Comedian Harry Hill has admitted he feels uncomfortable if fans ask to wear his glasses when taking a photograph with him as he was teased about the accessory at school.
The 60-year-old comedian, real name Matthew Hall, has made his glasses a defining feature of his public persona, alongside a black suit and white shirt with a markedly oversized collar.
Speaking to The Times, Hill said: “I went to school in my glasses and got teased. Kids would say, ‘Can I have a go with your glasses?’ They’d take them off me and pass them around.”
He continued: “It was an awful feeling. To this day, if anyone asks to try on my glasses for selfies, it makes me really antsy.”
Pre-teens who wear glasses or an eye patch are a third more likely to be bullied than those who don’t, previous research has found.
Hill, whose breakthrough comedy moment came when he won the Perrier award for best newcomer at the Edinburgh Fringe in 1992, said he opted to wear his glasses as he rose to fame to aid representation.
“I made a conscious effort to wear glasses when I became a comic because I remember whenever someone wore glasses on TV,” he said.
In a 2012 campaign with charity SeeAbility, Hill reflected: “I was eight when I first started wearing glasses and straight away the insults started: 'Oi, four eyes!'; 'Oi, gogglebox.’”
Elsewhere in the interview, Hill showed his admiration for fellow comic Chris McCausland, who became the first blind person to win Strictly Come Dancing in 2024.
“Chris McCausland is an inspiration,” he said. “I did a TV show with him and it was fantastic spending time with someone who can’t see – a real education for me.
“I was supposed to be looking after him, but the first day he got in the car and banged his head. The producer was saying, “Where were you?”
Hill trained as a doctor but gave up in 1990 to become a comedian; two years later he won the Perrier Award at Edinburgh Fringe and began hosting his own show, Fruit Corner, on Radio 4 in 1993.
He presented the ITV programme Harry Hill’s TV Burp for 11 years, winning three Bafta TV awards and narrated You’ve Been Framed! for 18 years. He now presents Junior Bake Off on Channel 4.
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