RIP Des O'Connor

[akb48fan]

Des O'Connor sadly passed away yesterday following complications from a fall at his home a week ago. He was 88 years old.

There'll be two old friends up there waiting for him in Eric & Ernie who will start teasing him again I'm sure!

[tex]

Re: RIP Des O'Connor

RIP Des. very sad

[amethyst]

Re: RIP Des O'Connor

I remember him singing Careless hands in his early days

[akb48fan]

Re: RIP Des O'Connor

My mother had one of his songs "I Pretend" as a 7" single. He had such a good singing voice.

[sixtyten]

Re: RIP Des O'Connor

RIP Des
Almost all the old school gone now

[George 1978]

Re: RIP Des O'Connor

Sad news - he was a great all-round entertainer that I would put in the same bracket as Monkhouse and Forsyth. He always looked youthful and a good ten years younger than he really did - unlike most entertainers of his generation who would look ten years older. In many ways, he was also in the same bracket as Ken Dodd and Cilla - the 1960s singer turned entertainer.

My parents also had a Des LP as well in their collection - they hardly ever played it for some reason... Saying that, I have to say that it was a pity that since he appeared on Morecambe and Wise in 1971, the singing stereotype got stuck thanks to what Morecambe did to him on the show - the Castella cigars advert from 1990 is an example where Russ Abbot plays a Des LP so that the fish jump out of the pond and into the net.

Des O'Connor was the first subject to be featured on This is Your Life both on ITV and in a colour edition in November 1969, and he was number one in the charts when Thames first came on the air in July 1968 - ironic considering how many he shows he did for that company. He took over Countdown from another Des - Lynam.

O'Connor did the 1990s revival of Take Your Pick, where his equivalent of Anthea Redfern happened to be Gong Girl Jodie Brooke Wilson in which he married many years later - (I would have chosen Sarah Matravers myself...) He also did Pot of Gold (remember that?) - mostly a poor man's Opportunity Knocks which went out in the mid 1990s when Take Your Pick Wasn't on.

But I think that I will remember him most for his Wednesday 8.00 pm Des O'Connor Tonight show in the 1980s and 1990s with great guests - remember Stan Boardman and the Fokkers joke? Cue O'Connor looking up at the ceiling while Boardman was in full flow. Also, Jim Davidson as a guest and drinking this liquid which changes one's voice, and loads of other guests as well. Great show when it was on.

A great entertainer.

[George 1978]

Re: RIP Des O'Connor

I also thought I would mention that Stepney, East London-born Des O'Connor was also suggested as a probable answer by a contestant in the "name a famous Irishman" round on the Bygraves-era Family Fortunes which took a dozen guesses before someone guessed Terry Wogan.

[darren]

A really sad loss is des
a great entertainer etc.
R i p des.