Portal:South East England/Selected biography/18

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Rod Hull (13 August 1935 - 18 March 1999) was a popular entertainer on British television in the 1970s and 1980s. He rarely appeared without Emu, a mute, highly aggressive arm-length puppet of such a bird. He died after falling from the roof of his house, whilst trying to adjust the TV aerial.

Hull was born in the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, England in 1935. He spent his early career in Australia, where he worked on a children's breakfast TV programme, The Super Flying Fun Show, and first used Emu as a puppet. Emu became a regular part of Hull's set on cabarets back in the United Kingdom and Australia. Soon after, his Australian success translated to his native country with Hull appearing on several children's and adult light entertainment shows. In the late 1980s Hull bought Restoration House in Rochester, but went bankrupt renovating it. The house was repossessed and he moved to East Sussex.