Doonican moved to England in 1951 and joined the Four Ramblers who, in addition to touring the variety stages, were featured on the BBC radio serial the
Riders of the Range. Recognising Doonican's talent and potential as a solo act, Newley persuaded him to leave the singing group and go solo. He was auditioned for radio as a solo act and appeared on the radio show
Variety Bandbox. Soon after his solo career started, he picked up his own radio show in the afternoons on the BBC Light Programme in 1961 called
Your Date with Val. In 1962, he had also had a weekly show on Irish TV called
Presenting Val Doonican. Variety and cabaret appearances increased, and he received good reviews following his appearance at London's Astor Club in March 1963. In the late 1950s, Doonican became one of the artists managed by
Eve Taylor, the self-described "Queen Bee" of show business, who remained his manager until her death. After seeing him in a cabaret in London in 1964, impresario
Val Parnell booked him to appear on
Sunday Night at the Palladium on 31 May 1964. As a result of his performances,
Bill Cotton, then Assistant Head of Light Entertainment at the BBC, offered Doonican his own regular show,
Singalong Saturday, starting on 27 June 1964. The series was a success, and he was given another series on BBC1 called "Date with Doonican" starting on 22 February 1965. The TV shows were produced by
Yvonne Littlewood and lasted for over 20 years. At their peak, the shows attracted audiences of some 19 million viewers. As his TV programmes were variety shows they gave other performers, such as
Dave Allen, early exposure. In the United States,
The Val Doonican Show aired on
ABC on Saturday evenings at 8:30 p.m. (7:30 p.m. Central) from 5 June to 14 August 1971. The Palladium performance also kick-started his
recording career. Between 1964 and 1973, Doonican was rarely out of the UK Singles Chart, his greatest successes including the
singles "
Walk Tall", "The Special Years", "
Elusive Butterfly", "What Would I Be" (Decca), "If The Whole World Stopped Loving" (Pye), and "Morning" (Philips); and the albums
13 Lucky Shades of Val Doonican (Decca), and
Val Doonican Rocks, But Gently (Pye) which reached number 1 in the
UK Albums Chart in December 1967. and number 3 in Ireland. In all, he recorded over 50 albums. He also sang the
theme song to the film
Ring of Bright Water. Behind the scenes, Doonican was described as "a perfectionist who knew his limitations but always aimed to be 'the best Val Doonican possible.'" He was sometimes compared to American singer
Perry Como, though he claimed his main influence was
Bing Crosby. He appeared in three
Royal Variety Performances. On 31 December 1976, Doonican performed his hit song "Walk Tall" on
BBC One's
A Jubilee of Music, celebrating British pop music for
Queen Elizabeth II's impending Silver Jubilee. Doonican won the
BBC Television Personality of the Year award in 1966. He was the subject of
This Is Your Life in 1970.
Eamonn Andrews, a fellow Irishman, met him at the 18th green of the South Herts Golf Club as Doonican played a round of golf. He wrote two volumes of autobiography,
The Special Years (1980) and
Walking Tall (1985) ==Personal life==