Part of a reported £2m C4 deal

Harry Hill is reportedly poised to signed a £2million deal to jump to Channel 4 -– including the chance to make a full-length movie.

The broadcaster hopes he’ll sign up in April when his ITV contract expires, and the last episode of TV Burp is in the can.

Hill wants to end the hit show because of the punishing amount of research required for each show, although his decision is said to have sparked a rift with his long-term agents, Avalon, who also make the show.

His new deal is thought to be for a sketch show on Channel 4 and a movie with Film 4, that could get a cinema release before coming out on DVD.

It mirrors the move Morecambe and Wise made in 1978, when they moved from the BBC at the height of their fame because Thames Television offered them the chance to make films – as well as more money. But in what might prove a cautionary tale, the films never achieved critical success, while the ITV shows are largely considered weaker than the BBC ones.

A source close to Hill told the Daily Mirror that Channel 4 ‘have offered him big budgets and a lot of creative freedom to make what he wants, and that’s what attracts him to the offer more than the pay cheque’.

The newspaper says any series might coincide with the channel’s 30th anniversary in November.

Published: 4 Feb 2012