In pictures: Keith Harris
- Published
Keith Harris was born in Hampshire in 1947. One of his first TV appearances, aged 17, was the BBC show Let's Laugh, which was the forerunner to The Comedians. He then had a puppet rabbit called Percy Picktooth.
But it was his work with the baby duck Orville for which he became most famous. The Keith Harris Show ran on the BBC for eight years from 1982 to 1990. He also had chart success with the largely irritating earworm Orville’s Song, which sold more than 400,000 copies.
Harris also provided the voice of Cuddles the Monkey - the sidekick and nemesis of Orville. The monkey's catchphrase was "I hate that duck".
The pair were household names and would regularly appear on the light entertainment circuit, as seen here on Blankety Blank with stars including Cilla Black, Lenny Henry and June Whifield
In 2000, Harris appeared on Antiques Roadshow with a painting of the pier at Great Yarmouth by McIntyre, a Sheffield artist. His manager gave him the painting as he had performed many seasons at the Britannia Pier.
In 2002, documentary maker Louis Theroux interviewed Harris for a TV special, during which he talked about a battle with alcohol. Harris, who was appearing in pantomime, also spoke bitterly about TV offers drying up, telling Theroux: "Most of the children that'll come have never heard of Orville, 'cos we haven't been on the TV for a long time. Ask me why? Because we're not chefs."
In 2004, Harris and Orville appeared on a celebrity edition of The Weakest Link. He also won the Five reality TV show The Farm in 2005.
- Published28 April 2015
- Published28 April 2015
