What makes Des keep on running?

HAVE a guess. How old is evergreen Des O'Connor, the smooth-est of British entertainers with a career stretching longer than the line of jokers keen to put down his singing?

Perma-tanned, hair still dark, he would pass for much younger than his advancing years, yet next year he turns 70.

"I think you have to keep being enthusiastic," he says. "Comedian Jack Benny used to say 'I'll be 39 and I'll always be 39' and I feel like that too.

"Last year I was on the sofa interviewing Jennifer Lopez and Catherine Zeta Jones, and if you can't enjoy yourself doing that...."

There is no slowing down in the O'Connor third age. He regularly runs three miles to keep fit; has formed his own television company with a studio at Pinewood and has made six new television specials. Next month he begins recording his 34th album, a tribute to the great crooners, and on October 4 his autobiography, Bananas Can't Fly, will be published by Headline Publishing.

All that, and he is on the road too, playing York Barbican Centre tomorrow night for the first time as part of his Comedy, Laughter and Music tour on his return to his first love, live theatre and concert performances. (Those with long memories will recall him performing at the Rialto in York with the John Barry Seven in the Fifties.)

"I just love keeping my hand in with live shows, because it's so important and it's what I do best," says the Stepney-born singer, presenter and chat-show host.

"I love performing live, and whereas with my TV show I'm there to make the guests look good, on stage it's me that's out to look good."

Each night, comedy and laughter hold sway in the first half ; "solid good music" dominates the second. Yet when it comes to O'Connor's singing, laughter and music have often been bracketed together, thanks largely to comic duo Morecambe and Wise pillorying his crooning on their television shows.

However, Des can point to more than 15 million people buying his records, and for all the good humour he showed in the face of Eric Morecambe's ribbing, he admits that the O'Connor-bashing bandwagon annoyed him.

"It did get to the point where it got beyond ridicule," says Des.

"I didn't mind Eric and Ernie doing it but I became fed up with things like people playing my records to get fleas off their dogs, or jokes about cars being found in rivers with my music still playing on the car stereo, or that story about getting salmon to leap up river by using my music.

"I did think 'Enough is enough'." Frankly, it would have been remarkable if he had not felt like that but he retains laughter in his voice as he reflects on the barrage of mockery, and the genial O'Connor has the last word. "It's not cool to have a go at Des any more!" he says.

He treats others with more respect and good grace than he is shown by the would-be humorists with their Des jokes. Indeed his chat show is noted for his generosity of spirit. "It's froth, it's fun, it's a bit Hello! magazine, and there's nothing wrong with that," he says.

"When I started, Parky Michael Parkinson was in his prime, and I felt I didn't have to do serious journalistic questions; I could do conversation. It was about finding an alternative to Parkinson, and maybe I'm too sensitive but I squirm if I see guests looking uncomfortable answering a question.

"I've never felt the need to make guests squirm - and the important word is 'guest': it's like being at a dinner party where you want to make people laugh and have a good time.

"Like with Tony Blair, no, I didn't give him a hard time but I wanted to show another side of him, and the best way is to make them feel relaxed, find out what makes someone laugh, to get the human side."

An inveterate entertainer, Des O'Connor will carry on singing, smiling and chatting into his seventies.

"I just enjoy it," he says. "But I'll know the moment it's time to leave... I'll be down the hole as quick as I can!"

Fact File:

Name: Des O'Connor

Occupation: British singer, comedian, cabaret act, presenter, talk-show host, butt of Morecambe and Wise jokes, cartoon subject of Boddingtons beer advert

Born: 1932, East End suburb of Stepney, London. Evacuated to Northampton during war

Lives in: Buckinghamshire

Professional showbusiness debut: After national service in RAF, made bow in October 1953 at Palace Theatre, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, following spell as Butlin's holiday camp Red Coat

Buddy Holly connection: While working on variety circuit in 1950s, Des undertook British tour with young American singer and song-writing sensation from Lubbock, Texas. Holly gave him the guitar he had played on the tour bus

Big break: Hosting TV series Spot The Tune, 1958

At the Palladium: Compere of weekend TV institution Sunday Night At The London Palladium and star of regular seasons there, he chalked up his 1,000th performance in 1972

Des on TV in Sixties and Seventies: The Des O'Connor Show for ATV from 1963; Des and Des O'Connor Entertains

Chattering Des: Des O'Connor Tonight, chat and variety show for BBC from 1977; transferred to ITV

Des's favourite interviews: Jeremy Irons, Celine Dion, Robin Williams, Barbra Streisand

More Des on TV: Take Your Pick, Pot Of Gold, An Audience With Des O'Connor (watched by ten million last year)

Des on American TV: The Ed Sullivan Show in Sixties. Hosted two prime-time series of Kraft Music Hall for NBC in mid-1970s; also shown in UK, introducing The Muppets to British viewers

Des on record: Debut single Careless Hands made number six, November 1967. Follow-up hit I Pretend topped charts for one week in July 1968

More Des hits: 1-2-3 O'Leary, 1968; Dick-A-Dum-Dum (King's Road), Loneliness, 1969; I'll Go On Hoping, The Tips Of My Fingers, 1970; The Skye Boat Song, duet with Roger Whittaker, number ten, winter 1986

Favourite Des recording: Crazy, off Portrait album four years ago

Des albums: 33 so far, selling more than 15 million copies. 34th album, a celebration of the great crooners, will be recorded in August for Christmas market

Des on the road: Headlined record-breaking shows in Canada; only non-American to be invited to perform in all-star anniversary galas at MGM Grand Hotel, Las Vegas; shattered box-office records at St George's League Club, Sydney, Australia, and played Sydney Opera House

Coming next: Six TV specials, plus autumn autobiography, Bananas Can't Fly

Where, when and why in York: Barbican Centre, tomorrow tonight at 7.30pm, presenting his Comedy, Laughter and Music show

Ticket update: Still available at £16; ring 01904 656688.

Updated: 10:31 Thursday, July 26, 2001