Comedian Harry Hill has been unmasked as Red Panda on The Masked Singer.
The 61-year-old was eliminated after receiving the fewest votes from the studio audience, leaving the ITV singing competition ahead of the semi-final next week.
At the beginning of Saturday’s episode, presenter Joel Dommett revealed the identity of a mascot dressed as a mole – who in last week’s espionage-themed episode gave the judges clues regarding the masked singers’ identities – as singer-songwriter Olly Murs.
Murs joined Jonathan Ross, Maya Jama, Mo Gilligan and Davina McCall on the judging panel to try to unmask the remaining singers’ identities.
Hill’s reveal as Red Panda left the judges astonished as none of them had mentioned the comedian in their guesses, with Dommett telling him: “You disguised your voice so well!”
After being unmasked, Hill told the panel he was “not a natural singer”.
“My wife heard me rehearsing the other day, and she she thought I was choking on a Pot Noodle,” he said.
Asked by Davina McCall if he enjoyed participating in the show, Hill playfully replied: “No.”
“Of course I enjoyed it,” he then added.
“The weird thing is, you put the thing on and you’ve got no kind of inhibition.
“The only downside is you’re re-breathing your own breath, because it’s all trapped.
“And I had falafel for lunch.”
Hill performed one last rendition of The Black Eyed Peas’ 2009 hit I Gotta Feeling before leaving the competition.
Speaking after the show, Hill seemed amused that his identity was not guessed by any of the judges this season, despite his name having come up “pretty much every year” in the past.
“I’ve been watching at home hearing my name mentioned and I would get texts from people saying ‘are you Kingfisher, are you Hedgehog?’,” he said.
Murs’ guess for Red Panda’s secret identity had been Alan Carr, whose voice Hill admitted he mimicked during his performances.
“Because my voice is quite well known, because I’ve done You’ve Been Framed, I think a lot of people recognise my voice more than me,” Hill said.
“So I thought, I’ve got to disguise it and Alan Carr came to me in a dream.
“I know Alan, he is a great friend of mine and he is going to be horrified when he sees this.
“Alan, if you’re watching, you’ve got to do this.”
Earlier this year, Red Panda was removed from a Masked Singer episode due to “potential insensitivities” in the wake of the Swiss bar fire that killed 40 people on New Year’s Eve.
An ITV spokesperson then said the decision was made “owing to potential insensitivities within the theme and lyrics of the song” Hill was due to perform during that episode.
Images appeared to show Red Panda wearing sooty hi-vis firefighter overalls and a helmet with a flames and bucket symbol.
ITV has not revealed what song the character was to perform.
Some 119 people were injured in the blaze at the Crans-Montana resort that started while revellers were celebrating New Year’s Eve.
Remaining singers whose identities have yet to be revealed and who have gone through to the semi-final include Toastie, Conkers, Sloth, Moth and Can of Worms.
The ITV singing competition returns next Saturday at 7pm on ITV1 and ITVX.
