Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Bobby was laughing & joking up to the end
Sons: He never gave in to Covid
BOBBY Ball’s sons have told how their brave father wouldn’t let Covid sap his spirits and laughed and joked with nurses in his final days.
The Cannon & Ball comic genius died at Blackpool Victoria Hospital on Wednesday aged 76 after testing positive for coronavirus.
Rob Harper, in double act The Harper Brothers with his brother Darren, said: “I was Facetiming him three times a day.
“Before he took a decline, he was laughing and joking with the nurses, he was his usual self, getting the nurses and saying ‘Have you met your new mother?’.”
Rob told Good Morning Britain: “Three weeks ago we did our last gig with Cannon & Ball at a place in Blackpool called Viva and he was up to his old tricks again.
“We went on stage [but] Cannon & Ball got the bigger laughs, turned around to us backstage and said ‘That’s how you get laughs, lads’.”
Darren added: “To work with them both, absolute legends.”
Bobby’s comedy partner Tommy Cannon was also ful l of emotion as h e remembered his best pal.
Close to tears, he said: “I didn’t know he was unwell. We last worked on the 9th of October and he seemed
OK. Then he was taken into
hospital. He was getting a little better and suddenly he passed away. I don’t know where I am. I can’t make any sense of it. I miss him terribly, I love him to bits and I ’ ll meet him again.”
When asked by host Eamonn Holmes if he feels a part of him has died, he said: “Oh yeah, a big chunk of me. I don’t think I’ll ever get over it after 57 years working together.”
Tommy, 82, added: “He’ll be up there with all his pals, Eddie Large, Bernard Manning, Eric Sykes, all the greats. He’ll be th ere with th em, shining like a light.”
Oldham-born Bobby won new fans playing Lee Mack’s troublesome father Frank in BBC One sitcom Not Going Out.
A big chunk of me has died. I’ll never get over it TOMMY CANNON ON THE LOSS OF BOBBY