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No one skewers the glorious silliness of British popular culture like Harry Hill, 43, the medic who swopped his stethoscope for stand-up. Now ITV’s prized entertainer must get serious as he mulls over a reported £4 million swoop from the BBC to host The Generation Game.
Hill’s surreal flights of fancy have divided audiences. Cult status seemed the best that the Edinburgh Perrier winner in 1992 could hope for. But he stuck by his trademark spectacles and outsized shirt collar until something curious happened during the sixth series of his satirical ITV1 series, TV Burp. Seven million viewers tuned in to the double-Bafta-winning show that spoofs television’s idiosyncracies.
Michael Grade will not give up ITV’s favourite comic lightly, but it appears that a canny business brain lies behind the spectacles.
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I love Harry Hill on TV Burp. He has my kids in stitches!
P.s is that really how you spell "swopped"??!
JuJu, Durham, UK
Unfunny to you Arthur but for me, the two live shows I've seen were hilarious - how boring if we all found the same things funny.
And Mike, given the outrageous sums paid to some who supposedly 'work' for the BBC such as the foul-mouthed, talentless J. Ross, £4 million sounds like a bargain to me.
Andrew, Lewes, England
I saw him years ago, and he was unfunny then, and he's still unfunny now.
Arthur, Newcastle,
Is there really so little talent available at the BBC that they have to spend £4million of our money on one game show host?
MIke, Woodbridge,