Harry Hill’s Alien Fun Capsule (ITV, 2017-2019)
As you should know by now, I am a fan of Harry Hill, and his comedy career has experienced a lot of ups and downs over the years. After the successful TV Burp ended, he went on to a few other things, including a revival of Stars In Their Eyes, which was a rather unlikely move that didn’t really pay off, but pleasingly, another one of his shows was much better at showing off his bizarre style of humour.
Harry Hill’s Alien Fun Capsule was just about a comedy panel game, although there was no competitive element as such, it was just an excuse for everyone being rather daft as possible. The idea was that panellists would try to compile funny moments to put in a capsule that would help explain to aliens what the world was like, and try to stop an invasion.
Two teams of two took part, that changed with every edition. The panellists were more imaginative than most shows, with unusual combinations of comedians, TV hosts, and actors all taking part. I hope they realised what they were letting themselves in for! There was often a round that was designed for one of the panellists to play.
There would also be a few regular features, including a clip from the You’ve Been Framed! archive, strange moments from old TV shows, a look at local newspaper headlines, and as always, a special musical number would end the show. Maybe Harry would encouraged to press his button, and put something into the capsule. There was also an appearance from Harry’s old friend Stouffer the cat, which was terrific.
When TV Burp was at the peak of its popularity, some critics said that this should be on ITV every week, although that wouldn’t have really been possible. However, with Alien Fun Capsule, Harry had definitely found a new format that was creative and amusing enough to run for just as long, as this was his area of comedy, and he managed to deal with every unusual turn. So it was rather a shame that this ended after three series. Hopefully he’ll return with a new idea soon.
ADAM'S NOSTALGIC MEMORIES 