Celebrating Des O'Connor
The Des O'Connor Show. A title used for several different series over the course of several decades: but perhaps its most culturally important and influential incarnation was as an Associated Television sketch-lead variety format, first broadcast on ITV on 29th May 1963.
To celebrate, we've worked with Des's youngest daughter, Kristina, who introduced him to social media and still runs his official Twitter account, to look at the series through his own words, with extracts from his autobiography, Bananas Can't Fly!.
But first, let's hear from acclaimed comedy historian and biographer Graham McCann:
One of the most memorable qualities that Des O'Connor possessed was his genuine interest in, and admiration for, other comic performers. It is rare for one comic to be a good audience for another comic - the craft encourages a sense of competitiveness that can ruin the reception of another's act - but Des O'Connor, in this sense, was one of the best.
It was the reason Eddie Braben chose him to be the butt of so many of Morecambe & Wise's jokes (e.g. 'Des has just done a one-man show. Let's hope two turn up next time'). O'Connor not only enjoyed such mockery - he also started sending Braben his own suggestions for more of the same.
'Des was simply a very, very, nice man,' Braben would say. 'He just loved seeing anyone make an audience laugh.'
He had, over the course of many years, a huge range of comedians as guests on his various talk shows - the list included just about everyone from Jack Dee to Jethro, with the likes of Tommy Tiernan, Bill Bailey, Ben Elton, Eddie Izzard, Tim Vine, Julian Clary and Jeff Green somewhere or other in between, as well as such then up-and-coming American acts as Jay Leno, Garry Shandling and Jerry Seinfeld - and what was always noticeable was how much he enjoyed and celebrated their performances. As it used to be said of Jack Benny - another star who loved laughing at his fellow comics' gags - so it can be said of Des O'Connor: he was a great appreciator of other people's talent.
He was also a great patron of those who were in need of encouragement and assistance. If someone required some practical support, or merely a simple but sincere show of faith, O'Connor was one of the special few who was always willing to do what he could do.
Take, for example, his repeated interventions designed to help Jack Douglas. He drew Douglas back into show business when, back in the early 1960s, the comic had given up through an absence of worthwhile chances.
O'Connor had seen him perform, appreciated his potential, and persuaded him to become a regular member of his new TV show, often performing routines alongside him. It would have been a fair enough favour if he had simply used Douglas as a stooge, or a conveniently versatile bit-part player, but O'Connor was determined to help him develop as a performer in his own right.
He encouraged him to work on a character for the show. Douglas duly came up with Alf Ippititimus, a flat-capped northern labourer with unpredictable twitches and sudden shouts. O'Connor loved it so much that he urged his writers to concentrate on Alf in most of the sketches, with his own role reduced to that of the feed.
It worked. 'Alf' became one of the highlights of the show, and O'Connor was delighted. A grateful Douglas would later describe the star as 'the most unselfish comedian' he ever worked with, 'because the more laughs I got, the happier he was'.
O'Connor was similarly supportive when, later on in that decade, he was invited to host the Royal Variety Performance. He insisted on Douglas being added to the bill, made sure he shone in his sketches, and also made a point of him being presented to the Queen Mother post-show while still dressed in his comedy outfit so that he would be better recognised in the media coverage. It worked, further boosting Douglas's public profile, and won him many more engagements, including a succession of Carry On movies.
'Quite simply,' Douglas said of his friend, 'Des is one of the kindest, most thoughtful and most decent men in the business'.
O'Connor demonstrated that kindness, thoughtfulness and decency on countless other occasions during his long and distinguished career. It is why he is now remembered with so much affection as well as respect.
You can read more about Des's support for Jack in Comedy Rewind article Random acts of kindness.
First broadcast on Wednesday 29th May 1963 on ITV, The Des O'Connor Show would go on to run for nine hugely successful series: so popular that the final two, aired in 1970 and 71, were big-name spectacles co-produced for American television. Sadly much of the prior seven series - typically for the era, a mix of sketch, stand-up segments, musical guests and star cameos - are missing believed wiped, but these two (14 episodes apiece) exist in their entirety and a compendium of comic highlights have been released on DVD.
Des wrote:
The Des O'Connor Show exceeded all our expectations in America, and its instant worldwide success would change my career and my life for ever. The ratings in the US for the series were so good that after only six shows had aired, we were told that NBC had commissioned another series for the following year. ... The show was eventually broadcast in forty-four different countries, and at one time it apparently had the third-highest audience figures of any show in the world.
Guests were drawn from all veins of show business, on both sides of the Atlantic: Sid Caesar, Val Doonican, Phil Silvers, Terry-Thomas, Val Doonican, Liberace, Jack Benny, Harry Secombe, Britt Ekland, Sacha Distel and many more.
Jack Douglas was, aside from Des himself, the show's mainstay, taking precedence amongst a talented supporting ensemble. Best known for his oddball Alf Ippititimus character, he was, as McCann attested above, a favourite fellow performer of O'Connor's, receiving significant support throughout his career.
Des wrote in his autobiography:
Jack Douglas was integral to many of the comedy highlights of The Des O'Connor Show, and to many other appearances we've made together over the years. Some of the most hilarious times I ever experienced on screen, and on stage in pantos, summer shows and galas, were shared with Jack.
Jack was often described as my stooge, but he was much more than that. He was a fine and funny comedian in his own right. When he and I were together in panto, there was no straight man. We both scored the laughs and we fed each other.
But Douglas was by far from the only comic who benefitted from Des's generosity over the years. Forever a supporter of new talent, his later talk shows during the 1980s and 90s gave significant early, if not the very first, (British) TV appearances to comics from both Britain and America. Such names include Jerry Seinfeld, Harry Hill, Lee Evans, Garry Shandling, Lily Savage, Alan Davies, Jimeoin, Dominic Holland and Jay Leno.
Of Des O'Connor Tonight (1977 - 2002), he said: "I am immensely proud that so many of today's successful comedians have been given their first mainstream showcase by us. ... When you look at [the] list you [can] appreciate how strongly I feel about the importance of our show in spotlighting new talent."
Back on The Des O'Connor Show, he wrote:
I never cease to be amazed at how many people watched the American version of The Des O'Connor Show. ... At Elstree Studios, where we taped the show, it was exactly thirty-two steps from my dressing room to Studio 1. I could never have imagined that such a short journey would transport me, like a kind of magic carpet, to homes all around the globe. Those thirty-two steps were a path to a world of no strangers.
Jack Douglas and Des O'Connor's career spanned multiple decades and multiple regions. Here they are performing a routine on one of American television's biggest series, The Ed Sullivan Show, in March 1966:
In recent months Thames Television have also begun uploading some of the best interviews with comics from Des's later talk shows to YouTube, including Dame Edna Everage, Bob Monkhouse, French & Saunders and Steve Coogan.
Clips with Alf Garnett, Benny Hill and Dave Allen also show the range of comedy genius O'Connor engaged with, and the fun, curiosity and wit he exhibited.
Meanwhile, the joy of The Des O'Connor Show lives on, sixty years since its debut. Whilst many episodes from the late 1960s have been wiped, others survive intact and we hope to see them issued in full on DVD one day for legions of new fans to enjoy.
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Love comedy? Find out moreDes O'Connor
Singer, talk show host, comedian and legendary entertainer, Des O'Connor has been a mainstay of the light entertainment industry since he first made his way onto television screens in the 1950s. Acclaimed for his work on both stage and television, his successful black and white 1960s variety series - The Des O'Connor Show - was so popular that his first colour series in 1970 garnered him a massive international following, being shown all over the world and transmitted prime-time in America.
This special volume contains the best bits of this hit 1970 series, featuring a wonderful mixture of comedy and music. Terry-Thomas, Val Doonican, Dusty Springfield, Liberace, Jimmy Edwards, Lonnie Donegan, Sacha Distel, Sandie Shaw, Matt Monro, Roy Hudd, Harry Secombe and many more stars join Des and his regulars Jack Douglas (more often than not in the guise of Alf Ippititimus) and the statuesquely gorgeous Valerie Leon in over five hours of unforgettable entertainment from 1970.
First released: Monday 22nd June 2009
DVD- Distributor: Network
- Region: 2
- Discs: 2
- Catalogue: 7952988
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Bananas Can't Fly!: The Autobiography
During his career, Des O'Connor has interviewed all the major personalities of the day, from rock and pop stars, actors and TV celebrities to politicians and members of the Royal Family. In this autobiography, Des relives in his own words the events of his life - from his early childhood struggle against ill-health in the East End of London to his career to date.
The normally private performer takes us behind the scenes of his talk show, recalling the moments shared on- and off-screen with superstars and legends, from Sinatra to Streisand, Sir Elton to Pavarotti.
First published: Thursday 4th October 2001
- Publisher: Headline
- Pages: 342
- Catalogue: 9780747231936
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- Published: Wednesday 5th June 2002
- Publisher: Headline
- Pages: 448
- Catalogue: 9780747232070
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- Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
- Catalogue: 1840324929
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