Editing Rolf Harris (section)

===1950s===
Harris moved to England in 1952<ref name="BBC q"/> and became an art student at [[City and Guilds of London Art School]] in South London, aged 22. In 1953 he found work in television, at the [[BBC]], performing a regular ten-minute cartoon drawing section in a one-hour children's show called ''Jigsaw'', with a puppet called "Fuzz", made and operated on the show by magician [[Robert Harbin]]. He went on to illustrate ''Paper Magic'', Harbin's first book on origami, in 1956. In 1954, Harris was a regular on [[BBC Television]] programme ''Whirligig'', which featured a character called "Willoughby", who sprang to life on a drawing board, but was erased at the end of each episode.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.whirligig-tv.co.uk/tv/children/whirligig/whirligig.htm |title=Whirligig nostalgia web-site |publisher=Whirligig-tv.co.uk |access-date=17 January 2011}}</ref>

By this stage, Harris had drifted away from art school as a slightly disillusioned student. He then met his longtime hero, Australian impressionist painter [[Hayward Veal]] (1913–1968), who became his mentor, teaching him the rudiments of impressionism and showing him how it could help with his portrait painting.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/5087294.stm |title=Entertainment &#124; Rolf Harris: People's painter |work=[[BBC News]] |date=16 June 2006 |access-date=19 April 2013}}</ref> At the time that he was working with Veal, Harris was also entertaining with his [[piano accordion]] every Thursday night at a club called the Down Under, frequented by Australians and New Zealanders. At the Down Under venue Harris honed his entertainment skills over several years, eventually writing what later became his theme song, "[[Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport]]".<ref>[http://www.markdapin.com.au/features/rolfharris.html Rolf Harris: Portrait of an artist as an older man] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140717072258/http://www.markdapin.com.au/features/rolfharris.html |date=17 July 2014 }}, Mark Dapin, 21 July 2006. Retrieved 27 June 2014.</ref>

Although Harris chiefly appeared on the BBC, he was also on the British [[ITV (TV network)|ITV]] network, and when commercial television started in 1955, he was the only entertainer to work with both the BBC and [[ITV (TV channel)|ITV]]. He performed on the BBC with his own creation, Willoughby, a specially made board on which he drew Willoughby (voiced and operated by [[Peter Hawkins]]). The character would then come to life to engage in a comedic dialogue with Harris as he drew cartoons of Willoughby's antics.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/8594443.stm |title=Valued exposure: Willoughby |work=[[BBC News]] |access-date=19 April 2013}}</ref> On [[Associated Rediffusion]]'s ''Small Time'',<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rolfharrisentertainer.com/television.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110409195222/http://www.rolfharrisentertainer.com/television.html |url-status=dead |archive-date= 9 April 2011 |title=Rolf Harris web-site |publisher=Rolfharrisentertainer.com |access-date=25 May 2012}}</ref> Harris invented a character called Oliver Polip the Octopus, which he drew on the back of his hand and animated. Harris then illustrated the character's adventures with cartoons on huge sheets of card.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tntdownunder.com/entertainment/celebrities/interview-rolf-harris-still-going-strong|title=Interview: Rolf Harris – Can you tell what it is yet?|work=TNT Down Under|date=26 May 2012|access-date=19 April 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130522071547/http://www.tntdownunder.com/entertainment/celebrities/interview-rolf-harris-still-going-strong|archive-date=22 May 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Harris returned to [[Perth]] in Australia when television was introduced there in 1959 after he was [[Executive search|headhunted]]. He subsequently produced and starred in five episodes of a half-hour weekly children's show, as well as his own weekly evening variety show.<ref name="BBCprofile">{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-22216075|title=Rolf Harris: Profile|work=[[BBC News]] |access-date=19 February 2017}}</ref> From 1959, he worked on [[TVW-7]]'s first locally produced show, ''Spotlight'', and during this time he recorded "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport" on a single microphone placed above him in the television studio.<ref>{{Cite web|last1=Brown|first1=Sarah|last2=Balnaves|first2=Mark|date=20 January 2011|title=Rolf Harris Transcript 2011|url=https://purl.slwa.wa.gov.au/slwa_b4177921_2.pdf|access-date=26 May 2021|publisher=State Library of Western Australia}}</ref>

The song was sent to [[EMI]] in Sydney, and was released shortly afterwards as a record, becoming both his first recording and his first number one single. The song was successful in the UK. Harris offered four local backing musicians to split 10% of the royalties from the song, but they decided to take a recording fee of £7 each ({{Inflation|AU|7|1960|r=0|fmt=eq|cursign=[[A$]]}}), because they did not think the song would be successful.<ref>Did you know&nbsp;... page 18 "''Westside News''", 20 February 2008&nbsp;– Brisbane, Queensland, Australia</ref> The novelty song was originally titled "Kangalypso"<ref>{{cite web|title=Where Did They Get That Song?|url=http://www.poparchives.com.au/1164/rolf-harris/kangalypso|website=Pop Archives|access-date=7 June 2014|year=2014}}</ref> and featured the distinctive sound of the "[[wobble board]]".<ref name="StateLibrary" />

The fourth verse – "[[Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport#Deleted verse|Let me abos go loose, Lou/Let me abos go loose/They're of no further use, Lou/So let me abos go loose]]" – became increasingly controversial, because of the use of what later became regarded as a [[List of ethnic slurs|racial slur]], and was removed in later versions of the song. In 2006, four decades after the song's release, Harris expressed his regret about the original lyric.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.theage.com.au/news/music/rolf-sorry-he-let-racist-lyrics-loose/2006/12/05/1165080950179.html|title=Rolf's lyrics 'a sign of the times'|author=Renee Switzer|work=[[The Age]]|date=6 December 2006|access-date=3 December 2007}}</ref>