‘Just thinking about Ernie makes me smile'

For decades they were a beloved showbiz double act, now Denise Drysdale reveals her sorrow over her friend’s death

- Craig Bennett.

For TV comedy queen Denise Drysdale, the passing of her great mate Ernie Sigley following a battle with Alzheimer’s disease is a bittersweet mix of sadness and relief.

“The Ernie I knew would have hated being in a nursing home, his mind stripped of precious memories of his cherished family – his wife Glenys and their four kids [Matthew, Guy, David, and Emma], his friends and of a life lived large,” says the two-time Gold Logie winner just days after the passing of her “TV husband”.

“When I got the phone call on Sunday night [August 15] that Ernie had gone, I felt an immediate wave of sadness… a finality. Then so many fabulous memories of our 50-year friendship flooded back.

LOVABLE LARRIKIN

“We had so much fun. In fact, when we were together, we rarely stopped laughing. The mischief we got up to was unbelievable,” smiles Denise.

“It was Ernie who christened me Ding Dong. He had a secretary named Denise Bell, so as a joke he called me Ding Dong, and it stuck.”

Denise, 72, says she first met Ernie in London.

“It was 1970. I was with my good friend Patti McGrath [who went on to marry Bert Newton in 1974] and we ran into Ernie, so we all went for a drink.