Former doctor Harry Hill has been on the comedy scene for over 30 years, and is renowned for his surreal mind and daft antics, including the use of silly stories, observational humour, slapstick, music, props, puppets and other quirky characters, often with cultural references, running gags and callbacks woven throughout his performances. Yet beneath all the nonsense there is a lot of structure, creativity and cleverness as well. So sometimes you’ll find him mocking TV shows, celebrities, human behaviour, language, the world around us, and so on, while at other times he’s just delightfully absurd for the sheer fun of it.
He recently had a great new stand-up special broadcast on Sky this month. So because I enjoyed that, I thought I would revisit all of his previous specials as well, just as I’ve done for several other comedians in recent years. And while I’m at it, I figured I would go through his TV Burp DVDs that I own too, because I loved that programme. Plus I’ll briefly mention some of his other work. I’ve also put together a playlist with a wide selection of clips, full episodes, music, interviews and more, including videos from his own Youtube channel. So I hope you enjoy looking through it all!
Contents
Stand-Up Specials
Live
This hour-long show, filmed at the Queens Theatre In London, was released on VHS in 1995, but has never come out on DVD, so I found a copy I could watch on Youtube instead. I never owned any of his video tapes, so I have no recollection of this show at all, and likewise for Man Alive and Birdstrike below. This particular show is from the early days of his comedy career, so he’s not at his absolute best yet, but his style is very much apparent and there are quite a few funny moments.
For instance, I like the way he inserts shots of random audiences clapping and laughing from the old days instead of the real audience we can hear in the theatre. That isn’t about trying to fake anything – it’s deliberately obvious that we’re not seeing the audience at his show, so it’s just added in for fun. He also has other running gags including catchphrases like “What are the chances?”, references to the songs Parklife by Blur and Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen, his father telling him that the nicest parts of different foods are poisonous, and his issues with the Mastermind board game. He also makes little callbacks to things he’s mentioned earlier, just to keep you on your toes, which he does in all of his shows.
Another notable element is the appearance of his adopted son Alan Hill, played by Matt Bradstock. He doesn’t say anything, but he has a big smile on his face the whole time, as Harry makes him dance around and he dresses up in an animal costume. Just over 20 years later, in 2016, Matt sadly died of cancer at the age of 50, so Harry organised a fundraising event in his honour called For Little Alan. He had the help of Al Murray, who happened to be at the start of his own comedy career when he played Harry’s older brother (also called Alan) on stage and in The Harry Hill Show on TV. Harry, Al and Matt had performed in an Edinburgh show called Harry Hill’s Pub Internationale as a “deliberately ropey” pub band, and it was where Al Murray’s Pub Landlord character first emerged.
Anyway, beyond all of that, the many other random topics in Harry’s live show include a bug zapper, long distance phone calls, chimpanzees, pointing, Mother Teresa, a pendant for his mother to wear if she falls (but it isn’t for telecare), how she tucks him into bed, his nan dying (which happens to her in different ways in most of his shows), pork and lamb chops, The A-Team, elves, cancer research shops, monkeys in Africa, pizzas, cereal variety packs, beggars, using snakes for exercise, and the battle between competing bed shops for the name that stands out the most. The credits then have the appropriately named and beautiful song Harry by Catherine Howe playing over them.
Man Alive
This is another hour-long show that only came out on VHS, back in 1997, so again I’ve been able to enjoy it thanks to Youtube.
The show, filmed at the Lyric Theatre, starts with a black and white film about Harry adopting little Alan, who ends up with a big face after an encounter with an angry lollipop lady. It’s difficult for Alan to come to terms with it, but then he becomes famous and popular after using his affliction to save Harry’s life. It’s interesting to see in the closing credits that Sean Lock, another of my favourite comedians, is named as giving help with this sketch too.
Harry then comes out on stage singing with his puppet cat Stouffer, and from there the nonsense continues at a rapid pace. Recurring remarks throughout the show relate to shiny things that dazzle, his nan’s strange behaviour, short phonecalls, an animal version of Cluedo, doughnuts, using confectionery to remember celebrity names, things that rhyme with vole, observations about trees, and why almonds aren’t proper nuts.
He also talks about how sellotape and Pritt Stick have improved, what to consider when transporting owls, how to have fun with a blister pack of tablets, trying to get a gymnastics award, his dog Buster, a fire in EastEnders, tea vs coffee, types of jam, banking with a cardboard tube, berries, and portion sizes of food.
Finally, he gets a lady on stage to desensitise her to cats, with the help of Stouffer getting closer and closer to her. Harry then proves he can remember every meal he’s ever had and demonstrates his only gymnastics skill, before a few badgers sweep across the stage (the Badger Parade would be a big part of his TV show). The credits are then accompanied by the same song as in the previous show.
So it’s another seemingly random yet strangely well organised set, considering how much is packed into it. You never know what he’s going to come out with next, but he’s always aware and keeps it flowing nicely.
First Class Scamp
This is the first of Harry’s stand-up shows to be released on DVD, coming out in 2000, although there was a VHS tape as well. It was filmed in 1998 at the London Palladium and lasts for just an hour, with no extra features. But it is the best of his shows up to this point, so it’s understandable that it’s the first to get an outing on DVD.
It also includes several characters and catchphrases from his Channel 4 programme The Harry Hill Show, which was popular at the time, and I used to really enjoy watching that too.
For starters, he has his two-piece band The Caterers with him, consisting of Steve Brown (who died a couple of years ago) and Mark Allis. So there’s a fair bit of music in the show, which gives it a nice bit of extra energy. It begins with Harry’s impersonation of Marc Bolan, as he sings a medley of T. Rex songs while wearing a white swan. Then later he also sings little bits from Hello! Hello! Who’s Your Lady Friend? by Harry Fragson, Sharing The Night Together by Dr. Hook and I Wanna Be Your Man by The Beatles, as well as random ditties about shops and the names of friends he’s made on chat lines. In addition, the band make noises or play little stings for many of his punchlines, and he often tests their responses by trying to catch them out.
Beyond the music, Harry has recurring jokes about why shoe repairers are also good at cutting keys, his tight sock, trying to jump a small fence, a tub of flying saucer sweets, an unusual way of washing his hands, his nan getting things mixed up, pandas, dogs eating foods that rhyme with their names, and the musical Joseph And The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat.
He also talks about why heroin is addictive, why there are tiny holes on the top of biscuits, a system for remembering gears in cars, legs making the sound of whining dogs, using your nose to unlock your front door (an early form of Face ID in a sense!), getting the wrong photos back from the developers, playing football and having other celebrations with the Germans during the war, and what you can tell about someone from the sweets they buy.
The latter stages of the show then involve characters from his TV programme, as he does his impression of Channel 4 newsreader Zeinab Badawi, Stouffer the cat shows that he can recall historical events, scientist Finsbury Park (Steve Bowditch) demonstrates how he remembers the names of all the Doctors in Doctor Who, and Burt Kwouk sings Hey Little Hen about finding a chicken. As his TV show has sadly never been released on DVD, it’s nice to have this section in reference to it.
Finally, Harry tells a story about Buster, his little pig, and how he gave him a taste of what humans get up to with a night out on the town, which involves amusing repetition of the key points before he gets to the punchline. He then does an impression of Freddie Mercury singing Don’t Stop Me Now by Queen, with badgers dancing behind him. Then after the credits he sings a bit of Las Vegas by Tony Christie and The Show Is Over by Petula Clark in the encore.
So it’s more than just a stand-up gig really. It’s a great variety show, as befits the venue, packed full of funny jokes, quirky music and entertaining guests from his TV programme.
Birdstrike!
This is Harry’s final VHS release, coming out in 2000, yet unlike First Class Scamp it didn’t have a DVD as well. So again I’ve had to view the hour-long show on Youtube, which was filmed at the Palace Theatre.
It’s very similar in style to his previous show, but without so many references to his TV programme. So it’s perhaps not quite as good relatively speaking, but it is still fun. He still has The Caterers as his backing band, with whom he sings little medleys by Morrissey and Tom Jones, as well as A Taste Of Honey by Lenny Welch, tracks involving numbers to teach his drummer how to count, and the Happy Days theme by Pratt & McClain.
Meanwhile he has multiple gags about his nan, petting animals, air fresheners confusing blind people, what to do about wasps on people’s faces, Shredded Wheat and celebrities with DIY-related surnames. And he also jokes about being bald, pranking babysitters, horses in the Grand National, donkeys in the ocean, Curly Wurlys, taking an organ into a maths exam, ice cream vans, smuggling milk under hats, what his mother and father did after they split up, why old people look the way they do, vegetarians, marrying your aunt, and dividing people into cats and snakes depending on their personality traits.
At the end he then brings out Stouffer, and the two of them talk about their new invention before duetting the song 7 Days by Craig David. Finally, Harry sings his own song Butterfly In Blue Jeans and does a few simple gymnastics tricks to wrap up the show.
Hooves
This is Harry’s second stand-up DVD, released in 2005. It was filmed at the Bloomsbury Theatre and lasts for a little bit longer than the previous shows, at 1 hour 10 minutes.
As usual, this is chock full of material that the list of chapters in the set doesn’t adequately do justice to, and it’s very funny.
His band on stage are now called The Harrys, consisting of the same two guys as the Caterers in the earlier shows, but as the name implies they’re made up to look like Harry. The first number they play is Rhinestone Cowboy by Glen Campbell, with Harry riding on someone who is dressed as a horse. And they play many times during the show, with The Dark Of The Matinée by Franz Ferdinand cropping up on a couple of occasions.
Stouffer the cat is also back, naturally, though he’s sick to begin with as a result of drinking milk that’s off, before he attempts to make contact with the spirit world. Then there’s another puppet called Gary – Harry’s son from his first marriage – who sings Sittin’ On The Dock Of The Bay by Otis Redding and does a dance. The two of them also have a go at swingball, which first comes up earlier in the show when Harry invites an audience member to play against a puppet cleverly called Abu Hamster.
There’s a fair amount of audience interaction at other moments too. For instance, he gets a guy to quack while throwing bread at him to see how it feels to be a duck, uses a wheel of soft toys to determine a lady’s personality, asks for ideas of which nuts, fruits and snacks could represent different types of fish, and invites several people on stage to dance during the final song.
Beyond all of that, he also has routines about taking sweets on space shuttle missions, his nan getting confused and dying yet again (it’s different in every special though so it’s never repetitive), his dad playing tricks on him, keeping tools in the back of his van, how people were able to see pictures of women in bikinis before the internet, using birds in business names, breeding different dogs for different purposes, and running over a pizza delivery boy, among other things.
Then, for the grand finale, Harry plays a selection of iconic tunes on a hornophone, before the two Harrys from his band also play it with him. It’s very impressive, so it must have taken quite a lot of practice to get right. Then for the encore he sings If I Can Dream by Elvis Presley (during which his dad does a tap dance) and a disco version of Stoney End by Laura Nyro.
So it’s a very entertaining mixture with a good pace to it all, and there’s half an hour’s worth of extras too:
- The Way It Is (26:46) – A light-hearted documentary about the making of the show, including rehearsal footage, backstage banter, chats with Harry and the supporting cast, the truth about what Stouffer and Gary are really like behind the scenes, and more.
- She Must Never Be Queen (2:54) – A silly song about Camilla Parker-Bowles… well, a simple music bed with Harry talking over it really, and some backing singers doing a chorus. It’s not particularly exciting, but it’s mildly amusing. And as we now know, Harry didn’t get his wish in the end!
Sausage Time
After a gap of 9 years since his last stand-up release – which was filled by his TV Burp compilations instead – this is the third and final DVD of Harry’s live shows to date, which hit the shelves in 2014 after being filmed the previous year in March 2013 at the Leeds Grand Theatre. It’s also the longest show so far, at 1½ hours, and it’s very good.
His backing band this time are called both The Caterers and The Harrys – they just change their name and outfits during the interval. And the opening song this time is Good Morning Starshine by Gail McDermot from the musical Hair. During the show Harry also sings in what he claims is the language of Tonga (it’s just nonsense really), performs Torn by Natalie Imbruglia while dressed as cyclist Bradley Wiggins, and sings the praises of Amanda Lamb as he had previously done in TV Burp (Harry says in the audio commentary that they actually brought her on stage in their Hammersmith shows at that point).
His jokes, meanwhile, include routines about famous people with the same first names and thematically related surnames, the extreme consequences of throwing rubbish away incorrectly, You’ve Been Framed, his sick rabbit, foods that will choke different animals, his nan getting her hands and teeth removed (including an in-depth explanation of digestion to show off his medical knowledge), taking his nan to Dignitas (not as bleak as it sounds), foreign birds that fly over here and going through airport security.
There’s more fun with members of the front row too, as he berates a guy he’s chosen at random during his rants about rubbish, and offers a lady fake lollies that always turn out to be brushes. Both of them are then invited on stage, where the man gets his hair brushed and is invited to bounce on a mattress, and Harry serenades the lady with Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen, before doing his TV Burp fight catchphrase and getting her to hit the man with a club.
Things then get particularly chaotic, in the most amusing of ways, later in the second half. Harry gets himself soaking wet when attempting to drink a bucket of water, only to then be attacked by a man from Dignitas (played by Dave Thompson, a stand-up comic in his own right who has played other roles in Harry’s shows, and is most famous as Tinky Winky from the Teletubbies). So they end up having a messy pillow fight with feathers flying everywhere, while the band sing Suicide Is Painless by Johnny Mandel and 2 Become 1 by The Spice Girls. Harry, Dave and the band then act out a bit of Shakespeare, involving a man from the audience whom Harry had given a line to earlier.
Gary is then brought out and attempts some jokes, while trying to stop making his nervous noise, before his son Sam is also introduced, and the two puppets do a whistling version of Oklahoma. A huge version of Sam then comes out and tries to swallow Harry, but Gary saves him, and the two of them sing Sonny Boy by Al Jolson.
It’s all very funny, but it’s unfortunate in hindsight that the puppets are introduced using the song Two Little Boys by Rolf Harris, who would be formally charged with abhorrent offences just a few months later, and convicted of them the following year. And Gary’s chosen impression is Jimmy Saville, but the joke here is Gary’s ignorance, as he questions why it had been funny 6 months earlier (which was just before the ITV documentary that exposed the awful truth about him). Saville was also a local, as he was brought up in Leeds and ended his life there, making it very relevant to this particular audience. So those brief references are fine given the time and context in which they were made, but it’s very unlikely that Harry would do them today.
After that, he tells a baguette joke that makes the audience groan, throws some rubbish at the guy he was telling off earlier, and sings I Just Called to Say I Love You by Stevie Wonder (whose song Never Had A Dream Cone True plays over the credits later).
Finally, for the encore, Harry and the band play Lil Star by Kelis on ukuleles, Kevin O’Leary (known as Wagbo on TV Burp) performs Sing by The Carpenters, and Stouffer announces that it’s Sausage Time, whereupon a huge inflatable sausage emerges from Harry’s mouth on the backdrop of the stage and is pushed into the audience for them to pass around, while Jerusalem is performed. It’s a fitting end to another brilliantly crazy show.
The DVD also has quite a few extras, the most substantial of all his releases:
- Audio Commentary – Harry is joined for this by his puppet son Gary, so there’s a fair bit of amusement to be had as they talk about Gary’s other favourite comedians, Gary’s mother, TV Burp, Gary still being at school as an adult, the feud between The Caterers and The Harrys, carrying a taser on tour, putting rubbish in a neighbour’s bin, Gary’s section of the show, etc. It’s a good way of ensuring that there are no long moments of silence when Harry can’t say much about the action. But there is insightful information as well, about some of the jokes and songs, the origin of Harry’s “Goal!” catchphrase, how animal clips were cleared for use on You’ve Been Framed, getting music rights, picking audience members to come on stage, what he does in the interval, trying things out as he’s putting the show together, etc. So it’s quite an entertaining commentary altogether really.
- Behind The Sausage (30:10) – This enjoyable documentary, filmed in black and white, gives us an exclusive backstage pass to the show. Harry Hill and Dave Thompson take us through their preparations before it starts, and then they’re joined by Kevin O’Leary as we see what’s happening off stage while the show is in progress.
- Photo Gallery (4:51) – A nice slideshow of images from the tour, including the mattress outside various venues, dressing room shots, handwritten show notes, props, Gary, other members of the team, Harry performing, and even an inflatable model of him. It’s accompanied by a very short piece of music that loops continuously and gets stuck in your head a bit.
- Tour Brochure (PDF, 16.3MB) – It’s very rare that you get a tour programme supplied with a stand-up comedy DVD, so it’s wonderful to have this 24-page booklet available on the disc, which you can download using your computer’s DVD-ROM drive. It does contain a bit of real information, including biographies of the supporting cast and a poshly written programme of events (which is replicated inside the DVD sleeve). But for the most part it’s made up of spoof features and adverts, including a lengthy mock biography of Harry, a tour manager’s generic letter, market research results, Gary’s family tree and royal wedding scrapbook, what celebrities have been up to during the year (using photos of random people), a fireplace built by someone who looks a little bit like Michael McIntyre, and a diagram of how a sausage is made. And there are a lot of nice photos and other imagery throughout too.
New Bits & Greatest Hits
Harry celebrated entering his 60s with a new tour last year, from which a stand-up special was recently broadcast on Sky. It was filmed at the Soho Theatre in Walthamstow and lasts for 1½ hours (with adverts).
As the title implies, it combines new and old material, and it’s very funny. Harry is still as bonkers as you’d hope and expect, from the moment he comes on stage dressed as a Royal Guard with a dancing busby on his head, to the musical finale when a huge inflatable sausage is passed around the audience again.
Throughout the show there’s quite a bit of interaction with people in the front row, from a middle-aged gentleman to young students, which is fun, and he even gets off stage at one point to mingle with them directly, only to then need two of them to manhandle him back up on stage again. He also picks one guy to come up on stage, where he gets him to skip and dance around, read some jokes written by Gary, and play swingball against Abu Hamster, as well as performing tests on him with some random items.
Gary, incidentally, does also make an appearance, and tries to tell some more jokes of his own, as well as teasing Harry about his presenting roles on You’ve Been Framed and Junior Bake Off. And it’s great to see Stouffer the cat back too. Large models of him dominate the backdrop of the stage as well, one of which has a surprising inhabitant. And talking of surprises, there’s an appearance by a character from TV Burp as well.
Beyond that, Harry’s longer routines include stories about his nan dying again (which prompt him to sing Freed From Desire by Gala), an armed raid in an artisan butchers (with a gag about Jamie Oliver’s many cookbooks) and flying for the first time (including a demonstration with an ironing board and a leaf blower). He also comments on some TV shows, and there are even gags about modern technology that come as quite a surprise, one of which involves a song he tries to get the audience to sing along with. The closing songs are much more recognisable and easier to join in with though.
So I really enjoyed it, perhaps more than I was expecting to. I wasn’t sure how good he would be, now that he’s older, but he still has a lot of energy and creativity, which is great to see.
TV Burp DVDs
Overview
TV Burp was an award-winning show of silly, hilarious genius that ran for 11 series from 2001-2012. It began in a late night slot on Thursdays for the first few series, before ITV finally saw sense and bumped it up the schedules to Saturday evenings to pull in a family audience.
It saw Harry making funny observations and performing sketches about the latest TV programmes, spotting things that nobody else would have remotely considered (pun intended) with his unique eye for detail. There was also a regular TV Highlight Of The Week, which was always a silly little clip, along with variations to highlight specific scenarios (e.g. Expert Of The Week, Voiceover Of The Week, I Beg Your Pardon Of The Week, Poetry Corner if someone happened to speak in rhyme, and so on).
Every episode also had a fight leading into the commercial break, where Harry would consider a couple of people or things he had mentioned, before then saying: “But which is better? There’s only one way to find out… FIGHT!” And at the end there would usually be a closing song inspired by one of the programmes he had watched, often with someone from the relevant show coming in to perform it, even if (as in most cases) they couldn’t actually sing.
Indeed, many stars who Harry made fun of proved to be great sports, by taking part in sketches, appearing in the studio or singing songs, while even more celebrities would happily appear in fleeting cameos, either in the studio with Harry or from the sets of their own shows. It’s testament to the high regard and trust in which Harry is held by those in the entertainment industry, coupled with their own senses of humour, that people allow themselves to be sent up in such silly ways by him. After all, they know it’s in light-hearted jest, his humour is never mean or cruel.
Given their perennial presence on screen every week, soap operas and long-running dramas like Coronation Street, Emmerdale, EastEnders, The Bill and Casualty would pretty much always be a target for Harry’s humour. But he looked at hundreds of other programmes too, from ridiculous reality shows to serious documentaries. It wasn’t at all necessary for the audience to have seen any of the programmes mentioned, because most of the jokes involved taking moments completely out of context for comic effect. It was a huge amount of work for Harry every week, so I totally understand why he gave it up in the end, but I do still miss it.
ITV released 5 DVDs for TV Burp on an annual basis between 2008 and 2012, all of which I own. Each contains an hour-long compilation of classic moments, edited to feel like a double-length episode. The halfway point also includes one of the fights from the series, but instead of a commercial break we get a fun little outtake from the studio. In most cases the extra features then include further outtakes, along with unseen jokes and sketches that never made it to air.
So they’re a great set of DVDs. It’s a shame the series was never released in its entirety, but sorting out all the rights for the vast array of programmes, stars and songs featured would be nigh on impossible I’m sure. And there are a few segments they’d have to edit out, now that certain people have fallen out of favour (e.g. references to Rolf Harris and Jimmy Saville as mentioned in my Sausage Time review above, and other people like Phillip Schofield, just to name a few). There are lots of full episodes that people have shared on Youtube though. I haven’t got time to sit through them all at the moment, but I might have a little binge on some of them one day, if they haven’t been taken down by then.
Anyway, here’s a look at what’s on each of the DVDs…
TV Burp Gold
The most memorable sketch from this first compilation, and indeed one of the best from the show as a whole, is in response to a few characters in Emmerdale asking “cataracts?“, with lots of people from various other TV shows repeating the question. And then later the question “ear cataracts?” echoes around the TV landscape in a similar fashion. It’s a simple, silly joke, but it works because of the surprisingly large number of people who repeat it, and you never know who’s going to pop up next.
Harry also gets irritated by a very slow-moving man from The Royal Today (played by Harry Herring), who takes ages to walk across the studio with a chocolate bar for him, and I love how he continues to commit to the joke with his slow exit. Harry Hill then puts on a bit of speed later as he helps out with a parkour chase from The Bill, using a lookalike stuntman to do some impressive tricks.
Other shows that get a mention include Eleventh Hour (with an elaborate way to send an email after you’ve died), John Lydon’s Shark Attack (leading to a fight between a shark and a toaster in the studio), Australian Princess (with royal expert Paul Burrell showing how to make a cup of tea), Jamie At Home (with chef Jamie Oliver sounding like a rapper), and Mansfield Park (with Billie Piper playing a very long game of badminton).
Finally, in terms of musical moments, Harry creates his own version of Old MacDonald using clips of people unintentionally sounding like animals, he plays bongos to the tune of Bongo Jam in response to a clip from Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack, and the show concludes with Jo Alexandrou from reality show Marbella Belles murdering the track You To Me Are Everything by The Real Thing.
There’s half an hour’s worth of extras on this first release as well:
- Unseen TV Burp (16:37) – An amusing mini-episode of material they didn’t have time for in the series, including clips from Nick Baker’s Weird Creatures (with jobs for animals and an armadillo on holiday), Emmerdale (with various terms for a woman of low morals), Australian Princess (with a gnome), Time Team (with the experts finding a wall) and The Bearman (including a failed experiment with a bear).
- Outtakes (9:02) – A funny mixture of bloopers including a restaurant sketch, drinking from a long tube, a slapping scene, running around the studio with Dean Gaffney, and eating from a bin. We also get to see Harry recording a beluga whale’s squeaky rendition of Fairytale Of New York, which became a special duet with Shane MacGowan from The Pogues to close one of the episodes.
- The Fights (2:14) – A great little montage of fights from the show, including Mr Blobby, clocks, birds, a tree, Nookie Bear, Napoleon, rats, rabbits, a cushion monster, 80s pop groups, a dinosaur, Pudsey bear, and more.
- Freaky Eaters Top Ten (1:43) – A quick-fire list of his favourite foods that are mentioned in Freaky Eaters, which he says in amusingly silly ways. “Chippy chips!” became one of his ongoing catchphrases that has always stuck with me.
TV Burp Gold 2
Some of the best moments in this second compilation include a surprise appearance by legendary comedian Ronnie Corbett when Harry pies him in the face, the introduction of the cute little Knitted Character from EastEnders who became a regular presence on TV Burp, dog sofa chariot racing from Coronation Street, a chicken trying to use a remote control, a wobbly jelly, Harry being attacked by a shark in various ways, Ricky Hatton being carried on Harry’s back, lots of waving on Dancing On Ice, a lady from Heartbeat getting stuck in a loop where she keeps kissing her husband and getting shaving cream on her face, and Harry playing around with a mirrored effect on screen during the break.
Meanwhile other items include a fire escape suit on American Inventor that Harry gets Amanda Holden to wear, the weirdness that was Hole In The Wall (“Bring on the wall!”), a chutney addiction on Emmerdale that’s investigated by coppers on The Bill, a Mean Machines spoof about household objects, the pleading face of Eoghan Quigg on The X Factor, a man in Doctors who speaks only in questions, Derek Acorah’s dishonest skills at being a medium, how to hide a tablet in food from Zoo Days, and celebrity faces among monkeys on Natural World: Clever Monkeys. The closing song is then Toxic by Britney Spears, sung badly by a lady who appeared on Snog Marry Avoid.
Again there’s approximately half an hour of extras, consisting of:
- Totally Unseen (20:02) – Another short episode of unbroadcast material, including Harry inspired by Coronation Street to take a walk in his head, an argument over a missing jumper on The Family, depressing jokes by Bear Grylls, a celebrity appearance ladder chart inspired by Hole In The Wall, and the captivity of tigers and meat on Zoo Days.
- Outtakes (11:25) – Here there’s amusement to be had from Harry fumbling his lines, more from the wobbling jelly (including an appearance by Nick Hancock), a pesky fly in the studio, a biting animal, Harry being hit repeatedly by a chair, Jim Bowen struggling to sing Walk The Dinosaur by Was (Not Was), and Harry singing I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris by Morrissey with an old lady, among other things.
TV Burp Gold 3
The laughs keep coming thick and fast in this third compilation, with the best moments including a surprise appearance by Russ Abbot (who has an exaggerated heart attack and sings a bit of Atmosphere), an irrelevant story about a strawberry planter, a dancing Gandhi, an escaped sausage that rescues the Knitted Character from a fire, Harry being shot at by a Viennetta (haven’t had one of those in ages!), Harry regretting his decision to ask which is better between a cow pat shampoo and a cow wee rinse, a song and dance routine when a man from Freaky Eaters with a phobia of fruit and veg picks up some asparagus, a heavy dancer causing the ceiling to crash down on Harry, a game of medication roulette (mocking Derren Brown’s lottery prediction), and a Kākāpō trying to mate with Harry’s head.
Other enjoyable randomness includes the Knitted Character on Countdown, an African singer, a Paul Burrell Dalek, a lengthy reaction to a dessert from River Cottage, a pig upsetting Adrian Chiles by messing with the remote control, Harry trying to clean butter from a bin lid, the most elaborate dog wee of the week, ships made out of meat, and the contents of some very deep pockets.
Finally, a Susan Boyle impersonator engages in some “SuBo” wrestling with Harry, before she and Heather (a parody of the EastEnders character played by Steve Benham) sing Crazy Horses by The Osmonds, with a person dressed as a horse playing guitar between them.
Instead of outtakes and deleted scenes, the extras are different this time, and last for more than twice as long as the previous couple of releases, at over 70 minutes. In reality, however, only the first couple of features are of major interest, lasting just over 45 minutes between them.
- Behind The Burp (17:41) – This is a great glimpse behind the scenes, as Harry takes us through the process of pre-recording sketches, special effects and messy stunts, before then filming the show in front of the studio audience. Along the way there are insights from Harry, the writers and the director, and we see special guests including Todd Carty and Anna Ryder Richardson.
- The K Factor (28:18) – This amusing parody of The X Factor is Harry’s competition to find the most talented knitters, complete with knitted versions of judges like Simon Cowell and interviewer Holly Willoughby. There are a wide variety of characters in the running, who have each been given their own voices, personalities and backstories.
- The Hopefuls Gallery (26:18) – This is a very long slideshow of people’s entries to The K Factor, with hundreds of images set to a very short piece of music on a constant loop that quickly becomes irritating. It’s great if you want to fast forward through it and find your submission on screen, but it’s not an extra you’d sit and watch in its entirety.
The Best Bits
The most recognisable cameos in this funny fourth compilation are Anthea Turner (who takes Harry’s mocking of her household tips with good humour), the irritating Louie Spence from Pineapple Dance Studios (who does some of his silly over-the-top dancing while dressed as a cat), and Mr Blobby (who is as destructive as ever).
Harry also has to fight a sheep that wants his clothes, experiments with Smell-o-Vision, sings a song about loving mushrooms, discovers a new version of Kumbaya, trains a chicken to send an email, campaigns for sausages to be reared in better conditions, sings and dances with the bust of Queen Victoria from the pub in EastEnders, eats a bouquet of flowers, and uses food to stick down the top of his desk.
Plus we see Val from Emmerdale’s misinterpretation of song titles along with blind Lizzie’s bad jokes about her job hunting, animals panicking because someone on Wild At Heart says the milk’s off, and historical figures like Einstein getting unnecessarily excited about the next episode of Selling Houses Revisited. And finally, Harry gets involved with 2 ladies having a childish fight in an interview room on The Bill, which ends the show for a change instead of a song.
There are just over 40 minutes of extras this time around:
- Classic Sketches (21:04) – This is a great collection of sketches that featured in the show over the years, which you can select individually from the menu or play all in one go:
- Emmerdale – Given the extensive catalogue of accidents and deaths in the village, Harry visits Emmerdale to instruct the residents on proper health and safety, while Alvin Stardust teaches a couple of ladies to cross the road (in a spoof of his Green Cross Code campaign from 1975).
- The Bill – Harry visits Sun Hill with his home-made uniform and painted van. He’s refused access to the police station, so he patrols the streets, talking to a few people before he’s nearly arrested for impersonating a police officer. Then, in another sketch, Reg Hollis sings a medley of songs by Tears For Fears while arresting Harry for theft, after it’s revealed the character is a fan of the band. Reg is played by Jeff Stewart, who last year actually helped police to arrest a shoplifter for real. It’s a mad world indeed!
- Holby City – The floor manager at TV Burp loses a bottle of sauce down the back of a beige PVC sofa, so Harry takes it into the hospital and waits anxiously as they do an operation to retrieve it.
- Public Information Films – Harry misses the old warning films for very specific situations, so he makes a couple of his own, about the dangers of cooking a boil in the bag meal near a cat flap and wearing a meat suit to a safari park.
- Ze Office – A German version of The Office, with Hitler as a department manager performing the famous dance from the series.
- Burger Barry – Harry impersonates the burger seller from Booze Britain, appearing on chat shows hosted by Jonathan Ross, Frank Skinner and Richard & Judy.
- Natural World – The Titanic episode of this documentary series claims the iceberg was a master of disguise. So Harry imagines it hiding out in a pub, where the last surviving passenger spots it.
- Outtakes (20:42) – A very funny episode of bloopers, including The K Factor, an Alan Sugar puppet, Louie Spence, a chat with a man who starred in The Restaurant, Gandhi trying to sing “I Want Candy”, Heather with a Jaffa Cake, the African singer, Mr Blobby, Tony Stamp from The Bill (Graham Cole), and much more besides.
Cream Of TV Burp
There’s plenty packed into this final DVD compilation, including guest appearances by Leslie Ash (in a remake of Men Behaving Badly featuring baboons) and Frank Bruno (who gets Harry messy while posing as a waiter).
There’s also an insects version of EastEnders, a slow but aggressive tortoise, a trained nit completing an obstacle course, Hitler on You’ve Been Framed, Harry and Heather getting messy with cream cakes in the back of a moving lorry, Harry struggling to keep up with a Gordon Ramsay recipe, Harry trying to eat a lobster and a pot of yoghurt with his hands tied behind his back, Harry being attacked by a puppet bird in homage to Rod Hull’s Emu, magic scones that reappear after they’re eaten, and a human mannequin.
Finally, the closing song – Love Child by Diana Ross & The Supremes – is performed by Jo Hill (Casey Martin), who is jokingly claimed in EastEnders to be the daughter of Jo Brand and Harry Hill.
The extras then consist of the traditional deleted scenes and outtakes, lasting almost 25 minutes altogether:
- Unseen TV Burp (13:02) – Unbroadcast material relating to the soaps Emmerdale & EastEnders, shows by Charley Boorman and Nick Baker, and other programmes like The Bill, How To Look Good Naked, Dating In The Dark, Antiques Roadshow and Confessions Of A Traffic Warden.
- Outtakes (11:03) – More fluffs from the studio recordings and rehearsals, including Heather hiding a lot of biscuits, Harry trying to break a large egg, cream spraying out of his ears, a cute child crying on the desk, an owl, and Frank Bruno with a parrot on his head.
Other Stuff
Apart from his stand-up specials, The Harry Hill Show and TV Burp as mentioned above – which for me have produced his very best material – Harry has done a lot of other things too, and there are clips from many of them on my playlist.
I haven’t got the time or inclination to watch or listen to absolutely everything of course, but I have checked out some of it over the years and recently. For instance, I’ve heard a bit of his first radio show from the 90s called Harry Hill’s Fruit Corner, as he’s posted a few episodes on his Youtube channel, and there’s a full archive posted unofficially elsewhere. It’s pretty funny, and includes people like Al Murray and Burt Kwouk, who would then go on to appear on his Channel 4 show. So it’s interesting to hear where Harry started out.
Later on, after leaving TV Burp, he presented a variety of other programmes, and while they were all good in their own way, they didn’t feel as special and they didn’t last as long. So I did look at shows like Tea Time, Alien Fun Capsule, World Of TV and Lonely Island, and they did have some amusing moments, but I wouldn’t rush to see them again particularly. And sure, I know he narrated You’ve Been Framed for ages, but his role was simply to provide a humorous voiceover for home video clips that people had sent in, so it doesn’t count as a proper vehicle for his comedic talents, hence I didn’t bother watching it.
He also appeared on the big screen in 2013 with The Harry Hill Movie, which is as mad as you’d imagine from him. It’s full of bright colours, silly songs, daft humour, breaking of the fourth wall, and an impressive roster of guest stars including Julie Walters as his nan, Matt Lucas as his evil twin brother Otto, Johnny Vegas as his pet Abu Hamster, Sheridan Smith as a woman made of shells (called Michelle) that he falls in love with, Jim Broadbent as a female cleaner, and rock band The Magic Numbers running a B&B. The story is basically about people trying to kidnap Abu Hamster, while Harry and his nan take it on a road trip because they’ve been falsely told it’s only got a week to live. So I enjoyed watching it once out of curiosity, to marvel at the sheer absurdity of it all, but I didn’t feel the urge to buy it, as it’s not something I’d watch a lot. I can imagine children really getting into it though. Indeed, he has written books for children and appeared on some TV shows for kids.
As for music, he released a comedy album in 2010 called Funny Times, on which some of the tracks have special guests, including William Roache as Ken Barlow from Coronation Street, John Craven from Newsround in a song about Holly Willoughby, singer Martin Fry from the band ABC, and the legendary Bruce Forsyth. There are also tracks about other famous people like Margaret Thatcher, Susan Boyle and Alan Titchmarsh, while other subjects include a teenager wanting a baby, phoning your Mum, chicken nuggets, automated phone lines, the Sex And The City film and a flat screen TV. There were even some bonus tracks on his website for people who brought the physical CD and found the code, but I didn’t hear those as I got the iTunes edition at the time (which had some video extras instead). Altogether it’s a nice bit of fun but, as the end of the first track predicts, it’s not an album I’ve listened to very much at all. It’s a novelty record, effectively, and the novelty does wear off. It’s nowhere near in the same league as the comedy albums by the likes of Monty Python that I’ve listened to a lot.
Technically speaking, that wasn’t actually his first album. There was a concept album called The First Meeting Of The International Recipe Card Top Trump Society in 2008, before he got his record deal for Funny Times. But it’s very strange even by his standards, with spoken tracks and songs performed by somebody else, so it’s not very good.
Much more recently he released an album last year called Are We There Yet?, with a selection of tracks from the first iteration of his podcast. It’s better than the concept album, but not as good as Funny Times.
His podcast has since been renamed The Harry Hill Show, and is currently being published weekly in both video and audio formats (the former is much more recommended for the visual gags of course). I haven’t been watching it regularly though, as most of the guests haven’t been of interest to me, and it’s not as good as his stand-up or TV shows. I also think the lack of an audience takes away the atmosphere and makes the comedy feel a bit flat sometimes. That said, it is nice to dip into it occasionally, and I have watched bits of the episodes featuring Alex Brooker, Adam Hills, Tim Vine and Ed Gamble, and I’ll look at others that grab my attention as time goes on.
Harry has also been interviewed himself on podcasts in recent years, by people like Rob Brydon, Doctor Hilary, Jamie Laing, Romesh Ranganathan, Seann Walsh and Red Richardson, so it’s very interesting to listen to him in that context for a change. But if you want to find out more about his life, his memoirs are also available in audiobook format. I haven’t listened to them yet myself, but I do intend to get around to it, as he’s on my list of quite a few people whose autobiographies I plan to listen to.
Conclusion
That wraps up my big look through the big-collared comedian’s weird and wonderful world. It does actually take a lot of thought, preparation and skill to be entertaining when you put across a persona that behaves so bizarrely, but Harry makes it work brilliantly. He has a real knack for it, and it helps that he’s always cheerful and is never rude to anybody as well. The emphasis is very much on just having silly, harmless fun, which is the perfect way to escape from the world, especially in the current climate.
It’s also amusing to think that the amount of randomness in his shows is heavily reflected in this post, so there’s potential for people to land here from completely unexpected Google searches. Or other search engines for that matter. I do get hits from places like Bing, DuckDuckGo, Yahoo, etc as well. And I like all those search engines, but which is better? There’s only one way to find out…
Anyway, I’ll leave it there, and I look forward to seeing what Harry comes up with next. As Stouffer would say – sorted, respect due.
Share this:
Well Eye Never 