This introduction to science led him to begin a degree in metallurgy at Imperial College, London.
At the start of World War II he enrolled as an air gunner, but was soon transferred to ground staff.
During the war he met Anthony Armstrong, editor of the training manual, Tee Emm, and together they created the character of PO Prune as a way of instructing wartime pilots what not to do if they wanted to save their lives and their aircraft.
[4][5] Hooper worked as political cartoonist for the Sunday Chronicle, and later for the BBC as presenter of the series ‘Willy the Pup’.
He produced a strip cartoon for The Star newspaper before returning to television as, first, an artist and later a presenter.