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Harry Roy Hill (born 10 October 1964 in Woking,
Surrey) is the stage name of Matthew Hall, a
stand-up comedian who has graduated to being a
star of British television by way of a BBC radio
series Harry Hill's Fruit Corner. 

Harry Hill is one of an elite team of alternative
British comics associated with the Avalon comedy
family. Other careers launched from this gun
barrel include those of Richard Herring, Stewart
Lee, Dave Gorman, Simon Munnery, Frank Skinner,
David Baddiel and Al Murray.

Matthew Hall is very fond of visual gimmicks and
there are several associated with his Harry Hill
character. Among these are the bald head, the
thick black spectacles, pens in the top pocket,
small badges on the lapel and, most famously, a
comically oversized shirt collar.

Hill's humour is quirky almost to the point of
surrealism. In way of illustrating this, the
comedy historian Oliver Double described Hill as
being "Ronnie Corbett possessed by the ghost of
Salvador Dali."

As almost every newspaper interview or profile of
Harry Hill will reveal, his real-life alter ego,
Matthew, is a qualified medical doctor.

In 2003, he was listed in The Observer as one of
the Observer's 50 funniest|50 funniest acts in
British comedy. In a 2005 poll to find The
Comedian's Comedian, he was voted amongst the top
50 comedy acts ever by fellow comedians and comedy
insiders.

==Radio==

Starting in 1993 and running for four series Harry
stared in his own Radio series Harry Hill’s
Fruit Corner on BBC Radio 4.

==Television==

In 1994 Harry made the transition to television,
where he produced and stared in six episodes of a
very peculiar show called Fruit Fancies. The name
was somewhat similar to his radio show at the time
Fruit Corner and was transmitted on BBC2 in 1994.
This was a 10 minute episode series and was filmed
in black and white with little or no dialogue. 

From 1997 Harry had his own Channel 4 television
series called The Harry Hill Show (listed simply
as Harry Hill on screen) which ran to three
series. The show was essentially a reworking of
the Radio series Harry Hill’s Fruit Corner. 
Among the regular characters were Harry's big
brother, 'Alan' (played by the comedian Al Murray)
and his adopted son 'Little Alan' (played by Dr.
Matt Bradstock). 

The actor Burt Kwouk appeared in every episode of
the Harry Hill show and occasionally, Harry's
major live standup shows. Kwouk plays Harry
'Chicken Catcher' and each week he will have an
excuse as to why he's not captured his chicken yet
followed by singing the song, 'Hey Little Hen' and
dancing. It was odd that such a star was
performing in such an amateur and ridiculous
fashion, and therein lay the joke: Kwouk would do
almost anything for a joke on Harry's show as long
as it was slightly demeaning.

Harry's wife May Ling also made appearances on the
show, mainly around the theme of trying to steal
Harry's savings book. 

Another favourite on the show was Stouffer the
cat. Stouffer is a curious-looking cat glove
puppet made of blue rubber. Stouffer normally sits
in a throne supported by a rubber 'Rod Hull' arm.
Harry employs Stouffer to intimidate guests in his
standup routines and as part of a strange
children's TV parody sketch on his TV show.

The end of each episode was supposed to host an
event called 'The Badger Parade': a strange parade
of puppet badgers. But every week there would be
some kind of problem resulting in the badgers
being unable to perform. In place of the badger
parade, Harry would usually sing a song, with a
guest he had invited onto the show.

2001 saw Harry move to ITV with an all-new show,
Harry Hill's TV Burp, which has had four series so
far. The show is a look at the week's television,
picking out and commenting on lines and scenes
from various programmes. In 2004 Harry became the
new presenter of You've Been Framed, a programme
in the "funny home videos" genre.

==Standup==

Harry Hill has established a tight and successful
standup structure in which he employs the comedic
process of 'reincorporation' to a uniquely
obsessive degree. He sets up a number of running
themes and slips in and out of each thread without
warning, in this regard it is akin to juggling a
number of objects and delighting the audience with
the skill. Harry is one of the comedians set on
his way by Malcolm Hardee.

His routines are usually smut-free and he seldom
employs harsh language. There is often a sexual
undertone to his work but his humour appears
grounded in petty 'old time' attitudes and
conservativism.

Occasionally, such as in his 1997 Man Alive show
he employs video footage. In this case, a short
movie featuring himself and Matt Bradstock called
The boy with the big face was presented at the
beginning of the show.

Stouffer the cat usually appears in his standup;
in later shows, riding on the success of his TV
series, Burt Kwouk and other characters from the
TV show would also show up. Despite the delight
from fans in the audience, many say that the
appearance of other characters broke the flow of
the standup routine and cheapened the act.

Harry has also developed many catchphrases over
the years including "what are the chances of that
happening?" after a bizarre routine and "pork and
lamb: they're the main two" in relation to chops.

Chops, puppets, discussion of TV soaps and failed
celebrities are all Harry Hill signatures.

Harry Hill appeared on the We know where you live
video along with Eddie Izzard and Paul Whitehouse.

There are five Harry Hill standup comedy videos on
general release in the United Kingdom|UK.

==Books==

In 2003 Harry Hill's first novel was published. It
is called Flight from Deathrow. The central
storyline involves a messed up aeroplane flight
and other storylines draw from Harry's standup
routine.

Also available is the Harry Hill funbook: a
Christmas cash-in and spinoff from the TV show
during the height of its popularity.

==Other==

In 2003, a trio of MP3s appeared on Hill's
http://www.harry-hill.tv official website,
entitled http://www.harry-hill.tv/paulScott.html
This is Paul Scott. They formed a 15-minute
mock-documentary covering a day in the life of
Paul Scott, a man with a computer-synthesized
voice and dreams of being a famous entertainer.

Harry's instantly recognisable voice often lands
him in voice-over roles on television commercials.