British Comedy Guide
Please donate to help support British comedy at all levels. Thank you. Find out more
Harry Hill
Harry Hill

Harry Hill

  • 60 years old
  • English
  • Actor, writer, executive producer, comedian, director and editor

Press clippings Page 33

Harry Hill - review

Should a 48-year-old ex-doctor be pillow-fighting with a large man in a leotard? Should he be singing Jessie J's Price Tag in Tongan, or impersonating a horse in flip-flops? If this triumphant return to live comedy proves anything, it's that Hill growing old certainly doesn't equal Hill growing up.

Brian Logan, The Guardian, 10th February 2013

Harry Hill: Sausage Time, New Theatre Oxford, review

He has soon darted off on far less challenging tracks but it leaves you wondering whether anything lies over the brow of Hill's future beyond high-grade goofishness. Is it time - at the age of 48 - for some sort of rethink, Mister Harry?

Dominic Cavendish, The Telegraph, 10th February 2013

Harry Hill: The private life of the lord of misrule

Harry Hill's TV Burp ripped up the rules of family TV - but not without taking a toll on its star's real-life alter ego, Matthew Hall. Ahead of a tour and an X Factor musical, he talks about life beyond Saturday teatimes.

Christina Patterson, The Independent, 8th February 2013

Harry Hill: I got fed up with TV work

Saturday night television star Harry Hill has revealed that he is "fed up" with the small screen.

Jasper Hamill, The Big Issue, 28th January 2013

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.

Tom Lamont, The Observer, 27th January 2013

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.

Pippa Harris, Shouting At Cows Blog, 25th January 2013

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.

Ian Wolf, Giggle Beats, 21st January 2013

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.

Emma Sturgess, Radio Times, 19th January 2013

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.

BBC News, 16th January 2013

Stuart Goldsmith on his comedy heroes

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

Brian Donaldson, The List, 15th January 2013

Share this page