HARRY HILL: Life's Too Short to Be Serious | GREAT MOMENTS

There's a strange kind of pressure that comes with being an adult. We’re encouraged to take things seriously and to have it all figured out. But what if being silly is one of the most important things we can hold on to? Harry Hill is one of Britain's most loved comedians, known and adored for his surreal comedy that has been making the country laugh for decades. In this Great Moment, Harry reflects on the loss of his dear friend Sean Lock, and explains why refusing to take yourself too seriously might just be the best way to get through the hard times. Sometimes the most profound lessons come from the people who taught us to laugh. Listen to the full episode HERE https://open.spotify.com/episode/1HLmn39k2sqiYMPC57fwk8?si=dGECUwiySWC3IUdFk3EHuA! If you enjoyed the show, you can also follow us: Instagram-@greatcompanypodcast https://www.instagram.com/greatcompanypodcast/# TikTok -@greatcompanypodcast https://open.acast.com/networks/611e511b4ec6dc00134bced2/shows/65d737dfdc02e00016c413b2/episodes/www.tiktok.com/@greatcompanypodcast And if you've got thoughts, questions and comments, you can email us at: [email protected] THE CREDITS Producer: Helen Burke Assistant Producer: Issy Weeks-Hankins Video: Josh Bennett Social Media: Laura Coughlan Exec Producer: Ewan Newbigging-Lister & Jemima Rathbone Great Company is an original podcast from JamPot Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Hey, it's Adam Grant from TED's Rethinking Podcast. As businesses scale, success depends on how well knowledge is captured, shared, and kept up to date. Camtasia Pro turns teams' expertise into engaging training, onboarding, and documentation. No professional editing experience required. With the industry's best screen recording, video editing, and AI-powered workflows, you can train faster and boost operational efficiency. Get over $100 off your first year at camtasia pro.com and start building a smarter way to educate customers, onboard employees, and ensure valuable expertise is shared across teams.

• 0:38Speaker 01

  Hello, everyone. I'm Jamie Laing, and this is Great Moments.

• 0:45Speaker 01

  Hey, guys. Welcome back to another episode of Great Moments. Thank you so much for coming back. Now, this week, we are revisiting my conversation with the incredibly funny Harry Hill. I mean, one of the funniest people I've ever met. Harry Hill is one of Britain's most loved comedians, but we talked about so much more than just comedy. Now, in this great moment, he opens up about losing his close friend Sean Locke and what loss has taught him. It's an amazing episode. If you like this Great Moments, you're gonna love the full episodes. You can click on the link in our show description. But enjoy this Great Moments with Harry Hill.

• 1:17Speaker 01

  You were doing TV, but then you were voicing You've Been Framed.

• 1:20Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:21Speaker 01

  And you were taking over television.

• 1:23Speaker 02

  Yeah, it was like a double, double bill. Yeah, I think if you didn't like Harry Hill, that was a very difficult time for you. And there are those people.

• 1:34Speaker 01

  But you had, but would you, is this, is it?

• 1:37Speaker 02

  That was a very dark period for those people.

• 1:41Speaker 01

  I hated that period of television.

• 1:44Speaker 01

  But you, you, you had, you had this iconic image, right?

• 1:48Speaker 02

  Yeah, it was just luck, you know, with the big, everyone, oh, the big collar and the, you know, the bald head is nature. You know, the glasses, okay, I found glasses that were, you know, distinctive. I mean, everyone wears glasses like this now. But actually, when I wore them, it was sort of a decision, you know? And then with the big collar, I just, you know, I mean, I just had a collar, a shirt with a big collar because I used to buy my stuff from Oxfam. And in the 80s, 90s, the shirts that you wore were from the 70s or 80s.

• 2:20Speaker 01

  Well, and you just, you felt like it looked funny.

• 2:23Speaker 02

  People would say to me, oh, that's good, you know, that big collar thing.

• 2:27Speaker 01

  Really?

• 2:27Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah. So the, and that's, it's the old adage, and you know, if you ever do go back to stand up.

• 2:32Speaker 01

  I, I will, don't worry.

• 2:33Speaker 02

  It's about, if it works, keep it in.

• 2:36Speaker 01

  And this is a weird quote, but it's like a uniform, right? Because you, you put your uniform on.

• 2:40Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:41Speaker 01

  And you go to work.

• 2:42Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:42Speaker 01

  And then when you take it off.

• 2:43Speaker 02

  I don't have to make a decision. I always think like, you know, if you're Alan Davis, or I don't know, um, Jack Whitehall or something, you've got to choose a suit, or you've got to choose a tie. What am I going to wear on my feet? Or, you know, what am I, I don't have that decision. I just, boom, there it is. A whole rack of them.

• 3:01Speaker 02

  Hundred and thirty big collar shirts. Which one shall I wear?

• 3:05Speaker 01

  Always white?

• 3:07Speaker 02

  Well, I got a few color. I, um, I've tried with, you know, when I do junior bake off, and they were keen for me to be a bit more brightly colored for the children. So I've got some, like, you know, a red one, a pink one, and a brown one.

• 3:19Speaker 01

  But when you, also an advantage, because when you then take off your uniform, you become less recognizable.

• 3:24Speaker 02

  Exactly. It's brilliant. Also, you know, you can divide your life up, not just for tax purposes, but you, but you can divide your life up. So you have your, uh, you know, real friends who call you Matthew.

• 3:40Speaker 01

  He's revealed it.

• 3:42Speaker 02

  Matthew.

• 3:43Speaker 01

  Is that the headline that we're gonna get?

• 3:44Speaker 02

  There is it.

• 3:45Speaker 01

  Harry Hill's not called Harry Hill.

• 3:48Speaker 02

  And then there's the other people, like yourself.

• 3:52Speaker 01

  No, I wanted to call you Matthew and you said, you said no.

• 3:54Speaker 02

  We're not there yet.

• 3:55Speaker 01

  Okay, fine, right. So we're just, what are we, just podcast friends?

• 4:00Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 4:01Speaker 01

  I'm not a real friend.

• 4:01Speaker 02

  This is a transactional.

• 4:03Speaker 01

  So when I save your number, do I have to put it as Harry Hill?

• 4:07Speaker 02

  Just put big collar. Um, so, yeah, it is good to, and it's good to have that divide. I mean, it's, you know, it's a funny thing. I do think of myself as Harry Hill. I mean, it's because I've been doing it for so long, I don't, you know, and sometimes if I'm. I don't know, I might be on my way to a gig and I might say to myself, come on, Harry. Or, you know, I might, you know, I do refer to myself, yeah.

• 4:30Speaker 01

  Is it easier to almost play a character in a way? Because then you can turn that off and turn it on, rather than actually living in that existence. That's because that's quite exhausting, maybe?

• 4:42Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, we know, I know comics like that, who seem to be always on. I mean, I think if you, if you wanna be a comedian, you don't really have any choice about what kind of comic you're gonna be. It just emerges, it's, uh, you know, when I started, I wanted to be a deadpan comic. I was a fan of Jack Dee and Stuart Lee and Arnold Brown, people like that. So I, when I first started, I was sort of doing an impression of them. So I had good jokes, so they would get laughs, but it was like me, it wasn't really me. It was what I, you know, and that's quite common when comics, they sort of do the person they like.

• 5:20Speaker 01

  That is why, and then you have to find your own identity.

• 5:23Speaker 02

  And then gradually you, you, hopefully you, if you stick at it long enough, you'll find the thing, yeah. That's a big, you know, a lot of being funny is not about, I mean, I don't know what the percentage is.

• 5:36Speaker 02

  Maybe eighty percent of it is about you, not about your material. It's about your, uh, confidence and your funniness.

• 5:47Speaker 01

  Has anyone ever tried to do you?

• 5:50Speaker 02

  Cause, cause I have seen, I was on a bill.

• 5:53Speaker 01

  With big colored glasses, that looks familiar.

• 5:56Speaker 02

  Yeah, no, not that, but the, I have been on a bill and I was on a bill with this guy and I'm thinking, you, you're doing, this is me, you're doing like me. I thought, wow.

• 6:07Speaker 01

  You ran on stage, he's doing me.

• 6:08Speaker 02

  I thought, wow, you're doing me in front of me and I'm me. I was thinking, it's, I think, God, it's hard enough to do it and I'm me.

• 6:20Speaker 02

  And you're doing me, everyone knows I'm here, it's like, yeah, it was fun, it was funny. But I was thinking, this is not helping you.

• 6:30Speaker 01

  How important is it in life to be silly?

• 6:33Speaker 02

  Hmm, I think it's important to retain a playfulness.

• 6:40Speaker 02

  You think you've got to try and retain that, you know, that gets knocked out of us as kids. If you get, you know, yeah, you get two kids together, they just stop playing, don't they? Mucking about, you know, it's uh, and uh, and it, and that does get knocked out of you as you get older. Cause you get responsibilities, you get worn down and it's important to try and retain some of that. And I think possibly what people like about me is that they don't have to do it themselves. They just see me doing it, me being silly and, you know.

• 7:09Speaker 01

  Being, I've realised this, being an adult is, is exhausting. And, and when my parents used to say to me when I was younger, these are the best years of your life. I'm like, surely they're not, and they're not.

• 7:19Speaker 02

  Oh, childhood.

• 7:20Speaker 01

  Yeah, they said, these are the best years of your life. And I was like, that can't be true. In some ways it is, in some ways it is because like you said, you are, our naivety is ruined by experience.

• 7:31Speaker 02

  Yeah, hormones and, and experience.

• 7:32Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's literally what it is, right? And, and there's always something amazing, that's why Peter Pan kicks ass.

• 7:40Speaker 02

  You got him on as well.

• 7:41Speaker 01

  Yeah, I've got him on next.

• 7:44Speaker 02

  So Peter, tell me about, what was your relationship with the, with that dog? Your nanny, that was weird, wasn't it? The nanny was a dog. Was it a dog? It was called nanny. Was it actually, was it actually a Nolans trained dog?

• 7:59Speaker 01

  Um.

• 8:01Speaker 02

  It was weird. Yeah, I just thought of that. Um.

• 8:07Speaker 01

  It actually is weird. Why was the nanny the dog?

• 8:11Speaker 02

  I don't know. What would it do? I've got it. You're getting this ready. You're getting this ready.

• 8:16Speaker 01

  Sounds like Chewbacca.

• 8:18Speaker 02

  It's our, it's our fish fingers. Um, that's why I like doing Junior Bake Off because the kids are so funny.

• 8:29Speaker 02

  And also it's, it's funnier than, uh, it's nice that they're other people's kids as well.

• 8:38Speaker 02

  So they go home at the end of the day. You haven't got to, you know.

• 8:43Speaker 01

  I, I did, um, I was very lucky to eight out of 10 cats a couple of times. I did countdown as well and I did it with Sean Locke.

• 8:51Speaker 02

  Yeah. How did he treat you?

• 8:53Speaker 01

  Uh, he could be like scum.

• 8:59Speaker 01

  And I liked him even more for it. And do you know what's so funny? What was so brilliant, and I kid you not, this is how amazing it was. We did Eight Hundred and Ten Cats.

• 9:08Speaker 02

  That's funny.

• 9:08Speaker 01

  We did Eight Hundred and Ten Cats.

• 9:10Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 9:10Speaker 01

  The next, and we spent, I don't know, five, six hours together. The next night.

• 9:15Speaker 02

  Yeah, because you're there all day.

• 9:16Speaker 01

  Yeah, the next night, I met him outside the Groucho Club in Soho.

• 9:21Speaker 02

  Right.

• 9:22Speaker 01

  And I went, Shaun. And he went, oh, come over, we can have a photo. And I was like, no, I, I was, I was with you. I was, I was with you last night.

• 9:31Speaker 02

  He didn't recognise you.

• 9:32Speaker 01

  He didn't recognise me.

• 9:35Speaker 01

  It was literally like 12 hours later, didn't recognise you.

• 9:38Speaker 02

  I said to him, because I, I did it, I only did it a couple of times because he said, oh, why don't you come on? Uh, because, you know, this is when he was not very well and it was just a sort of chance to hang around with him. And he, uh, and I said, Shaun, I said, I've noticed that when, when the other comedians are doing the, you know, that dictionary corner thing, which is often like new comedians getting a little five minute bit. I said, you, you don't laugh at them if you don't find them funny. I said, you know, and it kind of looks a bit awkward. I said, you know, you, it wouldn't hurt just to laugh. And he goes, I don't want to encourage them.

• 10:17Speaker 02

  And he, and that was, that was sort of his. Yes. It was like, he wasn't, he was, I mean, he was interested in what people thought, I guess, but, but not to that extent. Not like me when I'm thinking, how do I look? You know? I'll laugh, yeah. How, where do you want me to laugh? Which camera do you want me to laugh down?

• 10:36Speaker 01

  I'll do that, I'll do that. So eager to please.

• 10:38Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 10:39Speaker 01

  I'll do that, yeah, I'll do that.

• 10:40Speaker 02

  It's unusual in a, in a comic, because most of us are kind of at heart, people pleasers.

• 10:45Speaker 01

  When he died.

• 10:47Speaker 02

  Hmm.

• 10:48Speaker 01

  How, I mean, I think for, for many of you guys who were such good friends with him, that was pretty tough, wasn't it?

• 10:55Speaker 02

  Well, yeah, I mean, this is the reality of getting older, unfortunately. And someone said to me the other day that, um, it's the interesting people that die and you're left with the dull people, which is like a really.

• 11:07Speaker 02

  Uh awful prospect, isn't it? It's not me, that's not true. Yeah, it was awful. I mean, he was, you know, he was unwell for a long time and he kept it um kept it hidden and was very kind of funny about it, you know, in a way.

• 11:21Speaker 01

  That that's what I find scary about life is that, and I've I've got, I I'm at the ripe old age of twenty thirty five, where suddenly I I I sort of, you know, I think about parents and all these, and life suddenly goes.

• 11:37Speaker 02

  Hmm, yeah, it speeds up, certainly, yeah.

• 11:40Speaker 01

  It suddenly get like, I feel like age of like naught to fifteen years took ages. And then it just gets quicker and quicker and quicker as we grow up, and it's scary.

• 11:50Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, it is scary. But um that's why we have to enjoy the moment. And on that note, goodbye.

• 12:02Speaker 02

  One of the great gifts to me was, you know, I wasn't, you know, I didn't, wasn't cut out to be a doctor. What I learnt from being a doctor for, you know.

• 12:12Speaker 01

  Seven years.

• 12:14Speaker 02

  When I was in medical school for five, but then I was only really a doctor for two, three maybe, was seeing people dying. You know, people who had saved money all their life, who had, you know, been jogging and were fit and, you know, it seemed to me it was completely random when your moment came.

• 12:36Speaker 01

  Really?

• 12:37Speaker 02

  And I thought, and it was clear to me, you've got to, you've got to make the most of it and you've got to, you know, life is short and that was um, and everyone learns that lesson, actually. But and you're beginning to learn it, you know, I can hear. But often it doesn't come till you're fifty, sixty, whatever.

• 12:55Speaker 01

  What what is important in life?

• 12:57Speaker 02

  The important, the important thing is not what you think it is when you're younger. You know, it's not money, it's not uh houses and stuff. It's success, it's not even, it's not success, it's, I mean, you know, you need enough of this stuff. But uh, you know, it's, it's actually the process, it's the day to day. It's the, you know, um, you know, one of them, uh, my wife and my sort of happiest times is we, for some reason, it's stuck in our mind, we were sitting on a bench in Nice, eating a cream bun. Sharing this massive cream bun.

• 13:39Speaker 01

  I love that, the simplicity of it.

• 13:41Speaker 02

  Yeah, and that, and it's actually those things. It's, it's not even like, you know, everyone says, oh, seeing my baby being born. It's, it's not actually even those. It's just a laugh, you know, with the kids in the car or, you know, you know, breaking into song when you, you know, hearing a song on the radio and you, you will sing. You know, it's, it's just, it's actually a lot of those kind of mundane things.

• 14:06Speaker 01

  Why was that moment with the bun so great?

• 14:09Speaker 02

  Uh, it just seemed kind of, I don't know, perfect, I suppose, yeah.

• 14:36Speaker 00

  Hey, it's Adam Grant from TED's Rethinking Podcast. As businesses scale, success depends on how well knowledge is captured, shared, and kept up to date. Camtasia Pro turns teams' expertise into engaging training, onboarding, and documentation. No professional editing experience required. With the industry's best screen recording, video editing, and AI-powered workflows, you can train faster and boost operational efficiency. Get over a hundred dollars off your first year at camtasia pro dot com and start building a smarter way to educate customers, onboard employees, and ensure valuable expertise is shared across teams.