Gyles Brandreth says he killed Harry Secombe too!
Gyles Brandreth has revealed he feels responsible for killing Welsh comedian Harry Secombe after admitting he played a role in the death of Rod Hull.
The ITV star and former MP, 76, claimed he ‘killed’ the Goons funnyman after speaking to the 79-year-old moments before he fell down the stairs of his Guildford home in 2001.
Brandreth said the beloved comic was unable to come onto his LBC radio show as he ‘wasn’t feeling well’ and so Gyles interviewed him over the phone instead.
After, their conversation, Harry ‘stepped back to call down to his wife, and he slipped backwards down the stairs’ and died of cancer in hospital days later.
It comes as Gyles also revealed he ‘blames himself’ for the death of Rod Hull, who was famed for his emu attacks on Michael Parkinson and several other celebrities and died in 1999 after falling from the roof of his bungalow.
Gyles Brandreth who has revealed he feels responsible for killing Welsh comedian Harry Secombe after admitting he also played a role in the death of Rod Hull
The Goons funnyman, pictured in 1997, spoke to Gyleson his LBC talk show just moments before falling down the stairs of his Guildford home in 2001
Rod Hull died in 1999 after falling from the roof of his bungalow and suffering a severe skull fracture and chest injuries (pictured 1990). Gyles claimed he also had a part to play in the entertainer’s death
Speaking on his Rosebud podcast, Gyles admitted: ‘I also killed Harry Secombe. He died unexpectedly, unfortunately.
‘He very kindly, he wasn’t feeling well, and I was doing a programme for LBC in the late 1990s or just the beginning of the 21st century.
‘And he went ahead with the interview. He had to do it by phone, he couldn’t come into the studio.
‘He was standing at the top of the stairs, and the interview went well, and he was holding the phones, saying “I’ve finished doing the interview with Gyles now – it went surprisingly well”.
‘And he’d stepped back to call down to his wife, and he slipped backwards down the stairs. I’m afraid a few days later he died.’
Sir Harry was loved by millions for his pioneering brilliance on radio’s The Goon Show. He retired from showbusiness in 1999 after a lifetime of comedy, song and charity work which earned him a knighthood in 1981.
Sir Harry had battled ill health for many years before his death. He had suffered from diabetes and then prostate cancer.
Brandreth said after his interview with Sir Harry, he ‘stepped back to call down to his wife, and he slipped backwards down the stairs’ and died of cancer in hospital days later
Sir Harry was loved by millions for his pioneering brilliance on radio’s The Goon Show
Earlier in the podcast, Gyles also revealed the part he played in Rod Hull’s death: ‘I killed a man – it was Rod Hull, the emu man.
‘We were at the theatre, we were at the first night of Animal Crackers – it was a show about the Marx brothers.
‘Terrible, terrible weather that night. And he was sitting next to me, and he was complaining all through the show – was interrupting the show almost – going on about how he wanted to get home because he wanted to watch the football, but his Sky aerial wasn’t transmitting properly.
‘And I said, ‘Don’t moan about it, if you want to watch the television get a ladder out, climb on to the roof, and fix it Rod’.
‘And after the show, in this stormy weather, he went home, he got out a ladder, he climbed the ladder, and he tried to fix the aerial.
‘Unfortunately the wind was very great and he fell backwards off the ladder and killed himself.
‘So I wasn’t actually there, but I’d encouraged him.’
Gyles went onto explain how Rod included his iconic emu into his funeral as he had arranged for a knocking sound accompanying the entry of his coffin.
He added: ‘It was a great funeral though because at his funeral the coffin came in, and as the coffin was being carried in, it was a sort of [constant tapping sound].
‘He’d arranged a beak sound to be inside the coffin as though the emu was also in the coffin.’
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