Rising to fame in classic BBC comedy series The Kenny Everett Television Show, Cleo Rocos enjoyed the hilarious antics of the programme’s regular guest star, Billy Connolly.
The 57-year-old Brazilian says partying with the Big Yin wasn’t always “in the best possible taste”, to borrow the catchphrase used by an Everett character, but was always fun.
The busty star, who appeared on DJ and presenter Everett’s prime-time TV show from 1981 to 1988 – usually wearing suspenders and stockings or dressed as a French maid – became close friends with Connolly during filming.
Cleo said: “Billy is the loveliest man on the planet and he and Kenny had the jolliest friendship.
“We would always do the show’s sketches with Billy at the end of our working day because once he started laughing in the middle of a sketch, you couldn’t stop him.
“We knew if we did them in the morning, we’d miss a whole day of filming that one sketch.
“So we did them at the end of the day because whenever Billy was around we’d just laugh and laugh and laugh.
“One of the most famous sketches they did was as two old ladies and I was the waitress.
“It took 100 takes. At the end, you could even hear the cameraman laughing.
“It was a happy mess of glee.”
Riotous moments in front of the camera were only part of the fun, Cleo says – Connolly and Freddie Mercury joined her and Everett for secret nights on the town with Princess Diana.
She said: “The BBC bar in London smelled of humid wine stains from the carpet but we had a lot of laughs there.
“We’d spend a long time at the bar then go off somewhere else.
“Back then, the Hippodrome was the place to go. I remember there was a show where they had a live lion on stage and it escaped. Everyone was shrieking.
“After the pubs closed, we used to go with Kenny and Freddie to a lot of gentleman’s clubs underneath damp alleys.
“Places like the Vauxhall Tavern and the Troubadour in Earl’s Court and all the teapots would have gin or wine in them.”
Everett had jumped ship to the BBC from ITV, who had made his Kenny Everett Video Show from 1978 to 1981.
His best-loved characters included Sid Snot, Gizzard Puke and Cupid Stunt, whose catchphrase, “It’s all done in the best possible taste” became famous across the UK.
Charles Spencer, Diana’s brother, invited Cleo and Everett to his 21st birthday at Spencer House.
Both were huge fans of the Kenny Everett Television Show but Diana, in particular, “loved it”.
Cleo said: “She would quote all the sketches. We would get together for lunch and swap all the showbiz gossip for all the palace gossip.
“She loved knowing who was gay, who was having an affair.
“We knew a lot of really huge secrets but nobody would ever know we even had lunch because we would never mention any of it.
“Kenny would say, ‘When is the Queen going to give you a go?’ to Diana at these silly, camp, jolly lunches and she was very funny.
“She was a very happy person who would throw her head back and laugh and laugh.”
As well as her friendship with Connolly, Mercury and Diana, Cleo and Everett were inseparable until his death from an AIDS-related illness in 1995.
She said: “Kenny had come out as gay but Kenny was just Kenny so nobody bothered with it. We just had really great times together.
“Diana felt really at home. There was a great band of trust around.
"She felt she could come and be that way without it being anything else other than what it was.
“She was fun – really witty and just wanted to laugh.
“When I see programmes with her always looking sad and sullen, I just think about the sparky, fun and cool side to her.
“When we took Diana to the Vauxhall Tavern, it was an evening out with pals that rolled on like good nights do.
“It often started in the afternoon and went into the evenings. It was fun because it was private and a big secret and a happy mischief.”
These days, Cleo runs her own tequila brand, Aqua Riva, and lives in London’s Dockland’s by the Thames with her 92-year-old mother, Audrey.
She believes Everett’s TV shows could not have survived today’s “cancelled” culture.
Cleo said: “I looked at comedy as the Switzerland of society but I don’t think they would make a Kenny Everett show now because you have to be so careful.
“It worries me because everything gets taken out of context.
“Everything said in the right context can be funny but there is a thick ankles, shrivelled ovaries brigade out there that are just looking for a reason to protect or invent something to protect.
“If they want to alter the series of Fawlty Towers – and I think that’s a bit of a holy grail – then nothing is safe.”
Reminded of the great laughs she has had with Connolly when she has come to Scotland to promote her tequila brand, Cleo said: “I love coming to Scotland.
“It’s a place where you can laugh like you used to be able to laugh about everything.
“You have come to Scotland to have a laugh, I think, and you drink properly and party properly.
“When I come to Scotland, you can see that Billy’s humour doesn’t come from someone giving him scripts.
“You know the roots come from a hard job and a hard day’s work. They are not going to moan about it. They are going to laugh about it.”
She added: “Billy is so fantastic. If I see him at a function, we make a beeline for each other.
“We’d go to the stairs at an exit so we could talk and have a massive catch-up before everyone notices he was missing.
“He’s a proper person and never anything other than thoroughly genuine and humble.
“I don’t think I have laughed more with anyone else ever. He laughs and laughs before he can get the joke out. I love him.
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"No wonder he is loved by everyone in Scotland.
“But he’s got to be concerned with how his Parkinson’s will affect him. It can change your whole personality and he must worry if it will do that.
“But Billy Connolly is bigger than Billy Connolly. He’s a legend.”
