NJ
Neil Jones
Founding member
From the Morecombe & Wise 1979 Christmas Special, where Des O'Connor was a guest. It was a different format as opposed to the previous Christmas Specials from Morecambe & Wise as Eric was recovering from a heart bypass operation he'd had earlier in the year as a result of his second heart attack.
LL
Very sad news. Another loss from the dying breed of truly all-round entertainers.
LL
London Lite
Founding member
Des's self-deprecation was my favourite part of his humour. Easily the Morecambe and Wise sketches were some of his finest work, but also enjoyed him on Take Your Pick and his chat show on ITV was always on in the background.
Today with Des and Mel introduced him to a new generation of viewers.
Today with Des and Mel introduced him to a new generation of viewers.
JK
Des O'Connor Tonight talk show was a superb mid week pick me up. Des brought much needed cheer and fun to an otherwise dull mid week. Having a prime time talk show in the middle of the week, only the superb Des O'Connor could host it, with his warmth, humour, kindness and genuine interest in his guests.
JK
The 1979 Christmas special of Morecambe and Wise was designed to help Eric, who had suffered a massive heart attack earlier in the year, and had to have serious surgery. The format was a chat show, looking back at the duo's previous years, focusing on their old ITV series on ATV.
Morecambe and Wise would return for the first full new series on Thames Television in the autumn of 1980, however I do not know if Des ever appeared with them again on the Thames shows, does anyone know if he did?
Morecambe and Wise would return for the first full new series on Thames Television in the autumn of 1980, however I do not know if Des ever appeared with them again on the Thames shows, does anyone know if he did?
NJ
Neil Jones
Founding member
There's no other entries for him in the IMDb entry for the Thames years of Morecambe & Wise after 1979, but the Wiki entry has a list of all the guest stars for that era. Apparently they reused the "Des O'Connor insults" joke at Max Bygraves instead, but in what turned out to be the very last episode, Philip Elsmore appears to introduce the next programme which is to feature Des O'Connor, the duo appear behind Elsmore to make derogatory remarks about the star in a long-standing in-joke.
BR
I think Take your Pick generally aired midweek as well, as did Pot of Gold, which was talent show crossed with newspaper bingo.
TV is missing a bit of light entertainment midweek now.
Des O'Connor Tonight talk show was a superb mid week pick me up. Des brought much needed cheer and fun to an otherwise dull mid week. Having a prime time talk show in the middle of the week, only the superb Des O'Connor could host it, with his warmth, humour, kindness and genuine interest in his guests.
I think Take your Pick generally aired midweek as well, as did Pot of Gold, which was talent show crossed with newspaper bingo.
TV is missing a bit of light entertainment midweek now.
SW
You could argue that Des did more than most to move on daytime telly, because before Des and Mel, daytime had a pretty ropey reputation and if you were on there you weren't doing very well and daytime shows were all a bit low-rent. But Des was a primetime star, and did the show as if it was a proper primetime show - I remember when it started he said he wanted to bring a bit of primetime entertainment into daytime - and it worked really well for Des and for the schedules, and after that you got people like Paul O'Grady doing it and daytime became increasingly credible and a place where primetime stars would happily venture. But Des did it first.
I really liked Des, it's a shame he never appears in list of the great chat show hosts because he did Des O'Connor Tonight for 25 years and it was a huge show, certainly in the nineties it had the most A-list line-up and everyone seemed to have a great time on it. He was really good at it too, there's a bit in his autobiography where he talks about Whitney Houston appearing but her management were insistent that she would only sing and not talk, much to everyone's disappointment, so Des decided to go on stage and say to the audience "She's got a new husband and a new baby and a new album and you all want to hear about that, don't you?", and the audience all cheered, and when she came on he gestured to the sofa and she came over and did talk. What a pro Des was. And of course he was always really proud of all the new comedians he introduced, it was such an important shop window for comedy and Des was so enthusiastic about it. Testament again to his determination to move with the times.
I had the pleasure of interviewing him a few years in my old job and he was a real gent and such good value. Such a shame.
Today with Des and Mel introduced him to a new generation of viewers.
You could argue that Des did more than most to move on daytime telly, because before Des and Mel, daytime had a pretty ropey reputation and if you were on there you weren't doing very well and daytime shows were all a bit low-rent. But Des was a primetime star, and did the show as if it was a proper primetime show - I remember when it started he said he wanted to bring a bit of primetime entertainment into daytime - and it worked really well for Des and for the schedules, and after that you got people like Paul O'Grady doing it and daytime became increasingly credible and a place where primetime stars would happily venture. But Des did it first.
I really liked Des, it's a shame he never appears in list of the great chat show hosts because he did Des O'Connor Tonight for 25 years and it was a huge show, certainly in the nineties it had the most A-list line-up and everyone seemed to have a great time on it. He was really good at it too, there's a bit in his autobiography where he talks about Whitney Houston appearing but her management were insistent that she would only sing and not talk, much to everyone's disappointment, so Des decided to go on stage and say to the audience "She's got a new husband and a new baby and a new album and you all want to hear about that, don't you?", and the audience all cheered, and when she came on he gestured to the sofa and she came over and did talk. What a pro Des was. And of course he was always really proud of all the new comedians he introduced, it was such an important shop window for comedy and Des was so enthusiastic about it. Testament again to his determination to move with the times.
I had the pleasure of interviewing him a few years in my old job and he was a real gent and such good value. Such a shame.
MU
I was in the audience for that too. Was a fun show.
I was in the audience for The One and Only Des O'Connor, which was broadcast for his 80th birthday.
This would have been a great show to be repeated as a tribute, but unfortunately that seems unlikely, as it hasn't been repeated since its original broadcast, due to Max Clifford being in the audience, and the number of audience shots in the show would make it difficult to edit.
This would have been a great show to be repeated as a tribute, but unfortunately that seems unlikely, as it hasn't been repeated since its original broadcast, due to Max Clifford being in the audience, and the number of audience shots in the show would make it difficult to edit.
I was in the audience for that too. Was a fun show.