Ainsley Harriott has reflected on his 2018 viral moment, which saw him surprising an elderly woman at her home with an announcement of: “Why hello Jill…!”
Last year, Ainsley was part of a surprise for one lucky ‘This Morning’ viewer, who, as you can probably guess, was named Jill.
The pensioner’s children surprised her for Mother’s Day by having Alison Hammond and the ‘This Morning’ team show up at her home live on air, but the proceedings quickly took a surreal turn.
Seated next to Alison on the sofa, Jill looked somewhat overwhelmed as watched two men carried an enormous TV into her living room for her to enjoy future episodes of ‘This Morning’ on.
The cherry on top, though, was Alison’s revelation that Ainsley was arriving to cook her a “treat dish” for breakfast, at which point the TV chef tip-toed in, waving a frying pan and uttering the immortal line: “Why helloooo Jill.”
Almost a year on, Ainsley sat down with Radio 1′s Greg James – a “why hello Jill” superfan, who was partly responsible for the scene going viral – to discuss the infamous moment, admitting he hadn’t a clue that it would gain such infamy.
He explained: “It was amazing. I think she was a little bit sort of frightened at the prospect of these two enormous people sitting side by side. Looking at her.”
Admitting he had “no idea” just how big his viral moment had become, Greg then played Ainsley some fans versions of “why hello Jill”, including his own recorded at the top of Ben Nevis.
“Everyone’s just loving it aren’t they?” Ainsley said. “Well thank you guys, what can I say? You have that one little moment of joy and it spreads so much joy everywhere.”
And now, just because we love it so much, here’s the moment itself again…