Des's top TV earner

Veteran entertainer Des O'Connor has become the highest-paid presenter on British television after signing a £3.7 million deal with ITV,

The 71-year-old former Butlins' Redcoat clinched the deal after weeks of talks with television bosses, making him better paid than nearest entertainment rivals Cilla Black, Anne Robinson and Chris Tarrant. O'Connor, who will now work for both Carlton and Thames Television under the new contract, said: "I am over the moon with the deal.

"I am delighted to be working both in peak-time and daytime television. I can't wait to get started."

The new contract stipulates that he will make 70 editions of Today With Des And Mel, the popular lunchtime chat show he hosts with Melanie Sykes for Carlton. For Thames, he will be back on prime-time television presenting one-on-one specials entitled Des With...

O'Connor, once famously the butt of numerous jokes by Morecambe and Wise, was born in Stepney in 1932. Like many showbusiness veterans he got his first taste of theatrical life in the forces. In the early Fifties, he was a holiday camp Redcoat and made his full stage debut in 1953 when he appeared at the Palace Theatre in Newcastle.