Des O'Connor Fainted at Glasgow Empire. Then He Pretended It Was Appendicitis. | Parkinson on BBC
By The Michael Parkinson Channel
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Des O’Connor remembers his first professional engagement with the precision of a man who has spent years trying to forget it. October the 12th, 1953. Palace Theatre, Newcastle upon Tyne. Six o’clock and thirteen minutes. A one-armed conductor who conducted on an orange box. Seven people in the audience. In this conversation with Michael Parkinson, he talks about the Glasgow Empire, where the national sport was waiting for an English comic and then staring at him in total silence. Des did three jokes. The same three jokes, three times. Then he fainted. The musical director’s head appeared over the footlights to check if it was part of the act. It was not. Des was rushed to hospital, where the doctor told him he was suffering from a very old-fashioned complaint called fear. He also talks about Eric and Ernie, whose decades-long campaign of Des O’Connor jokes he accepts with good grace, and about the night he asked his audience of 2000 people to pray for Eric Morecambe during a heart at
Tags: michael parkinson, british talk show, a-list celebrities, hollywood stars, political figures, insightful conversations, witty banter, unforgettable moments
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