First watched : 18 November 1975
One of the decade's most unlikely stars, Rod Hull was ostensibly just a weird looking bloke with a gonk on his arm that didn't even speak, just regularly erupted into violence. Nevertheless this simple gimmick led to a lengthy career on TV.
Hull was born in Kent but made his name as a comic actor on Australian TV in the sixties. He started using Emu during a presenting stint on an Australian breakfast show. He returned to England in 1971 and started appearing on variety shows. The "duo" became notorious after the Royal Variety Performance in 1972 when Emu destroyed the Queen Mother's bouquet ( I presume she wasn't holding it at the time ). The guy had some front ; he famously attacked Michael Parkinson ( though wisely not fellow guest Billy Connolly ) and repeated the trick against Johnny Carson in 1985 despite strict instructions not to do so, to the admiration of Richard Prior.
In 1975 he got his own TV show Emu's Broadcasting Company on BBC1 on a Tuesday teatime. The show mixed satire and slapstick with the aid of Barbara New and Billy Dainty ( a panto dame tiresomely referred to in the press as "the Queen Mother's favourite comedian" after she once praised his performance after a show ). I got tired of it pretty quickly but it ran until 1980 when ITV made him a better offer.
Rod's regular TV career ended with an animated series in 1991 which he wrote with Ian Sachs and voiced his own character. He then experienced leaner times at the same time that he was spending a fortune renovating an Elizabethan mansion. This led to divorce and bankruptcy. He came to resent Emu, believing that it prevented him from being properly recognised as a comedian and writer . He died in 1999 in a strangely appropriate fashion, falling off his roof where he had gone to adjust the aerial hoping for a better reception for a Champions League match. His son Toby started working with Emu from 2003 onwards.
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