I was Harry Hill's naked uncle

Ghosts star Mat Bayton recalls his odd role in sitcom pilot

comedy Ghosts star Mat Baynton has recalled the time he played Harry Hill's naked uncle.

The actor is 16 years Hill's junior and was 'obsessed' with the comic as a teenager so was delighted to be cast in the pilot of a studio sitcom Hill made for the BBC in 2018.

‘Jennifer Saunders was playing [Hill's] mum and I was his uncle, weirdly, that he kept locked in a cupboard.’ Baynton explained to Chris and Rosie Ramsey on their Shagged Married Annoyed podcast.

‘I had long, white hair and a long, white beard and I think I was meant to be naked, it was like, you never really saw … it was so funny but they didn't pick it up.'

• Baynton as he is in Ghosts

A little digging reveals that the pilot – which was not picked up as studio sitcoms were deemed to be out of fashion – also featured Sanjeev Bhaskar, Anna Crilly and Ambreen Razia.

Despite the line-up, Chris Ramsey suggested that it would have been a ‘particularly brave commissioner’ to have ordered the series.

‘I guess so,’ reasoned Baynton. ‘But after TV Burp … it was like, come on, people would lap up anything he does'.

Judge for yourself from this clip that Hill subsequently snuck out on Instagram, featuring a (clothed) Baynton engaging in violent slapstick with Saunders. You need to scroll to the second post, beyond the image of the rubbish.