Harry Hill’s real name, personality away from cameras and unexpected former job

The Harry Hill's TV Burp star, who is appearing on property-based guessing game This is MY House tonight, was almost called up to the front lines during the height of the coroanvirus pandemic

Imagine going into hopsital and having Harry Hill arrive at your bedside.

It may sound like one of his TV Burp sketches, but the comedian was a junior doctor before he got up on stage.

Harry, who was actually born Matthew Keith Hall, grew up in Kent but moved to Hong Kong for two years aged 14 before training at St George's Hospital Medical School in south London.

A respectable career in medicine beckoned, but Harry hated working at Doncaster Royal Infirmary right from the very start.

"On my very first day on the job, I realised, 'I can't do this, it's awful'," he told The Mirror in 2015. "I was constantly hoping things would get better, but they never did."

After almost four years in the profession, Harry finally took the plunge and quit his job to pursue his comedy dreams full-time.

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Harry got his big breakthrough in 1992 when he won the Perrier Award for Best Newcomer at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

After hosting Harry Hill's Fruit Corner on BBC Radio 4 he got his own black and white silent comedy series, Harry Hill's Fruit Fancies, on BBC Two and was a regular on ITV's Saturday Live.

But he really hit the mainstream in 2001 when he launched Harry Hill's TV Burp, which ran for 12 years, where he would take the mick out of the week's telly.

Since then he's been the voice of ITV's You've Been Framed for 16 years, starred in his own 2013 movie and created X Factor spoof musical I Can't Sing.

On-screen, he’s a wacky, madcap ball of energy, but like most comedians he is much more reserved and quiet in real life.

"I think the public perception of me is that I’m a mad bloke," he admitted.

"I’m actually quite straightforward. I don’t feel the need to make people laugh in everyday life, as I express that side of myself through my comedy."

Harry is known for his big collars and glasses

Image:

( ITV / CPL Productions)

He has one of the most recognisabe looks in showbiz, but if Harry goes out without his trademark glasses and massive collar then he doesn't get stopped by members of the public.

"When I’m not at work, I don’t want to be the centre of attention," Harry explained. "I'm not one of those people from TOWIE. If I wear the big collars in public, it's like Elvis Mania – everyone recognises me.

"So when I go out I wear different glasses, a hat and grow some beard. I can travel on the tube and no one really knows it's me."

Harry married artist Magda Archer in 1996 and they have three daughters - Kitty Clover, Winifred Millicent and Frederica Aster.

"I think my girls are both proud and embarrassed of me," Harry confessed.

"They think it’s cool that I know certain people off the telly, but they don’t like me picking them up from school or going to parents’ evenings.

"As a father I don’t give my kids advice. It’s pointless, because they’ll do what they want anyway. At the end of the day, it’s most important for them to find the things they love in life – I was lucky enough to discover that myself. No one wants to think 'What if?' and live with regret."

Harry nearly went back to being a doctor

Image:

( BBC/Nit TV/Ray Burmiston)

It may have been three decades since Harry worked as a doctor, but he was wanted back on the frontlines during the coronavirus pandemic.

After getting a bit tipsy during the height of the pandemic, he decided to offer his services and completed an online form.

Speaking to Radio Times in August 2020, Harry said: "In the early days of the pandemic, it was all melting down radiators to make ventilators, the country pulling together and so on."

"I'd had a few drinks so I filled out the form and got an email back saying someone would contact me about my return to work. I broke out in a cold sweat."

When Harry told the recruiter his last medical specialism had been "respiratory emergencies", he was asked if he could start as soon as possible at the NHS Nightingale Hospital in east London.

But he turned it down due to the lack of experience in his previous role and claimed he would have had travelling difficulties from the south of the city.

"I've got cold sweat dripping down my back, and I said, 'Well, to be honest, I'm in south London so it would be quite difficult for me to get to'," he told Jason Manford on The Weekly Stand Up in July 2020.

"I did say to her, 'It was 30 years ago. I was only a junior doctor and my specialisation was general medicine'. I'd submitted the form and then I thought, 'Oh Christ. What the hell could I actually do?'"

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