue rubber. Stouffer would normally sit in a throne, supported by a rubber arm in the style of Rod Hull, and was employed to intimidate guests during Hill's standup routines. Some of Stouffer's catchphrases are "he got a big face" and "sorted – respect due".

At the end of each episode, an event called "The Badger Parade" was supposed to take place. The parade featured a number of puppet that included "Gareth Southgate badger" and "Tasmin Archer badger", among others – however, every week, there would be some kind of problem, resulting in the badgers being unable to perform. In place of the badger parade, Hill would usually sing a song, with a guest that he had invited onto the show. A tie-in book relating to the series was released in October 1998, entitled Harry Hill's Fun Book.

The series was cancelled in April 2000 but was revived by ITV in March 2003, as The All-New Harry Hill Show. It was broadcast in between the first two series of Hill's new ITV show TV Burp. Regular features on the ITV version included the Hamilton Challenge, featuring Neil and Christine Hamilton, and a butterfly in blue jeans. The Channel 4 series was revisited in August 2012, for a retrospective documentary entitled Whatever Happened to Harry Hill?.

The series would feature a regular stable of all new characters, including the Knitted Character, a small knitted rabbit, Wagbo, a demon love child whose parents are reportedly Wagner Carillho and Mary Byrne of X Factor fame, and an interpretation of Heather Trott from EastEnders, played by Steve Bernham, as well as a doll of The Apprentice star Alan Sugar, who would regularly rap before clips of The Apprentice were introduced.

The show was piloted in December 2001, before running for eleven full series between 2002 and 2012, before being cancelled to allow Hill to work on other projects. Hill would occasionally say his catchphrase "Chippy chips!" and the show became known for another catchphrase "You get the idea with that" and Hill's actual sideways look at a topic. The show won a number of BAFTA awards, and spawned five Best of TV Burp DVD compilations, and a book based on the series, which was released for Christmas 2009.

While the show featured a game-show element, Help the Aged, it was very similar in structure to Harry Hill. In the show, Hill wore a pale yellow, custard-coloured shirt, with a giant collar, instead of his usual white collar.

The series was never released on DVD; however, it did spawn Harry Hill's Whopping Great Joke Book, a book of children's jokes, released in 2006. The book was also made available as an iPhone application. A second book, Harry Hill's Bumper Book of Bloopers, was released for Christmas 2011.

The 88-minute film was directed by Steve Bendelack and made $3,647,870 at the box office. It was also released on DVD on 14 April 2014.

In April 2015, it was announced that the show had been axed by ITV, due to poor ratings.

Harry Hill's Tea Time was commissioned for a second series which began airing in January 2018.

The panel show sees Harry welcoming two teams of two celebrity guests as they are tasked with saving planet Earth from alien invasion by sending evidence (via the "fun capsule" of the title) that Earthlings are good fun and therefore worthy of saving from destruction. Harry alludes to the premise of the show as being rather tenuous in a running joke during each show's introduction, before introducing the two teams of guests, usually a mix of comedians and television stars.

In a similar style to Harry Hill's TV Burp, the show includes various clips from television and film, often attributed or related somehow to the current guests. The guests also partake in sketches and songs based on or directly spoofing the funny or bizarre items featured. There is a regular slot entitled "Local News Round Up", accompanied by its own theme tune, which involves each of the guests taking turns to read out bizarre headlines from local newspapers. Alan the Alien also appears as a green extra-terrestrial's arm, emerging from a box to aid Harry in some way.

Guests on the show included George Formby Society, Alison Hammond and Les Dennis.

The series has received positive reviews, with many pointing out the similarities to TV Burp.

The show moved to Saturday evenings between 7.30 pm and 8.00 pm for a second series, aired in 2018, and a third in 2019.

Hill's third book, The Further Adventures of the Queen Mum, was published in October 2007, and was a comic take on the life and times of the Queen Mother. His fourth novel, Tim the Tiny Horse at Large, which is a sequel to Tim the Tiny Horse, was published in October 2009.

In 2010, Hill released Livin' the Dreem, a fictional account of a year in his life with frequent references to pop culture. The book was reprinted in May 2011, with additional entries for events occurring between January and April of that year.

A Complete History of Tim (the Tiny Horse) was published in November 2012 which contains the first two Tim the Tiny Horse novels, with four new stories.

In February 2001, and again in April, Hill appeared on Lily Savage's Blankety Blank. Hill has also appeared as a guest on the BBC Radio 4 series I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, in the ChuckleVision episode "Mind Your Manors", the first episode of the twentieth series, and as Joon Boolay in the Sky Atlantic sitcom This is Jinsy. Between July and October 2003, Hill presented a Sunday morning comedy and music show on Capital Radio called "Funch". In October 2006, Hill presented his own episode of long running ITV series, An Audience With..., in which he revived several characters from Harry Hill. On 4 October 2004, he also appeared in an episode of Room 101.

In the autumn of 2008, Hill launched Harry's Nuts, a brand of Fairtrade peanuts.

In November 2010, Hill released his debut comic album, 'Funny Times'. The album was preceded by the singles 'I Wanna Baby', 'SuBo', and 'Ken!', which features William Roache, as his Coronation Street character, Ken Barlow, is the feature of the song. Since October 2010, Hill has had his own comic strip in The Dandy, entitled Harry Hill's Real Life Adventures in TV Land, drawn by Nigel Parkinson. Hill was directly involved in its creation and is co-credited with Parkinson. Between October and December 2010, Hill starred in a weekly online comedy series on the ChannelFlip website, entitled Harry Hill's Little Internet Show. Ten episodes of the show were broadcast online.

In 2008, he won two BAFTAs, and another in 2009 for Best Entertainment Performance. In 2009, he won two British Comedy Awards, making it his sixth award. He also won again in 2011, but was unable to be there and sent Wagbo to collect it on his behalf. He was also nominated for 3 other awards, including the People's Choice Award, which was won by Miranda Hart.

On 17 July 2014, Hill was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Arts by the University of Kent, in recognition of his contribution to television and the arts.