This Is Your Life: Cleo Laine

Cleo LAINE (1927-)

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Cleo Laine, actress and jazz singer, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the BBC Television Theatre during a performance with her husband, John Dankworth and his band.

Cleo began her singing career in dance halls in the early 1950s, but her real break came when she auditioned for the hugely successful band led by acclaimed musician John Dankworth. Cleo toured extensively with the band and in 1958 she married Dankworth, strengthening their bond as personal and professional collaborators.

In addition to their concert appearances and recordings, Cleo also carved a niche as an illustrious actress, making her legitimate theatre debut in London when she starred in Flesh to a Tiger, directed by Tony Richardson at the Royal Court Theatre.

"Oh God!"

programme details...

Edition No: 199
Subject No: 200
Broadcast date: Tue 23 Oct 1962
Broadcast time: 7.55-8.25pm
Recorded: Mon 10 Sep 1962 9.15pm
Venue: BBC Television Theatre
Series: 8
Edition: 4

on the guest list...

John Dankworth
Johnson Haigh
Ernest Mills
Eric Cluer
Mrs Hadley
John Basman
Patrick Fulman
Ronald Duncan
Doris Hare
Gerald Lascelles
Sabu
Roy Castle
Sheila Hancock

production team...

Researchers: Nickola Sterne, John Dalzell
Writer: Nickola Sterne
Director: Yvonne Littlewood
Producer: T Leslie Jackson

names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life

related pages...

All That Jazz

covering all the notes

Family Life

keeping it in the family

John Dankworth

Sheila Hancock

Doris Hare

Screenshots of Cleo Laine This Is Your Life

Cleo briefly recalls her experience of This Is Your Life in her autobiography Cleo, reproduced here with kind permission of the author...

Round about the end of June I was pregnant - and overjoyed. It didn't stop me from performing, continuing up to a few weeks before my daughter was born.

I was three or four months pregnant when I became the subject of a dreadful This Is Your Life that the BBC perpetrated on me.

The researcher must have had a bad day, when assigned the job. None of my family were invited on, no musicians from the days of The Seven; they just about squeezed John in at the end, and there were many guests who had nothing at all to do with me or my life. I did a lot of play-acting that night.

Series 8 subjects