Tom's A'Gonner

[poodlefaker]

Dey die dough, don't dey dough?

[Echo Valley 2-6809]

Inevitably Limmy has tweeted "I had the pleasure of meeting Tom O'Connor"...

Ah, my mistake, it's Dan Walker  https://twitter.com/mrdanwalker/status/1416739805199798278

[Replies From View]

First Richard Gonner and now this.

[kalowski]

Inevitably Limmy has tweeted "I had the pleasure of meeting Tom O'Connor"...

Ah, my mistake, it's Dan Walker  https://twitter.com/mrdanwalker/status/1416739805199798278

In amongst the replies about how great Crosswits was and what a genuine person Tom O'Connor was, this reply caught my eye.

I was pinged on Saturday lunchtime and told to isolate until Monday night (contact was apparently last Friday)! Why did it take 7of the 10 days to tell me?

[Gurke and Hare]

He's currently on 4 Extra in a repeat of Act Your Age at the moment.

[sevendaughters]

I used to watch Crosswits as a kid and I sort of remember that one he did where Russell Grant would sit and spout mystical bollocks as O'Connor would do a great job of not rolling his eyes too hard. I know when Jim Bowen died it became a sort of running cliche to point out how he seemed like a good one and was very amiable and real to his guests - well, I always felt the same about O'Connor. Also I enjoyed his wordplay and that he was very gentle (big fan of game shows where hosts sit down) and was an obviously working class bloke who was unashamed of having learned a thing or two about a thing or two.

It's why the O'Connor routine is my least favourite of the Stweart Lee comeback era routines. I know that's more about his mum (iirc) but it does veer into a weird 'old comic vs new comic' baiting that never once rang true, and I don't think he could have picked a worse comedian to base the entire routine around to be perfectly honest. Far from doing cruise ships and trotting out one liners, O'Connor spent his post TV heyday doing acting jobs and theatre that many people less famous than him would have thought themselves above.

[Replies From View]

If I am to be brutally honest, he has been dead to me since the opening scenes of Terminator Dark Fate.

[Ian Drunken Smurf]

Des O'Connor, Tom O'Connor, has anyone checked on Hazel O'connor?

[Ian Drunken Smurf]

Des O'Connor, Tom O'Connor, has anyone checked on Hazel O'connor?

She's fine. And so is Andrew O'Connor.

[Tony Yeboah]

Me too, i had a record from about 1975. Never made any sense of the stories but i loved the patter and the accents.

Always believed that he was very nice in person, heard that more than once.

And I'm racking my brains, I'm sure he was pranked by someone on a comedy show, when the trick was revealed, he was very friendly and sporting about it. Can anyone remember?

Dennis Pennis made a joke about collecting old comics and O'Connor seemed a bit baffled but was very polite.

EDIT: Found the clip now https://youtu.be/UndC8e2uLsY?t=993 Tom knew exactly what was going on and played it like the old pro he was.

[PeterCornelius]

Not wishing to speak ill of the dead but wasn't there a scandal involving him and a teenage girl?

[Pseudopath]

Not wishing to speak ill of the dead but wasn't there a scandal involving him and a teenage girl?

The News of the World alleged that he was having an affair with an 18-year-old, but retracted the story: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/jul/19/tom-o-connor-obituary

[Jockice]

Surprised nobody on here's mentioned the (alleged) Ray Clemence story. Although as they're both dead now nobody's going to get sued.

[Tony Yeboah]

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/local-news/day-late-tom-oconnor-walked-5670636 From the file marked 'local newspaper stories that don't quite make sense.'