Plate but not a lot

DEBBIE McGee is selling her late husband Paul Daniels’ beloved MAG 1C number plate for £150,000.

The 60-year-old reportedly turned down a smaller offer for the quirky registration in 2016, some four months after the magician lost his battle with cancer.

It was said that Debbie, inset, couldn’t bear to part with it.

But last week the MAG 1C plate, described as “the stuff of number plate legend”, was listed for sale.

A prospective buyer told the Daily Star Sunday the agent said the price was £150,000.

They said: “I was surprised to see MAG 1C listed because I knew Debbie turned down £120,000 a few years ago.

“I guess time is a healer and she is ready to let it go.”

The story behind Paul acquiring the plate is as famous as the plate itself.

The star, known for his catchphrase, “You’ll like this… not a lot, but you’ll like it”, was working in local government when he came up with the combination.

Paul said: “I asked if it was for sale and who owned it. I even offered £1,000 for it. The answer was a definite ‘no’. They said they were not permitted to issue a number plate out of sequence.”

A few years later Paul, pictured below with the plate, had begun to make a name for himself as a magician and was offered the registration on a Mini. But he turned it down, believing it couldn’t be genuine as the MAG series had not yet been released. It wasn’t until 1985 that a friend told Paul that MAG 1C was for sale once again, this time on a Ferrari. Paul said: “When I answered the advertisement in The Times, it was then I discovered the plate had indeed been issued – to a Scottish councillor, who’d had it on a Mini!

“The previous owner told me that he was so glad I was buying the car and plate because he was pig-sick of people asking if it belonged to Paul Daniels.”

Paul died in 2016 aged 77, less than a month after being diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour.

At the time, Debbie said: “Our life has been full of laughter and that’s what it has been the last few weeks – up until the last 48 hours when he slipped into a sleep.”