Do we like Adam Hills?
Our score: 8 out of 10. Nothing harmful in his own words turned up, two apologised-for blunders, and years of real work for disability causes.
Hills is one of those rare blokes with a foot in two countries. He hosted Spicks and Specks for seven seasons and fronted his own ABC series. Then Channel 4 hired him for the London 2012 Paralympics, which grew into the weekly satire show The Last Leg. These days he has racked up more Last Leg episodes than Spicks and Specks ones, and he writes kids' books on the side.
His biggest local stoush was in November 2015, when he tweeted that Australia would send a better message to the world if it hung Pauline Hanson from the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The backlash was instant. He said he meant a harness against the French flag on the Opera House, insisted he didn't want her dead, and apologised the next day. It was a nasty line, but a one-off, aimed at a politician, and he copped the criticism.
The other blot came in 2022, when The Last Leg aired a Three Lions parody pitched at the Qatar World Cup, with lyrics about gay men being executed. Viewers called it tasteless, and Hills tweeted an apology, saying it was meant as a protest at a tournament in a country where being gay is illegal. He also said it was made before a mass shooting at an LGBTQ+ venue in the US. Clumsy, yes, but the target was the host country's laws, and he said sorry.
On the harm check, nothing turned up from him that targets LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants or the planet. He has used The Last Leg to go after the UK government, including a 2015 rant over child poverty targets. In a 2021 interview he said comedians should read the room, and that losing your audience probably means you got it wrong. He fronts The Last Leg with Josh Widdicombe and Alex Brooker, and nothing we found suggests a worrying company-keeping pattern. We found nothing from him on trans rights either way, so that gap is honest.
The recent news is cheerful. The Last Leg moved to SBS in Australia in October 2025, and Spicks and Specks returns this July with a big guest list, including Amy Shark, Ruel, Dami Im and Kate Miller-Heidke. It's a feel-good return to the music quiz many of us grew up with.
The good stuff is the real stuff. He became an ambassador for UK charity The Children's Trust in 2020, which supports children with brain injury, and his comedy nights have helped raise over £50,000 for therapy equipment. In the 2022 New Year Honours he was made an MBE for services to Paralympic sport and disability awareness. He said he was chuffed to bits, and the work behind it is the thing fans love him for.