HARRY HILL
“Apparently, you can tell a lot about someone’s personality from what they’re like”
A mental constitution bordering on madness is no bad thing in the world of comedy. In fact, whereas the extravagancies and idiosyncratic traits of Mr Harry Hill could easily be used as the defence team’s evidence to prove insanity in a murder trial (obsessions with badgers, savlon, chops, mash and channel 4 news presenters would surely seal the deal), they have also won him both a loyal fanbase and mainstream recognition.
However, despite both primetime television success and a professional comedy career spanning over 15 years, the mention of Hill is still met with either vacant looks, or something approximating “Is he that dickhead with the Stupid Collar?” For those who ask such questions, their loss has been the gain of others - Harry’s tenure at the forefront of surreal comedy has been a decade and a half of both brilliant and varied comedic invention and observation.
There have been many roles played by Mr Harry over the years - the most
Whilst an undoubtedly big name in theatres across the country during the 1990s and on into the new millennium, Harry’s most popular guise is as the star of his own TV shows. Channel 4’s ‘The Harry Hill show’ provided most people with an introduction to his undeniably unique and, for the most part, surreal style. This was a showcase not only for his jokes, but also for the devices and characters that he added in order to give the show an identity as more than merely that of a comedian doing ‘stand up’. For that reason, badgers named after stars of the time (Gareth Southgate Badger and Denise Van Outen Badger being obvious examples), his Cat Stouffer (“Sorted – respect due!”) and ex-Tenko star Burt Kwouk were all enlisted on a weekly basis, with varying degrees of success. In essence, it was something of a surreal circus acting as a perfect prelude to the League Of Gentlemen’s fully realised ambition.
Many of those characters, however, had originally accompanied him on his most artistically successful project – ‘Harry Hill’s Fruit Corner’. This included Big Brother Alan, adopted mute son Little Alan Hill, and, completing the dysfunction, 82-year old friend to the stars Nana Hill. After Harry successfully claimed the Edinburgh Fringe Festival’s most coveted prize – The Perrier award - for best new comedian in 1992, BBC Radio commissioned a series almost straight away. What materialised was one of the most consistently imaginative shows ever to appear on television or radio in the UK. It has since been described by the man himself as ‘a TV show on the radio’ – by which he means that the inability to visually convey the gags had been solved by the employment of a huge amount of ridiculous yet perfectly apt sound effects. These ranged from the ‘lovely records’ that Harry bought every week, right through to his supposedly incarcerated accountant James Horne swinging in on a bungee rope!
In fact, without the visual constraints of set design and studio budgets, his Radio days (which managed to span four series) in some ways represented the television show that he never made. It is widely accepted the Lord Of The Rings trilogy only commenced film production in the last days of the twentieth century because the technology was not previously available to successfully ‘make it happen’. Similarly, there was no machine or technique that could ever translate the ideas and jokes that Hill had flying round his head into a faithful representation on the small screen. In Fruit Corner, his comedic vision appears in its purest form; untamed by projected viewing demographics or any of that dreaded ‘compromise’ nonsense that plagues so many great talents.
Indeed, in making concessions throughout his channel 4 Career, the real essence of his brand of humour has been watered down, and not been let to breathe freely. When you see him live, or hear any of the aforementioned 'Fruit Corner', you realise what a great shame this is. Harry, you see, lives in an entertainment paradox as far as comedy is concerned; the face of traditional comedy wearing the all in one moustache/nose/glasses of its alternative counterpart. His style is not that of an anarchic funnyman, making fun of the British establishment from a distance – it is to praise its ridiculousness, vicariously highlighting its flaws and, in doing so, poking fun from the inside.
Nowhere is this more evident than in his most enduring recent walk in TV land. ‘Harry Hill’s TV Burp’, which started in 2002 and has been the centrepiece of his contract with ITV, has seen Harry doing no more than laughing at that week’s television. In an age of endless pages of cheap programs filling up the listings guides, Hill’s outlook is a perfect antidote. This is in contrast to the previous shows that he has contributed to the airwaves. - In addition to those already mentioned, both 2003’s ‘The All new Harry Hill Show’ for ITV and original TV series for the BBC ‘Harry Hill’s Fruit Fancies’, a series of black and white ten minute shorts from 1994, are of an acquired taste. Yet TV burp is a perfect position for an ex-doctor (“Finally he got around to mentioning it”) to be in; through careful dissection, he is able to breathe new life into seemingly ailing pieces of televisual offal.
This means is that Hill has managed to place himself at the forefront of the British establishment, whilst retaining the appearance and humour that ensures that he’ll always be regarded as an outsider. Whereas TV Burp will never capture the raw energy and excitement of his live act, especially the one he managed to hone to perfection in the mid nineties, it is a welcome return to form for one of this country’s most naturally gifted comedians.
“What are the chances of that happening, hey?”
Stephen Morse.
Previous Heroes:
1) Woody Allen
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