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<\/p>\n5. His first double act died a death in front of a hostile crowd<\/p>\n
Harry\u2019s first foray into live comedy was as one half of The Hall Brothers alongside his school friend Rob.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n Harry Hill in the Desert Island Discs studio.\n <\/p>\n
I don’t look back at those years particularly fondly because of that stress. I would start the week with no show, knowing that on Saturday morning I\u2019d have to sit down and write a show.<\/p>\n
Harry Hill on the pressure of creating TV Burp.<\/p>\n
Their first gig was at the notorious Tunnel Club, in south London, run by the late comic Malcolm Hardee. \u201cHe was this sort of anarchist who gave people their first breaks.\u201d The duo handed out printed flyers before their set. \u201cWe went on and got silence. Then they started rolling up the flyers and throwing them at us. Malcolm faded down the mics and faded up the music. That was that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, Hill insists it was easier with a partner. \u201cWe laughed about it afterwards. Given the choice, I\u2019d rather have been in a double act. It can be quite lonely otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n
6. He became Harry Hill by accident, and the collar sealed the deal<\/p>\n
Before he was Harry Hill, he performed as Harry Hall, a name chosen partly for the double “ha ha” it contained. \u201cI liked the alliteration,\u201d he tells Lauren Laverne. \u201cI liked the throwback to those old comedians, Arthur Askey, Max Miller\u2026 that old variety feel.\u201d<\/p>\n
But when it came time to get an Equity card, he hit a snag: there was already someone called Harry Hall. \u201cShe was an actress called H-A-R-I Hall, I think it was short for Harriet. I wrote to ask if I could use the name.\u201d She refused, so he settled on Harry Hill.<\/p>\n
His outfit \u2013 the black suit, big glasses and massive collar \u2013 eventually became the uniform of his Harry Hill persona. \u201cWhen I put the outfit on, I know I\u2019m Harry.\u201d He likes the separation between himself and his persona. But that persona takes time to inhabit. \u201cI have to have an hour to myself; I have to pace up and down and work myself up. If I don\u2019t, it\u2019s not as funny.\u201d<\/p>\n
7. TV Burp was a triumph but a weekly high-wire act<\/p>\n
Harry Hill\u2019s TV Burp ran for 11 series, won multiple awards and became a staple of Saturday night telly. But the pressure of writing a new show every week never got easier.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t look back at those years particularly fondly because of that stress. I would start the week with no show, knowing that on Saturday morning I\u2019d have to sit down and write a show.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harry and his team of writers would have to watch countless hours of TV just to find the funniest moments. \u201cThere were no shortcuts. That was the problem. You did actually have to watch the full two and a half hours of Emmerdale.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even though recording day was always a highlight, Harry would return home feeling the stress of the week. \u201cAsk my wife, every time I came back from a recording, I’d go upstairs, she’d be in bed, and I’d say, \u2018I’ve got to get out of this\u2019. Then I’d watch it on the Saturday, and I\u2019d think it was great.\u201d<\/p>\n
8. David Byrne from Talking Heads inspired a culinary comedy routine<\/p>\n
Harry\u2019s fifth disc choice is Life During Wartime by Talking Heads, inspired by seeing David Byrne perform. \u201cI was up out of my seat because I wanted to be closer to it. I thought, here\u2019s a guy who\u2019s 65 or something, he could have just played the hits and we all would\u2019ve gone home happy. But he\u2019s pushing it and pushing it. And I came away thinking, this is how you need to approach stuff. You need to raise your game. So, I\u2019ve tried to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
That burst of inspiration led to a routine that, on the surface, had little to do with David Byrne, but in Hill\u2019s mind, they\u2019re forever connected. \u201cIt was about the difference between traybakes and tear-and-shares. And how all people can be divided into one or the other.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the record: \u201cDavid Byrne? Total tear-and-share.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"5. His first double act died a death in front of a hostile crowd Harry\u2019s first foray into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41047,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[96,391,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-41046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}