Former doctor Harry Hill has revealed how he very nearly made his medical comeback to help out during the height of the Covid19 crisis.

Hill was talking to Jason Manford as part of Manford's new regular Thursday night Weekly Stand Up online show when the chat got as serious. Or as serious as chat can be when Hill is around – this conversation came shortly after Hill has introduced a puppet that he claimed was his lockdown partner Chris Whitty.

Hill explained that even after becoming a successful comedian he had still paid the annual fee to be on the Medical Register, having qualified as a doctor three decades ago. He joked to Jason Manford that he did it so that he could still write prescriptions.

Because he was still on the register, earlier in the year he received an email from the General Medical Council asking him if he had thought about joining back up. Hill – real name Matthew Hall – was one of many retired doctors they were hoping to enlist to help out if the NHS was swamped with Covid19 cases.

Hill says that one night – "I had a few drinks" – he clicked on the link to show some interest and was told he would get a call back about his return to work.

His worry was that he had only been a junior doctor and it was a long time ago. He was an SHO in hospital, a role that he doesn't think even exists today. Would he be able to deal with heart attacks and chest illnesses now when he was not medically match fit?

And then he then got a message asking him to start immediately at the Excel Nightingale Hospital in east London that had recently been opened to deal with the pandemic, which he found chilling. He made his excuses and said that as he lived in south London it would be too far to get to. 

In theory he is still on the list in case there is a major second spike, but he is hoping that he won't be needed. "Can you imagine if you are seriously ill and I appear at your bed?"

Details of further Weekly Stand Ups are here.

Harry Hill's World Of TV, BBC Two from Sunday, 23 August at 8.30pm.