Debbie McGee to return to magic for emotional tribute to Paul Daniels

Debbie McGee is set to return to magic for the first time since her world-famous magician husband, Paul Daniels, died in March aged 77 from a brain tumour.

Paul’s widow and long-time performing partner will pay a heartfelt tribute to her late husband on ‘Celebrity Carry On Barging’ on Friday when she carries otu card tricks on the new Channel 5 show.

According to the Daily Star newspaper, Debbie said: “Magic was never my thing but once people knew who I was, whenever I did personal appearances they asked: ‘Can you do a trick?’

“So I learned a repertoire of six close-up tricks.

“On our TV shows before we finished, I started doing a section of my own.

“And in our live shows I did quite a lot of that was mine while Paul had a cup of tea in the dressing room. But since Paul died, magic was an area I could not go down.”

The television personality, who was known as Paul’s assistant, felt “nervous” the first time she opened a packet of playing cards for the first time since his passing, however, she was determined to pay a touching tribute to her late husband.

She explained: “I did a card trick on the last day as I always have a deck of cards in my bag. I was nervous.

“It was the first time I’d done something since Paul died.

“But I felt I adored the three of them and It would add something special to the trip.”

Debbie stars on the show, which sees celebrities pair up for an adventure through the countryside and canals of Britain, with team mate Nigel Havers from ‘Chariots of Fire’ and former ‘Emmerdale’ star Lorraine Chase and ‘Four Weddings and Funeral’ actor Simon Callow, and admits that she wasn’t keen on the idea of sharing a barge with another man at first.

However, it showed her that life is too short to worry over little things like that.

She said: “The show helped me a lot. I shared with Nigel Havers and he had been through a similar thing and he has come out the other side. It made me realise that life does go on.”