Revealed: Give Us A Clue showman Lionel Blair's love of the 'disco dust'

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By OLIVIA KEMP, SHOWBUSINESS REPORTER

Published: 01:28 GMT, 8 November 2026 | Updated: 01:54 GMT, 8 November 2026

He was the twinkle-toed television favourite who brought song, dance and charades to millions.

But Give Us A Clue showman Lionel Blair is recalled in a very different light by Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain.

In his new autobiography, McBrain, 74, remembers partying with Blair and The Who drummer Keith Moon at a nightclub in London's Soho. 

He wrote: 'We met him at La Chasse, in Wardour Street, and had a proper party.'

The rocker then described his surprise at discovering that Blair was also partial to cocaine.

Lionel Blair (pictured in 1996) was the twinkle-toed television favourite But he is recalled in a very different light by Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain

In his new autobiography, McBrain, 74, remembers partying with Blair and The Who drummer Keith Moon at a nightclub in London's Soho

He added: 'Who'd have thought in a million years that Lionel Blair, bless his heart, would be into the old 'disco dust' – cocaine? 

'He was a lovely lad, but if you had some 'toot' that was all he wanted to know about.'

Blair, whose real name was Henry Lionel Ogus, was a talented dancer, choreographer and actor, but was known to millions as a captain on the charades-based TV game Give Us A Clue. He died in 2021 aged 92.

McBrain's memoir, Hello Boys And Girls!, also recounts how his future bandmate Ozzy Osbourne stopped him from falling overboard during a Channel ferry crossing in 1975.

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