The former Countess of Bradford is the latest person to claim she was responsible for the death of comedian Rod Hull.
Rod, famed for his emu and its TV attacks on Michael Parkinson, died falling from his roof whilst fixing an aerial in 1999. Last week This Morning star and former Tory MP Gyles Brandreth said he blamed himself for Rod’s death aged 63.
He confessed he told his pal to climb onto the roof to adjust his aerial after complaining about his TV reception whilst they were at the theatre. Later that night Rod died after falling whilst adjusting the aerial so he could watch Manchester United play Inter Milan in the 1999 quarter finals with his teenage son.
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But now Joanne Miller has claimed Gyles “pinched” her story, and said he wasn’t with them and that they suggested Rod get up on a ladder to fix the reception. Ms Miller, who ended her marriage with Richard Bridgeman, Earl of Bradford, in 2006, said the couple had spent the evening with Rod at the first night of the musical Animal Crackers without Gyles, who is god father to their son.
(Image: Getty Images)
Joanne said: “Gyles seems to have pinched my story. I don’t recall Gyles being with us at all that night – I think I would have done.
“I can only think that my former husband must have told him some time later how we had urged Rod to fix his TV problem, which led to his really tragic death and, 25 years later, Gyles’s memory has appropriated our instructions to Rod to himself.”
(Image: Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
In response Mr Brandreth said he was “relieved” the former Countess was happy to take the blame. He said: “I was just one of us saying to Rod that he should simply climb onto the roof and sort it out. I’m sorry Jo doesn’t remember me being there.” Gyles made sure he attended the comic’s funeral and has since shared some of the quirky things he included in his final performance.
(Image: Alamy Stock Photo)
He explained how Rod wanted his famous pupped to be part of his funeral in a unique way. The TV presenter said at the time “It was a great funeral though because at his funeral the coffin came in, and as the coffin was being carried in, it was sort of [constant tapping sound]. He’d arranged a beak sound to be inside the coffin as though the emu was also in the coffin.”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
