It is 50 years ago today (Sunday) that a rebel emu made its royal debut at the world famous London Palladium and turned a gawky lad from Sheppey into a star.

It was the 1972 Royal Variety Performance before Her Majesty The Queen Mother where Rod Hull became an "instant" hit in front of 18 million TV viewers.

The former electrical apprentice had emigrated to Australia to seek fame and fortune and returned with a feathered raffia puppet under his arm.

The show's compere Dickie Henderson became one of the first to suffer at the hands, or rather beak, of Rod's punishing pet following a routine with a hoop. But he would not be the last as a reign of TV terror was about to be unleashed.

On that fateful night, Rod found himself sharing the stage with comedy greats Ken Dodd and Mike Yarwood, camp American pianist Liberace, who appeared in an electrically illuminated £5,000 suit (it was the era of power cuts), and the ever-glamorous female impersonator Danny La Rue who, refusing to be upstaged by a piano player, wafted in with four costumes costing an outrageous £7,000.

Also in that line-up were the Jackson Five, with a young Michael, singer Jack Jones and Rocket Man Elton John. The show also featured a sketch from the Till Death Us Do Part TV cast starring Rod's friend Warren Mitchell.

The Alf Garnett actor recalled later: "I could hear the laughter in my dressing room. But it was more like screaming. I'd never heard anything like it. And we had to follow him..."

But it was after the curtain came down and the cast were lining up to be introduced to the royal VIP that Emu really stole the limelight. The bird snatched The Queen Mother's bouquet and then grabbed the following day's headlines.

Rod later told Des O'Connor: "I didn't know what the protocol was so I bowed very low and Emu's head came level with the bouquet. Before I knew it, he went 'chomp' and Her Majesty was left holding a bunch of stalks."

It's a wonder Rod never ended up in the Tower.

Emu's list of victims grew long and varied and most famously included chat show host Michael Parkinson who refused to have anything more to do with "that bloody bird" after it tore his script to sheds and then pulled him to the ground off his swivel seat in 1976.

Fellow guest Billy Connolly, never one to be messed with, threatened Rod: "If that bird comes anywhere near me, I'll break its neck and your bloody arm!" Emu's behaviour rapidly improved.

Parky later told the TV documentary The Unforgettable Rod Hull: "We knew what we were getting when we booked Rod. But we didn't know to what degree. Otherwise, with hindsight, I wouldn't have booked him.

"I knew I was going to get done over. We allowed for that. We put him on first so we would have time to rebuild the set. But I really lost my temper with him. Absurdly, it is what I am remembered most for."

Even I have felt the full force of the showbiz beak while trying to interview its host backstage at Maidstone's Hazlitt Theatre. I can understand Parky's panic.

You knew in your bones that the thing was coming at you as soon as it locked eyes. But the power still took hapless victims by surprise. It felt like it had a mind of its own.

Rod then apologised on its behalf.

Rodney Stephen Hull was born on August 13, 1935, on the sun-kissed Isle of Sheppey and went to Delamark Road Primary School and then the County Technical School for Boys - both in Sheerness and now both demolished. He would return for Technical school reunions and proudly pose wearing his old school cap.

Rod's dad Len was a bus conductor and a member of the Maidstone and District Bus Company concert party. It wasn't long before Rod, who loved entertaining, had joined, too.

He and his mate Bill Wallace, who had been friends from the age of five, formed a comedy double-act as teenagers. Red-haired Rod would try to play the violin and Bill would bash away on a piano.

Bill told the Channel 4 documentary Rod Hull: A Bird in the Hand: "Rod was naturally funny. Even going back to our early school days he had a unique sense of humour. He was an awful practical joker."

He recalled: "We ended up doing a double act for the local concert party. Rod was the comedian and I was the straight man. It was dreadful but it was popular at the time and we thought we were marvellous."

Rod's younger sister Joan said: "His comedy was his defence mechanism because he used to stutter and it took him a while to get over that. He'd say he wasn't the tall, good-looking one but was funny."

Rod was always thinking up new ways to entertain his friends.

Veteran reporter Bel Austin, 86, was among them. She remembered: "We would go round to his mum's house in Southview Gardens, Sheerness, where he'd try to entertain us with jokes. He'd use the curtains in the front room as a stage."

When showbusiness failed to beckon, Rod got a 'proper job' as an apprentice electrician with the Co-op. In 1958 he married his childhood sweetheart Sandra, a hairdresser.

In the meantime, his sister Joan had emigrated to Australia and had been writing letters home describing the wonderful life she was leading. When Australia set up its first television station, Joan suggested this was the place her brother should be.

So in 1960, Rod packed his bags and with with his new bride in tow, bought two £10 assisted packages to another life Down Under.

Using his background in electrics, he talked his way into a lighting technician job at the new Channel 9 studios in Sydney. Soon he was appearing in front of the camera as Constable Clot in the children's afternoon show Kaper Cops which led to his own segment called Clot in the Clouds which featured him daydreaming about other professions, notably the brain surgeon Blood Clot.

Rod ended up co-hosting the children's breakfast programme The Super Flying Fun Show as Caretaker Clot, which is when he first used Emu as a prop. The hatching is hazy. Some sources say Channel 9 producer Jim Badger forced the puppet on him. Rod preferred to say he found it in a cupboard.

By that time, Rod had persuaded engineer Bill to join him in Oz. Bill, who went on to become a TV writer, remembered: "I was at his house and bent down to turn the TV on and suddenly there was an emu gooseing me. I turned round and it was Rod. He told me it was going to be used on the show. They were a perfect match."

When British comic Warren Mitchell met Rod by chance on a show he offered to triple the fellow Pom's wages if he joined him on tour. The pair became firm friends.

Rod returned to Blighty in 1971 with a highly aggressive Emu stuffed inside his suitcase and was signed almost immediately to International Artists. Agent Laurie Mansfield recalled: "This very shy man turned up at the office unannounced one afternoon with a suitcase. We assumed it had all his worldly goods inside.

"He said he did an act with an emu and then this thing exploded out of the case. I couldn't believe it. It tore the desks to pieces and contracts, dust and cups went everywhere. It was unbelievable. I thought it was the funniest thing I had ever seen."

That impromptu audition eventually led to the slot on the Royal Variety Performance. After that, bookings were soon pouring in. In 1975 Rod won his own television series called Emu's Broadcasting Company which ran to 1980 and was followed by Emu's World, EMU TV and Emu's All Live Pink Windmill Show with green witch Grotbags played by Carol Lee Scott.

But behind the scenes there was a bombshell. Sandra and the couple's children, they now had two girls Debbie and Danielle, had returned to England with Rod who then announced the 16-year marriage was over. Back in Australia he had fallen head over heels in love with 25-year-old married commercial artist Cher Hylton - and she was in Britain, too.

Sandra told the Channel 4 documentary: "I had no inkling of it. Suddenly he said he didn't want a family life any more. I was shattered."

Bill commented: "Rod loved Sandra very much and adored his children but when Cher came into his life it was suddenly Cher and that was it."

Cher said: "When I first saw Rod I thought he was skinny, gangly, crazy and unattractive. But he was fairly persistent - and terribly romantic."

The pair, who went on to marry and have three children, Oliver, Amelia and Toby, set up home in Milstead near Sittingbourne.

In 1982 Rod was featured on This Is Your Life after being surprised by Eamonn Andrews. The show reunited him with fellow Islanders Bill Wallace and Bill Jarvis who had been leader of Sheppey Salvation Army Band where Rod had played the bugle. The following year, Rod went to the USA to appear on The Tonight Show where he attacked host Johnny Carson, after being warned not to, alongside fellow guest, a terrified-looking comedian Richard Pryor.

The money was rolling in. Rod was now a millionaire and even Princess Diana booked him and Emu to perform at Kensington House for Prince William's fourth birthday party. So in 1986 Rod decided to snap up the run-down 32-bed Restoration House overlooking The Vines in Crow Lane in the heart of Rochester for £275,000.

The Elizabethan mansion, built in 1587, was so-named because King Charles II was said to have stayed there as he returned to reclaim his crown. It also gave Charles Dickens the inspiration for Satis House in his novel Great Expectations.

But it was to be the undoing of Rod. Restoring the Grade 1 property proved more costly than expected.

And just when he needed the cash, his Big Pink Windmill show was axed by TV bosses in 1988.

On top of that, he was presented with an unpaid tax bill of £650,00. With little money coming in, he was forced to put the property on the market. But there were no takers so the bank ended up with Restoration House and on September 8, 1994, Rod was declared bankrupt.

Cher took the children back to Australia so they avoided the fall-out, leaving Rod to fend for himself. He ended up renting a National Trust bungalow called Shepherd's Cottage on the Kent Sussex border at Icklesham.

He could just afford the £20 a week rent and the odd pint in the nearby Queen's Head Inn where he was known as just Rod. He enjoyed working on his garden and was most at home with his pipe, typewriter and a brandy.

He was happy to keep Emu locked away as he confided to friends that over the years the bird had become like an albatross around his neck. People only ever wanted Emu and not Rod.

Occasionally he appeared on chat shows to talk about his downfall. One of the last gigs was for a private birthday party in a London pub in February, 1999.

A few weeks later, on the night of March 17 he clambered onto his roof to adjust the television aerial during a football match, slipped and fell to his death.

He was 63.

He had made and lost a fortune as a ventriloquist who never learned the difficult art of throwing his voice.

But Cher praised his technique. She said: "He had the knack of splitting his brain in two. You could have a serious conversation with him but at the same time this thing was still alive, moving and pecking."

Toby, from Rod's second marriage, took over his dad's mantel for a while, performing with Emu in Cinderella at the Theatre Royal, Windsor in 2003 and getting his own TV series on CITV.

In June 2018, performer Phil Fletcher was reported to have bought one of the last remaining Emu puppets (there is one still said to be in Australia) for £8,860 at Chippenham Auction Rooms in Wiltshire.

For those who still want to give Rod a run for his money, a Rod and Emu bird puppet can be snapped up on Amazon for £67.60. Cheap at half the price, if you ask me...