This is Your Life (UK)

Rod Hull (22x18)

: 03, 1982

Rod Hull, comedian and entertainer, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at Thames Television's Euston Road Studios. After national service with the RAF, Rod qualified as an electrician. He found work as a lighting technician with TCN Channel 9 television in Sydney, after moving to Australia in 1961. He then began regularly appearing in front of the camera, notably on the children's afternoon programmes. Rod first used Emu - a mute, highly aggressive arm-length puppet modelled on the Australian flightless emu bird - in a children’s breakfast programme, The Super Flying Fun Show. The puppet subsequently became a regular part of his comedy routines. He returned to the UK in 1971 and his first UK television appearance came on the ITV show Saturday Variety, but it was his later appearance in the 1972 Royal Variety Performance that provided his springboard to national recognition.