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Des O'Connor hosted British television chat shows for the better part of five decades, starting with The Des O'Connor Show in 1963, and later fronted game shows including Take Your Pick! and Countdown. He was also a recording artist of real commercial weight, releasing 36 albums and scoring a number-one UK single with "I Pretend," with total sales topping sixteen million records — a fact often obscured by his long-running role as the good-natured butt of Morecambe and Wise's jokes, a running gag he happily played along with on their show.