Later Life
In the late 1980s Hull bought Restoration House in Rochester for £270,000 but the cost of renovations and an unpaid tax bill resulted in bankruptcy in 1994. Hull's second wife Cher Hylton-Hull already had a daughter, and the couple had three children together. Cher was instrumental in his success, moved the family to her home country of Australia, while Hull remained in England, and moved to a shepherd's cottage in East Sussex.
Hull was in the public eye less frequently during the 1990s, appearing in pantomime and television commercials, and winning the 1993 "Pipe Smoker of the Year" award. Nonetheless, his name remained well-known, and comedians Richard Herring and Stewart Lee included a "false Rod Hull" character in their 1996 television sketch show, Fist of Fun, played by the actor Kevin Eldon. This character was performed as a grotesque imitation, a character who was finally unmasked by the real Rod Hull, who appeared (minus Emu) in the last episode of the series. It was to be Hull's penultimate television appearance.
A 2003 Channel 4 documentary, Rod Hull: A Bird in the Hand, revealed that Hull nursed an increasing resentment towards his puppet, believing that the success of the bird prevented him from pursuing other avenues in show business. He saw himself, according to the makers of the programme, as a talented performer who could have developed a more varied career in the entertainment industry had he not been forced to repeatedly play the 'and Emu' role. Hull once complained, "I want to write but Emu doesn't leave me the time. I want to be a comedian in my own right, but again Emu won't let me do it."
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