![]() This led to his own television series Emu's Broadcasting Company (1975–1980), Emu's World, EMU TV and Emu's All Live Pink Windmill Show. In later years, Parkinson later referred to it as "that bloody bird." Fellow guest Billy Connolly threatened, "If that bird comes anywhere near me, I'll break its neck and your bloody arm!" Perhaps mindful of his professional future, Hull swiftly curtailed his Emu behaviour. During 1976 Hull made his most famous appearances when Hull's Emu repeatedly attacked Michael Parkinson during his eponymous chat show, eventually causing the interviewer to fall off his chair. In 1972, Hull destroyed The Queen Mother's bouquet of flowers during the after-show line-up at the aforementioned Royal Variety Performance after which he appeared in many other shows. More common was Hull's physical assault of people and things using Emu. Darts champion Eric Bristow wrote: ‘He used the puppet to feel up women and stick his hand between people's legs.’ In a 2007 interview with Chortle, the late veteran comedy producer Michael Hurll said to Hull ’ "Look Rod, you’ve got your hand in that emu, up girls’ skirts and squeezing their tits doing things you would get locked up for." At least two people have publicly reported Hull's sexual assault of women using Emu as a cover. There were apparently no boundaries to Emu's outrageous behaviour. Hull and Emu were regulars on The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show, which aired for one season as a Saturday morning kids' show on American broadcaster CBS in 1974-75. When Hull left The Super Flying Fun Show and Australia, a duplicate of Emu was made so the character could continue on the show, much to Hull's annoyance, and comedian Marty Morton took over Hull's co-hosting position in Australia. During these events Hull would make half-hearted attempts to pull the bird away from its victim but would often become embroiled in the fracas, rolling around on the floor, creating theatrical mayhem. This apparently independent movement gave the illusion that the bird had its own personality, which entailed sudden, unprovoked, and often violent attacks on anyone and anything that came too close. ![]() The simple, effective conceit of a false arm attached to Hull's jacket, which cradled the emu, made it appear that the neck and head moved of its own volition. Hull used Emu to create a kind of gleeful havoc, while not accepting blame for it. His first UK television appearance came on the ITV show Saturday Variety, but it was his appearance in the 1972 Royal Variety Performance that provided his springboard to national recognition. Soon after, his Australian success translated to his native country with Hull appearing on several children's and adult light entertainment shows. Hull returned to the UK in 1971 and signed with International Artists (after Emu tore up the office). I concocted him, nobody else." The bird subsequently became a regular part of Hull's set on cabarets back in the United Kingdom and Australia. Hull assigned to himself full authorship of Emu, stating, "Sure I found him in a cupboard, but I had put him there in the first place. Other sources cite a Channel Nine producer, Jim Badger, who said that he had requested a reluctant Hull to use Emu. There are conflicting reports as to how this came about: The 2003 Channel 4 documentary Rod Hull: A Bird in the Hand states bluntly, "In fact, Emu was a Channel Nine creation". Hull first used Emu as a puppet in this show. 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. Clot proved very popular and soon gained his own segment, Clot in the Clouds, which depicted Constable Clot daydreaming about having other professions, such as a world-famous brain surgeon, 'Blood Clot.' He then began appearing on air, notably as Constable Clot in Channel 9's Kaper Kops with Reg Gorman and Desmond Tester, a regular segment in its children's afternoon programming. His first job in television was as a lighting technician with TCN Channel 9 in Sydney. After national service with the RAF, he qualified as an electrician. He attended Delamark Road School and the County Technical School, Sheerness. Hull was born on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, England in 1935. ![]() He rarely appeared without Emu, a mute and highly aggressive arm-length puppet modelled on the Australian bird. Rodney Stephen Hull (13 August 1935 – 17 March 1999) was a British comedian and popular entertainer on television in the 1970s and 1980s.
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