Darts legend BOBBY GEORGE is in glittering kind as he recollects changing into the ‘King of Bling’, educating Johnny Depp to swear like a Cockney, breaking his again celebrating and watching the amputation of his personal toe which he now retains in a jar of vodka

After three hours of answering our questions, Bobby George has one for us. There’s Carling and Worthington on tap, but he wants to know: ‘Would you like a cocktail or a cocktoe?’

Suddenly, George is holding a small jar filled with vodka and swimming inside it is a human toe. This isn’t a prop he picked up from a joke shop. It’s real, and it’s his, one of four he had amputated due to a painful deformity which left his little piggies overlapping.

George is behind the bar in the 18-bedroom home he built entirely himself in Essex, even excavating the three fishing lakes outside at the wheel of his own JCB. He’s rolled his cigarette, his gold is jangling, and our lovely landlord is telling us the story of the ‘cocktoe’.

‘I knew the surgeon, Phil his name was, and I watched him do it,’ George says. ‘Some people might have a f***ing heart attack seeing that, but I had him pull the screen down so I could look.’ We will spare the graphic details, including George showing us how they peeled back his skin, but he ends with: ‘You know those clippers you do your nails with? Same as them, but bigger. Dink. It’s off.’

With a ‘lovely jubbly’, that toe is now here, as he then shows us an example of one of the eight two-inch titanium screws he has in his back. ‘Coughed this one up last week,’ he says.

Knees? They’re new. Hips? Replaced. Shoulder? Shot. Back? Buggered. He’s got screws and plates, no spleen and the three toes on each foot must make folks at the beach wonder whether ET has returned for Elliott. George is indeed a unique being out of this world. Alongside his wonderful wife Marie, who he adores, he’s led one hell of a life. His body may be broken, but he is happy.

Ever the optimist, the name of his new book is ‘Still Here’, having turned 80 years young the week before Daily Mail Sport visits his majestical mansion called George House on his 12-acre grounds.

Were it not for George, darts might not be the all-singing, all-dancing extravaganza it is today with a £1million cheque awaiting this year’s winner at Alexandra Palace. ‘The King of Bling’ is dressed perfectly for our photoshoot, having kindly gotten his cape out of his car boot, and is telling us why he chose this costume all those decades ago and how he was the first to introduce walk-on music.

‘They’d call the player on stage and it was dead,’ he says. ‘I said, “Ask the Beeb if I can have a f***ing song or something”. I let (former BDO compere) Martin Fitzmaurice pick for me.

‘I’m waiting to come out, through the puff of smoke, and I hear “vroom, vroom, vroom”. Then, “D’you wanna be in my gang, my gang, my gang…” It was only Gary Glitter, wasn’t it? His song, Leader of the Gang. Everyone knew the words back then. I looked at the crowd and thought, “F***, I’ve done something here”. Do you know why I did that?

‘I had glittery flare bottoms with diamantés, a shirt all glittery with a belt, “BG” on the collar in glitter. I did it so they wouldn’t forget me. They might say, “Did you see that f***ing idiot, Bobby George, the other night?” Well, they knew my name, didn’t they?’

Not to mention the cape and candelabra as, smiling, George continues: ‘A few players didn’t like it. They said, “It’s not a circus”. Well it is a f***ing circus. It’s entertainment.’ He later changed to We Are The Champions by Queen, the lyrics speaking to his story of overcoming adversity.

‘My dad went blind, and I lost my mum when I was three,’ he says. ‘We didn’t just have zero. We had f*** all. But I learned quite a bit off my dad. He had a good memory. I learned how to do a gearbox for a rotavator when I was five, six. We had nothing but then we didn’t know any different. Some people are clever. I ain’t. I’m f***ing thick as s***. But I’m clever with my hands.’

Clearly, because he constructed this home from scratch. It took him six years and is shaped to look like the flight of an arrow when viewed from above, though we have to interrupt because Dosh, one of his four dogs, is currently cocking his leg up on one of the bar stools.

George tells us they’re the reason my armrest has a rip in it. ‘F***ing dogs did that. But I’ll get a bit of leather and strip it and do that.’ There’s always something to do around here and he’s still a grafter at 80. ‘It’s a book that never closes,’ he says.

Dosh is a Jack Russell crossed with a Chihuahua. As are Euro and Bella. Tucker is a Romanian Shepherd trained to kill wolves and bears. ‘At 8 o’clock, he’s out the door, all around the land, all around the lakes, all night,’ George says. ‘I can hear him.

‘But he doesn’t chase the rabbits or squirrels or ducks or rats. He’ll sit next to them. I ain’t gonna dress up as a f***ing wolf or bear to see what he does then, though.’

We fear for the trick or treaters, but George says: ‘That’s why I’ve got no f***ing neighbours! I don’t want neighbours. F*** it. Don’t like humans.’

He’s good at swearing, George. So good he was once asked to teach Johnny Depp how to properly curse like a Cockney in a 2018 film called London Fields. As a method actor, the American was in character when they first met on set.

‘He came up to me and said, “Alright mate, I’m in a film here”,’ George recalls. ‘I told him to give me one of his roll-ups and asked him what part of London he’s from. He said, “I’m a f***ing American, you c***”. I said, “You what? You’re talking like a Cockney”. He said, “I’ve been studying”.

‘The line he had to say was, “Do you think I’m a c***?” I told him to say, “Do you think I’m some sort of c*** or what?” He went, “That’s f***ing better, innit”.’

George worked several careers before becoming ‘The King of Bling’. First with flowers. ‘Not much money in that game, but I did it to help my dad.’ Then digging the tunnels for the London Underground’s Victoria Line. He nearly lost a finger after one accident, only for a doctor to save it despite others advising an amputation. ‘I always think of that,’ George says. ‘That could have been my career gone before it had even started. I owe him a pint wherever he is.’

He was laying granite floors when, aged 30, he discovered his darting talents. Him and his mate, Malcolm Ellis, went fishing in Ireland but the sea was too choppy. They found a local boozer, Ellis handed him a set of arras, and told him to give it a go. ‘I’d never played darts,’ George says. ‘I used to do arm wrestling. We’d snap the tables in the pub with the pressure. It was a gift.’

But George couldn’t miss. ‘Malcolm said, “How the f*** did you do that? I’ve played for 16 years and can’t do that”. So he pushed me into darts.

‘I got a dartboard, three darts, some paper, and learned how to count. Here’s a quiz question for you. How many different ways do you think there are to do a nine-darter? From 501 to a double finish?

‘There are 3,944. Amazing, ain’t it? The perfect nine-darter is treble 20, treble 19, bull – 167 – treble 20, treble 19, bull – 167 – treble 20, treble 19, bull – 167. Three 167s is 501. Perfection. No one has ever done it. I’ve missed it twice. I hit the 25 and not the bull for the finish.’

By 34, George had won the coveted News of the World Championship. ‘We used to play from 8ft, then they made it 7ft 9in 1/4. Some d***head made it a quarter, just to make it awkward to measure. Does two-and-a-three-quarter inches make a difference? I don’t know. Ask my wife!’

George suspects darts is easier now and not only because they are closer, as he explains: ‘The lighting is perfect. The height is perfect. The oches are proper. No wind. I used to play in America with air-conditioning. It was like the Concorde taking off. They have bigger doubles and trebles. You’ve still got to hit them, but it makes it more entertaining. People see 180 after 180 now.

‘In 1979, I didn’t drop a leg all the way through (the News of the World Championship). They never kept averages, but my boy looked at the records and said, “Dad, you were the first player to ever average over 100 in a televised tournament”. F***, I loved it. I dreamt about winning that. I started in ’76 and in ’79, I was on top of the f***ing world.’

George twice finished runner-up as world champion, first to Eric Bristow in 1980 then to John Part in 1994. It was in ’94 when he jumped for joy while beating Kevin Kenny in the quarter-finals on the bouncy Lakeside stage and was overcome by pain. He had broken his back – just by celebrating.

‘Because I’d done so much lifting in the tunnels, I must have damaged my spine,’ he says. ‘They hung me up in hospital. I only had my pants on. I was like a coconut in a wet Sainsbury’s bag hanging down and the cameras were there. I said, “Come on boys, give me a break, no filming, f*** that”. I didn’t want anyone to know. I didn’t want people to think I was making my excuses early.

‘I wanted to win it and then say, “By the way, I’ve got a broken back, you’re all f***ing s***!” They said, “You can’t play. You’ve snapped your back. I don’t know how you walked in here”.’

George refused to surrender as a mate helped him: ‘He made me this steel corset. F***ing nuts, bolts, everything. I had to play Magnus Caris from Sweden in the semi-finals. I’m 4-2 down in sets and 2-0 down in legs. One more leg and I’m out. He wanted 141. He went 60, 45, and clipped the wire for double 18. I don’t know how I did it, but he never won a leg from then. My brother had to empty the sweat out of my shoes after. That’s how much I sweated. It went down my legs and filled my shoes. It was the pain. I’d broke my back but hadn’t told anyone.

‘Then I played the final (against Part) and couldn’t hit a double. He did me 6-0 in sets. I’ll never forget thinking, “Come on, John, hit the f***ing double, will ya?” That’s bad, isn’t it? I’m in the f***ing final and hoping the other guy hits his double straightaway.’

George took home £16,000 for finishing runner-up and spent it on fixing his back with those titanium screws. In this year’s World Darts Championship, first-round losers received £15,000 for turning up at Ally Pally. The victor will take home £1m with Luke Littler the favourite to win.

Any advice for Littler? ‘Don’t grow up. You’ll never be skint if you don’t grow up. No girls, no flash cars, no hangers-on. Just do your f***ing thing and have your bubble gum.

‘He doesn’t think he’s too young. When you’re that age, you think you’re the captain of the ship. He is at darts, but ships can sink. Look at the Titanic. In darts, you can go from hero to zero overnight.’

George went down the exhibition route. There was guaranteed money in that game. Still, it could be dangerous. ‘I walk through the crowd and they love it,’ he says. ‘I’ve had women jump on my back and bouncers getting them off me like I’m f***ing Elvis Presley.

‘But I never thought it would be that big in darts. I used to play Michael (van Gerwen) for fun. He calls me “Grandad”. Say he wanted double tops, I’d put my fingers either side of it and get him to throw the dart in between. We went to a club in Mayfair. Posh. Expensive. 

‘We played. He needed double 10 so I’m surrounding it with my fingers. He says “Grandad, I don’t like double 10”. I said, “Hit it, you d***head!” He only throws it straight into my f***ing finger.’

Van Gerwen sent George a video message when he turned 80, as did Littler, Michael Smith, Adrian Lewis, Joe Cullen, Stephen Bunting, Rob Cross, Fallon Sherrock and many more. Nathan Aspinall, Simon Whitlock and Jonny Clayton called him an ‘old b*******’ in theirs, while Van Gerwen told him: ‘Bobby, 80 years old, you old f***er! Don’t pass away yet, huh! I want to see you before that!’

As George will tell you, he’s happily ‘still here’.