Advertisement

Bobby Ball death: Lee Mack's hilarious story about Pointless appearance with late comedian

Mack (left) and Ball starred together in ‘Not Going Out' (Getty Images/BBC)
Mack (left) and Ball starred together in ‘Not Going Out' (Getty Images/BBC)

Throughout his career, Bobby Ball was never one to miss the chance to make an audience laugh.Â

One such occasion appeared when he appeared on Pointless with Lee Mack.

The Cannon & Ball performer, who died on Wednesday (28 October) aged 76 after testing positive for coronavirus, had focused on acting over the past 20 years.Â

Because of this, he was best known to younger audiences for playing the role of Frank on BBC sitcom Not Going Out.

One of the funniest stories about Ball was told by his Not Going Out co-star and fellow comedian Mack while appearing on Richard Herring’s Leicester Square Theatre Podcast in 2015.

On the podcast, Mack recalled the time the pair appeared together on a Children in Need edition of the BBC quiz show in 2013.

On Pointless, contestants are tasked with giving correct answers that they think most of the public would not think of, with the first round in question requiring them to name any words ending with the suffix “-son”.

“Bob said to me, ‘Can I go first, I’m nervous,’ I went, ‘Alright,’” Mack told Herring. “So Bobby goes first, the question is name a word… that ends in -son, S-O-N. And Bob went, ‘Appleson.’

“Alexander Armstrong went, ‘What?’ Bearing in mind, I’m not exaggerating, that’s the speed he said it, he didn’t think at all. ‘Name a word that ends in -son.’ ‘Appleson.’ Hang on, you’ve got a minute, think.”

Mack continued: “Alexander went, ‘What does that mean?’ He went, ‘I don’t know, I just made it up.’ What do you mean you made it up, you’ve got to have a word that means something! To be fair, Alexander Armstrong didn’t say name a word that exists. He said make a sound that ends in -son.”

Ball first appeared on Not Going Out with Mack in 2009, with his most recent appearance being in the show’s 10th series, which aired in 2019.

Read more

Not Going Out fans remember the late Bobby Ball’s scene-stealing role