Des O'Connor

Recent TV includes Des O’Connor Tonight specials; an ITV celebration special to mark Des’ 40th year in prime time television; Des O’Connor Comedy Tonight and a series of prime-time Des O’Connor With one-to-one specials.  He presents ITV1’s daily celebrity talk show Today With Des & Mel with co-host Melanie Sykes.  The couple’s lively and spontaneous banter proved such a hit with viewers that the show more than doubled its audience and won an RTS Programme Award since it’s launch in autumn 2002.  On the other side of the camera Des runs his own TV production company.

From Humble Beginnings

Des O’Connor was born in the East End of London and during the war was evacuated to Northampton.  After National Service in the RAF he entered show business.  His first theatre appearances were in variety all over the country before his break in television. Today he is established as one of the world's most popular and best-loved entertainers, having endeared himself to audiences everywhere with his unique style, personality and charm. 

Des O’Connor - The Singer

Since 1967 Des O’Connor has been  a hugely successful recording star.  Des had his first hit single with Careless Hands, followed by I Pretend, which went to No 1.  Since then his recording career has produced 34 albums with sales of over 15 million and he has spent 117 weeks in the top ten charts.  He has made over 1,000 performances at the London  Palladium and starred in cabaret, theatre and sell-out concerts at almost every leading venue throughout the world, including the MGM grand Hotel, Las Vegas, the Opera House, Sydney, the Concert hall, Auckland; the O'Keefe Centre, Toronto, and the Arts Centre Ottawa.     

Des O’Connor has met and worked with all the major personalities of the day, from rock and pop stars actors and TV performers, to politicians to princes, to luminaries, such as Frank Sinatra Sean Connery, Liberace, the Beatles, Barbara Streisand, Robert Redford, and more recently Hugh Grant, the Spice Girls, Robbie Williams, Mel Gibson, Pavarotti, Sir Elton John, Tony Blair, and almost every member of the Royal Family.

Des' current album is titled A Tribute To The Crooners, featuring brand new recordings of the songs made famous by Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Nat King Cole, Perry Como and Dean Martin. 

Awards and Autobiographies

Back in 2001 Des O’Connor received the Special Recognition Award at the National TV Awards and his top-selling autobiography Bananas Can’t Fly (Headline Publishing) was published in paperback in 2002.  His most recent album titled  'A Tribute To The Crooners' (Decca Records), featured brand new recordings of the songs made famous by Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Nat King Cole, Perry Como and Dean Martin.

For further information or to book Des O'Connor, call us on +44 (0) 20 8365 3200 or email info@speakerscorner.co.uk