Fred Harris

Who is Fred Harris?

Fred Harris is a British comedian and children's television presenter. Formerly a school teacher, he began his television career as a presenter of the BBC children's programme Play School, on which he appeared regularly between 1973 and 1988. During this time he was also a presenter on Ragtime and Chock-A-Block.

He fronted several home computing BBC programmes during the rise of the microcomputer in the early 1980s. He also presented a number of educational and schools programmes on the subject of maths, including ATV's Figure it Out, Central Television's Basic Maths and Channel 4's Make It Count.

His career in comedy involved regular appearances in radio shows such as Huddwinks, The Half-Open University, The Burkiss Way and Star Terk II and in the television show End of Part One.

In the 1990s, he presented the Radio 4 programme The Litmus Test.

From late 1990s up to the present day he can be seen on the British Forces Broadcasting Service children's programme Room 785. Here he presents the "Broom Cupboard" slot introducing the forthcoming programmes.