This Is Your Life: Louie Ramsay

Louie RAMSAY (1929-2011)

The first edition to be broadcast from Scotland - and the first to interrupt a live performance

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Louie Ramsay, actress, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews during a live performance of the pantomime Babes in the Wood at the King's Theatre in Edinburgh - from where the programme was then broadcast - and having been led to believe the television cameras were in the theatre to film an excerpt from the show.

Louie, who was born to Scottish parents in South Africa, trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where she became friends with Patricia Hitchcock, daughter of film director Alfred Hitchcock, who cast Louie in a small role in his 1950 film Stage Fright. She made her West End debut in 1951 as a member of the chorus line in the musical South Pacific, after which, unable to find any acting jobs, she worked as a secretary for a while.

After appearing with Wilfred Pickles in a revival of Hobson's Choice, she joined the Players' Theatre, where in 1955, she was cast in the lead role of the musical comedy Twenty Minutes South. In 1956 she collapsed from an unknown virus and was told she may never walk again. However, with time and determination, she made a full recovery, and the following year she returned to the stage to star opposite Bernard Cribbins in the musical Harmony Close at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith.

programme details...

Edition No: 52
Subject No: 52
Broadcast live: Mon 27 Jan 1958
Broadcast time: 8.15-8.45pm
Venue: King's Theatre, Edinburgh
Series: 3
Edition: 18

on the guest list...

Iris Piper
Christopher Wall
Joan McDougall
Pat Hitchcock
Beryl Gray
Geoffrey Espinosa
Sheila Gransbury
Hattie Jacques
Ronan O'Casey - husband
Sid Colin
Jimmy Logan
Freddie Carpenter
Wilfred Pickles

production team...

Researchers: Nigel Ward, Michael Williams
Writer: Ken Smith
Director: unknown
Producer: T Leslie Jackson

names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life

related pages...

A Dancer's Life

from ballet to ballroom

Family Life

keeping it in the family

Timeline

the show's fifty year history

This Is Your Life by Eamonn Andrews

Weekend Magazine reports from behind-the-scenes

'This Is Your Life' But It Dominates MINE!

Producer Leslie Jackson recalls some heart-stopping moments

Louie Ramsay This Is Your Life Big Red Book

Photographs of Louie Ramsay This Is Your Life - and a photograph of Louie Ramsay's big red book

Jimmy Logan recalls this edition of This Is Your Life in his autobiography, It's a Funny Life...

There are few greater accolades on British television than being presented with that Big Red Book, and hearing those immortal words: "This is your life." It was a sign that someone had made a decent enough contribution to the public good – in whatever way – to merit some sort of tribute in front of the watching millions.

When Eamonn Andrews presented the programme, This Is Your Life really was a national institution. It's no exaggeration to state that many people particularly looked forward to his appearance on screen each week, and loved the mandatory few moments trying to anticipate on whom he was about to pounce.

The first time I was associated with the show many people thought I would be on the receiving end. It was in the days This Is Your Life was broadcast live, and Eamonn Andrews opened proceedings standing outside the King's Theatre in Edinburgh. Inside I was bringing the first half of the pantomime to a conclusion – timing it exactly for Eamonn's grand entrance in front of a startled audience and cast.

His target on this occasion was our principal girl, Louie Ramsay, a lovely girl from Stonehaven who suddenly became completely paralysed one night after a performance in a theatre in London. For months she was confined to bed unable to move, but slowly made a brave and full recovery.

When she came to do the pantomime I knew nothing about this, and I noticed her crying after rehearsing one scene where she had to be "flown" across stage.

"What the hell's up with you?" I said.

She replied: "Oh, I'm just in a bit of pain."

"Away, don't be daft. You'll get over that."

I only found out her situation when the This Is Your Life team told me they wanted to do Louie for one of their shows. The day of the surprise show I took Louie and her husband for a meal in Cramond, and a long walk along the banks of the Forth.

She told me one of her closest friends was Pat Hitchcock, the daughter of the famous film director Alfred.

"God knows if I'll ever see her again," Louie said. "She lives in California."

Of course I knew Pat was in Edinburgh, as was the television crew setting everything up for the live show from the theatre that night. I told the cast that the cameras were there to film the performance for prosperity – to get a fine example of pantomime on screen.

But during the first half I could sense that Louie thought something was up. The television people were giving me timings, so every time I was on stage I was adding or cutting bits to make sure we finished at exactly the right moment. As the comic, I was able to do that.

And Louie would be staring at me as if to say: "What on earth are you doing? Get off."

When the first half finally came to an end the curtain failed to come down, and Eamonn Andrews stepped out from the back of the stage. The moment the audience spotted him they went absolutely daft.

"You've been on television for the past few minutes," Eamonn said to the cast. "Well, tonight, one of the leads of this great pantomime is going to be the subject of this red book."

And, of course, everyone thought it was going to be me. But as the rest of the cast formed into a half circle, Eamonn approached a somewhat shocked principal girl, and announced: "Louie Ramsay – this is your life."

The show went out there and then, and the audience lapped up every minute of it. We were all drained when we came off – and then remembered we still had the second half of the pantomime to do.

Newspaper article - unknown source: Louie Ramsay This Is Your Life

Unknown source 28 January 1958

TV Programme Stopped The King's Pantomime

This Is Your Life Tells An Actress' Story Of Courage

The pantomime at the King's Theatre last night was approaching the first interval, the chorus were going through their paces in a spectacular tropical number, Louie Ramsay the dancer was gyrating about and finally perched on her partner's shoulders when suddenly on to the stage stepped Eamonn Andrews to tell the audience that the "Babes in the Wood" show would be interrupted for the next 27 minutes.

Amidst the applause for the appearance of Mr Andrews Miss Ramsay looked just a little taken aback. But this was nothing to the astonishment she showed when Mr Andrews turned to her and said, "This is your life, Louie Ramsay."

She brushed her hand across her face, laughed delightedly and pirouetted on her bare feet – and incidentally she was to remain in her bare feet for the next half hour – for this was, in fact, a live outside broadcast of the famous BBC TV show, direct from the King's Theatre, and not as the cast and audience thought, a tele-recording.

It was Mr Andrews who explained why they were telling the story of Miss Ramsay's life. Just over 18 months ago she was lying in hospital never expected to walk again, perhaps never to see again, perhaps never to sing and dance again.

THEY PULLED FACES

"We believe that this story will encourage those who lose hope too easily," He said. "It is a story of faith and courage."

First to tell part of Miss Ramsay's story was Nurse Iris Piper, who was in the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, where the young actress was taken when she was struck down by a virus infection. Then Mr Christopher Wall recalled that it was in Edinburgh, where Miss Ramsay's father had been a doctor, where she herself had seen her first pantomime – "Yes, from the front row of the dress circle," said the subject of the programme with a giggle.

Mrs Joan McDougall, who was a ward orderly at the hospital, recalled how she pulled faces at Miss Ramsay and Miss Ramsay pulled them back.

FLOWN FROM AMERICA

But the biggest surprise of the programme came with the next guest. The BBC had flown Miss Pat Hitchcock, daughter of the famous film director, from California. There was great hugging and kissing and finally it was explained that they had met on their first day at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London – and had obviously been fast friends ever since.

Others who had their place in the story were Mrs Beryl Grey, head of the physiotherapy department at the Royal Free Hospital; Mr Geoffrey Espinosa, Miss Ramsay's first dancing teacher; Miss Sheila Gransbury, who is in the occupational therapy department of the hospital; Hattie Jacques, the actress and producer who filled in some of the story of Miss Ramsay's stage work; Wilfred Pickles, who was telerecorded and told how he had got Miss Ramsay to change her name from Kathleen Ramsay to Louie.

Her husband, Ronan O'Casey, a Canadian actor, told about their one-day honeymoon; Sid Colin, the well-known script writer related how, when Miss Ramsay came out of hospital, they had a party to celebrate the occasion and during the evening she got up and said, quite suddenly, that she was never again going to use her sticks to help her to walk again, and she did, in fact, leave his flat without them; and finally Freddy Carpenter and then Jimmy Logan who, with a glint in his eye, cracked: "Aye, she's a nice lassie."

Miss Ramsay's astonishment was complete when Mr Andrews pointed out to her that sitting in a box, watching the show, were her father, who is a consulting physician in London, and her mother.

And so to the TV millions the story was related of the courage and determination of the young dancer in the pantomime, a story which few of the many thousands who have seen the show ever thought could have existed. When the show was over she joined all her friends in an Edinburgh restaurant.

Caption – The end of a most exciting 30 minutes for Miss Louie Ramsay, one of the stars of the King's Theatre pantomime, came when Eamonn Andrews presented her with the book of her life at the conclusion of the BBC TV show, This Is Your Life, which went out to all parts of Britain direct from the stage of the Edinburgh theatre.

Daily Herald article: Louie Ramsay This Is Your Life

Daily Herald 28 January 1958

TELE-PARADE

TV STOPS A STAGE SHOW

by Philip Phillips

NEW ground was trodden by This Is Your Life last night.

A theatre performance was held up for the programme. Compere Eamonn Andrews suddenly appeared on the stage of the King's Theatre, Edinburgh and stopped the pantomime "Babes in the Wood".

The company broke off, astonished as he led one of the dancers to the front of the stage and said: This Is Your Life.

It was 26-year-old Louie Ramsay, a girl who two years ago was suddenly stricken by a terrible and mysterious illness which crippled and blinded her. It seemed her career and her life were to end.

But she fought back and recovered with the help of devoted hospital workers.

They trooped on to the stage last night and she thanked them.

Unknown source 28 January 1958

LOUIE'S STORY WAS A HIT!

STAGE star Louie Ramsay, played the biggest role of her career last night – without a rehearsal.

She was just finishing her first-half principal girl part in "Babes in the Wood" at the King's Theatre, Edinburgh...

...when TV personality Eamonn Andrews bounced on to the stage and stopped the show.

Then he announced to the startled audience: "For the past few minutes this show has been televised."

Friends and relatives poured on to the stage as the first This Is Your Life programme to be screened from Scotland began.

The audience heard how Louie, 26, was crippled by a paralysing illness which made her almost blind.

For six months she lay in a plaster cast. Then slowly, with the help of a wheelchair, she fought her way back to health - and the stage.

Then as the lights dimmed and the pictures faded, Louie dashed off stage – to change for the next act!

The Bulletin 28 January 1958

TV's REAL-LIFE HEROINE IS PANTO STAR

Pictures by Jimmy Thomson

Story by Bill Meek

THE heroic story of 26-year-old actress Louie Ramsay – the girl who, 18 months ago, thought she might never see again and was told she would never walk or dance again – was told last night in the King's Theatre, Edinburgh, on the BBC television programme This Is Your Life.

It was the TV feature's best-kept secret yet – right up to the moment that the panto "Babes in the Woods" was interrupted dramatically by this real-life drama.

Only four people back-stage knew Louie was to be the TV heroine.

The audience had been told that the television cameras in the theatre were filming excerpts for showing later.

Caught barefoot

The basis of the programme is, of course, that it must come as a complete surprise to the subject.

It was such a surprise to dancer Louie that she had to go through the whole of the broadcast bare-footed, as she was at the moment Eamonn Andrews interrupted the show.

Unbeknown to the actress, her parents sat in a darkened theatre box – until they were dramatically spotlighted during the televising.

Louie's story was chosen because of her brave struggle against partial blindness and paralysis, which at one time threatened her career.

Two years ago, when she was 26 – and only three weeks after her wedding – she was stricken with a virus disease while appearing with Max Bygraves in a show at the London Hippodrome.

She Conquered

She lay in the Royal Free Hospital, Hampstead, where her father is a doctor, for a year.

The people who helped her last night to relive that fateful year of her life included the ward orderly, physiotherapist, and occupational therapist, and her first dancing teacher.

Flown in from California especially for the programme was Miss Pat Hitchcock, daughter of the film producer, who met Miss Ramsay when they were students at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1951.

On stage, too, was her old friend Hattie Jacques, stage, screen, and radio personality, who gave Louie her first stage chance.

Kept her away

To help keep the secret, Louie's husband, Canadian actor Ronan O'Casey, kept her out of Edinburgh while the various people concerned with the show were brought into town.

Louie, who is principal girl in the pantomime, said afterwards: - "It's the nicest thing that ever happened to me."

At the end of the TV broadcast the ordinary panto performance carried on.

Scottish Daily Mail article: Louie Ramsay This Is Your Life

Scottish Daily Mail 28 January 1958

JAMES BUCHAN

Star of the show... and no rehearsal

LOUIE RAMSAY'S 'LIFE' ON TV

TELEVISION star Eamonn Andrews spent the whole day yesterday shut up in Room 360 of the Caledonian Hotel, Edinburgh.

At the same time Ronan O'Casey, Canadian actor husband of Louie Ramsay, principal girl of the King's Theatre pantomime, "Babes in the Wood," took his wife motoring in the country.

The result was the biggest surprise success for the TV show This Is Your Life... and its biggest production triumph since the series started.

Until a second before he announced the show from the stage of the King's Theatre, Louie Ramsay, the showgirl who fought her way back to stage success after being stricken by a paralysing virus disease, didn't know that hers was the life in question.

HOODWINKED

Indeed, nobody except those taking part, plus four essential officials, even knew they were on the programme. The entire cast and staff of the theatre – and the audience – were effectively hoodwinked.

It was only made possible by keeping Eamonn Andrews out of sight and removing any danger of Louie Ramsay running into any of her relatives and friends in the Edinburgh streets.

Jimmy Logan, the star of the pantomime, was let into the secret only yesterday morning. And last night the management of the theatre explained away the TV cameras and cables to the audience and cast by saying that a telerecording for a show dealing with pantomime was being taken. They swallowed it whole.

Only when the curtain was about to come down for the first interval, and Eamonn Andrews dashed on from the wings, was the secret out.

Louie Ramsay was almost overcome with surprise. She had not noticed her family in one of the boxes. Her father and mother had come from London and her brother took a day off from studies at Aberdeen University to be there. Eamonn took her through her whole life from the time of her first dancing lesson, right through the illness which it was thought would end her career, and the audience loved every minute of it.

Louie was even confronted with her great friend of RADA days Pat Hitchcock, daughter of Alfred Hitchcock, Hollywood producer, who had been specially flown from California.

Afterwards Ken Smith, the script-writer, and Leslie Jackson, the producer, told me it was the most successful show they had produced. I can well believe it.

A DOUBLE

For Leslie Jackson it was a great achievement. It was the first This Is Your Life which wasn't studio produced with a carefully rehearsed "cast" and the first one ever done in a theatre during a show.

And last night, after the rest of the people out of her life had gone back down to London, Louie Ramsay and her friend Pat Hitchcock sat up swopping yarns from their student days. Pat has decided to stay on for a few days in Edinburgh.

Photo – Long into the night Louie Ramsay and her friend from student days, Pat Hitchcock, daughter of Hollywood producer Alfred Hitchcock, who was flown from California for This Is Your Life, talked of past good times. Here the two are seen with Eamonn Andrews after Louie had had the biggest surprise of her life.

Scottish Daily Express article: Louie Ramsay This Is Your Life

Scottish Daily Express 28 January 1958

What a surprise for Louie

LOUIE RAMSAY, 26-year-old principal girl in "Babes in the Wood" at the King's Theatre, Edinburgh had one of the biggest and happiest surprises of her remarkable life last night. She was the subject of Eamonn Andrews' TV show This Is Your Life.

The show was televised from the theatre – and when Eamonn announced it at 8.15 it ended a week-end of wild speculation.

It started when TV equipment was installed. Last night's audience found three TV cameras in the auditorium – but they were told: "It's a tele-recording."

And to make sure Louie knew nothing, her Canadian actor husband, Ronan O'Casey, took her out yesterday for the day.

In plaster

Louie, the South-African-born daughter of a London doctor, was told less then two years ago she would never walk again. That was only a few weeks after her wedding.

Legs and arms paralysed, eyesight dimmed by some unidentified virus, she lay in hospital for 18 months encased in plaster. But she fought back – from plaster to wheelchair, wheelchair to sticks, till at last she threw the sticks away.

"Babes in the Wood" is only the second she has tackled since her illness. At the beginning of the run she still suffered from stiffness. Now – as viewers saw last night – she is as gay and agile as if it never happened.

At first overcome by emotion, then happily oblivious of cameras or audience, Louie greeted one after another of the people who were part of her story of tragedy and triumph.

Friends from the hospital staff – her first dancing teacher - Pat Hitchcock, daughter of film director Alfred Hitchcock, who had flown from California to remind her of student days together at RADA. Hattie Jacques, who had produced one of her early shows – Sid Colin, the writer who threw her back-from-hospital party – Jimmy Logan and producer Freddie Carpenter of "Babes in the Wood", her own parents and family in a theatre box ... and, of course, her husband.

"You knew," she cried to him. "You knew all the time."

Same show...

Louie spent her childhood in Edinburgh. She saw her first pantomime there – its title: "Babes in the Wood." The theatre: The King's.

"I still remember it," she said. "I sat in the front row of the grand circle."

This is the first time the This Is Your Life show has been done in Scotland. And it is the first time ever that it has been done during a "live" stage show.

"It was one of the biggest surprises we have ever attempted." Said Eamonn Andrews afterwards.

COINCIDENCE

The story behind the programme – the one that televiewers were not told – was revealed after the show in Edinburgh's Doric restaurant. Louie Ramsay learned that the man who was in the same hospital two years ago with a spinal infection, had written the This Is Your Life show.

He was scriptwriter Ken Smith and they met again in the restaurant.

Said Louie: "If I had known Ken Smith had written the show I would have insisted that he should appear with me in front of the cameras."

Louie left hospital before Ken. "That was the last I heard of her until 10 days ago," he said. "A show we were scheduled to do at Paisley had been cancelled and I was searching for another Scottish idea when someone told me Louie was dancing again. It was a remarkable coincidence."

The Scotsman article: Louie Ramsay This Is Your Life

The Scotsman 29 January 1958

THE THEATRE

SURPRISE AT THE KING'S

'This Is Your Life'

Pantomime was rather thrust into the background at the King's Theatre, Edinburgh, on Monday evening, when BBC Television's This Is Your Life programme was transmitted "live" from the stage.

The television programme featured one of the stars of the show, Louie Ramsay. At the end of the first half of the pantomime "Babes In The Wood" cast and audience alike were surprised when Eamonn Andrews strode on to the stage, stopped the show, and announced that BBC Television was taking over.

Miss Ramsay, who some years ago was thought to be completely paralysed, was then reintroduced to many of the people who had helped her to come back as a professional dancer. Apart from the BBC staff and their special guests, only four people in the theatre knew beforehand that the programme was going to take place.

Before and after the television intrusion the pantomime carried on its merry way. Perhaps it is more of a fast moving review than a traditional pantomime, but it is nonetheless excellent entertainment.

The Stage 30 January 1958

'THIS IS YOUR LIFE'

AN event of unusual interest took place on the stage of the King's Theatre, Edinburgh, on Monday night during the performance of the Howard and Wyndham pantomime "Babes in the Wood."

The delightful principal girl, Louie Ramsay, was the subject of This Is Your Life, and it was a great surprise to the cast, the theatre staff and the audience when Eamonn Andrews appeared at the end of the first half of the pantomime to announce the TV programme.

Louie Ramsay, after she got over the first moment of surprise, was so happy and spirited. It is hard to realise that this vivacious young artist was told two years ago (soon after her marriage to Canadian actor, Ronan O'Casey), that she would never walk again.

After being encased in a plastic cast for 18 months, she bravely struggled from plaster to wheelchair, wheelchair to crutches, crutches to sticks, until she threw away the sticks.

Praise is due to the producer, technicians and all concerned with Monday night's programme which proved a great success. The appearance of Pat Hitchcock who had flown from California to remind Louie of their student days together; Hattie Jacques, who directed "Twenty Minutes South" in which Louie appeared; Freddie Carpenter, director and Jimmy Logan, principal comedian of "Babes in the Wood" at the King's, all paid tribute to a brave remarkable girl.

Series 3 subjects