The Very Best Of Des O'Connor

Product Information

Middle England also made a significant contribution. Evacuated from London to Northampton during the second world war, he stayed to make a contribution to two of the town’s major activities – shoe-making and football – thus becoming, in two senses, an ex-cobbler. Peggy Lee with Dave Barbour and His Orchestra REC, Frank Sinatra – Orchestra under the direction of Axel Stordahl REL

Young, Graham (1 February 2009). "How Des O'Connor will never forget Buddy Holly". BirminghamLive. [ dead link] Original Cast [Half a Sixpence, London, 1963] PRF, REL, Tommy Steele, Beverley Cross, David Heneker & the Rita Williams Singers RECAs a result of his performance, he got his first stage gig at the Palace theatre in Newcastle. “I’m not saying people should lie,” O’Connor reflected later, “but sometimes I think you have to make things happen when you’re in show business.” In 1958 he, along with Robert Morley, Pete Murray and Ted Ray, became one of the regular hosts of Spot the Tune, the Granada TV game show in which contestants named a popular song after hearing a few bars of music. After five years, Granada TV hired him to headline his own variety show. The active participation of the target helped somewhat to neutralise the cruelty, and, suggesting to the audience that he was a sport, further enhanced O’Connor’s reputation as a nice guy. Despite being presented on Morecambe & Wise, to up to 30 million viewers, as a tuneless loser, O’Connor by 1969 was celebrated enough to be a guest on ITV’s top-rating biographical entertainment show, This is Your Life. Desmond Bernard O'Connor CBE (12 January 1932 – 14 November 2020) was an English comedian, singer and television presenter. Between 1977 and 2002, O'Connor presented his own chat show series entitled Des O'Connor Tonight which lasted for seven series on BBC Two and later seventeen on ITV.

O'Connor starred in mainstream television shows in almost every year from 1963 until the 2000s, a feat that only one other television personality has achieved worldwide (U.S. game show host Bob Barker, who hosted mainstream television shows from 1956 until 2007, with 1966–1972 being in syndication). Between 1963 and 1971 O'Connor hosted The Des O'Connor Show, a British variety show, for eight series on ITV. This was followed by Des O'Connor Entertains, a show which ran for two series between 1974 and 1976 and featured singing, dancing, and comedy sketches. In 1969, thirteen editions of the show were sold to NBC in the United States, as a summer replacement for the network's Kraft Music Hall. The series was broadcast in more than forty countries. [ citation needed] O'Connor was the first subject of the second incarnation of the long-running television programme This Is Your Life, when the show returned to screens after a five-year absence, produced by Thames Television. He was surprised live on the stage of the London Palladium by Eamonn Andrews in November 1969. [4] All three of his biggest-selling records were sad ballads, a man lamenting a love lost for some reason, and this helped to establish, for his fans, a sympathetic, self-deprecating, likeable image that lasted throughout his career. a b c Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrateded.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p.221. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.A month after his death, ITV aired a tribute, titled Des O'Connor: The Ultimate Entertainer, on 13 December 2020. In 2001, O'Connor was presented with the Special Recognition Award at the National Television Awards for his contribution to television.