'Dear Old Des'

 I was so very sad to hear of the death of Des O’ Connor on the 14th of November. Des was such a wonderful entertainer and someone whose ‘twinkle in his eye’ and infectious laugh made you feel better just watching. So much of T.V. today is made up of programmes that either ‘have something to say’, are controversial, show life in its harshest terms (and therefore scare the living daylights out of you like ‘Cant Pay, We’ll Take It Away’) or feature ‘comedy’ that revolves around smug, middle aged journalist types making sarcastic comments about celebrities. How I miss ‘gentle humour’ on television and shows like ‘Play Your Cards Right’, ‘The Price Is Right’ ‘3-2-1’, and ‘The Generation Game’ that were just fun, frivolous and about as far away from politics as you can get! T.V. in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s was designed to cheer you up and make you feel better about your lot - however rotten that may have been with constant strikes, power cuts, the cold war, The Berlin wall and the threat of nuclear war with Russia! 

Where has our ability to laugh at ourselves gone? No-one was better at that than Des! The ‘stick’ that he perpetually got about his singing from Morecambe & Wise would have been the cause of one of the longest court cases of all time today! ‘Leg-pulling’ used to be a fundamental part of British life and in many cases we only knew who our real friends were by the apparent severity of their ‘insults’ when speaking to us! (lol) Humour used to be the ‘backbone of the British stiff upper lip’ and yet today you really have to stop and think twice before saying anything to some people….

Nah, give me the Des O’ Connor show any day! What with madcap antics from guest Freddie Starr, music, showbiz and some fascinating celebrity interviews full of laughter and ‘stories from inside the business’ we would otherwise never have heard Des and his smile were the perfect accompaniment to the twinkle of our Christmas tree lights and the sparkling tinsel reflected in our sherry glasses.

Fortunately, I will be able to spend a little time with Des this Christmas as I have his Christmas album on vinyl! Sadly, it doesn’t feature his festive single on Pye records from 1978 ‘Yes, There Is A Santa Claus/ At Christmas’ - that can be found on the Hallmark compilation Lp ‘Christmas With The Stars’ - but it is full of the ‘usual Christmas songs’ and will serve as a nice reminder for me this year of Des spreading his typical ray of sunshine on everything.

Images courtesy of Discogs.com

As if to provide long-suffering Des with ‘one last parting insult’ it ‘tickled’ me to discover on Discogs.com  that not a single person owns ‘Yes, There Is A Santa Claus’ on 7” on the site nor has anyone said that they want one! What Eric Morecambe would have made out of that ‘ammunition’ is anyones guess! (lol) I’m willing to bet though that Des himself would think it both funny and in a perverse way quite fitting and would most likely have come out with a quip like ‘I knew it would be popular when I was making the album! as his response.

R.I. P. Des and THANK YOU SO MUCH for all of the happy memories - if I can find a copy of ‘Yes, There Is A Santa Claus’ on CD in time I promise I will play it on my old mate Jeff Belton’s C.H.R. (Conquest Hospital Radio) Christmas show on the 23rd of December (9A.m-12 midday U.K. time)…it should do more to solve the problem of bed blocking than coronavirus ever will!