The Des O'Connor Show. A title used for several different series over the course of several decades: but perhaps its most culturally important and influential incarnation was as an Associated Television sketch-lead variety format, first broadcast on ITV on 29th May 1963.

To celebrate, we've worked with Des's youngest daughter, Kristina, who introduced him to social media and still runs his official Twitter account, to look at the series through his own words, with extracts from his autobiography, Bananas Can't Fly!.

But first, let's hear from acclaimed comedy historian and biographer Graham McCann:

You can read more about Des's support for Jack in Comedy Rewind article Random acts of kindness.

First broadcast on Wednesday 29th May 1963 on ITV, The Des O'Connor Show would go on to run for nine hugely successful series: so popular that the final two, aired in 1970 and 71, were big-name spectacles co-produced for American television. Sadly much of the prior seven series - typically for the era, a mix of sketch, stand-up segments, musical guests and star cameos - are missing believed wiped, but these two (14 episodes apiece) exist in their entirety and a compendium of comic highlights have been released on DVD.

Des wrote:

The Des O'Connor Show exceeded all our expectations in America, and its instant worldwide success would change my career and my life for ever. The ratings in the US for the series were so good that after only six shows had aired, we were told that NBC had commissioned another series for the following year. ... The show was eventually broadcast in forty-four different countries, and at one time it apparently had the third-highest audience figures of any show in the world.

Guests were drawn from all veins of show business, on both sides of the Atlantic: Sid Caesar, Val Doonican, Phil Silvers, Terry-Thomas, Val Doonican, Liberace, Jack Benny, Harry Secombe, Britt Ekland, Sacha Distel and many more.

Jack Douglas was, aside from Des himself, the show's mainstay, taking precedence amongst a talented supporting ensemble. Best known for his oddball Alf Ippititimus character, he was, as McCann attested above, a favourite fellow performer of O'Connor's, receiving significant support throughout his career.

Des wrote in his autobiography:

Jack Douglas was integral to many of the comedy highlights of The Des O'Connor Show, and to many other appearances we've made together over the years. Some of the most hilarious times I ever experienced on screen, and on stage in pantos, summer shows and galas, were shared with Jack.

Jack was often described as my stooge, but he was much more than that. He was a fine and funny comedian in his own right. When he and I were together in panto, there was no straight man. We both scored the laughs and we fed each other.

But Douglas was by far from the only comic who benefitted from Des's generosity over the years. Forever a supporter of new talent, his later talk shows during the 1980s and 90s gave significant early, if not the very first, (British) TV appearances to comics from both Britain and America. Such names include Jerry Seinfeld, Harry Hill, Lee Evans, Garry Shandling, Lily Savage, Alan Davies, Jimeoin, Dominic Holland and Jay Leno.

Of Des O'Connor Tonight (1977 - 2002), he said: "I am immensely proud that so many of today's successful comedians have been given their first mainstream showcase by us. ... When you look at [the] list you [can] appreciate how strongly I feel about the importance of our show in spotlighting new talent."

Back on The Des O'Connor Show, he wrote:

I never cease to be amazed at how many people watched the American version of The Des O'Connor Show. ... At Elstree Studios, where we taped the show, it was exactly thirty-two steps from my dressing room to Studio 1. I could never have imagined that such a short journey would transport me, like a kind of magic carpet, to homes all around the globe. Those thirty-two steps were a path to a world of no strangers.

Jack Douglas and Des O'Connor's career spanned multiple decades and multiple regions. Here they are performing a routine on one of American television's biggest series, The Ed Sullivan Show, in March 1966:

In recent months Thames Television have also begun uploading some of the best interviews with comics from Des's later talk shows to YouTube, including Dame Edna Everage, Bob Monkhouse, French & Saunders and Steve Coogan.

Clips with Alf Garnett, Benny Hill and Dave Allen also show the range of comedy genius O'Connor engaged with, and the fun, curiosity and wit he exhibited.

Meanwhile, the joy of The Des O'Connor Show lives on, sixty years since its debut. Whilst many episodes from the late 1960s have been wiped, others survive intact and we hope to see them issued in full on DVD one day for legions of new fans to enjoy.