Rod Hull died in a freak accident after falling from the roof of his home while trying to adjust the television aerial in 1999

A This Morning star said he blames himself for 70s comedian Rod Hull’s death.

In 1999, at the age of 63, Hull passed away in a freak accident as he fell from the roof of his house while he was trying to adjust the television aerial.

He slipped and fell before being taken to hospital with a severe skull fracture and chest injuries. Following an inquest, the coroner recorded a verdict of accidental death.

Hull became a well known name in the 1970s and 1980s as he appeared on TV regularly.He would appear with his puppet Emu which was a mute and highly aggressive bird.

Rod Hull died in 1999 (
Image:
Getty Images)

Gyles said he blames himself (
Image:
Getty Images)

25 years later, This Morning star Gyles Brandreth has now said he feels partly responsible for what happened that night. Speaking on the latest episode of his Rosebud podcast, whose guest this week is John Cleese, Gyles explained how he encouraged his friend to scale his roof on the night he died.

He said: “I killed a man – it was Rod Hull, the emu man.” The night that Hull died, Gyles said he had been watching the opening night of Animal Crackers, which is a show about the Marx brothers.

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Recalling the night, Gyles said: “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.”

He added: “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.”

Gyles said that he had “encouraged” his friend but wasn’t actually there when the star fell to his death. He then moved on to talk about what Hull’s funeral was like and that he always wanted to include an element of humour.

He said the comedian wanted his puppet to be part of the funeral. Gyles said: “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.”