‘I had them offering me to start work the next morning’: Harry Hill reveals he was asked to return to work as a doctor amid the coronavirus pandemic
Harry Hill has revealed he was asked to return to work as a doctor to help out the NHS amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
The comedian, 55, previously trained as a neurosurgeon and worked at Doncaster Royal Infirmary before deciding to quit the medical profession in favour of a career in the entertainment industry.
Speaking on BBC’s The One Show, Harry admitted it was ‘frightening’ when he was asked if he would return to his old profession.
Helping hand: Harry Hill, 55, has revealed he was asked to return to work as a doctor to help out the NHS amid the Covid-19 pandemic
He said: ‘Yes, I’m a retired doctor believe it or not, they contacted me about my return to work, you know, “click on this link” and I’ll be honest, I’d had a few drinks and I clicked on the link and before I knew it I had the Nightingale Excel Hospital offering for me to start work the next morning. Very frightening.’
Harry was asked to appear on a video link with a person from the hospital and joked he obviously had not been on TV enough recently as they didn’t recognise him.
‘He said: ‘They said, “can we do a FaceTime call with you to prove it’s you and you can hold up your passport?”
‘Well I thought any minute she’s going to see who it is and the whole thing would go away but obviously I haven’t been on TV enough recently!’
Past: The comedian previously trained as a neurosurgeon and worked at Doncaster Royal Infirmary before deciding to quit the medical profession (pictured in June 2017)
Harry is father to Kitty, 23, Winifred, 22, and Frederica, 16, with his wife Magda and told how the family were anxious about his youngest daughter’s GCSE results.
He said: ‘We’re all anxious, I personally think these students have spent four months stuck and home, we should cut them some slack, it’s cruel. It was cruel at the best of times.’
Harry also fondly remembered the late Sir Ken Dodd, who was one of Harry’s comedy heroes when he was a child.
Scare: Speaking on BBC’s The One Show, Harry admitted it was ‘frightening’ when he was asked if he would return to his old profession
He said: ‘Any comedian would look at Ken Dodd and think what a fantastic career and life and the thing I loved about him was his inventiveness, if you only ever saw him on TV you only got half of what he was about and really you had to see him live.
‘I was playing Cardiff’s St David’s Hall the night after Ken Dodd, and he was legendary for going on for hours and hours, I said to the house manager, how was Ken last night?
‘And he said he went on so late that they locked the multi-story carpark and no one could get their cars out!’
The One Show airs week nights, 7pm on BBC One.
He said: ‘I’d had a few drinks and I clicked on the link and before I knew it I had the Nightingale Excel Hospital offering for me to start work the next morning’ (pictured in August 2018)