This Is Your Life: Petula Clark 1

Petula CLARK (1932-)

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Petula Clark, singer and actress, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews while recording a trailer for a forthcoming television programme in Shepherd's Bush, London.

Petula, who was born in Chessington, began her professional career as a child performer on BBC Radio during the Second World War, before appearing in several post-war British films, including London Town and the series of films featuring the Huggett family.

She scored several major hit recordings during the 1950s with such songs as The Little Shoemaker and With All My Heart, and later, after focusing on a new career in France, continued to achieve hit records on both sides of the Channel through the early 1960s.

Petula Clark was a subject of This Is Your Life on three occasions - surprised a second time by Eamonn Andrews in April 1975 at the ABC Television Studios in Borehamwood, and a third time by Michael Aspel in March 1996 at the Adelphi Theatre in London – the only subject to receive the tribute three times.

programme details...

Edition No: 244
Subject No: 244
Broadcast date: Thu 6 Feb 1964
Broadcast time: 9.25-9.50pm
Recorded: Mon 20 Jan 1964 8.00pm
Venue: BBC Television Theatre
Series: 9
Edition: 18

on the guest list...

Jimmy Hanley
Jack Leon
Moira Lister
Percy Edwards
Trevor Brown
Colin Addinall
Joe Henderson
Anthony Newley - via telephone
Bruno Coquetrix - live link
Claude Wolff - husband
Ernest Tassin
Jack Warner
Barbara - sister
Katherine - daughter
Barbara - daughter

production team...

Researcher: unknown
Writer: unknown
Director: Michael Goodwin
Producer: Vere Lorrimer
Executive Producer: T Leslie Jackson

names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life

related pages...

Petula Clark

second tribute

Petula Clark

third tribute

A Song For Life

it's the singer not the song

Life Second Time Around

surprised again!

The Night We Shocked Petula

TV Times photo feature on Petula Clark's second This Is Your Life surprise

Surprise flies supersonic

TV Times photo feature

Ratings slump sounds death knell for This Is Your Life

Press speculation on the future of This Is Your Life

Moira Lister

Photographs of Petula Clark This Is Your Life

Petula Clark recalls her experience of This Is Your Life in her autobiography, Is That You, Petula?...

Yvonne Littlewood had asked me to appear in one of her TV variety productions at the BBC Television Theatre. At the end, the cast were all lined up taking our bows, when I suddenly spotted the television presenter Eamonn Andrews appear on the edge of the stage with his famous big red book.

There were quite a few stars in the line-up, like the pianist Russ Conway and the French violinist Stéphane Grappelli, so I didn't imagine that Eamonn was there for me. But he walked along the row of performers, stopped in front of me and said those dreaded words: 'Petula Clark - This Is Your Life!'

How did I feel? Shocked, initially, with a side order of oh, no! I've always been a private person, and I wasn't sure I fancied the minutiae of my life being laid bare on British TV. At the same time, I knew it was an honour, and ... what choice did I have? I couldn't leg it out of the theatre! I had to go along with it.

Claude had known all about it and helped set it up, of course, and he was waiting as the show began. So many faces from my past reappeared: Jack Warner, Anthony Newley (on the phone), Joe Henderson and even Percy Edwards, and at the end Babs came on with Bara and Kate. Which was the best bit.

Andrea Kon recalls this edition of This Is Your Life in her book, This Is My Song, A Biography of Petula Clark...

Apart from the odd TV, she had done very little in Britain over the past two years – but now the British were beginning to take notice of the girl they'd born and bred and almost forgotten.

On 2 February 1964, Petula was the amazed subject of Eamonn Andrews' famous star-shocker, This Is Your Life. Once again, it was her surrogate media 'father', Cecil Madden, who was the power behind it all.

She had come to London to take part in a BBC variety show with Russ Conway and Stéphane Grappelli, produced by Yvonne Littlewood. Yvonne had lured her into a rehearsal room at Shepherd's Bush where, to her utter amazement, the man with his famous 'red book' sprang on her and reunited her with a host of old friends ranging from Kathleen Harrison and Jack Warner from the 'Huggett' days to Tony Newley, Jack Fishman, Joe Henderson, Peter Ustinov and Diana Dors. Claude was there of course, and there were three stupendous surprises in store. First she found herself crying in the arms of USAAF Sergeant Ernie Tassin who had organised the Christmas Day delivery in 1944. Then, as the programme drew to its finale, the curtains opened to reveal Pet's sister Barbara with Barra, then two-and-a-half, and Katy, just nine months old. What Petula didn't know was that they almost hadn't made it at all. [Bigredbook.info editor: Kathleen Harrison, Jack Fishman, Peter Ustinov and Diana Dors did not appear on the programme]

As the trio had set out for Boulogne that morning, a thick fog had descended, blanketing both sides of the Channel and the water in-between. Barbara, terrified of an accident and all too well aware that she was responsible for her sister's most precious possessions, had declined to travel further. And Cecil Madden, who had of course made all the arrangements with Claude's full approval, couldn't argue with her.

'Not only was I worried sick about the responsibility of flying the children over in those conditions,' he says. 'I was scared of Petula's reaction. When they arrived at the very last possible moment after we had already gone on air, I was delighted. When I saw her face as they appeared from behind those curtains, I knew it had been worth while.'

A glaring omission that day seemed to be Leslie Clark. He flatly refused an invitation to appear on the programme saying: 'I don't want to be there. Our lives have drifted apart. My life is completely divorced from Pet's show-biz world and I want to keep it that way. We're not enemies. But I've seen very little of my daughter since she married and I can't help feeling a little bitter at what has happened. If I'd invested money in a business, I would have something to show for it. But building a person... there's nothing.

At first, Leslie had refused to co-operate with the This Is Your Life researchers in any way. In the end, Alan Freeman was designated as intermediary and went down to the Lodsworth store to persuade Leslie to tell him some of the essential, but missing, details only he could supply.

In fact, although Petula continued to keep an eye on her father through her sister, Barbara, to ensure that he wanted nothing, it was almost another two years before the rift was totally healed and she began to see him properly again.

Series 9 subjects