Dame Vera Lynn

Speaker 10:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.

Speaker 10:08

The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen eighty nine.

Speaker 10:11

And the presenter was Sue Lawley.

Presenter0:29

My castaway on this the fiftieth anniversary of the declaration of war is a woman who was central to the British war effort. Her missions were those most eagerly awaited by our troops, and she became a symbol of British determination, fortitude, and optimism.

Presenter0:44

No secret agent she, however, nor a soldier either. In those days they simply called her the Force's sweetheart. To day we welcome her more grandly, but no less affectionately, as Dame

Presenter0:56

Welcome on this anniversary day to Desert Island Discs. I presume it it it feels nothing like fifty years ago since you heard those fateful words on the radio, Britain is at war with Germany.

Dame Vera Lynn1:07

Yeah.

Dame Vera Lynn1:08

Well, it's such a long time ago, you know, and so much has happened since then. But I can

Dame Vera Lynn1:14

clearly remember simply sitting in the garden with my parents and Harry listening to the radio, expecting whatever was to come, because everyone was very much on edge.

Dame Vera Lynn1:28

And uh when we heard war had

Presenter1:31

Been declared. And of course it was a war in which you were to become very important and as well as very famous. You didn't really regard yourself as much as as a sweetheart as a messenger, did you?

Speaker 11:37

He didn't

Presenter1:43

Well, yes, I was

Dame Vera Lynn1:43

the girl next door, really, because I wasn't a glamorous type, and they didn't look at me as as a sort of a pin up kind. But I did bring messages of love and

Dame Vera Lynn1:58

And hope.

Dame Vera Lynn2:00

And uh

Dame Vera Lynn2:02

Just brought the parted ones that little bit nearer together.

Presenter2:06

So

Dame Vera Lynn2:06

The wives and the girls

Presenter2:07

My friends weren't weren't jealous, they liked to talk about it.

Dame Vera Lynn2:08

Oh no

Presenter2:11

Would you go as far as to say that uh i in many ways you personified what the boys were fighting for?

Dame Vera Lynn2:18

And I suppose I reminded them of their sweethearts and their sisters or young wives that they

Dame Vera Lynn2:25

Left behind?

Presenter2:26

Yeah.

Dame Vera Lynn2:26

So it was quite a a responsib

Presenter2:28

Yeah.

Dame Vera Lynn2:30

To me I was just doing what I thought my little bit of war work by entertaining, and I never realized.

Dame Vera Lynn2:38

Not till after the war, the extent of what the programmes really meant to them.

Presenter2:44

Well, I know you've chosen one of your own records among your eight favourites, and I think it's only fitting that we should start with it, if you don't mind. So tell me which one it is. It's Room Five

Dame Vera Lynn2:52

Five hundred and four.

Dame Vera Lynn2:54

I chose that because it was Douglas Barder's favorite song.

Dame Vera Lynn2:59

And as you know, he was one of our heroes in the Battle of Britain pilots, wonderful man.

Dame Vera Lynn3:05

And um

Dame Vera Lynn3:07

I remember doing a television show at Victoria Palace and uh in aid of the RF Association.

Dame Vera Lynn3:12

And he hadn't been invited, and I discovered this, and I thought it was most unfair. So on on the Over the Air I said, This is a song I'm going to sing especially for Douglas Fard, and I dedicate it to him. And so I do to day.

Speaker 43:28

In room five hundred and four

Speaker 43:35

So sweet a roof, so strange and new It was romance, a dream come true.

Speaker 43:47

That perfect honeymoon alone with you in room 50

Presenter3:56

Virulin singing Rum five hundred and four, accompanied by J. Wilbur and his band. Well, now the troops were hearing that and many other songs like it, on a programme called Sincerely Yours.

Dame Vera Lynn4:05

It's like

Presenter4:07

Yes. That went out on a Sunday night?

Dame Vera Lynn4:10

That's right, after the nine o'clock news, and sometimes after, Churchill used to speak.

Presenter4:15

Was it live?

Dame Vera Lynn4:16

Yes. Everything was live in those days. There was no pre recording. I was living in the East End, so I would have to drive up to London before the raid started, and get myself ensconced in the underground studios, and just sort of hang around, go to sleep,

Dame Vera Lynn4:35

They would wake me up and say, You're on, you know.

Dame Vera Lynn4:38

And this would be

Presenter4:39

Yeah.

Dame Vera Lynn4:39

Across you.

Presenter4:40

Yeah.

Dame Vera Lynn4:40

Yeah.

Presenter4:40

Yeah.

Dame Vera Lynn4:41

They used to go all over the continent. But the Nazis banned your programme, didn't they, in in occupied Europe?

Dame Vera Lynn4:47

Well, they they banned all listening to the B B C.

Dame Vera Lynn4:51

And I remember one Dutchman telling me that they used to hide in a big hay rick right inside and they had this radio and they used to listen to secretly and listen to my programmes. And l if they were discovered, they were shot. There was no question about you know, they were just taken outside and shot if they were

Dame Vera Lynn5:10

found to be listening to the uh B B C

Presenter5:13

Radio

Presenter5:14

The B B C, it has to be said, was not at all sure about your programme in the beginning, was it? I I've got here a a minute of the Board of Governors for december fourth, nineteen forty one, and it reads Sincerely yours, Colon, deplored, but popularity noted.

Dame Vera Lynn5:30

I know, I I think a lot of them thought that it was too sentimental and would make the boys homesick.

Presenter5:36

The B B C stopped you signing off the way you wanted to as well.

Dame Vera Lynn5:39

Well, yes, they wouldn't let me say good night and God bless.

Dame Vera Lynn5:43

They said you can say good night, but you've got to cut out the God bless.

Presenter5:47

Stuffy.

Dame Vera Lynn5:47

Yeah, yeah.

Presenter5:47

Top.

Presenter5:48

We shall say no more. So where did you get all these songs from? We'll meet again and the white cliffs of Dover and I'll Be Seeing You. Where did you find them all? Well

Dame Vera Lynn5:57

Well I had been used to going round all the music publishers since since I was a child. And in those days you went to the music publishers and they would say, Come on in, we've got some great songs.

Dame Vera Lynn6:08

And if you had a broadcast or a record to make.

Dame Vera Lynn6:11

You would sit there for hours listening to all sorts of songs and choose what you thought was suitable. So you chose these songs?

Presenter6:17

Hmm.

Dame Vera Lynn6:18

Oh yes, I I was very fussy about the songs I chose.

Presenter6:22

Uh

Dame Vera Lynn6:22

Uh

Presenter6:22

And, do you know?

Dame Vera Lynn6:22

Yeah.

Presenter6:23

Uh

Dame Vera Lynn6:23

For always or.

Presenter6:23

Yeah.

Dame Vera Lynn6:23

Wait.

Presenter6:24

Please get asked to sing We'll Meet Again whenever you appear anywhere.

Dame Vera Lynn6:26

Oh yes. You know, peop people say to me sometimes when I'm at a reunion or s something w that is nostalgic, they say, How do you find this nostalgia? You know, does it bring back memories? I said, Well, really it's been a continuation. There's been no gap at all in my life because to me

Presenter6:46

Yeah.

Dame Vera Lynn6:46

It's still that same p

Presenter6:48

Period. In many ways you're perhaps the one veteran of the war still on active service.

Presenter6:54

I think you could say that. Should we hear the signal?

Dame Vera Lynn6:56

Record you've chosen. Yes. Well, this is Artie Shaw on his orchestra playing A Man in His Dream. And.

Presenter6:57

Yeah.

Dame Vera Lynn7:04

Harry, my husband

Dame Vera Lynn7:06

He was mad on all the Jazz records, naturally, and this was one of the records that I think he probably wooed me with.

Speaker 47:14

A hidden lame or moon, and here and there a star.

Speaker 47:21

Um

Speaker 47:28

Ah

Speaker 47:29

A cricket's cry, a whispered word, a kiss, and now and then a sigh.

Speaker 47:37

For a man and his

Presenter7:42

Artie Shaw and his orchestra playing A Man and His Dream sung by Helen Forrest. Music to Woo Vera Black.

Dame Vera Lynn7:49

That is nostalgic to me.

Presenter7:50

Bye.

Presenter7:51

So Harry Lewis, the clarinetist in the band, wooed you and won you and you married him in nineteen forty one. Right. And he's been your friend and mentor ever since. Yes. And still is.

Dame Vera Lynn7:59

Yeah.

Presenter8:02

Let's go just go back a bit, Vera, if we can, um because you were born, if you don't mind my mentioning it, just before the end of the First World War. Right. And that was in East Ham. Right, yes.

Speaker 48:09

BAA.

Dame Vera Lynn8:09

I got

Presenter8:11

What what did the family do for a living? What sort of family was it?

Dame Vera Lynn8:14

Oh, just an ordinary working class family. I remember my father being a docker and my mother was a dressmaker. But there was a bit of the entertainer in your father, wasn't there?

Dame Vera Lynn8:27

Oh, my dad liked to sing. Well we we were a singy family actually, and he had a brother who was a semi-professional. He used to do all George Roby's songs. And when I was about two and a half we used to have these family parties, and I remember on one occasion my uncle actually got me out of bed very late one night just to sing to him. And one of the songs I used to sing was I'm Sorry I Made You Cry. You see, at an early age I was singing sentimental songs. But how did you know the words when you were so little?

Dame Vera Lynn9:00

learned them, I suppose. My mother used to play the piano for me. She used to read tonics so far she couldn't read music. And uh

Dame Vera Lynn9:09

I've just learnt them.

Dame Vera Lynn9:11

But you went

Presenter9:12

On the stage, didn't you? You sang in public when you were about seven, down down the local working

Dame Vera Lynn9:14

Down the local working men's club.

Dame Vera Lynn9:20

And I I earned seven shillings and sixpence. And I was very proud of that. And did you get an encore? Not at that time, no. It was later on that one used to get encores. The clubs were done like the old fashioned music hall, and there was a committee round the table, and if they thought you went very well, they'd have a bib ba ba ba ba b shall we shall we and they'd all put threepence or twopence into the pool in the middle and it added up to one and six. And they'd say, Will you sing another song? Well, that was very handy because that paid for the fare for the mum and dad and myself on the tram.

Presenter9:52

And and the ability to sing was entirely natural, was it? You never had any real training.

Presenter9:58

I

Dame Vera Lynn9:58

did at one point.

Presenter10:00

Yeah.

Dame Vera Lynn10:00

Think that I ought to have a little voice training, and that was I had already been broadcasting and recording by this time, but I have actually a very small range. It sounds bigger than it actually is. And I thought, well, I would like to extend it. So I did go to a music teacher and explained that I would like to extend my range. So she said, well, give me a for instance. So I sang. She said, oh, that's a very strange voice, isn't it? She says, that can't be the only voice that you have. See, because it's lower on the register. I said, well, I've got my opera voice that I sing when I'm in the va. She said, well, can I hear that? So I started, la da, da, da, you know, she said, oh, that's the voice I'm going to train. So I said, oh, I'm afraid that wouldn't be any good at all. If I turned up at my recording session with that voice, I'd lose my contract. Oh, she said, I can't have anything to do with that other voice. It's beyond my principles to train that voice. I said, well, thank you very much, and I left. The best thing you ever did about the sound. I think so. Let's have the third record you've chosen.

Presenter11:00

I think so.

Dame Vera Lynn11:04

Well, Elaine Page, I'm a great fan of hers because I think she re she has something that I've always wanted, and that's a wonderful big range. And she really makes the most of her voice. And I I went to the opening night of Cats, and it r that memory, I think she sings it better than anybody else, so I would like to have that.

Speaker 411:24

Memory all alive in my mood life.

Speaker 411:31

I can smile at the old day

Speaker 411:35

I was beautiful there.

Speaker 411:41

I remember the time I knew what happened as was.

Speaker 411:50

Mm-hmm

Presenter11:54

Elaine Page singing Memory from Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats.

Presenter11:58

Your real name, Vera, was not Lynne, but Welch, wasn't it? That's right, yes. How and when and why did you drop that?

Dame Vera Lynn12:05

Yeah.

Presenter12:05

Uh

Presenter12:05

Yeah.

Dame Vera Lynn12:05

Well, I never liked the name Vera Welch. To me it wasn't going to look right on the billboards, you know. And uh I remember us having a a family conference, it was my grandmother and my mother and father and myself, and we sat round and we thought, right, well, what shall we uh rename you, you see? So my grandmother came up with the uh name of Lynn. She said that was her maiden name.

Dame Vera Lynn12:30

And um because I said, well, I want something that's not long, something that's short and that fits nicely with even letters, you see, because the s the smaller like the the less words there are, the bigger the name it can be. So uh I thought, great, that's Vera Lynn, let's say that.

Presenter12:48

So the whole family was obviously determined you should be a star.

Dame Vera Lynn12:52

Not really, because when I left school, which I did at fourteen, as you did in those days, my mother was more anxious for me to have a career, as it were, probably to follow her footsteps and learn uh dressmaking. And um I even went as far as going to a local factory, uh where I started really at the bottom by sewing buttons on.

Dame Vera Lynn13:15

And uh I was so depressed that day we weren't all even allowed to talk to each other. And of course I'd been living in a much more freer

Dame Vera Lynn13:23

attitude than that. And when I got home at night my father said to me, he said, Well, mate, did you enjoy it? He used to call me mate, and I said, No, it was miserable, and we weren't allowed to talk, and I didn't he said, Well, how much are they paying you? So I said, Six and six for the week.

Dame Vera Lynn13:43

So he said he said you can earn more than that by going out on one night and singing a couple of songs. I said yes, I couldn't I he said well, pack it in, girl, pack it in So I did. And then Joe lost.

Presenter13:54

noticed you and and you made your first broadcast

Dame Vera Lynn13:56

I did, yes. Well, that was through going through the music publishers. Because Walter Ridley, who was an exploitationist, as they used to be called in those days, was at Peter Maurice Music Company, and he said, Joe Loss is looking for a girl singer. Would you like to do the audition? He wanted somebody for his next broadcast. So I said, Okay. And he came along and he heard me sing and he said, Fine.

Presenter13:56

I did, yes.

Presenter14:19

You were only eighteen, I think, in the beginning. People didn't totally approve of this young thing surrounded by a whole band of men, did they?

Dame Vera Lynn14:27

No, I was only sixteen when I went with Billy Cotton, and I only stayed with him a week and a half'cause he sent me home. I he thought I think I was too young to hang around these mad musicians. And he always said that was the worst day of work he ever did.

Presenter14:45

Fight right.

Dame Vera Lynn14:45

Right.

Presenter14:46

Bye.

Speaker 414:46

Yeah.

Presenter14:46

Well, I want to hear a lot about your wartime experiences in a minute, but let's have let's have your fourth record. I think we've got to. What is it?

Dame Vera Lynn14:53

Well, it's The Beatles Till There Was You, and it's a song that

Dame Vera Lynn14:57

I feel that I was in on because uh in the fifties, b early fifties, I went to the States to do some television and radio, and uh I stayed with Meredith Wilson, the composer, and he was writing Till There Was You and I it's a lovely song and I'd like to hear it.

Speaker 415:15

There were bells on a hill

Speaker 415:19

But I never heard them ringing

Speaker 415:23

No, I never heard them at all.

Speaker 415:27

Till I was you.

Speaker 415:31

There were birds in the sky

Speaker 415:35

But I never saw them winging

Speaker 415:39

No, I never saw them at all Till there was

Presenter15:44

Two Paul McCartney, Until There Was You.

Presenter15:47

You sang here in London all through the Blitz, Vera. What's your most vivid memory of the blackout in London?

Dame Vera Lynn15:53

I had a little Austin ten. I remember uh I was doing a week at the uh Newcross Empire.

Dame Vera Lynn15:59

And w one night they suddenly declared f blackout, for blackout. And this was before the little tiny

Dame Vera Lynn16:06

Pin points were allowed on on the thing. It was just a complete blackout.

Presenter16:10

On the headlights.

Dame Vera Lynn16:11

Yes, afterwards they there are these tin things you put on the headlights with a little tiny pinhole in the middle.

Dame Vera Lynn16:17

didn't give you any light, but you could see these little pinholes coming towards you from somebody else. And I had to drive home on my own in my little car, and it was pouring of rain. So I had to find my way driving all by myself through the Blackwall Tunnel, but en route

Dame Vera Lynn16:37

Uh I was flagged down by a man who was trenched

Dame Vera Lynn16:43

Because it really was teaming down and um

Dame Vera Lynn16:47

He said you know, I one never gave a thought in those days about giving people a lift. I think I would think twice about it today.

Dame Vera Lynn16:54

And he said, Oh, where are you going? So I said, I'm going to Barking. So he said, Oh, so am I. He said, Can you give me a lift? So And it turned out that he was living just a couple of door uh streets away from where I was living, so I was able to take him right the way home and drop him outside his door.

Dame Vera Lynn17:10

Every day I used to go off, and my mother and father must have been

Dame Vera Lynn17:14

Absolutely worried out of there.

Dame Vera Lynn17:16

Minds about, you know

Dame Vera Lynn17:18

would I be coming back? But I never used to think about that. I used to get in the car and off I'd go and if there was a

Dame Vera Lynn17:25

raid en route, you'd get out and lay in the gutter, and uh

Dame Vera Lynn17:29

During the uh evening performances, if the the raid started, you didn't take any notice, you just carried on singing.

Presenter17:36

sang all the way through it. And the audience stayed.

Dame Vera Lynn17:39

Yes, as the raid was still on, you know, and we couldn't go home anyway, uh we'd have a nice party on the stage, you know. We'd have dancing and sing song, and gradually people would get tired and they'd think, Oh, let's chance it, let's go home or let's go down to the subway. And then people would fade away and gradually go home on their own way, and I would probably be left all alone, and I'd I'd stay in the theatre until the old clear. Where did you sleep? Well, you didn't. You just found the most the safest wall and just sit on the floor and

Speaker 418:14

Uh

Dame Vera Lynn18:14

Hm, and hope that you'd be all right.

Dame Vera Lynn18:16

Let's have some more music.

Dame Vera Lynn18:18

Bing Crosby.

Dame Vera Lynn18:20

Uh

Dame Vera Lynn18:21

I was doing a television show not long before he died.

Dame Vera Lynn18:26

And he was sitting in his hotel and he was watching the programme.

Dame Vera Lynn18:30

And he got on the phone the next day and said he would like to be.

Dame Vera Lynn18:34

on the show, and he phoned home and Harry answered the phone and he said, This has been Crosby here He said, Who are you kidding? you know he said Anyway, he passed him over to me and he said, I'd li I saw your programme, I'd like to come on it. I was thrilled because I'd been a fan for so, so many years. And he came along, he was charming, and that is a memory I'd like to take with me.

Speaker 419:00

We're the blue of the night.

Speaker 419:04

Meets the gold of the day

Speaker 419:08

A move waits for me.

Speaker 419:15

And the gold of her hair crowns the blue of her eyes.

Speaker 419:24

Like a halo and earth

Speaker 119:25

Okay.

Presenter19:31

Bing Crosbie singing Where the Blue of the Night

Presenter19:34

It was in nineteen forty four, Vera, that you made your famous tour of Burma to entertain the troops. Twenty two thousand air miles not an easy journey.

Dame Vera Lynn19:44

Uh well, no, it wasn't, and and I suppose a lot of the mileage was taken up by making detours. I mean, when I left here in the Sunderland flying boat

Dame Vera Lynn19:54

It took us seven hours to get to Gibraltar because we had to go right the way out to see in Behagin.

Presenter20:00

You actually came down in the Dead Sea at some point, didn't you?

Dame Vera Lynn20:03

Yes, f uh because of bad weather. There was a terrific uh sandstorm.

Dame Vera Lynn20:09

And uh we had to get I I wasn't very

Dame Vera Lynn20:12

Good at flying because I mean, the planes then weren't like they are today, and I used to feel awful. And uh

Dame Vera Lynn20:19

It wasn't bad enough being air sick. You come down on the Dead Dead Sea, which wasn't very dead at the time owing to the storm. And we we bobbled around there for about an hour before we could lift up again and go off.

Presenter20:34

But if all of that didn't frighten you, surely when when you got to Burma to the front, a a young woman of, what, twenty seven by then, you must have been terrified.

Dame Vera Lynn20:43

No, no. I I really didn't think about it. The boys I knew the boys were around and they were looking after me. My pianist was supplied with a revolver, and we stopped somewhere along the road in the jungle and tried to practise with it. I wasn't very good.

Dame Vera Lynn21:01

You went to hospitals out there too, did you?

Presenter21:03

Yes, the

Dame Vera Lynn21:08

Sent further back to the real hospitals. And, um,

Dame Vera Lynn21:13

You know, I I met two young lads in a in a tent. They were too ill to come to the concert.

Dame Vera Lynn21:19

And both had been badly wounded. One of them, unfortunately, didn't uh didn't make it. And um

Dame Vera Lynn21:27

You know, you were aware of the fact all the time that so many of these boys that you were talking to and visiting, singing to, weren't just going to make it.

Speaker 421:36

Hmm.

Presenter21:36

Yeah.

Presenter21:37

You stood once and and and watched a bullet being removed from a man's arm, didn't you?

Dame Vera Lynn21:40

Oh yes, that was a I used to go in and out of tents, you see, you're not quite sure which tents I should go in and out of. And one happened to be an operating uh tent. And uh I said, Oh, excuse me and

Dame Vera Lynn21:55

Tried to exit the other side and the surgeon said, I thought perhaps you might like a little souvenir of

Dame Vera Lynn22:01

handed me this bullet that he'd just taken out of this

Dame Vera Lynn22:04

Chat.

Dame Vera Lynn22:05

and which I still have somewhere. But it's cleaned up by now.

Presenter22:09

Yeah.

Presenter22:10

You got a much larger souvenir since then because of course you were uh awarded the Burma Star.

Dame Vera Lynn22:15

Yeah.

Presenter22:15

Oh yes.

Dame Vera Lynn22:15

Oh yes, I was so thrilled to have that.

Dame Vera Lynn22:17

It's something you you know I don't know. I suppose when when you're in certain circumstances and and situations with people, you'd like to be really feel associated with them. And uh this was something that I felt

Dame Vera Lynn22:29

I I felt was missing, so when they when I got round to having it forty years later, I was thrilled.

Presenter22:35

And the veterans of Burma, I know, have loved you ever since then. And you join them every year, I think. Yes, we still have the anniversaries of the year.

Dame Vera Lynn22:40

Yes, we still have the animal.

Presenter22:43

and the Burmarie Unions at the Albert Hall.

Presenter22:46

Can you describe the feeling you used to have standing before those men, not just out in Burma, but certainly one seen film of you in in Regent's Park, actually. A mere slip of a girl, if one may say so, in a simple cotton frock, standing in front of those thousands of soldiers and airmen.

Speaker 122:57

Yeah.

Presenter23:03

who were quite obviously enchanted by you. It was a great power you had, wasn't it?

Dame Vera Lynn23:09

Well you felt you were doing your bit. You know, it certainly was very satisfying to think that you could entertain that amount of and even when I went abroad to to Burma, I mean, my audience could be two, but it could be six thousand.

Dame Vera Lynn23:22

and uh to see all the boys come in with their guns and

Dame Vera Lynn23:27

just sit down on the grass and and you could just for a little while you could take them back home.

Dame Vera Lynn23:33

just in memory and uh think that you entertain them.

Dame Vera Lynn23:37

Yes, I I you did feel as though you were doing something.

Dame Vera Lynn23:41

Let's have your sixth record.

Dame Vera Lynn23:43

Well, I'm very fond of strings orchestrations and um I used to hear this lovely record occasionally when I do listen to records over the air. And I would like to hear that, please. A Dagio for strings.

Presenter24:59

Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings, played by the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormondy.

Presenter25:05

I know, Vera, that the joke in your household is that you've been trying to retire ever since nineteen forty five, but it's just never been possible, has it?

Dame Vera Lynn25:12

No, I the the only real piece of it retirement I had was when my daughter was born, and uh I really didn't think that I would go back to work. Eighteen months later I was reminded by a recording company that I did have a contract and that I ought to do some recording. And uh so I started recording again. In the fifties I did a

Dame Vera Lynn25:35

a series that ran for about six years, and then in the in the seventies I had another long series. And in between I've been able to tour all over Australia many for many years and Canada.

Dame Vera Lynn25:47

Yeah.

Presenter25:48

'Cause that's the interesting point too, isn't it? That the calls have come not just here from the British, but from all over the world. That's right. Why do you think that is? How can you explain it? Why do so many people still draw emotion from the songs that you sing?

Dame Vera Lynn25:52

Oh yeah, the

Speaker 125:52

Well

Dame Vera Lynn26:03

A lot of the the boys, like Australians and and the Canadians, they were over here.

Dame Vera Lynn26:08

during the war they were billeted here and and they went off from here. And and it's all part of their young life and listening to the programmes and the messages and the kind of songs.

Dame Vera Lynn26:23

Now, when they're back home with their families, it reminds them of the time.

Dame Vera Lynn26:30

The Comrade Ship.

Dame Vera Lynn26:32

everything that they went through.

Dame Vera Lynn26:35

the loss of their friends and um

Dame Vera Lynn26:39

And it's sort of cemented something within them that they can't forget, and I don't think they want to.

Dame Vera Lynn26:47

And they

Dame Vera Lynn26:48

seemed to connect me with it.

Presenter26:50

It.

Dame Vera Lynn26:51

Yeah.

Presenter26:51

Do do you feel in in a way then, from what you say, that that war perhaps um enhances the character of a nation in some ways?

Presenter27:00

Yeah.

Dame Vera Lynn27:00

Well, I think it does. I think all people when when there's real trouble.

Dame Vera Lynn27:05

They they are inclined to stick together and help each other, work for each other, work as a team.

Dame Vera Lynn27:13

like the people the Londoners in the blitz.

Dame Vera Lynn27:17

I mean, after a very bad night of bombing.

Dame Vera Lynn27:21

In the East End the lady would be

Dame Vera Lynn27:23

whitening her doorstep. The house next door may have gone, but you know, life is to

Presenter27:29

Go on.

Dame Vera Lynn27:29

Yeah.

Presenter27:30

And do you think that that that the young today understand sufficiently the sacrifices that what now they're grown?

Dame Vera Lynn27:37

No no, I don't. I don't think the youngsters here in Holland it's a different matter on their anniversaries of armistice or liberation days.

Presenter27:37

I'm never

Dame Vera Lynn27:46

Uh they have their youngsters going to the uh war graves of our boys.

Dame Vera Lynn27:52

the British boys, and they all have them take in flowers, and there's always a a service, and each child will lay a bunch of flowers on on a grave of one of our boys, and they are told to look at the names and the ages eighteen, nineteen, some of them and to remember and not to forget the sacrifices that were made by our British lads to help them.

Dame Vera Lynn28:18

in their hour of trouble.

Dame Vera Lynn28:20

And I really don't think there is enough of that here in this country.

Dame Vera Lynn28:26

Shall we have another piece of music?

Dame Vera Lynn28:28

Mm.

Dame Vera Lynn28:29

B B C television programme David Lloyd George.

Dame Vera Lynn28:33

Had a lovely piece of music in it.

Dame Vera Lynn28:35

I would like to hear that, please.

Presenter29:09

Key Mai, the theme from BBC Television's David Lloyd George, played by Ennio Morricone.

Presenter29:15

You were, of course, created a dame in nineteen seventy five, the queen having been a fan, I think, since her girlhood.

Presenter29:23

Yes, um

Dame Vera Lynn29:23

Um I was at her sixteenth birthday party, which happened during the war. So and I was in a theatre, and I had to close the theatre for the day, not allowed to say why because of security, and uh went to Windsor Castle and she was made Colonel of the Guards, and I was one of the artists at the entrance entertainment, and um Itmar crowd was there.

Dame Vera Lynn29:47

uh as the rest of the programme. And she was sixteen at that time, so um she was in the sort of young romantic age and

Dame Vera Lynn29:56

Her favourite song at that moment was Yours, so of course I had to sing it on the phone.

Presenter30:00

Yeah.

Dame Vera Lynn30:01

And

Presenter30:02

And when she geeks Thank you. Yeah. Damehood, what it waits for?

Dame Vera Lynn30:04

Would

Presenter30:05

What did she say? Did she refer to that occasion?

Dame Vera Lynn30:06

No, she said, she said, Oh, you will have to wait a long time for this. And, you know, I felt that she was genuinely pleased, you know, that

Dame Vera Lynn30:16

But I had it.

Presenter30:18

I have to say, and again it's a rather personal remark, that there is simply no way in which you look your age. Is there a secret, or is it just luck?

Dame Vera Lynn30:26

Oh, I dunno. I think it's probably still keep going on. I think the more you do, I think the m the m the fitter you can keep yourself not only physically active but

Dame Vera Lynn30:37

keeps the old brain going and uh So do you have no special diet or fitness regime or? Well, well, a special diet. I don't eat red meat at all. I just eat fish and chicken and lots of salads and vegetables and fruit and um don't smoke.

Dame Vera Lynn30:52

Don't drink very much odd glass occasionally. Go to bed early. Go to bed early when I can, yes. Keep the same husband. And keep Yes.

Presenter31:03

I think you're you're a saint on the choir, that's no, I'm not. And do you still love singing as much as

Dame Vera Lynn31:05

Yeah.

Dame Vera Lynn31:08

Is that look?

Dame Vera Lynn31:10

It takes a bit of persuading sometimes for me to accept engagements. But once I get there and I get among all the crowd and particularly those that remember, then I really do enjoy it.

Presenter31:22

There must be millions of those people across the land to day of all days, remembering, as we've said, their shared experiences and friends long forgotten, and friends and relatives still missed. It's a strange business in a way, isn't it, that we do actually feel nostalgic for wartime.

Speaker 131:32

Uh

Dame Vera Lynn31:32

I'm still missing.

Dame Vera Lynn31:41

Yes, it is when you think of the

Dame Vera Lynn31:44

The horror of war

Dame Vera Lynn31:45

and how people d you know, and then when they meet you and they talk to you about it, first of all they meet you with a smile, and then their eyes fill up.

Dame Vera Lynn31:57

And it it's because they are remembering.

Dame Vera Lynn32:01

The boys that didn't go back with them.

Dame Vera Lynn32:03

And

Dame Vera Lynn32:05

I suppose they they think that it wasn't

Dame Vera Lynn32:09

An important part of their life it made men of them.

Dame Vera Lynn32:12

And they they had so much.

Dame Vera Lynn32:14

in a funny way so much warmth from that period.

Dame Vera Lynn32:19

Tonight.

Presenter32:20

Now to your last record, which is, fittingly, another one of your own. Which one is it?

Dame Vera Lynn32:23

This is a a record that makes me feel very nostalgic, and it's a Heart of Gold.

Speaker 432:30

And well the world in part is

Speaker 432:34

You smile, but let the sun shine.

Speaker 432:39

That I love you so

Speaker 432:43

Your years are service for me, the sweetest sorrow.

Speaker 132:43

Your year of provision.

Speaker 432:52

And though your proud is over now You have a hand to cover

Presenter33:02

Charlie Coons with the Cassani Club Orchestra, and Virulin singing Heart of Gold.

Presenter33:08

So there are choices now to be made. Which of those records is most special to you?

Dame Vera Lynn33:14

I think I'd have room five hundred and four.

Dame Vera Lynn33:17

Because as I go around the world

Dame Vera Lynn33:20

I know it was Dougie Barda's favourite song, but I also think it was the favourite song of a lot of couples. They say, Oh, yes, I was home on leave, or we just got married. I think it would also um

Dame Vera Lynn33:33

Bring back a lot of memories to me. Make me remember.

Dame Vera Lynn33:36

Dougie and all his mates and what they meant to us.

Presenter33:41

And um were we to cast you away on our desert island and I simply haven't got the heart to but were we to do so, what book would you like to take with you, as well as the Bible and Shakespeare?

Dame Vera Lynn33:50

Yeah.

Dame Vera Lynn33:52

I've got to eat, haven't I?

Dame Vera Lynn33:54

And as I'm more vegetarian, I should think than anything else.

Dame Vera Lynn33:59

I don't think I'd be able to catch fish or kill anything to eat. So I'd like a book that would tell me exactly on this island what I could eat the things that were poisonous or the edible fruits and roots and vegetation that would keep me alive till I was rescued.

Dame Vera Lynn34:16

FA

Presenter34:17

Right. We'll find one of those for you.

Dame Vera Lynn34:18

Yeah.

Presenter34:18

Finally, a luxury. What could we supply you with that would make your life just that little bit more bearable?

Dame Vera Lynn34:24

Well, in between times, when I have time, I like to do a little bit of painting. Now, to have oil paints, I think that would be rather difficult, wouldn't it? I mean, the it would all go rather gooey. So I think I'd settle with some watercolours. Uh water would be no problem, and some brushes. And of course I'd need a lot of paper too, wouldn't I? If you could throw that in as well, it might.

Presenter34:49

You shall have all of that. Thank you. Dame Vierlin, thank you very much.

Dame Vera Lynn34:50

Thank you.

Presenter34:53

For sharing your memories and your desert island discs with us. Thank you. It's been a pleasure. Thank you.

Speaker 135:05

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Islandists archive. For more podcasts, please visit bbc.co.uk/slash radio four.