The seven bedroom Beaconsfield house once owned by the showbiz legend Val Doonican is up for sale.

Val and his wife Lynn with their two school age daughters Sarah and Fiona moved to Ardmore in Seer Green from their previous house in Rickmansworth when he was at the peak of his career.

With no Netflix, Xbox or social media to split the family and take them off into separate rooms like now, all ages would gather round the television to watch a favourite programme.

The Val Doonican Show on Saturday nights attracted audiences of up to 19 million.

Val’s home was his refuge. The previous owner was Jon Anderson of the rock group Yes. Like any family arriving in a new place, over the coming years they formed lasting friendships.

Eventually in 1988 with the girls by then in their late teens, they reserved a penthouse off plan on a glamorous new development being built in Beaconsfield. No question of the Doonican’s swapping the Chilterns for Hollywood.

Ardmore today is still very much a trophy home.

Sophisticated décor in an English country house close to London and Heathrow – how much better can it get?

There are four reception rooms: the drawing room connects with the dining room in an L-shaped arrangement. Each room has doors opening onto the terrace. 

At the other end of the hall, running from front to back of the house are the family room and the cinema/TV room where a previous generation would once have gathered to watch hit shows like Brucie’s Sunday Night at the London Palladium and Val singing songs like Paddy Mcginty’s Goat, Walk Tall and The Special Years sitting in his signature rocking chair wearing a jazzy jumper... In the mid-60s one of his albums knocked The Beatles’ Sgt Peppers Lonely Heart Band off the top spot in the hit parade.

The designer kitchen at Ardmore is a clean sweep of fitted cupboards with integrated appliances and clutter free work surfaces leading into the breakfast room.

Upstairs on the first floor is the master bedroom with windows on three sides, built-in wardrobes and en suite bathroom with stand alone bath, shower cubicle and twin basins.

The other six bedrooms (four with built-in wardrobes) and the family bathroom are also on the first floor.

At the top of the house on the second floor are three large store rooms.

The gardens are a special feature. There’s a swimming pool and specimen trees and a wide expanse of lawn with stripes to use as a guide if you’re playing clock golf or croquet.

Val and Lynn’s daughter Fiona says her parents adored each other. They were married for 54 years.

Lynn had been a bigger star than Val when they first met in their Irish homeland. “Aren’t we lucky?” she used to say when they sat together on the balcony of their penthouse in the evenings, looking out over the water gardens that are part of the development where they lived for 30 years after leaving Ardmore .

“It was Mum’s favourite phrase,” says her daughter. Lynn died in 2016, 11 months to the day after Val.

Ardmore is for sale through Knight Frank in Beaconsfield for £2.7m.