As his were variety shows, his TV programmes gave a number of other performers, such as Dave Allen, early exposure. [2] Regular guests included Bernard Cribbins, Bob Todd, the Norman Maen Dancers, the Mike Sammes Singers, and the Kenny Woodman Orchestra. At its height The Val Doonican Show, which featured both American and British acts, had 20million viewers. [15] In the United States, The Val Doonican Show aired on ABC on Saturday evenings at 8:30p.m. (7:30p.m. Central) from 5 June to 14 August 1971. [16] Whilst on that particular tour, Anthony Newley held a birthday party. All the acts had to perform, but not in their usual roles. Thus, singers did impressions and comedy turns, with Lynn regaling the audience as an impressionist. The Four Ramblers did not have another ‘turn’ and Val stepped forward, guitar in hand, and perched on a stool and singing a couple of ballads and ‘Paddy McGinty’s Goat.’ At the end of his performance, Anthony Newley suggested that his solo spot was more commercially marketable than the Ramblers act and urged Val to ‘go solo’. He always insisted that he was not a show-biz person and had gone into the profession because of his love of music. “We are not as important to the outside world as we are sometimes led to believe,” he told the Stage in 2010. “It’s best never to assume that the next engagement will be easy, or that at last you’ve arrived. We are simply a little light relief.” In 1963 he was booked to appear on Sunday Night at the Palladium, which led to him being offered his own show on BBC TV which ran for more than 20 years. He went on to have five hits in the top 10: Walk Tall, The Special Years, Elusive Butterfly, What Would I Be and If The Whole World Stopped Loving.

Val Doonican Biography". Valdoonican.com. Archived from the original on 13 July 2015 . Retrieved 4 July 2015. a b c d e f g Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrateded.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p.93. ISBN 0-646-11917-6. The singer, who was born Michael Valentine Doonican, often joked that it took him 17 years to gain overnight success. Freedom of Waterford". Valdoonican.com. 17 June 2011. Archived from the original on 23 May 2015 . Retrieved 4 July 2015. Since 2006, his name has also been used by the Barnsley comedy-folk band The Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican, who celebrate Val's image, wearing loud-knitwear as part of their larger-than-life stage personas. [28] [29]The Bar-Stewards Sons Of Val Doonican at The Acoustic Festival of Britain". Acousticfestival.co.uk. 1 June 2014 . Retrieved 2 July 2015. Doonican officially retired in 1990 [21] but was still performing in 2009. He had a second home in Spain, [22] and was a keen golfer and a talented watercolour painter. [5] Another hobby he enjoyed was cooking. [23] In June 2011, he was recognised by the Mayor of Waterford, who bestowed on him "The Freedom of the City". [24] Death and tributes [ edit ] Webber, Richard (21 December 2013). "Val Doonican, Irish singer and TV favourite retired, had two daughters". Daily Express. London, UK . Retrieved 4 July 2015. The likes of Val Doonican is unlikely to be seen again' ". Irishpost.co.uk. Archived from the original on 4 July 2015 . Retrieved 4 July 2015.

Val continued to play cabaret and occasional theatre gigs but despite being a regular radio personality, no recording contracts were forthcoming for him. He was spotted at a concert by Val Parnell, who at that time arranged the acts for ‘Sunday Night at the London Palladium’, booked onto the show and performed an eight minute spot that, he says, changed his life. By the Monday, there were recording contracts and TV show offers flooding his manager’s office. Truly, as Val said many times, he was ‘an overnight success after seventeen years.’ Doonican's 1965 song, "I'm Gonna Get There Somehow", has been used in adverts for Irish toy store Smyths. The same song was used in a Boots Christmas advert in 2023.

Val’s Love of Music

Doonican, Val (25 October 2009). Doonican, Val. My Story, My Life: The Complete Autobiography. JR Books Ltd. ISBN 978-1906779610. OCLC 828694833. OL 31077200M. Programming" (PDF). Broadcasting. 29 March 1971. p.76 . Retrieved 24 July 2014. [ permanent dead link] ( PDF)

After seeing him in cabaret in London in 1964, impresario Val Parnell booked him to appear on Sunday Night at the Palladium on 31 May 1964. [2] Most unusually, Doonican returned to the show the following week as well. [11]

When his father died in 1941, the teenage Doonican had to leave De La Salle College Waterford to get factory jobs fabricating steel and making orange and grapefruit boxes. [3] He began to perform in his hometown, often with his friend Bruce Clarke, and they had their first professional engagement as a duo in 1947. [2]

A crooner, he found popular success, especially in the United Kingdom where he had five successive Top 10 albums in the 1960s as well as several hits on the UK Singles Chart, includingIn a statement, his family said: “He leaves behind his wife, Lynn, daughters Sarah and Fiona and grandchildren Bethany and Scott. He was a wonderful husband, father and grandfather and will be greatly missed by family, friends and his many fans.” Born Michael Valentine Doonican, but known as Val, to distinguish him from the many other Michaels in his childhood, he was brought up by poor parents, Agnes and John, in Waterford, Ireland. Val was the youngest of eight children, who slept in one partitioned room. His father was a man with a drink problem but also a great deal of wisdom who, on his deathbed, told the 14-year-old Val that he was not the hero his son thought him to be, and that he would prefer to tell the boy so himself.