Harry does his nuts

"Who here likes nuts? Hands up"

Not many press conferences start with the subject asking a question, but then no one would expect Harry Hill to follow the norm.

As the assembled lades and gentlemen of the press tentatively raise their hands in an endorsement of nuts, Harry is pleased. "That's right," he says, "they're very moreish, aren't they?"

Celebrity endorsements can be a double edged sword. It's only a decade since a certain brand of brown ale employed cartoon strip character Andy Capp in an ad campaign - was a philandering, unemployed drunk really the image they were looking for?

Fairtrade nut supplier Liberation seems to be on more solid ground with Harry Hill. While his public persona in programmes such as TV Burp and You've Been Framed is as larger-than-life as any cartoon character, there's a real person behind it - a trained doctor with a pronounced social conscience and family links to the farming industry.

Which is what brings the media to London Zoo to photograph the comedian - "actually, I'm an entertainer," he insists - feeding small primates in the zoo's rainforest section, and to talk about a new snack product.

Harry is the face of Harry's Nuts!, a new Fairtrade brand of salted peanuts. Liberation hopes that the brand will soon appearing on back bars and snack shelves in pubs up and down the land. How does such an alliance come about?

Harry says: "Obviously, I get asked to support a lot of causes. The first thing I always ask is 'what's in it for me?'"

However, Harriet Lamb, Executive Director of the Fairtrade Foundation, tells a slightly different story. "Harry phoned me several years ago and asked how he could help. He was one of out first celebrity volunteers."

Accompanied by his brother Rod Hall, a West Country organic farmer, Harry visited Fairtrade banana and cocoa farmers in Ghana in 2002, and also launched the international Fairtrade Mark for the Fairtrade Foundation in that year. At the end of last year, the Foundation put Harry in touch with Liberation.

Harry and Rod visited the farming co-operatives in Malawi which are growing nuts for Liberation. Nut farming co-operatives in Africa and Latin America own 42 per cent of Liberation, their stake in the business funded by Comic Relief.

Which is another link in the chain. Harry has supported Comic Relief over the years, appearing in its bi-annual telethons, and the charity has long-standing links with the Fairtrade movement. Comic Relief's head of international grants, Richard Graham recalls: "Our first Fairtrade investment, many years ago, was a consignment of guava jam, bought directly from the growers.

"It was a great idea. Unfortunately, the jam was minging."

That won't be an issue with Harry's Nuts! Liberation has produced a darker roasted nut than the classic salted peanut, producing a crunchier texture. "We've had to compromise on the recipe," quips Harry. "I prefer the really salty, oily kind." Harry will make no money from this venture so that as much revenue as possible will go back to the smallholder farmers in Africa and Latin America .

The BAFTA award winning comedian has recently travelled to Malawi with his brother Rod Hall, an organic farmer in Devon , where they met some of the peanut farmers and saw for themselves the benefits of Fairtrade.

The nuts will be available in 50g packs, on 24 pack pub cards designed by Harry himself - when all are sold, it revals Harry in nothing a pair of fetching underpants and white gloves. Does he expect this to win customers from the Big D girl? "We'll certainly get the pink pound," he jokes.

At London Zoo, Harry modelled a life size version of the pub card, and insiste he expected the bag covering his underpants to be the most popular - "but they'll have to start from the top and work their way down."

He is looking forward to seeing the nuts on sale in pubs. "I do like pubs. I regularly meet a schoolfriend at the pub. It's a bit awkward though, because she's only 14."

He eventually confesses that the friend is a contemporary, male and now a school teacher, and they meet once a month for a meal and a few pints. "I'm a lager man, but I'm not a big drinker . Three pints is my limit."

With his medical background, how does that fit in with government recommendations for sensible limit? "Three pints a month? I think I'm on safe ground."

In his medical student days, inevitably pubs were a big factor in Harry's life. "We used to do the Wandsworth Eight, a three legged pub crawl," he recalls. The event, still an annual lynchpin of Freshers' Week at St George's medical school, usually saw Harry strapped to a female colleague.

"Because I'm such a lightweight drinker, she ended up dragging me around the pubs."

Later, as his reputation grew on the comedy circuit, Harry saw a different side of the pub trade. "All the comedy venues were pubs, in back rooms or upstairs in function rooms. By the time I came on, it was like looking through a curtain of smoke. You could almost cut through it."

Again taking a medical view, does Harry support the smoking ban? "On health grounds, it would have been far better if smoking had never been invented," he says, "but I support people's right to choose. I know that many pubs have suffered."

Harry hopes his nuts will help in a small way: "I love salted peanuts myself and feel I am doing a service to snackers everywhere who want to know the farmers who grew what they are eating have been paid a fair price."

The nuts come with a recommended price of 59p, which Harriet Lamb of the Fairtrade Foundation believes is eminently affordable in these credit crunch days. "The downturn is a global issue," she says. "Remember, however hard it is for us, it's that much harder for the farmers in developing countries."

Harry chips in: "That's why we're looking to expand the range. Our next product will be a guava jam."

Liberation

Liberation is a Community Interest Company (CIC), 100 per cent run for the benefit of the community it serves - nut farmers and gatherers from poorer parts of the world. It is 42 per cent owned by t co-operatives which represent 22,000 farmers, and 58 per cent owned by ethical investors

It supplies Liberation branded nut snacks to supermarkets,Oxfam shops and health food stores, as well as supplying own brand Fairtrade nuts. The Harry's Nuts! range is its latest project.

See www.chooseliberation.com

Fairtrade

The Fairtrade Mark is an independent consumer guarantee of a fair deal for farmers in developing countries. Around seven million people - farmers, workers and their families - across 59 countries benefit from the international Fairtrade system.

There are now more than 3,000 Fairtrade products including wine, beer, tea, coffee, chocolate, fruit and vegetables.

Fairtrade products include In the UK the mark is awarded by the Fairtrade Foundation, the independent certification body which markets and promotes Fairtrade. See www.fairtrade.org.uk