in the flesh

7. PHRASE : usu PHR after v, v-link PHR

If you meet or see someone in the flesh, you actually meet or see them, rather than, for example, seeing them in a film or on television.

• The first thing viewers usually say when they see me in the flesh is `You're smaller than you look on TV.'
  

... Cobuild

in the flesh: physically in front of you. 

• I have seen her in films and on TV but never in the flesh.
  

... Cambridge Dic of American Idioms

in person: (Also, in the flesh) 

In one's physical presence, as in:

• He applied for the job in person, or 
• I couldn't believe it, but there she was, in the flesh. 

The first expression dates from the mid-1500s. The variant, from the 1300s, was long used to allude to the bodily resurrection of Jesus, but later acquired its looser meaning. Charles Dickens has it in Our Mutual Friend (1865): 

• "The minutes passing on, and no Mrs. W. in the flesh appearing." 
  

... Am-Heritage Dic of Idioms