Harry Hill

Harry Hill interview

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.

TV Review: Paddy's TV Guide

It drones on with a smattering of sub-Harry Hill physical sketches and commentary that adds about as much as those dialogue boxes that pop up in front of YouTube clips. I don't think any of this is really Paddy McGuinness's fault - the problem is this format has been done before and much better; he's out of his depth.

The words "Paddy McGuinness" send shivers down your spine - and not in a good way. McGuinness made his TV debut on Phoenix Nights, if you recall, and his career has been going from bad to worse ever since in the eyes of just about every reviewer and critic around.

Paddy's TV Guide follows a spate of cheap clip shows, with McGuinness presenting clips from TV shows (old and new) using a weekly theme. The first episode focused on health and fitness, with shows recorded on his "Paddy Player".

The clips themselves are mildly amusing, from an old exercise show featuring a woman dancing with candles to a tough American fitness instructor shouting at just about any mode of transport. But this programme, along with others like it (BBC One's Animal Antics for example) illustrate what I think is the main problem with clip shows; the way they're presented.

If you have a show which is just about clips, from TV shows, the internet, or recorded by members of the public, then what you want to see is just those clips. You don't want to see Paddy McGuinness doing some small routine in-between them, or Matthew Crosby dressed up as a dog in the case of Animal Antics. All you need's a voice-over.

Harry Hill made You've Been Framed watchable. We all know it's the cheesiest programme around, but because Hill's contribution is minimal, the viewers get to see more of what they want, rather than putting up with Jeremy Beadle and Lisa Riley trying to be funny between the clips.

Of course, it could just be the fact that Hill's funnier than any of those people, and that's probably Paddy McGuinness' biggest flaw too; he's not much cop.

Clip shows can work brilliantly - just ask Harry Hill - but they need a super-sharp script. The home videos have to be good, too. The third instalment of the pet-focused spoof current affairs clip show fails on all counts, with too many cats and not enough good jokes - even Matthew Crosby looks embarrassed, and he's already dressed as Sparky the dog.

Those who sit through cats playing with hairdryers or pawing guitars will be rewarded with the spectacle of two rats balanced on their back feet, staring at each other with tiny human-like hands aloft. There's also a lovebird felling a variety of children's toys. It's not really enough.

Line-up announced for 2013 Glasgow Comedy Festival

Jimmy Carr, Harry Hill, Al Murray and Paul Merton are among the big name performers confirmed for this year's Glasgow International Comedy Festival.

Stuart Goldsmith on his comedy heroes

The kipper-juggling comic idolises Simon Munnery, Anthony Livingspace and Harry Hill.

Harry Hill is the master of the camcorder clip show. No one comes close to his surreal majesty. Even dressing up snippets of animals doing daft things as a pretend news bulletin, with ex-Goodie Tim Brooke-Taylor and a man disguised as a dog as anchormen will never make Animal Antics into the BBC's version of You've Been Framed. That said, if you love an uncomplicated laugh (and if you don't, what's wrong with you?), there will be something here for you, whether it's a baby grizzly bear stuck up a tree, a pug trapped in a toilet, or a squirrel eating a bacon sandwich. And if you like cats doing silly things, prepare to laugh yourself to unconsciousness.

2013 comedy preview: Alexei Sayle and Harry Hill return

Plus Bill Bailey presents his dub version of Downton Abbey and catch US comic Sarah Silverman for one night only.

Video - Five minutes with: Harry Hill

Comedian and TV presenter Harry Hill talks to Matthew Stadlen about how he changed from medicine to comedy, how TV Burp changed his relationship with television, the freedom of performing live stand-up and why he has nine-year-old fans.

Harry Hill celeb paintings go on sale

A pop up art gallery at London's Southbank Centre Winter Festival is proving that when it comes to art, Harry Hill's no less bizarre and just as funny.