This Is Your Life: Vera Lynn 1

Vera LYNN (1917-2020)

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Vera Lynn, singer and entertainer, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews in the audience at the BBC Television Theatre, having been brought there by conductor Eric Robinson and members of the Odds and Sods Club in the back of a blacked-out coach on the premise of being on a mystery tour.

Vera first sang publicly at the age of seven in a working men's club in the East End of London and became a professional singer almost as soon as she left school at 14. During the early 1930s, she sang with various big bands, including Howard Baker, Charlie Kunz and Ambrose. She made her first radio broadcast with the Joe Loss Orchestra in 1935 and released her first solo record, Up the Wooden Hill to Bedfordshire, a year later. Her 1939 recording of We'll Meet Again took on a special meaning during the Second World War due to its nostalgic lyrics.

During the early years of the war, Vera was given her own BBC radio programme, Sincerely Yours, in which she sent messages to British troops serving abroad. She later toured with ENSA performing outdoor concerts for the British servicemen, becoming known as "the Forces' Sweetheart". After the war, she continued to tour and record, and in 1952 her version of a German song Auf Wiederseh'n Sweetheart became the first record by a British performer to top the charts in the United States, remaining there for nine weeks.

Vera Lynn was a subject of This Is Your Life on two occasions - surprised again by Eamonn Andrews in December 1978 at the Cafe Royal in London.

programme details...

Edition No: 37
Subject No: 37
Broadcast live: Mon 14 Oct 1957
Broadcast time: 7.30-8.00pm
Venue: BBC Television Theatre
Series: 3
Edition: 3

on the guest list...

Ernie Chadwick
Pat Barry
Grace Harris
Annie - mother
Howard Baker
Joe Loss
Joe Brannelly
Bert Ambrose
Harry Lewis - husband
Ex Flt Sgt William Crocker
Virginia Lewis
Gnr Fred Thomas
Charlie Kunz

production team...

Researchers: Nigel Ward, George Bruce, Michael Friend
Writer: Peter Moore
Director: unknown
Producer: T Leslie Jackson

names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life

related pages...

Vera Lynn

second tribute

A Song For Life

it's the singer not the song

Life Second Time Around

surprised again!

The Night of 1000 Lives

a celebration of a thousand editions

'This Is Your Life' But It Dominates MINE!

Producer Leslie Jackson recalls some heart-stopping moments

Joe Brannelly

Joe Loss

Interviews

Vera Lynn recalls her experience of This Is Your Life in an exclusive interview recorded in October 2009

Vera Lynn This Is Your Life Big Red Book

Photographs of Vera Lynn This Is Your Life - and a photograph of Vera Lynn's big red book

Vera Lynn recalls her experience of This Is Your Life in her autobiography, Some Sunny Day...

A show at a hospital, as distinct from just a visit, usually took the form of getting as many men as possible into one ward, dragging the piano in and singing.

But always there would be men too ill to be moved, and I'd go and see them after the main performance was over. It was in that way that I sang to my smallest audience – of two. They were both too poorly to come and sit in the concert and were both terribly wounded.

They asked me to sing 'We'll Meet Again'. I could see what they were thinking. In the end only one got home. Years later I was invited to do This Is Your Life and they had managed to find him. I never knew how: I didn't know his name and I certainly didn't know where he lived. I was so surprised and moved, I couldn't believe it.

Vera Lynn recalls a similar experience of This Is Your Life in her autobiography, Keep Smiling Through...

Normally when I performed at a hospital we would try to fit as many men into a ward as possible and do the concert there. Some men could not be moved, though, and often I would go and sing for those men who were too ill to come to the main performance. I don't think it was the only place where this happened, but in Dimapur I sang to an audience of only two men - Gunner Fred Thomas, from Bootle in Merseyside, and Private John Badger, of Sheffield. Both men had been so badly wounded that they were too ill to be evacuated out of Dimapur, so getting out of bed to hear me sing wasn't an option. So I sang just for the two of them. I still have a tiny little newspaper clipping that I expect my mother had cut out while I was away. It says: 'Vera had tea at their bedsides, chatted about their home towns - and answered a whispered appeal for a song.' They asked me to sing 'We'll Meet Again'. I had a lump in my throat as I was singing it, as slowly and tenderly as I could. In the end, only one of these two boys - Fred Thomas - made it home. Years later, in 1957, I was invited to do This Is Your Life, and they had managed to find him. I was so surprised and moved; I couldn't believe it.

The Birmingham Post and Gazette article: Vera Lynn This Is Your Life

The Birmingham Post and Gazette 15 October 1957

LAST NIGHT

BBC television's biographical feature This Is Your Life went once more to show business for its subject. Viewers saw a succession of agents and band leaders who had recognised the talent of the young Vera Lynn, and the narrative traced her career from cockney kid to recording star. All very interesting, but the elaborate subterfuges involved in inducing stage personalities to endure the glare of television publicity take on an air of ballyhoo.

Evening Telegraph article: Vera Lynn This Is Your Life

Evening Telegraph 15 October 1957

'Telegraph' Teleview

IT WAS a sit-tight night last night, not a bob-up-and-down night, switching from channel to channel for fear of missing something.

I stayed mostly with the BBC (except for Max Wall's alarming visit to an osteopath).

Vera Lynn was a heart-warming subject for This Is Your Life. I enjoyed every sentimental minute of it, from the evident surprise that was sprung, through "Mum's" memories, contributions from Joe Loss (including a belated £1), Charlie Kunz and Bert Ambrose, down to Virginia (who should have been in bed). Good old Vera...

Lynn News and Advertiser article: Vera Lynn This Is Your Life

Lynn News and Advertiser 1 November 1957

Round and About

VERA LYNN BRINGS BACK MEMORIES OF WAR IN BURMA

A RECENT television programme of This Is Your Life - in which the "victim" was Vera Lynn – brought back army memories to Mr C R Batterbee of Southacre.

During the show, a photograph, taken in Burma during the last war, was shown of Vera Lynn with a bunch of soldiers. Mr Batterbee, then a sergeant in the Military Police, was among them and well remembers her going across to the sick bay to sing especially to two badly wounded soldiers, unable to hear her at the concert.

It was this incident in her life that Eamonn Andrews recalled for her. One of the two soldiers died later, but the other - whom Mr Batterbee recognised - appeared in the show to thank her again for singing to them.

But, as Mr Batterbee points out, this programme brought to a climax memories of his army days for in the fortnightly "Vera Lynn Sings" show he sees his old commanding officer - Johnny Johnson, the pianist of the Keynotes.

Series 3 subjects