This Is Your Life article

WHAT is it like being personal secretary to a famous television and sound radio personality? An interesting job, I have always thought, but pretty hectic, and Miss Margaret Dutton who is secretary to Eamonn Andrews confirms my impression. Miss Dutton whose home is in Upton Wirral – when she's at home with her parents, Mr and Mrs Gerald Dutton – was for three and a half years secretary to Miss Maud Carpenter at Liverpool Playhouse.

"I got that job through pure luck," she told me. "I started my career, after my secretarial training, in a commercial firm, but being a regular visitor to the Playhouse I always thought I'd love to work there. So, I applied and when there was a vacancy got the job, in which I was very happy." But Margaret, like so many other young girls, had her eyes on London, and once again was lucky in obtaining a position in the theatre, being engaged as secretary to a leading theatrical manager, a job she held for three years.

By remote control

And then the job with Eamonn Andrews cropped up, and Margaret still finds it thrilling. When I asked her if she dealt with Mr Andrews' fan mail, she replied: "No. It is such an enormous job especially during the winter months, that there is a special secretary to look after it. I do the usual personal secretary duties – keeping the diary, letters, paying bills etc., and life became more and more hectic as the various programmes start. Since September with "This Is Your Life," "What's My Line?" the Children's TV series and Saturday Sports programme for the BBC, there hasn't been much breathing space."

"Mr Andrews spends a great deal of time at the TV studios rehearsing or taking part in the programmes, so a lot of my work is done by remote control. Most mornings I call at his flat in Lancaster Gate for dictation, or if he has not the time to spare, he will give me a tape on which he has dictated replies to letters, various instructions etc., I then go to the office in Golden Square and carry on from there."

She loves London

As so many stage, screen and radio stars are temperamental, I asked Miss Dutton if her boss suffered in this way. She assured me he doesn't. "He is extremely nice to work for, and very conscientious, and particular about every detail, and works very hard himself. Thoughtful and kind, he has a very keen sense of humour," and that must mean a lot to any secretary. At any rate, it does to Margaret, who also finds the opportunity of working "behind the scenes" in the various programmes very fascinating and completely different atmosphere from the theatre.

An old girl of Park High School for Girls, Birkenhead, Margaret was in the W.R.N.S. on Merseyside, before going to London. She loves London she told me. "There is always so much to do and see. I have a bed-sitter in Swiss Cottage which is a very good centre for everything, including the West End."

Asked how she managed her catering, shopping and so forth, she said, "I work a five-day week, so shop at Swiss Cottage at the weekend, my food shopping during the week I get near the office, or in Berwick Market which is just round the corner. I do my own cooking and enjoy it." No need to ask Margaret if she's "happy in her work"!