Interview with Bobby, Granada Reports Monday 20th January 2020.
The interviewer was Caroline Whitmore, and they discussed Cannon and Ball’s early years, falling out in the 1980s, and their upcoming An Audience With tour.
Rob Smith: Now as it’s blue Monday, supposedly the most depressing day of the year, we’ve decided to try and cheer you up with a chat with 80s comedy great Bobby Ball.
Lucy Meacock: Yeah, he’s still a great favourite with so many of us and of course he was one half of Cannon and Ball. The good news is, almost 60 years after they first got together, they’re going on tour for An Audience With starting next month.
Rob: Our entertainment correspondent Caroline Whitmore caught up with the bonkers Bobby Ball.
(Laugh me a Laugh and clips from TV Show, Strictly)
Caroline: Bobby Ball, how are you? Are you good?
Bobby: I’m fantastic and it’s great to see you.
Caroline: It’s lovely to see you. I mean, genuinely you have been in this business we call show for almost 60 years.
Bobby: Yes I have, for 60 years. And can I say something. You can see her dress, she looks like a hanging basket, but very beautiful. We’ve got many stories. We looked back, me and Tommy, at what we did because we were welders. Our first TV appearance was Opportunity Knocks and we came last. Bookings cancelled.
Caroline: You did not
Bobby: I’m telling you, we were rubbish. Bernard Manning, he said “you’re the only double act with two straight men.”
Caroline: The Cannon and Ball Show was on Saturday night, prime time television for 12 years in front of 20 million people.
Bobby: That’s correct, it was wonderful. We’ve been very, very blessed, me and Tommy. We’re very lucky. I always thought I was a bit of a sex symbol.
Caroline: Ohh, that’s not a joke…
Bobby: No. I thought I was a five foot three sex symbol.
Caroline: You’re not 5 foot 3?
Bobby: Five foot three and a quarter.
Caroline: Are you? Don’t forget the quarter.
Bobby: Never forget the quarter. When it come with the braces and all that – I’ve still got them on by the way – I only did because I had a pair of baggy pants on. You know where that came from? David Essex. Because he had a song called Rock on. Rock on. One night I said Rock On, Tommy and somebody giggled. Ooh, I thought, that’s good and we kept it in.
Bobby: One of the highlights of my career was Eric Morcombe said to me Rock on Tommy.
Caroline: Did you have a fall out in the eighties?
Bobby: Yeah, we’re in the 80s when we’d been together for years and then egos took over and we stopped talking. I came to him one night, knocked on his door, I said I’m going for a drink, are you coming. He said Yeah I am. We shook hands and we’ve been friends ever since. We’ve got over all that now. We don’t bother with all that now.
Caroline: So much so that you’re doing a tour of the theatres, An Audience with Cannon and Ball
Bobby. Yeah, we’re doing An Audience with Cannon and Ball starts in February. We go all through the summer. We’ve had a good career, me and Tom, it’s been excellent.
Bobby: It’s been lovely seeing you, and can I say, I don’t care what anybody says, your roots do not look doing.
Caroline: Bobby, I think you’re a treasure, I think you’re a treasure.
Bobby: Come here. Come here. Love you to death
Caroline: Will you do me a rock on Tommy?
Bobby: Yeah, rock on, Tommy.
