First shows in six years

Harry Hill has announced the dates of his first live tour in six years, to be called Sausage Time.

He will play 40 nights next spring, kicking off in Canterbury on February 7 and ending in Edinburgh on March 30.

Hill will be joined by his showband, Stouffer the Cat and characters including Gary, Harry’s son from his first marriage (who was Alan Sugar in TV Burp) doing his first stand-up set and whistler-of-chart-hits Sam.

His return to stand-up – playing large theatres rather than arenas –  follows him stepping down from TV Burp after 11 gruelling series over a ten-year period.

The announcement comes less that a week before Channel 4’s spoof retrospective Whatever Happened to Harry Hill, and while an exhibited of his paintings and sculptures, My Hobby, is on at Edinburgh Art Festival.

In an interview last week, Hill said: ‘I wouldn't want to tour all year round. I look at other stand-ups that do that and think it would drive me mad. But at the same time, I wouldn't want to do TV all the time. I got a bit fed up of doing it. What you want is to do a bit of both. So I'm doing stand-up now.’

This will be his first tour since Hooves in 2006.

Hill is currently writing X Factor: The Musical, to be produced for the West End.

Click here for his tour dates – and the warm-ups he is doing this autumn. Tickets for the full tour go on sale between Tuesday and Thursday next week.

Published: 17 Aug 2012