AFTER 15 years together, comedian Bobby Davro proposed to his partner the day before she started chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer.
And he pulled out all the stops, enlisting pals including Sir Cliff Richard to make it a celebration of a lifetime.
A reflective Bobby Davro speaks for first time since the death of his fiancée Vicky Wright
Bobby and Vicky found happiness together – pictured in 2010
In his first interview since his beloved fiancée Vicky Wright died of the disease nine weeks ago aged 63, Bobby says: “I have to forgive the universe for taking her away from me, but the engagement was one of the best days of her life.”
The 64-year-old, who was previously married to Trudi Jameson for ten years until 2003, adds: “I never wanted to marry again after getting divorced.
“The fact that I hadn’t proposed caused us problems. So people said to me, ‘You’re only doing it for her’. But I was doing it for both of us. She was the love of my life.
“I could never have lived with myself if I hadn’t.”
The engagement party last December was at The King’s Arms in Egham, Surrey, where Vicky had been working as a maitre d’.
Part of it included a fun video where he was dressed up as one of his comic characters, a big-toothed choreographer called Julian.
He adds: “I got down on one knee in front of friends and family and gave her a silver diamond solitaire ring in a little box that lit up.
“I sang one of our favourite songs, It’s You I Love. Her daughter, Kelly, put pictures over the walls.”
Bobby asked celebrity pals, including Sir Cliff, comic Jim Davidson, singer Gilbert O’Sullivan and Spandau Ballet’s Tony Hadley, to put together video messages.
Impersonating long-term friend Cliff, Bobby says: “He’s such a lovely bloke.
“He said, ‘A little birdie told me you’re getting engaged’. Then he sang Congratulations.
“Tony Hadley joked, ‘So you’re finally getting hitched then you old b*****d’.
“Gilbert O’Sullivan recorded a special song for us called Because Of You. Damien Flood sang a slow version of Fly Me To The Moon.”
Vicky, daughter of singer Joy Beverley of The Beverley Sisters and legendary Wolves and England footballer Billy Wright — who died of the same condition — was diagnosed with cancer in October 2022.
Eighteen months earlier she had been told that the tummy bloating and pain she was experiencing was IBS.
Yet Bobby, who has three grown-up daughters from his first marriage, has nothing but praise for the NHS.
‘So brave’
He says: “I don’t blame any doctor because that’s the trouble with pancreatic cancer, it’s so easy to miss.
“All of the NHS staff went above and beyond and made not only Vicky, but us, feel so comfortable.”
It was only when Vicky got jaundice that she returned to the GP for advice last autumn.
Charismatic Bobby, who found nationwide fame during the Eighties with hit shows including Bobby Davro On The Box and Bobby Davro’s TV Annual, says: “The GP referred her for blood tests and scans.
“I dropped her off at the hospital thinking nothing of it.
“She called to tell me they’d found a shadow in her pancreas and in her liver. I was just so shocked.”
Vicky began nine rounds of chemotherapy at the Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford.
At the time, Bobby was doing panto Cinderella in Kent and commuted back to Surrey every night to see her.
The star, who previously played Vinnie Monks in EastEnders, says: “It was a really tough time. Vicky was so brave.
“Her dad hadn’t even got to the point of having chemo when he died and knowing that upset her, but she had hope that whole time.
“I got her a little framed picture with the words, ‘You’re stronger than you think you are and more loved than you’ll ever know’.”
But by March the cancer had not shrunk and the prognosis looked bleak.
Bobby tried to keep Vicky laughing until the end — even if he admits some of it was fairly dark humour.
She spent her last weeks at St Peter’s Hospital in Chertsey, Surrey.
Bobby says: “There was one day where I’d been told she’d moved to another ward, called Willow Ward.
“So, I’ve gone down there and been told, ‘She’s in a room to the right’.
“I go in there, expecting to see her daughter, Kelly, and sister, Babs, with her.
“Instead, I can see that someone has passed away and been covered up by a sheet.
“It was so shocking. I thought, ‘Oh my God, she’s passed away and I didn’t make it in time’.
“I was nearly going to take the sheet back when a nurse came along and told me, ‘Vicky’s not come down yet’.
“Well, that made us all laugh — Vicky certainly laughed. Laughter always carried us through the hard times.”
The couple sought help from two friends — TV’s Dr Hilary Jones, who offered them support over the phone, and Bobby’s psychologist pal Dr Nick Murdoch, who tried to counsel them through those tough weeks.
Bobby kept a bedside vigil at night during her final days, while Kelly and Babs were there almost constantly.
He says: “The nurses were amazing. One in particular, called Ivanka, made up a bed for me.
“I slept next to Vicky for three nights and held her hand, singing songs we loved.
“I left her to go home for a bit and that morning I heard someone else on the ward listening to a song called Alone Again. That really got to me.
“The next morning, at around 6am, I got a call from a loved one to say she’d died.”
His voice choking with emotion, Bobby adds: “I went to see her — I wasn’t sure whether I should or shouldn’t — and I told her I loved her.
‘Two days of anger’
“There wasn’t much of a last conversation but at the start of the year we had talked about going on holiday to Spain after the chemo and I had promised her I would look after her daughter Kelly.”
A few weeks after Vicky’s passing, on May 3, Bobby was one of a very small group of family and loved ones who lay a rose on her coffin at a private cremation in Feltham, Middlesex.
He whispered: “I love you.”
Bobby today carries some of their most cherished keepsakes, including a silver commitment ring with their pet name for love,
“Schluffe”, engraved on it and two halves of a silver heart they gave to each other.
He says of grief: “You go through so much. I felt sad and then I felt two days of anger.
“I kicked my furniture and was so bad tempered.
“Memories come up and just slap you in the face.
“I was in my car and I’d been organising the music on my phone and this song — Vicky singing and playing the ukulele — came up.
“It really hurts, coming to terms with the fact I can’t hear her laugh any more, I can’t smell her perfume, look at her beautiful eyes.”
But Bobby refuses to let the heartache eat away at him.
“New beginnings start with painful endings,” he says. “I’m not going to look back and walk around all miserable.
“I’m going to carry on doing the thing I love the most, performing.”
He also wants to raise awareness of the disease, which often goes undetected as one of the lesser-known cancers.
Bobby says: “We’ve all heard of things like prostate cancer but not pancreatic.
“ People must go to the GP if they feel something is wrong and insist on a second opinion and tests if needed.”
Bobby first met Vicky when she performed as part of pop trio The Foxes, who supported him on tour.
Years later they reunited after she moved into a house opposite his late father, Bill.
In 2008 he invited her over at Christmas and the friendship turned to love.
Bobby explains says: “We kissed and there was this electricity.
“It changed the whole parameters of the relationship. It knocked my socks off.
“She said, ‘Honestly, I can’t believe it. I thought it was going to be like kissing my brother’.”
- For more information on pancreatic cancer, see pancreaticcancer.org.uk.
Vicky as a child with her famous parents – dad Billy and mum Joy
