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Andrew O'Connor is a British actor, comedian, magician, television presenter and executive producer. The son of Tom O'Connor, Andrew followed his father into showbusiness.
Television career
Although he enjoyed a short stint as a child actor, appearing as Tom Brill in The Canal Children in 1976, he made his mark as a children's magician, and won the Magic Circle's Young Magician of the Year prize. He appeared in a number of variety shows on television, and was invited to join the cast of London Weekend Television's Copy Cats show in 1985. The show's main stars, Gary Wilmot and Bobby Davro, left the show during its first series, meaning that O'Connor became one of the lead figures. He was the only member of the cast to write for the show as well as appear in it. His own children's show, Andrew O'Connor's Joke Machine soon followed, in which he told jokes and performed magic tricks and invited children to do the same.
In 1986, he began appearing in ITV's popular Saturday morning children's series, No. 73. But shortly afterwards, he switched to the BBC to launch another Saturday morning children's series, On The Waterfront, alongside fellow ex-No. 73 host Kate Copstick.
In 1987 he took over from Jeremy Beadle as the presenter of the daytime game show, Chain Letters. His career as a quiz-show host took off, and he subsquently presented Talkabout, moved to Saturday night prime time in 1991 with One to Win, and returned to daytime television with The Alphabet Game. This latter show was devised and produced by O'Connor, having formed his production company, Objective.
This marked the turning point in his career, and although O'Connor has made numerous on-screen appearances since then, he has mainly been working behind the camera. He has produced numerous comedy and magic related television shows, perhaps the most notable being most of Derren Brown's programmes.
In 1996, he established Objective Productions with Michael Vine. O'Connor holds the position of Chief Executive.
External links
- BBC Comedy Guide
- UK Gameshows
- Internet Movie Database
- The TV Cream Guide To Television Presenters
- Objective Productions]
British television presenters | British stand-up comedians | British television producers | British magicians
"Andrew O'Connor"