A 'Des'irable night out

Des is one of only a handful of British entertainers to be acclaimed internationally on stage and television. His American series was shown in over 40 countries and seen by 200 million people world-wide.

On stage he has appeared at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, The Sydney Opera House, The O'Keefe Centre, Toronto and over 1000 times at the London Palladium.

Des entered showbusiness with his first theatre appearances in Variety, all over the country before his break in television.

Since his first television series in 1963 he starred in or hosted his own mainstream television show every year for over 45 years - longer than anyone anywhere in the world.

In 2001 he received the Special Recognition Award at the National TV Awards and his top-selling autobiography Bananas Can't Fly (Headline Publishing) was published the same year.

Recent TV includes Des O'Connor Tonight specials; and ITV celebration special to mark Des's 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.

His award-winning ITV1 daily celebrity talk show Today With Des & Mel with co-host Melanie Sykes proved such a hit with viewers that the show more than doubled its audience.

In 2007 Des took over the helm of the hugely popular words and numbers quiz Countdown for Channel 4 Television for 2 years. His interview on Piers Morgan's Life Stories/ITV was the highest-rated of the series in 2011.

Des is also a multi-million recording selling singer, releasing 36 albums with sales of over 16 million and he has spent 117 weeks in the top ten charts.

His recent album - titled Inspired - comprises 18 brand new songs co written by Des and Alan Hawkshaw, who has worked with Elvis and Barbra Streisand. He will be working on a new album with Hawkshaw for release later in 2012.

In January this year Des completed a sensational three month season in the hit West End musical Dreamboats and Petticoats at the Playhouse Theatre, London.