Has died.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-54950051

I'm sure he will bring back a few memories for some of the oldies on here.

Sad news also. Back in the day was a wholesome family entertainer who wouldn't appeal to today's generation but he made a lot of people happy. Always sad when someone famous for most of your life passes on.

agree. not my cup of tea really but saw him live once in a club in wakefield in the early 70,s and enjoyed his act. only went to gain brownie points from a new girlfriend who was a fan of his. a butt of a lot of morecambe and wise jokes where if there is is an afterlife i can hear eric saying now that des o,connor has died for the last time.

Something that was said on the BBC last night, I thought very prophetic and described him in a nutshell

"Des O'Connor was never really fashionable, therefore he never went out of fashion "

For young people in the 70s, his appearance on tv signalled a visit to the pub , but others of an older vintage must've liked him, otherwise he wouldn't have lasted so long, same with Val Doonican.

One woman asked him if he would send her his latest record, he said to her " go to your local record store and they should have it " when the lady asked at the local record store " have you got the Des O'Connor latest " the shop assistant replied " You are joking" seems to sum it up.

[quote="horden"]

For young people in the 70s, his appearance on tv signalled a visit to the pub , but others of an older vintage must've liked him, otherwise he wouldn't have lasted so long, same with Val Doonican.

think it was fashionable among men at the time to say they disliked certain artists to just feel the same as the rest. do not know many blokes who admit to be fans of others at the time. cliff richard being the first name that comes to mind. even admitting to like some classical music gave you some odd glances.think a lot of things were man/women things and the only person i can really think of that men, women, gay or straight actually agreed on was a universal dislike of jerry lewis. remember as a kid my ma and one of her sister in laws who were cinema mad and would watch anything coming home early as they got their pictures mixed up and he was on causing em a quick exit stage right.

I was never a Des O'Connor fan. I think Des appealed more to the Ladies, as did Bruce Forsyth and Cliff Richard. Blokes didn't associate themselves with those three, who were generally thought of as Tossers. Max Bygraves was another one.
I would certainly not queue up to buy a ticket, that's for sure.
Morecambe and Wise were a different kettle of fish. Extremely talented.

Des O'Connor - Daily Mail 2014 , talking about the banter between him and Morecambe & Wise

‘When Eric had his first heart attack in 1968, I was doing a show in front of 2,000. I went for a sip of water and the stage manager said, “Eric Morecambe’s had a heart attack. He’s dying.”

‘I went back on and, at the end of the show, I said, “If you believe in such things, please remember Eric in your prayers,
He’s not well.”

‘Happily he recovered, and six weeks later he was in a meeting with some journalists. One of them said, “Are you aware Des O’Connor asked his entire audience to pray for you?” Eric said, “Well, those six or seven people probably made a difference.”’

Can I add Val Doonican to the Tossers list? Another one who had his own variety show on TV for years and years. There was no variety if you were under 30 - it was all tripe.

Don't you mean extremely irritating mr derwent ?


And you missed Engelbert and Sacha Distel off the ladies list.

They didn't irritate me, Mr S. Not one bit.
I didn't claim the list was complete.

think val doonican was someone that blokes ignored rather than hating like other names of that era. makes you wonder which is the best, to be hated or just ignored.

It’s a generation thing O’Connor and co were the taste of the day, large viewing figures on tv and sell out summer seasons at seaside resorts. I cant stand the modern comedians and shows like Mrs Brown just full of swearing. However my grandkids love them whilst I still split my sides at Ken Dodd and Morcombe and Wise.

with you there. used to say the same stuff about comedians of my parents era like the crazy gang, max miller and all of em in fact from the 1930,s. some of the humour at the vic is far better than anything on the box.

The Danny La Rue Show more your thing then ??

Saw Danny La Rue in a summer season show at Blackpool he was dreadful people were walking out.

Dick Emery-Mandy...she was rough as old boots.