Doctor Who? Harry Hill’s secret past and 5 more career-change comics - BT Doctor Who? Harry Hill’s secret past and 5 more career-change comics Stars in Their Eyes host Harry Hill once underwent a transformation of his own, from doctor into high-collared comedian. And he’s not the only comic to have set out on a very different career path… Print this story Comic Harry Hill presides over a new series of Stars in Their Eyes this weekend, helping ordinary members of the public transform themselves (temporarily) into pop idols. But Harry underwent a transformation of his own. Before he became the high-collared hierophant of hilarity that we all know and love he worked as a doctor, delivering babies, resuscitating emergency cases and dealing with the mentally ill. To this day he remains on the General Medical Council's list of Registered Medical Practitioners. And he’s not the only comedy star with a more serious past… Bob Mortimer The marginally less well-known half of Reeves and Mortimer trained as a lawyer, leaving university with an LLM in Welfare Law.

Bob moved to London to take up a post in Southwark Council’s legal department before moving into private practice as a solicitor.Chance took him to a Vic Reeves show in South London and the pair started writing together soon afterwards. Bob returned to his legal roots in 1996, giving advice to Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker in the wake of his notorious ‘stage invasion’ of Michael Jackson’s performance at the Brit Awards. Jo Brand The formidable comedienne worked for children’s charity Barnardo's and was then a nursing assistant in a residential unit for adults with learning difficulties before she took a joint social science degree with a Registered Mental Nurse qualification at Brunel University. That study sustained a 10-tear stretch as a psychiatric nurse, at the South London Bethlem, Cefn Coed Hospital in Swansea and Maudsley Hospital in South London. Jo drew on her nursing experience when she co-wrote critically-acclaimed sitcom Getting On, which centred on three nurses in a geriatric ward.

Hugh Dennis While his comedy partner Steve Punt followed the more conventional route from Cambridge Footlights straight to the BBC, lantern-jawed Outnumbered star Hugh followed his stellar stint at Cambridge with six years as a brand manager in the marketing department of pharmaceuticals giant Unilever. [Related: 8 TV stars and their surprising second careers] There he helped shape the public image of products such as Mentadent toothpaste, Timotei shampoo and Denim aftershave. Not the obvious route to comedy stardom, but it seems to have done the trick. Hugh is a regular on BBC2’s Mock the Week and Radio 4’s The Now Show as well as on BBC1’s Not Going Out. Dawn French After training at the Central School of Speech and Drama, Dawn French taught at the Parliament Hill School for Girls where she was by all accounts a particularly popular pedagogue. Even though the pair didn’t hit it off straight away, Dawn reunited with her Central classmate Jennifer Saunders, though, for a series of comedy shows in dingy Soho clubs that brought her into contact with the up and coming Alternative Comedy elite.

Dawn and Jennifer also shared a flat in their final year at Central, inspiring their mid-80s flatshare sitcom Girls On Top. Jimmy Carr Before becoming a ubiquitous TV personality, Jimmy was a high-flying marketing executive for the Shell Oil company. A month after he did his first stand-up show, Jimmy was made redundant – and he used the £3,000 severance package to cushion a leap into comedy that has seen him rise to becoming one of the top-grossing stand-up performers of his generation. What do we learn from all this? That perhaps, as your nan used to say, it’s a good idea to have a solid career to fall back on, in case your showbiz dreams don’t quite pan out. Have you made a dramatic career change? Tell us all about it in the Comments section below. Guess the stars in the eyes of these singing sensations LAUNCH GALLERY Guess the stars in the eyes of these singing sensations Between 1990 and 2006, celebrities and civilians alike were transformed into stars of pop and rock by TV's Stars in Their Eyes. In 2006, Kelly Griggs suffered a heartache as which Welsh singer?

Kelly featured in the 2006 kids' special as Bonnie Tyler, but was beaten by Christopher Napier's uncanny George Formby. Coronation Street's Vera Duckworth, actress Liz Dawn, hit fever pitch as which American jazz legend? Liz swapped the cobbles for the footlights to sing Peggy Lee's Fever in a 2001 Coronation Street special. You won't need to rack your brains all night long to work out who Brookside's Louis Emerick emerged through the famous doors as. A soap special in 2005 saw Louis - Mick Johnson in the scouse soap - don the well-groomed 'tache of former Commodores singer Lionel Richie. It's no sweet little mystery who Paul Doody won 1996's series of Stars in Their Eyes as. Doody won series 7 of the show as Marti Pellow, just two years after John Finch also triumphed as the Wet Wet Wet frontman. We're torn as to whether Lucinda O'Connell is really a dead ringer for the Aussie soap star she was impersonating. Lucinda performed as Neighbours actress-turned-singer Natalie Imbruglia in the 2000 series of the show.

Paul Daniels and Debbie McGee appeared as which couple of swells in a 2005 Celebrity Duets special? The magician and his wife performed 'We're a Couple of Swells' from the Fred Astaire and Judy Garland musical Easter Parade. Breakfast TV presenter Penny Smith found one way or another to impersonate which 70s pop superstar? Smith performed as Blondie's Debbie Harry in a 2004 celebrity special. Stars in Their Eyes with Harry Hill returns to ITV on Saturday January 10. FULL SCREEN Harry Hill: 'It feels like when I was starting out – the excitement, the fun of it' | Television & radio | The Guardian The Observer Harry Hill: 'It feels like when I was starting out – the excitement, the fun of it' After more than a decade at the centre of ITV's Saturday night primetime schedule, Harry Hill is going back out on tour with a standup show.

And he's lost none of his surreal charm Harry Hill: 'You go to bed at night after a show and your mind’s racing with how brilliant the next one’s going to be.’ Photograph: Richard Saker The Observer Harry Hill: 'It feels like when I was starting out – the excitement, the fun of it' After more than a decade at the centre of ITV's Saturday night primetime schedule, Harry Hill is going back out on tour with a standup show. And he's lost none of his surreal charm Share on Messenger Close Midweek at a venue in north London, Harry Hill makes a dramatic entrance. This has been billed as a low-key gig, a warm-up before the start of a national tour, but here comes the 48-year-old comedian – entering from the rear of the auditorium and carrying with him a mattress. It's queen-size, stained, and difficult to manoeuvre down the venue's narrow gangway. I've taken a seat on the aisle, a few rows from the front, and when Hill stumbles by he fakes a trip, landing on my lap and crushing me, for a moment, under the mattress. It smells of mildew. This is our first meeting.

About an hour later we meet again, when Hill decides to do a one-man conga around the room. That my seat is in the red zone of involuntary audience participation is now plain, and when the comedian passes he seizes my hands, puts them on his waist, and gestures for me to follow. I won't budge; Hill drags me upright and on to the stage, conga-dancing faster and faster so that before long I'm chasing him in circles, looking hopeless, while the audience whoops and claps. They've been doing so all night, the crowd excited to see Hill doing live comedy again after seven years away making TV and relieved, I think, to see that his particular brand of standup is unchanged – wild and surreal but with a familiar ripple of old-fashioned music-hall silliness. On stage we end up wrestling, somehow, beside the mildewy mattress. When Hill takes up a prop telephone, pretending to call the police, I take it as a cue to depart. Two days later we come together again, for a prearranged interview and photoshoot in a cafe near his south London home. "That was you, was it?" says Hill, not greatly moved by the coincidence.

He doesn't think the midweek show went very well, and has already started force-forgetting the dud parts, a defence mechanism he developed 20 years ago when he first set out on the comedy circuit, dropping his given name (Matthew Hall) and performing as Harry Hill. Our conga bit, clearly, was a dud. "Most people don't make it as far as the stage," he offers, causing me a whole new stir of embarrassment. Hill's imminent national tour, titled Sausage Time , will be his first since 2005. The reality of returning to live comedy after a hiatus, he says, "is that you have to be match-fit. And I'm not match-fit yet. You get about three minutes for free, by being well known. Then you have to deliver things the audience actually finds funny." Pinterest He is a superbly recognisable man, the two-tone specs between bald head and square chin, always in a wide-shoulder suit over tall-collar shirt, and he's hardly been out of sight in recent years.

Until last autumn, he presented Harry Hill's TV Burp , a Saturday-evening show on ITV that satirised the week's telly and grew to be so popular it won three Baftas, a Rose d'Or, and 7m regular viewers. For a long time he also narrated You've Been Framed, broadcast in the preceding timeslot and making Hill the beneficiary (or not) of an unusual double whack of primetime exposure. Years on Saturday nights have skewed his fanbase younger. "I get lots of letters from little boys who are nine," says Hill, and indeed at the midweek gig there were three fresh-faced boys in the front row. Not quite as young as nine but not much older, and probably fans of Burp, hoping to see Hill explore the staple subjects of that programme – bad acting in soap operas, for instance, or out-of-tune singers on The X Factor . Instead they did their best to chuckle at his jokes for grown-ups, about Shakespeare, and organised religion, and bowel cancer. Hill has never shied from his appeal to kids.

In 2005 he presented a children's TV show, and has since released several children's books, including a brilliant series called Tim the Tiny Horse . But about to go back on tour, the comedian faces a difficulty: kids want to see him live. And though on the one hand, with tickets still available in Salford, in Southend-on-Sea, "a sale's a sale", on the other: "You don't want a lot of toddlers in. The material tends to go over their heads." This was once a problem with adults, too. When he was coming to prominence in 1997, star of The Harry Hill Show on Channel 4, it was common practice to assume a stance on Hill. His singular sense of humour, the fun he had with rhyming words and animal puppets, either worked for you – and really worked – or it didn't at all. Hill remembers: "They used to say about me, 'He's like Marmite.'" According to reports, those less enamoured of his act included bosses at Channel 4. The Harry Hill Show was dropped after three series, and Hill signed with ITV.

He'd written a TV column for the Sun, covering for a holidaying Garry Bushell, and it occurred to someone with a tick that Hill's opinions about telly might work on telly. TV Burp, which had him introducing and commentating over doltish clips, debuted in 2001. "I shouldn't have been on ITV when I was," he says now. "If you don't get the ratings you get cut, and that's what ITV tried to do for the first five years: axe the show. An awful feeling." Somehow Burp wriggled on, with Hill and his team turning it by inches into a success and a big asset in ITV's weekend portfolio. His fee went up, and whenever Hill pondered returning to standup, there was the counter-thought: "Maybe you don't really need to do it any more." Still, he says, the desire to perform live kept "tickling away". Doing tours to promote his books, he noticed how much pleasure he got out of Q&A sessions after readings.

"What you don't get on TV," he says, "is contact." After contact with Hill myself, sitting in my seat in the wake of the conga debacle, I wondered if I'd been set up – whether Hill had been tipped off by his publicity agent and encouraged to pick me out of the crowd ahead of our interview. But even the briefest skim through Hill's press encounters over the years reveals this to be impossible. He is not an obliging interviewee. In the early days he drifted in and out of character, offering gags instead of answers. (True, he was born and brought up in Kent, the middle of five siblings; but his dad wasn't a fireman, sacked for having the personal maxim "I fight fire with fire".) Later Hill became overtly hostile to the publicity process, the majority of a 2003 interview, for instance, given over to a rant about the usefulness of being interviewed at all. Recently he has sounded only bored.

How would you like to be remembered, he was asked in 1996, just starting out, and he said: "In block capitals!" Asked the question again in 2011 he said: "I really don't mind if you forget me." Today, he seems comparatively cheerful, disposed to laugh (a quiet huck-huck-huck) when the aged chair he sits on almost gives way beneath him. Curiously, he's wearing his stage gear – the suit, the shirt, the teddy boy shoes, though that's apparently how he wants to be photographed: as Hill not Hall. A flat cap covers his head and a scarf hides the oversized collar. Even so, people passing by stop and smile expectantly, until he says "Hello". Hill has three daughters with his wife, Magda, and admits a nervousness about them taking up the comedy game. "Superficially fame's attractive. They think: Oh, look at that, everyone smiles at Dad when we go out. But the last thing I'd want is for them to follow me into showbiz just because I'm in it.

Actually, if you don't have a hunger for it, I think it would be a pretty shitty life." His answer reminds me of something from the midweek gig. Cheered long and loud for singing a comic song, Hill's response was an inspired bit of mime – both hands flapping at his gaping mouth, an action that might be described as "starving man trying to eat applause". You have to have a hunger, and Hill first felt it in the late 1980s, while training to be a doctor. Working at a hospital in Ashford, he had an epiphany: medicine wasn't fun. Exams bored him, and the gags he liked to make about dying or dead patients tended to fall flat with his colleagues. The most enjoyable part of the lifestyle, to date, had been the student comedy revues he'd taken part in. He decided to go part-time, becoming a locum, giving over the rest of his hours to standup. He did an early gig in a Mexican restaurant in Norwood that went well; another in a Deptford club that was so bad the audience actually threw fruit. Pinterest Hill recalls berating himself: "What have you done?

You've given up medicine, you fool!" But he allowed himself five years to make it or fail, after hearing that Jack Dee had done the same, and by 1992 the main elements of a comic persona were in place. He'd abandoned a glittery waistcoat and taken up wearing oversized collars, custom-made by a tailor on Great Portland Street. He took a routine up to the Edinburgh festival that featured pipe-cleaner models and jokes about racist waterfowl. He was named Edinburgh's most promising newcomer and soon got a show on BBC radio. Then Channel 4 got in touch. "I'm easily distracted," says Hill, clicking his fingers. "I'm always thinking, What's the next thing?" And the next thing, over the years, has been a bit of everything. He published a joke book, and a novel. He wrote a tongue-in-cheek book of memoirs, featuring zero biographical truths, as far as I can tell, until mention of his wife on the acknowledgements page. He launched a line of Fairtrade peanuts , and exhibited oil paintings – paintings that were priced as high as £5,000, after pained deliberation, because Hill could hardly bear to part with them.

The above activities might be interpreted, in part, as efforts at distraction from the tedium of TV Burp. In order to conjure enough gags for a 21-episode series, Hill had to spend seriously unhealthy hours in front of the telly. By 2009 he was talking about being "trapped… dream[ing] of giving it up". In 2010: "I feel my soul slipping away." He tells me a story about his lowest ebb at ITV, when he was asked to host one of those creepy valedictory shows, An Audience with Harry Hill . The format was long established, a one-off hour in which luminaries like Des O'Connor or Lulu gigged for a room of celebrity fans. ITV urged him to do it, offering "a lot" of money, and Hill – tentatively voicing fears that he had no celebrity fans – agreed. "Jump ahead and I'm in the dressing room on the night. The producer comes in and says: 'Bad news. Kriss Akabusi can't make it.' That was the level we'd got to.

In the end we had to hold the curtain for Chris Tarrant, who was late and didn't laugh once. I know because we went through every fucking tape, looking." It sounds as if he has regret about his years on ITV. "I suppose at some point in my career I was a bit cult-y, and I decided to go mainstream. But no. I don't regret it. I think it's much harder to go mainstream and not to feel like you've compromised. I don't really feel like I've compromised." And it's true: even in his most conventional-seeming projects there have been moments of the old, surreal subversion that characterised The Harry Hill Show. There was the item on TV Burp that imagined what a fight between history's "naughtiest vegetarians" would look like. While Heather Mills squared off against Adolf Hitler (at about 6.30pm on a Saturday, mind) Hill made it clear he was rooting for the Führer: "Come on, Hitler!" Meanwhile his Tim the Tiny Horse books have a wickedly dark streak. Most instalments end with the hero learning that it's best not to try too hard. That if a beloved pet dies, another can easily be purchased.

As for his standup, I can confirm, still mortified by the memories, that it's as idiosyncratic and disorienting as ever. Hill is developing a mime-based skit for the upcoming tour, about a dog having a bad dream. There'll also be a wordier gag about the intricacies of human digestion (the comedian making belated use of that medical training). "It feels like when I was starting out. The excitement. The fun of it. You go to bed at night after a show and your mind's racing with how brilliant the next one's going to be." His eldest two daughters are teenagers now, old enough to watch him perform live for the first time. "I've always kept them away in the past," he says, "so I don't know if they'll come or not. Part of me thinks it'd be great for them to see it. To see what I do when they get home from school and I'm not there. When I get back at midnight…" Covered in feathers, I suggest. "Covered in feathers," he says, shaking his head.

"Those feathers." It's a reference to a centrepiece skit at the midweek gig, when Hill was attacked by a very short man wearing a golden leotard, who charged in from the wings to engage him in a pillow fight. A typically baffling scene, met with confused delight by the audience, Hill was left panting, drenched in sweat, and coated in white feathers. It can't have been comfortable under the hot lights. Yet he looked very content. Writers' House-Harry Hill has had a bit of an unusual life. Read this to find out intresting facts about Harry Hill! Please comment! Harry Hill is a funny and enthusiastic man, who is famous in the world of comedy. Many people watch his shows today; they are called TV Burp, and Youï¿½ve Been Framed. Many people call him Harry Hill, but his real name is Mathew Keith Hall; Harry Hill is his stage name. On the 1st October 1964, in the location of Woking in Surrey, a special child was brought into this world. Harry Hill! In his student years, he went to St Georgeï¿½s medical school.

So before he entered the world of comedy, he was a doctor! Eventually, in 1993, he was given his very own TV show, called Harry Hillï¿½s Fruit Corner. But you always need to work up to good jobs like that, so he started off by writing jokes for the BBC Radio 4. A few years later, in 1996, it was his day of marriage! The woman that he was married to, was an illustrator; she is called Magda Archer. They were a happy couple indeed. Soon after that, in 1997, they had their first ever child! Finally, after hours of consideration, they decided on the perfect name for this newborn child; Kitty! Later the next year, when Kitty was about one year of age, Magda gave birth to yet another girl! Only this time, they had been prepared for the name of the tiny human, who had just been born. Winefred. Early in 2004, the final child recorded so far, was born. After a few minuets, one of them came up with the name: Fredrica. So that is the name that she has today.

So Harry Hill is a famous man with three children, a wife, and a very good job. So today, nobody knows what heï¿½ll come up with next! Worldwide, televisions are turned onto one of Harry Hillï¿½s shows. But will this famous comedian get even more popular? Will the world run out of peanuts because he has stuffed them all into his stomach? Will the star have yet another child? Thereï¿½s only one way to find outï¿½ FIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Harry Hill: I spent my whole time as a doctor hoping no one was going to get ill - CelebsNow CelebsNow Comedian knew that a career in medicine wasn't for him Harry Hill TAGS: Harry Hill Harry Hill was a doctor before he started his comedy career, but he knew he wasn’t cut out for medicine. ‘I delivered babies, I tried to resuscitate people who died, I met lunatics, but I never really felt like I knew what I was doing,’ admits Harry, 48. ‘I was just this bloke in a white coat looking worried. ‘If you’re a doctor, you’re supposed to want really interesting cases.

I spent the whole time hoping that no one was going to get ill.’ The Harry Hill’s TV Burp star, real name Matthew Hall, lives in Whistable Kent with his wife and three daughters. He feels like a different person when he puts on the glasses, shirt and suit that transform him into his on-screen persona. ‘If I have a good show, I’ll stay in the outfit a little bit longer afterwards, even when I’m by myself in the dressing room,’ Harry tells The Times Magazine. ‘But if it goes badly, I’m straight back into my normal clothes.’ FREE Newsletter Harry Hill's TV Burp Fan Reviews & Ratings - TV.com 10 By drews01 , Apr 04, 2010 For all those who are unaware, Harry Hill's TV Burp is the greatest show on TV...and it is the most simple. Helped by the ridiculous shows that air every week and a seemingly endless supply of idiots that clutter up TV, Harry pokes harmless but hilarious fun and no one is off limits.

The tone is perfect with a family friendly nature mixed with a harmless risque dark side, the timing of his jokes is always spot on and the excellent use of running gags from clips to clips, which is very rewarding for long time viewers, means every episode is a must see. DO YOU AGREE? Getting Boring and too stupid 5.0 By SophieTurton , Mar 20, 2010 The clips from TV shows from the past week are quite funny and it is great to see shows that you watched but didn't notice anything wrong until it is pointed out to you Every week Harry Hill will say "so what's better....FIGHT!" Then two people dressed up will come in and have a fight. It is so stupid and annoying and pointless! I rarely see things and think "That could be on Harry Hill" but my mum occasionally does. The things are so small but can be quite funny once you see them. The filming of the show is really simple as it just has Harry Hill sat at a desk but some "characters" walk in. The characters are people who look slightly like some of the people on the shows that we have seen. Rarely it is the actual person.

Harry Hill also has a "knitted character" which once appeared in Eastenders. He appears in a show during the week, if you spot it then you can write into the show. I am not sure whether it has really been in the program as sometimes it looks computer animated. A lot of people can't stand Harry Hill, I find him funny but I don't like his personality much. I used to think the show was hilarious but it has definitely gone down hill a lot. DO YOU AGREE? Arguably the funniest viewing in decades, Harry Hill is the saviour of Saturday night viewing. 10 By Jas3960 , Dec 21, 2009 For decades, Saturday night has been laden with the burden of primetime viewing on ITV; a bargain bin for loud and uncompromisingly up-tempo programs to grab viewing attention, but largely fail to sustain it. I cling to semi-reluctant memories of shows such as Stars in their Eyes and my particular favourite, Blind Date, with a formula so bafflingly awkward it somehow made deeply entertaining viewing.

(And you just had to love Cilla Black) In recent years, if you don't like talent shows, you might as well turn off your telly box and hide in a hole for half the year. But fear not, there is a saving grace for all those who want to snuggle down on the sofa and laugh themselves to death. Harry Hill's TV Burp is classic Saturday night viewing in all its glory. Take a zany host, a studio audience and a brighter coloured set than even the Teletubbies could vomit up, and you have yourself a perfect formula for an average Saturday night flop. However, Burp is different. Oh, so different. Partially written by the host itself, Burp takes a satirical look at the highlights and lowlights of each week's tele-visual events. The man is arguably a genius; yes, he has all the charm and appeal of an egg, but it's amazing just what he manages to pick up on that everyone else overlooks. Couple that with his outrageously mascu-camp presenting style and it makes for what I believe is the funniest viewing of the decade.

The relentless string of gags hurled in your direction is guaranteed to leave everyone chortling, unless you have less humour than a damp stone. To claim TV Burp is hilarious is an understatement; never have I experienced the internet term of 'rofl'-ing; namely 'rolling on the floor laughing'; to such an extreme that I have the urge to glug Calpol to prevent my sides ripping from my chest – it's seriously that funny. DO YOU AGREE? Liked it when it first came out but not anymore. 3.0 By 01milnej , Dec 11, 2009 When it first came out I thought it was very funny. The thing that I can remember that I liked the most was that Hamelton Challenge thing. Now I think that some of it is disgusting. Some of the clips are filthly and they show some nuderty in them. Harry Hill is still a very funny person though. Another funny moment was a bit where he was playing about with these figers that were counties the the world. He used America as a bat that you hit a ball with and Great Britain as a gun and he pretended that he was shooting with it. DO YOU AGREE?

10 By angim350 , Nov 23, 2009 Seriously seriously funny. This guy is a genious!! I never tire of watching his show. If you never have than you don't know what your missing!! Funny on an epic scale. Watch!!!And I really want to know where he gets his collars from. I mean seriously... you can't find them anywhere... I've looked. Oh... and see if you can find the Knitted Charactor. So good is this show that loads of celebs appear on it... usually after Harry has just taken the micky out of them. Seek out his DVDs. Every Saturday he is on. Watch it!! PS Who would have thought 100 words was that much? DO YOU AGREE? 8.0 By maddymaison , Feb 18, 2009 lol this show has me in fits every week. i especially liked the time when it was shortest conversation of the week...hello, goodbye. LOL. harry takes scenes from soaps and shows and stuff and takes them completely out of context so much so it is funny. he does halarious impressions and has outrageous facial expressions.

the only thing that is a tad lame about the show is when he asks things to fight, like two different types of turtles for one. its men dressed up in lame suits rolling around on the floor. i can see the humour but really. DO YOU AGREE? Harry Hill proves to be hilarious when making fun of popular TV programmes. 10 By Loony-Boo , Feb 17, 2009 I find that Harry Hill's TV Burp is the best to watch if: a) Upset and need to get cheered up. b) Looking for something to watch with the family c) Just looking for a comedy1 Every Saturday night I am sitting on the sittee watching Harry Hill and he never fails to impress me. Something that always floats into my mind is how he can watch all these TV programmes, enjoy them and make them into a comedy. Harry Hill is most definetly a wizard when it comes to comedy and is one of my favourite comedians of all time! The only thing i would change about it is: make fun of TV programmes that aren't in the channel 1 - channel 5 zone, go wild! DO YOU AGREE? Harry Hill is the meaning of the word legend.

10 By EmzRedDevil , Feb 04, 2009 This show is one of the funniest and greatest of all time, I am always ready to watch it without a doubt. Harry very cleverly takes scenes from shows on the TV through the week and absolutley tears them apart, he points out things you would never have noticed and makes them utterly hillarious. I constantly laugh everytime I think of all the crazy and insane things this legend of a man can come up with. He is pure funny and if you don't laugh at him then it is fair to say you have no sense of humour. Watch him and you will see how true I am. DO YOU AGREE? A funny show thats well worth a watch check out 9.0 By smithy4321 , Jan 16, 2009 HARRY HILL is regarded as one of the UK's finest and most original comedy acts. His unique brand of humour – interweaving running gags, inventive use of music, short films and far-fetched yarns – has been rewarded with numerous awards, nominations and accolades.

Greatly admired across the Atlantic, Harry made an acclaimed appearance on The Late Show (CBS), and the show's famous host and chat-show-king, DAVID LETTERMAN, has since personally invited HARRY back on the show seven times – a record for a British stand-up. His pedigree as a live performer is well known, and in 2002 he was personally invited to perform as the only non-music act by DAVID BOWIE at his Meltdown event at London's Royal Festival Hall. check out Harry Hill took the TV review format and moved it from cheesey to classy. 9.0 By LastNightsTV , Dec 12, 2008 Before I saw TV Burp my last experience was that girl from Emmerdale doing it - reading off the autocue, not funny, awful. Harry has upped the humour a million levels and this show appeals to all sorts of people, regardless of gender and brain size. Funniest review ever for me was the news piece about battery farming, which concluded with the journalist's voice over: "Who would want to live in a lace like this?". Cue camera on Harry - "A fox?

Some foxes?" Also love the weekly fight - how to decide what is better, a cashew or a peanut@ get them to fight. The sketch showing a man in a gorilla suit rolling through various sitcoms and relaity shows was funny as well, I was hooting out loud so much my wife came downstairs to see what all the noise was about. Brilliant, and a well-deserved British Comedy Awards 2008 winner. DO YOU AGREE? A must see every week. Even if you haven't been watching the shows mentioned. 9.5 By Hopeless_Savage , Dec 03, 2008 We started watching this show in my house years ago, and there is always a hole left when it finished its short airing patterns. Sometimes it can be a bit hit and miss with the jokes, but more often than not, it has us in stitches :D Harry Hill and the writing team have a unique way of looking at the past week's television, picking out funny things we've missed or managing to make something hilarious out of a normal scene! The only thing that fails the show sometimes isn't the show itself, it's the weeks television it's had to work with.

Airing at random different times of year it only has terrestrial shows to pick apart. This is sometimes X factor, Bear Grills and other rubbish like that to fill up the program. I hope that this show continues for a long time and i'm glad they have finally brought a DVD out of it. DO YOU AGREE? The programme is funny, Harry Hill is not. 3.0 By esclad , Nov 27, 2008 I'm really struggling to say anything positive or constructive about Harry Hill but feel I need to say something because it's such a shame... If they would just show the funny footage on it's own and did not dub the sound with Harry Hill's poor excuse of jokes then the programme would be an excellent one but Harry Hill at the helm, it spoils it for me i'm afraid. Maybe someone like Peter Kay would be good. The sooner he is replaced the better, I may then start watching it again. Am I the only person who feels like this? Answers on a postcard please. DO YOU AGREE? Harry Hill in England takes the funny side of tv.

10 By deansjeans1 , Jul 06, 2008 This is my favorite show for comedy. Harry picks tv shows here in England & makes them funny. I roll around for hours laughting, he is a genius of comedy. Considering he was a doctor before he turn his hand to comedy. I would have liked to see Harry on one of his tours never got the chance, now he also voices You've Been Framed on English tv, we all as a family laught at the misfortunes of viewers sending their videos & making complete fools of themselves, I personally love the animals as you can't tell an animal to start over again. DO YOU AGREE? A mystery inside an enigma inside something you wipe off your shoe. 1.0 By norbertthefat , Apr 21, 2008 TV Burp is the most inane, unoriginal, puerile rubbish I have ever seen. Why is it successful? Why is HH successful? Big collar and quasi-Kenneth Williams voice does not a comedian make. TV Burp is not even so bad that you laugh painfully at its badness.

It is just pitiful and below the amusement or attention span of a toddler. We are indeed doomed if this loads of pants won a Bafta. I've said my piece but will struggle to maintain interest in commenting on this until I reach the magic 100 words. Switch off Harry Hill. Permanently. Please. Now. And forever. DO YOU AGREE? "There's only one way to find out, FIGHT!" 8.9 By marbles01 , Mar 24, 2008 Every saturday if it's on I sit down and watch Harry Hill. Now, I normally hate modern British television but it's just fun to watch this hilarious bald guy make fun of all the cacky things going on within some of the worst sitcoms which should have ended years ago or should have not been created as a whole. Anyway, I recommend this to anyone living within the UK who has a good sense of humour. Other than that I have pretty much nothing more to say. Just sit down, tune in and enjoy. Oh, and there are some pretty memorable lines like the one I've quoted above. DO YOU AGREE?

ITV only funny show and only decent saterday program They Finally done something right. 9.0 By Kez1984 , Mar 19, 2008 I cought this show a few times, then liked liked it, now it's became a habit to tune in every saterday as it seems to be the only good thing (along with bond) that ITV has on. The show is terrificly funny and surprisingly in-offensive, which, is rare these days, as alot of comedy shows rely on crude humor. I hope this show runs for another 7-8 years, it's honestly about the only thing on itv I tune into too, Ant and Dec never appealed, on both sides of the chnnel there are D+ class celebrity reality tv shows, absolutely no difference between the two most of the time, there is no diversity. Harry Hill is very funny, well worth tuning into. DO YOU AGREE? 10 By BourkeS , Mar 05, 2008 This week should include Holby's "search for the missing hand" and the poor girl hugging her paedophile (what a position she was in!!!!) Who was the director of THAT shot???

Love the show, best thing on television - perfect for a saturday night in. Keep up the good work. Look forward to the next series - soon I hope! Your Score: Rate this show on how you feel it stacks up against others in its field. Ratings go from 0-10 with 10 being the highest. Be sure to click "Submit" next to your rating, before you continue with the rest of the review form. DO YOU AGREE? Theres only one way to find out.... 9.6 By Martin-2-5-9 , Dec 23, 2007 FIGHT!! Harry Hill's TV Burp is my Personal Favorate Shows for Comedy, Its based Differantly to other Blooper/Gags shows, And like Always, Its Harry Hill who just makes the show Hilarous. One good thing about this Blooper show is that Its recent TV Clips, The Half Hour show is written in Just 6 Days! Its Truey Amazing, Andd you have to give full credit to Harry hill for being able to Write, Host, And find 1/2 of Gags in a week!

This is my best show of all time, Ive given it a 10/10 for the effort that gos into making this show, How well its hosted. DO YOU AGREE? What's best? TV Burp or You've Been Framed? There's only one way to find out...FIGHT!!! 9.0 By Vertibrains , Dec 01, 2007 In this show Harry takes an irreverent look at the preceding week's television programmes, and generally makes fun out of the soaps. His unique style of comedy is almost surreal, and he has been described as: 'Ronnie Corbett possessed by the ghost of Salvador Dali'. I think this show is brilliant, and every episode has something which reduces me to hysterics! And I especially like the way Harry uses camera placement for comedy effect. He's usually talking to camera in front of him, in a conventional way, but will occasionally turn to talk to a camera showing a side-shot of him, making a silly comment as if letting us in on a secret. Very funny. I also look forward to the pitched battle he sets up just before the commercial break. It always starts with a question: 'But what's best?..

There's only one way to find out. Fight!' Probably one for a British audience as it's entirely based around lampooning other UK shows. But overall, amusing for all. DO YOU AGREE? Weekly TV mag with humour and fights 8.5 By iamthelexx , Jul 25, 2007 Harry Hill's TV Burp is a one man view on TV land the past week. He will pick up the tiniest thing and make it humourous, something you may have missed when watchign the actual soap or TV programme he is referring to. Basically the show is 25 minutes of humour. A fight always breaks out just before the commercial break, between certain storylines each week, and always has someone from part of the shows stroylines at the end as the final credits role. This is remarkable, and probably the best review show around at present. Top marks to Harry DO YOU AGREE? This show single-handedly gives some vauge meaning to those many tat soaps and reality shows. 9.0 By petef20 , Apr 07, 2007 I was never a huge fan of Harry Hill's standup routine.

I didn't think that he was particularly funny, but when it comes to the week's television the man's a genius! True there are some shows that mock themselves, like how daft some of the contestants on Big Brother are, or how ridiculous Eastenders gets, but Mr. Hill manages to find obscure jokes and make fun of things most people would miss. This combined with some of his sketches makes for brilliant television. I watched it from the start, when it was originally on at night, before it was moved to Saturday evening, after getting the recognition it clearly deserved. It's always been great at mocking everything possible as well as having some unlikely guest stars. It's great to see when the people he's mocking can take a joke and are willing to appear on the show. Although this year hasn't been quite as good as previous ones, it is still the most funny show on British television. Keep up the excellent work, Harry! DO YOU AGREE? This and Doctor Who are the best things on a saturay night,at the momement.

9.1 By Olie1993 , Apr 02, 2007 Harry Hill is a very funny man,but not in a rude way.That's why ITV put him on every saturday evening. Yes,he takes the mick out of some of the very small things alot of the time.And he is always putting shows such as Eastenders and Coronation Street, in the firing line over and over again.But the main thing is,they always have usually hilarious results.And anyway,I hate soap dramas,so the longer they are taken the piss out of,the better. Harry Hill's TV Burp is a groin-wettingly funny show,that the whole family can enjoy. DO YOU AGREE? Utter disbelief in the cruely included in Harry's usually fun and hilarious show. Cant ever watch it again for fear of a similar horrible experience. 1.1 By louisecoe , Mar 24, 2007 My family and I were completely shocked and dismayed and sat in disbelief and horror when a particularly cruel and nasty clip appeared in Harry Hill tonight. The offending clip was from a survival programme which I imagine is unpopular as it is simply bad television, probably only watched by a small minority.

However, as the survival programme is dire it is treated as a joke which usually makes Harry's show hysterical. There was nothing remotely funny about the chosen clip tonight however, just sadness and disgust at the agonizing death of a poor turtle being roasted alive. When the poor creature screamed Harry remarked that the terrified shriek of agony sounded like the whistle of a pressure cooker. I don't think I can watch Harry Hill again. Why did he not insist such a clip was removed? I had Harry down as a comic genius who was innocent in his sense of fun not a sicko trying to get cheap laughs at any cost. How low can one stoop! Our family always looked forward to Harry's TV Burp and never missed it. Never again. However, we wish to thank Harry and his team for all the hours of wonderful enjoyment he gave us in the past. Thank you for reading this. Louise One of the few, truly funny ways to keep tabs on what's happening on UK television. 8.8 By tedwardfox , Mar 10, 2007 Now in its 6th series, Harry Hill almost defies explanation. At least, without making others wonder why you would ever suggest they watch this show.

Harry is unique, from his over-sized glasses to his balder-than-Kojak head to his very oversized shirt lapels. He is a human cartoon full of wit, insight, and facial contortions that defy description. The typical program has him showing clips from popular UK television shows broadcast that week, commenting on each one and finding the inate humor in scenes and situations even among the more serious 'soaps' like EastEnders. In between some clips he does little skits that hit the humor mark about 80% of the time and only just miss the rest of the time. And, even though a typical clip may only run a few seconds, after watching several episodes I have been able to discuss shows with friends in the UK, shows that I have never actually seen. Not sure, yet? I did say that TV Burp (and Harry hill) almost defy description. Before watching an episode, prepare your eyes and mind for one of the most colorful sets on TV. I keep trying to picture what might have happened to the future of color TV had TV Burp had been one of the first colo(u)r programs broadcast.

It would have either driven up sales astronomically, or would have turned people off to the idea of color TV. Yes... the set is that colorful. There are some programs destined to be remembered for their drams, tense situations, and award-winning acting. Or for their famous comedian leading cast members and catch phrases ("I don't believe it!" "Brilliant"" and others come to mind). Harry Hill's TV Burp is none of those, but my bet is that TV Burp will be fondly remembered by those of us who watch even in 20 years. DO YOU AGREE? Not so much a review, more just a comment. Surely a Pat Butcher/scorpio hybrid would not be a Scorpipat, it would be a Patio... I need to get out more. 10 By sootysmith13 , Feb 25, 2007 Erm... See above. Very funny as usual - thanks. Oh dear I need another 86 words. 84 Now. It's Sunday, what do you expect? I don't use my brain over the weekend. Right, now you want another 63. We love the TV highlights of the week. Erm...

Are you doing anything nice this Easter? I shall of course be celebrating in the traditional manner of eating chocolate until I get a migraine, then spending the following day reviewing programmes just so I can pass on a comment about Pat Butcher/scorpio hybrids. Nearly there now - see you next Saturday! Byee! DO YOU AGREE? Makes my Saturday Night each time. 9.0 By staceyw_duckula , Feb 08, 2007 I love this show. I sadly never got to see every single episode there was, especially in the earlier seasons, but judging from the later ones I could never go through a Saturday night without watching it. It's basically British funnyman Harry Hill snarking bits and pieces of the week's UK TV, namely shows like Eastenders, Coronation Street along with many others, rendering said shows unintentionally hilarious. At various points he also reconstructs a scene playing either as himself or a character from said TV show and changes it so it's even more funnier. Most of these snarks he does can be hilarious, depending on what part of a TV show he's talking about.

These are often followed with short parodies of whatever quotes were found to be rather silly using small objects, such as "Jade Goody Cola" and a structure of cheese. Some parts are very recurrent, like "Fight" - Harry would ask which of two things are better, and then says "there's only one thing to find out, FIGHT!" and two people dressed up as said things would come down and actually fight before the break starts. There is also TV Highlight of the Week, in which a very unintentionally hilarious part of a show is played and is supposed to be the best TV clip of the week! TV Burp is probably the only thing I watch on ITV on Saturday nights, and a good thing too. In fact, it's one of very few TV programmes in the UK I find really funny. Plenty of laughs to be had throughout, especially if you've watched one of the week's shows Harry picks on beforehand. DO YOU AGREE?

My Secret Life: Harry Hill, 48, Comedian | The Independent My Secret Life: Harry Hill, 48, Comedian 'I see a funny face in the mirror' Saturday 8 December 2012 00:00 BST Click to follow The Independent Online My parents were… My mum was a full- time mother and my dad was a commuter. The household I grew up in… Really hectic. I am one of five kids – you had to fight your corner. We were a big family so rarely got invited anywhere and we didn't have much money so never went out. Four of us wedged in a sofa watching the The Generation Game, central heating on full blast, condensation dripping down the windows – that's my memory of it. When I was a child I wanted to be… a chemist. I wanted to make fireworks. If I could change one thing about myself… my hair. It started to go when I was about 23. I did all my ageing in my twenties. People say I haven't changed since then. Now everyone is catching up. At night I dream of… myself on various TV shows. Once I was in Emmerdale.

You wake up from a dream like that, you don't feel great. What I see when I look in the mirror … quite a funny face. I drive/ride… a Shadow 2, an old 1980 Rolls-Royce. My house is… nicer than my old one. I moved because a window cleaner knocked at my door and said: "Oh, you! I thought you'd have a better house than this." A book that changed me… The House of God (1978, Samuel Shem) about junior doctors in America. When I was a doctor I thought I was the only one feeling the way I did. I didn't really like the job and felt quite ambivalent towards a lot of the patients. I read this book and it was exactly what I was thinking. It's a very dark book about how you become hardened. I was in the NHS at its lowest point, doing 100 hours a week with no guarantee of a job at the end. It had a doctor's gallows humour. My humour is the opposite of all that – a reaction to it. The last album I bought... I just got into Stevie Wonder.

My wife has been going on at me about him for years. My greatest regret… is that my hair hasn't been here to see my success. My secret crush... Jennie Bond. The last time I cried… I was listening to the song "A Place in the Sun" by Stevie Wonder – turns out it's not about that Channel 4 show. It's a very uplifting song. My five-year plan… on tour this spring, then making a film about a crooked vet trying to get hold of my hamster... and I'm writing X Factor, the musical. What's the point? If you consider that matter can neither be created nor destroyed, when we die our atoms go out into the universe and eventually get recycled. So if you have an infinite amount of time, then eventually you will come back exactly the same. Which suits me. I'm also hoping that Jesus will be there with all my dead pets. My life in six words… Born in Woking, died in London. A Life in Brief Harry Hill, real name Matthew Hall, was born in Woking in 1964.

He trained as a doctor but gave up in 1990 to become a comedian; two years later he won the Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Fringe. He began hosting his own show, Fruit Corner, on Radio 4 in 1993, before moving to TV in 1997. He hosted Harry Hill's TV Burp on ITV for 11 years; a 'best-of' DVD, Harry Hill's Cream of TV Burp is out now. Hill tours his new show, Sausage Time, from February, He lives in south London with his wife, Magda, and their three daughters. More about:

Question: What was Harry Hill’s occupation before he moved into comedy?
Answer: DOCTOR