Widow of Eddie Large recalls final exchange with husband

The widow of comedian Eddie Large has recalled her final conversation with her husband of 37 years.

Appearing on Good Morning Britain alongside their son Ryan and Large’s long-running comedy partner Syd Little, Patsy McGinnis fought tears as she told of the exchange.

Large died last week aged after contracting COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus, while in hospital being treated for heart failure.

Read more: Eddie Large dies at 78 after contracting coronavirus

McGinnis told co-hosts Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid: “I wanted to talk to him longer but he said, ‘Darling, I am going to have to go now.’

“I said, ‘Don’t worry, love – I will speak to you in the morning’, but that wasn’t to be as in the early hours of the morning – at about four o’clock – they rang to say he had passed away and we couldn’t be with him.

“I never thought it would end like this, I really didn’t, and I know a lot of families are going through the same thing. It is such a terrible time.

“But I wish we could have been with him and even when we… Trying to get a funeral together, we still won’t be able to see him. It’s heartbreaking.

“There is so much love out there for him and it has been overwhelming and so comforting. I know Eddie would be over the moon.”

Large, aged 78, received a life-saving heart transplant almost 20 years ago, and son Ryan said the coronavirus was the “final straw”.

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Ryan said: “He deteriorated quite quickly after getting the coronavirus. There were other things going on but that was really the final straw and he wasn’t strong enough to fight that off.

“I guess a blessing in a way is that we see these videos and we hear all these stories of other people going through and suffering with the virus.

“But thankfully Dad never got to the point where it was absolutely the worst, with the ventilation and the horror stories you see.

“Dad didn’t quite get to that part, which is a blessing in a way.”

Eddie Large (born Edward McGinnis) and Syd Little (born Cyril Mead) formed their act in 1963 and won telly talent show Opportunity Knocks in 1971, which led to regular TV appearances for the next 20 years.

Their BBC One series The Little And Large Show attracted audiences of 10 million at its peak, before being axed in 1991.

Read more: Comedian Roy Hudd dies at 83

Little described the days following his friend’s death as “an emotional rollercoaster”.

Speaking of Large, he said: “Eddie was 90% of the act. I was only 10%. A very valuable 10% but I was. I miss him madly.”

He added he thought there was “a right party going on up in heaven with Frank Carson and Norman Collier and Eddie”.