Rod+hull+biography

Rod Hull

English comedian (1935–1999)

Rod Hull
Rod Hull with his puppet sidekick, Emu
Born	Rodney Stephen Hull (1935-08-13)13 August 1935 Isle of Sheppey, Kent, England
Died	17 March 1999(1999-03-17) (aged 63) Winchelsea, East Sussex, England
Occupation(s)	Entertainer, comedian
Notable work	Emu
Children	6, including Toby

Rodney Stephen Hull (13 August 1935 – 17 March 1999) was a British comedian and popular entertainer on television in the 1970s and 1980s. He rarely appeared without Emu, a mute and highly aggressive arm-length puppet modelled on the Australian bird.

Early life

Hull was born on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, England in 1935. He attended Delamark Road School and the County Technical School, Sheerness. After national service with the Royal Air Force, he qualified as an electrician.

TV career

Australia

Hull moved to Australia in 1956. His first job in television was as a lighting technician with TCN Channel 9 in Sydney. He then began appearing on air, including as Constable Clot in Channel 9's Kaper Kops with Reg Gorman and Desmond Tester, a regular segment in its children's afternoon programming. Clot proved popular and soon gained his own segment, Clot in the Clouds, which depicted him daydreaming about having other professions, such as a world-famous brain surgeon, 'Blood Clot.'

Later he worked with Marilyn Mayo as co-host of a children's breakfast TV programme, The Super Flying Fun Show, playing a wacky character named 'Caretaker Clot,' an extension of his Kaper Cops role. Hull first used Emu as a puppet in this show. There are conflicting reports as to how this came about. The 2003 Channel 4 documentary Rod Hull: A Bird in the Hand states that "In fact, Emu was a Channel Nine creation". Other sources cite a Channel Nine producer, Jim Badger, who said that he had requested a reluctant Hull to use Emu. Hull claim

Rod hull son

Rod Hull Personality Type

Rod Hull is an ESFP and Enneagram Type 4w5.

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"I had no intention of being rude, I just forgot how stupid you are."

Rod Hull

Rod Hull was a well-known English comedian who became a household name during the 1970s and 1980s. Born in Kent in 1935, he grew up in a happy family but showed an interest in the entertainment industry from a young age. Hull initially started his career as a ventriloquist and gradually progressed into television and radio broadcasting.

Though he was best known for his work on television, Rod Hull began his career in the entertainment industry as a ventriloquist, working with the puppet Emu. He made multiple appearances on primetime shows like The Val Doonican Show, and The Benny Hill Show, honing his skills and growing his popularity. In the 1970s, he started hosting his own shows including the popular children's programme, Emu's World, which ran from 1982 to 1989. The success of Emu's World cemented Hull's status as one of England's beloved celebrities with a young audience.

Aside from his television work, Rod Hull had a successful career on the radio. He presented numerous shows for BBC Radio 2, including three series of Rod Hull and Friends in the early 1980s. His success on the radio convinced him to transition back to television, where he had his own show, Rod and Emu's Saturday Special, which aired during the late 1980s.

Rod Hull died tragically in 1999 at the age of 63 after falling off his roof while adjusting his TV aerial. Even after his death, his legacy lived on as people still remember his unique talent, particularly his ability to make audiences laugh with his puppet Emu's mischievous antics. Rod Hull was a talented en

Rod Hull

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, children’s programming presented a choice between the BBC and its rival ITV. It was rare that one act would be able to appeal to different generations of children across both, and even more unusual if that performer was able to appeal to adult audiences at the same time.

In Rod Hull, and of course his puppet Emu, television gave us an act beloved by children, feared by celebrities and applauded by adult audiences. And yet when the career turned sour, Hull would eventually come to dislike the puppet he had carried with him and the riches of his career would disappear altogether.

Hull would always contest that the bird that made him famous prevented him from success in other areas, and it was his lesser known skills as a writer that would initially lead him to Emu. Although serving in the RAF and qualifying as an electrician, Rod Hull would leave the UK for Australia in 1958 at the suggestion of his sister Joan and it was here that he obtained his first job in television, working as a lighting technician for Channel 9. Hull would eventually gain a role on screen as Constable Clot, becoming successful enough to get his own sketches.

During his time in Australia he would flex his writing muscles for a number of shows, with both adult and child audiences, and it was during this time that he happened upon the puppet that would catapult him to stardom. Hull always claimed that he found Emu in a cupboard, albeit also claiming that he put Emu in said cupboard in the first place. Much debate continued through the years as to whether Emu really was Hull’s creation, but in the grand scheme of things, it mattered not.

Hull returned to the UK in 1970 and reportedly used Emu as a gimmick to gain the attention of International Artists. The chaos the bird persona brought did its trick and within a year Hull was booked onto the Royal Variety Performance, an evening that would transform his career. Comedian Dickie Henderson was

Rodney Stephen Hull was born on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent in 1935, the son of a bus conductor. Rod's sister Joan emigrated to Australia and advised him that the country's new television service was seeking talent. A trained electrician, he began working as a lighting technician at TCN Channel 9, Sydney in 1961.

There, Hull created comic policeman Constable Clot who featured in a series of silent-style, Hull-scripted comedy films, Kaper Cops (1962-65). Progressing to adult TV, he wrote and performed for daily chat show The Tonight Show with Don Lane (1965-68). Other Australian work included scripting cartoon series Arthur! and the Square Knights of the Round Table (1966), children's series Wonderbox (1968) and guest roles in Woobinda, Riptide and Skippy.

The Emu puppet was found in a props cupboard. Hull enigmatically recalled, "Sure I found him in a cupboard but I had put him there in the first place. I concocted him, nobody else." Channel 9 producer Jim Badger recalls that he foisted the puppet upon an initially reluctant Hull.

Returning to England in September 1971, Hull traipsed round London's writing agencies for three months before using the Emu as a 'sales gimmick'. Emu tore up the office at International Artists and Hull was signed - the act, of the seemingly friendly bird going out of control and attacking all in sight, would serve him well for the best part of twenty years. Hull said in 1975; "I think that's what people identify with. The audience sees itself as me and Emu is life, dressed up like a joke and ready to clobber them."

After a British TV debut on Saturday Variety (ITV, tx. 22/1/72) the pair became regular presenters on children's lunchtime storybook series Happy House (ITV, 1972-73) but when Emu wrestled Dickie Henderson, the host of The Royal Variety Performance (BBC, tx. 5/11/72), to the ground and then attacked the Queen Mother's posy in the aftershow line up, they became overnight sensation

Rod hull cause of death