Derek Thompson: how I fell victim to the LA curse that caused Oscars chaos

Derek Thompson has revealed that a cursed theatre caused one of the most terrifying moments of his long and successful career in broadcasting.

Speaking to the Racing Post for a big interview in Sunday's newspaper, Thompson recalled presenting the annual awards for Sheikh Mansoor's Global Arabian Racing Festival at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. The same venue had hosted the Oscars two weeks earlier, when Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway gave the best film award to the wrong film.

Thompson said: "I had my 15 cards in my hand, for best four-year-old, best horse, best jockey, and as the announcer said, 'Ladies and gentlemen, your host for the evening, Derek Thompson', I dropped the lot.

"I scooped them up frantically, but they were all in the wrong order and the curtain was open. I was live in front of hundreds of people, and my heart was pumping, and for the next 25 minutes, before our first commercial break, I was winging it. Then we had a 30-second break, I put the cards back in the right order and I was away.

"But I still believe there's a curse on the theatre, a phantom of the opera, and it's out to get me. True story."

Thompson's link with Sheikh Mansoor had come as he bounced back from the terrible blow of losing his Channel 4 role in October 2012 just as he was recovering from cancer, which still rankles with him.

"It was a 50-second phone call from the boss of Channel 4 Sport when I was still recovering from chemo. How can you do that to anybody?

"It annoyed me so much, but then I came back and I always remember my accountant about a year later saying he was just going through my accounts and it was incredible, I'd trebled my salary even though I wasn't on TV anymore. I was proud of that."

Read more from Derek Thompson in the Big Read, available to members from 6pm on Saturday or in Sunday's Racing Post newspaper. Join Members' Club here