Petula Clark

Petula Clark0:00

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.

Petula Clark0:08

The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen ninety five, and the presenter was Sue Lawley.

Presenter0:29

My Castaway this week is an entertainer. She has in fact entertained a whole generation from the time when, as a young girl, she was chosen to sing in Trafalgar Square on V E night to the moment earlier this year when she returned to the West End stage to play the lead in Sunset Boulevard.

Presenter0:45

She's the biggest female recording star Britain has ever produced, popular not only here, but in France and America too. But to the British public who remember her from her first radio programmes in the forties and hits such as The Little Shoemaker in the fifties and Downtown in the sixties, this sophisticated millionaire will always be our pet. She is Petula Clarke. It's a very affectionate handle, Petula, our pet. But uh do you resent it in a way? Do you feel oh, why don't the British let me grow up? No, I don't know, I don't resent it, but I think I'm getting on a bit to be called our pet, you know.

Petula Clark1:15

Just let me

Presenter1:23

But I suppose it's the price you pay as a child star, is it? People feel very proprietorial about you.

Presenter1:28

It wasn't easy for me because as I was growing up in public, which was not a very easy thing to do, I think growing up's tricky anyway, but you know, doing it in front of millions of people is really bad news. But of course, every time I wore a dress that showed a little bit of cleavage or when I got out of my little white socks, people were not happy. They could see their own youth disappearing, which is

Petula Clark1:51

Do you think that's what

Presenter1:53

I think so, yeah. Yes, if you were growing up, they must be old. That's right.

Petula Clark1:55

If you were growing up

Presenter1:58

But it must have been a great liberation when you eventually went to France in your twenties and suddenly you started to sing in front of an audience

Presenter2:05

With whom you didn't carry all that child star baggage, as it were.

Petula Clark2:08

Packages

Presenter2:09

Yes, but you know, th there's this sort of uh idea that I went to France to escape all of that. It didn't happen like that at all. I happened to fall in love with a Frenchman, much to my surprise. And we had to live somewhere and he couldn't speak English. Not that I could speak French, of course, but I mean I somehow felt that I could manage it and I went to live in France. But it was if I was going to run away to anywhere, the last place would have been France, I can tell you. The British, of course, were bereft when you went. And they got quite anti-French about it. I know they did. I know. Anybody'd think you'd married De Gaulle or something? I know, yes. Our pet going off to marry a Frenchman.

Petula Clark2:36

I know the dick.

Petula Clark2:39

Yeah.

Presenter2:43

Yeah.

Presenter2:44

But it it was good for me. And you created a different image, and then you created a different image again when you went to the States after that. Can you define the three images? I think we we know about our pet. What what was the fr the French thought you were sexy.

Petula Clark2:46

And you create

Presenter2:59

Well, yes, they did. But th they thought I was very amusing too, because I had this very strange accent. And they found it very charming, and they liked the way I sang. They had never heard anyone sing like that before in French. And what about in the States? What was your image there, ultimately?

Speaker 43:11

And the

Presenter3:15

Very gutsy.

Presenter3:16

A lot of the people before they saw me thought I was black because my name had been Petula sounded rather exotic, I suppose. But where do you feel most at home when you perform? In Britain, in France, or in the States?

Presenter3:27

Oh, well, here, of course, you know, this is home.

Presenter3:30

Tell me about your first record that you'll take to your desert island.

Presenter3:34

This is a song from Blood Brothers. It's it's me singing. Am I allowed one? Of course. You know, I wouldn't normally choose one of mine, but uh

Presenter3:42

Blood Brothers was a wonderful experience for me. I I performed it on Broadway a couple of years ago for ten months, and it was a fantastic experience.

Presenter3:53

I got very involved in it and I found out a lot about myself playing misses Johnston, who's a Liverpuddlian, and she has seven kids at the beginning of the show, and she's expecting twins, and

Presenter4:04

She's had a rough life and I enjoy playing her very much.

Speaker 44:08

Read Uh

Presenter4:10

Uh It's not

Speaker 44:11

True.

Speaker 44:14

Though it's here before me.

Presenter4:16

Yeah.

Petula Clark4:16

Well before

Speaker 44:20

Slay, it's just a dream.

Speaker 44:24

Say it left the scene. From an early days ago.

Presenter4:35

Tell me It's not true from the musical Blood Brothers sung by my castaway Petula Clarke, who had great success in that part on Broadway for about ten months, and then a very long tour in the States. So tell me now what was the attraction of Sunset Boulevard and Norma Desmond? What was the attraction of that part for you?

Speaker 44:40

Who hadn't

Petula Clark4:43

Yeah.

Presenter4:52

Well, I didn't think it was very attractive at first, quite honestly. I d I didn't really want to do it. Faded movie star? Well, no, it's not well, it's I don't know. I had seen it uh on on Broadway with Glen Close and uh I I thought it I thought it was very good, but you know, I I never

Petula Clark5:06

Yeah.

Presenter5:08

Never saw myself in that role at all.

Presenter5:11

I couldn't see myself playing this this monstrous woman, you know. How did you feel when you first saw yourself in in the the full makeup? Because it's very severe, isn't it, with the turban, not a hair showing, and then this very pale face and the blood red lips.

Petula Clark5:20

Air showing

Presenter5:24

Well, that helped a lot because I I looked in the mirror and I saw some someone else staring back at me and suddenly I didn't feel like me any more and that that was great. And I talk like this, you know, I have this American accent and this deep voice.

Presenter5:37

And you have to have great presence,'cause when she walks on down those those stairs, you know, it's a wonderful moment. It's a star part, isn't it?

Petula Clark5:37

An annual

Petula Clark5:40

Oh yes.

Petula Clark5:41

Maybe.

Presenter5:44

It is. And you know, the decor is extraordinary and the costumes are extraordinary. There is the famous staircase, of course.

Presenter5:51

Which I have to descend and ascend many times during the show. And then of course there's the music, you know, you you have to sing that stuff.

Presenter5:59

And it's very different for me. It's a different kind of music for me.

Presenter6:03

And a different character, as you say. I mean, she's vain, she's selfish, she's petulant, and she's ultimately pathetic, isn't she? She's slightly off her rocker, yeah. She really is. I mean, she's deluded.

Presenter6:15

But I see things in her too. You know, I th I think there's a back story, and we all have our different backstories about her, and uh I I think she was probably abandoned.

Presenter6:25

When she was

Presenter6:27

maybe in her teens and she's been abandoned by men and uh so so when finally this young man is about to abandon her, she just cannot take it any more. Well you obviously ended up liking her'cause now you're gonna play her for a very long time, aren't you?

Presenter6:42

Have you signed up? I've signed up, yes. I start on the ninth of january, ninety six, and the idea is that I do it for a year. I mean, it won't be a straight year. I'll do it for six months and then

Petula Clark6:42

Have you

Presenter6:55

Take a breather, I hope. Is it I mean, is it possible? It's an awful lot of performances a week.

Presenter7:01

Yes, there are eight performances a week. I'm going to take every other Monday off so that I can get two nights off, you know, Sunday and Monday night off. I I had a long talk with Glenn Close about it uh recently and uh she played it on Broadway and uh

Presenter7:14

She said, you know, you re you really can't do this. You know, you can't do it for a year. Nobody can. Tell me about record number two. Oh, yes, Land of my father's. I'm half Welsh. When I was a kid, uh well, my sister and I used to when the bombarding was bad in London, we would be sent off to Wales to stay with our grandparents in Pentrebach.

Presenter7:37

And we loved it. And I used to roam around the mountains like something out of sound of music.

Presenter7:44

And sing I used to sing all the time.

Presenter8:29

Yes, yes, yes. Land of my father, sung by the Morriston Orpheus Choir. So, particularly, your mother was Welsh, and she it was she who taught you to sing. When was the first time you sang in public? Do you remember? I think it was in Chapel in Wales, in Pentavach. I thought you sang in a Bentall's department store with Harry Fry and his orchestra. You've been doing your research, haven't you? Yes, I did. But by then I was eight years old, you know. I mean, I'd been around for a while. And you did impersonations, I think you were quite right. Who did you impersonate?

Petula Clark8:47

Store

Petula Clark8:58

And then we're going to be able to do that.

Presenter9:01

Virulin, of course.

Presenter9:03

and a lady called Nellie Wallace, Richard Tauber.

Presenter9:08

And Jimmy Durante, my research Sophie Tucker, I mean really. But you were fulfilling your father's dreams in a way, weren't you? I mean, he'cause he, I think, was a frustrated showbiz, was he? And so he really wanted this for him. How early on did he decide that you were going to be big?

Petula Clark9:19

Yeah.

Presenter9:27

Well, he heard me singing around the house. He used to work at nights and and he was he was trying to get some sleep during the daytime and I was singing around the house and he's shouted down to my mum, uh, you know, switched the radio off and my mother said, It's not the radio, it's it's it's petula and he decided that that I had some talent, but I mean he didn't have any influence and we weren't wealthy and uh

Presenter9:48

He was a very good looking man, my father. He looked like Errol Flynn. In fact, he was bitten by an Errol Flynn fan on the calf, I think it was, at some point. Don't ask me how that happened. But he had always wanted to be an actor and wasn't allowed to, so

Presenter10:04

He's he encouraged me, shall we say. He he it was he who chose your name. Where did he get the Petula from? I've n I mean, one's never heard it before or since, really. Have you ever met anybody else called? Yes, I have. There is actually another Petula clerk around.

Petula Clark10:13

Oh yes I have.

Presenter10:17

Poor soul. And there are quite a lot of ladies called Petula, and there are a lot of

Presenter10:23

Cows

Presenter10:24

and barges named after me.

Presenter10:27

I suppose it's a compliment, I don't know. But where did he get the name from? He made it up.

Presenter10:31

He made it up out of two ex-ex-girlfriends. I don't know if that's true, but uh

Petula Clark10:32

Yeah.

Presenter10:36

But by nineteen forty two you were singing on the radio in in wartime programmes. It's All Yours I think was the first one, wasn't it? Yes, it's it's a show that used to go out for the for the troops.

Petula Clark10:42

Yeah.

Presenter10:46

Serving overseas. And wasn't there a time when you calmed everybody down in an air raid?

Presenter10:51

Yes. That that was my first radio show. It was at the Criterion Theatre. We were recording this show for the troops. It consisted of of kids who would go along and send messages uh to their uncles, fathers, brothers serving overseas. And I had an uncle who was serving out in the desert somewhere, and I went along to send my message.

Presenter11:11

And in the middle of rehearsal there was a gigantic air raid. We were in right in the middle of London. It's a Piccadilly Circus, the Criterion.

Presenter11:18

and everything had to stop, and the producer said, Well, somebody come up and say a piece of poetry or sing a song, just to, you know, calm everyone down and nobody else volunteered, so I went up and sang. What did you sing? Mighty Like a Rose.

Presenter11:33

And I sang it into the microphone and just like in the movies they heard it in the control room. And th they seemed to be quite impressed and they said, Well, would you like to sing a song as well as send your message? And so I said, Yes, you know.

Presenter11:49

And that's the first time I was heard on the air, and it there was an enormous reaction to it. Sort of from then on I became

Presenter11:55

Well, just as Vera Lynn was was the Force's sweetheart sweetheart, I was the Force's little girl. I represented all the the kids who'd been left behind.

Presenter12:05

And you went on, you sang in the Albert Hall, and then you got your own radio programme Pet's Parlour, you just

Petula Clark12:07

Then you go

Petula Clark12:09

And yes.

Presenter12:10

But w what sort of effect did it have on you? Did you just take it all in your stride? I mean, obviously, if you're the sort of kid who could get up and perform, you

Presenter12:18

You just took to it easily or?

Presenter12:20

I'm really basically very very shy, I think, uh like a lot of performers are.

Presenter12:25

And um getting up and singing sort of got me over my shyness, I think.

Presenter12:32

But there's a story that you would sit backstage even at the Albert Hall reading a comic, you know, just sort of quietly waiting to go on.

Petula Clark12:37

Yeah.

Presenter12:39

Yes, and then sort of

Presenter12:41

dog ear the the the comic as I went on stage and

Presenter12:45

Go on, pull the place down and

Presenter12:48

Come back to my comic, you know. Yes, those were the days.

Presenter12:52

But I really have to push me up that ramp. How could you do that? I mean, it must it must have taken great guts. You mu you must have been a very unusual little girl. Well, I think children are fearless anyway.

Petula Clark12:52

The targets you've got.

Presenter13:03

You know. You just do what you had to do, I suppose.

Presenter13:08

Record number three.

Presenter13:09

Oh yes, one of my favorite singers, Annie Lennox.

Presenter13:12

I remember when I first heard this track, No More I Love You's, I think I was in Atlanta in a record store, and this was being played in the store. And I stopped dead in my tracks and I thought, What is that?

Presenter13:26

I just think she's uh she's brilliant, this lady.

Speaker 413:35

And they just leave and leave them all.

Speaker 413:40

No more I love you

Speaker 413:45

Changes are shifting outside

Presenter13:54

Annie Lennox and No More I Love You's. But by the time you got into into your teens, seventeen and eighteen, they were kind of binding your chest and putting on ankle socks to try and keep you young. Must have been very confusing.

Speaker 413:57

It was

Presenter14:13

It was. I was not a very happy lady at that time. No.

Presenter14:17

Well, I suppose I you see, I was under contract to the rank organization and I'd been in quite a lot of films and uh was quite popular, I suppose, and uh

Presenter14:27

I I was more valuable to them as a child than as a teenager. In those days adolescence wasn't w what it is today, you know, it wasn't exploited the way i it is now. And uh

Presenter14:38

It was difficult because I think but the last thing you want to do when you're getting a little bit of shape to you is to cover it up. Is it is it true that you came close to having a nervous breakdown? Yes, it is true, yeah. I think I'm well I know I got close to to uh having a breakdown and uh I didn't know what to do about it. I I daren't talk to anyone about it and uh

Petula Clark14:49

Yeah.

Presenter14:59

I kind of got myself through it.

Presenter15:02

What about your father? Because he he was your full-time manager, really, wasn't he? I mean, was he sympathetic at all to that? Or did he I don't think he was even aware that it was going on.

Petula Clark15:05

Yeah. Yeah.

Presenter15:11

Quite honestly.

Presenter15:12

Didn't you talk to him about it? No, no, no. I didn't talk to anyone about it.

Presenter15:17

Um uh yes

Presenter15:19

It was a very, very difficult time for me. I had a a year of great stress. And well.

Presenter15:26

I I think I think I'm okay, you know. But uh But you tried, didn't you? You tried to sort of grow up. You tried. I think once I remember some story of your singing a sexy song on the television and the nation rose up.

Presenter15:39

Yes, I remember the song. It was called When the World Was Young. It was a wonderful song that Peggy Lee recorded. I adored Peggy Lee, still do.

Presenter15:47

It had a line in it lying in the hay games we used to play. I probably didn't even know what it what that meant, you know.

Presenter15:53

And I sang sang it on television'cause I thought it was a beautiful song. And oh, dear, dear, oh dear, oh dear Our play getting sexy. Oh, what's this, what's this? But your father ran you completely. Did he chose your songs and he chose your frocks and he told you what to do, and you did it.

Presenter16:10

Yes, I worshipped my dad, you know, I just just adored him.

Presenter16:14

That was fine. It it w all went very well unt until I started having some ideas of my own. I wanted to make my own mistakes.

Presenter16:23

And I made them eventually. But you didn't leave home, did you, till about the age of twenty-five, I think you finally.

Speaker 416:28

Yeah.

Presenter16:30

And he got out. Was it a kind of escape?

Presenter16:34

I think it was, yes. It it it was was a very difficult time for me and for my father.

Presenter16:41

And you know, I loved him very dearly, but the time had come, and it it was just a difficult situation, because I I was never quite sure any more who I was talking to. I was talking to my father, I was talking to my manager.

Speaker 416:52

Okay.

Presenter16:53

And uh once I had left it uh things were they were difficult for a while, but then they they improved, you know. He real he realized that I had to do it.

Presenter17:03

And once you left you got a flat in London and a little red sports car and pink, pink and life began, did it?

Presenter17:10

Kind of, yes. But it wasn't easy. You know, I didn't have that support any more. Um but I was having a good time, in a way.

Presenter17:19

Next piece of music.

Presenter17:21

Goritzki's Symphony Number Three, sung by Dawn Upshaw. She is incredible. Now that is a wonderful voice.

Presenter17:29

This is the kind of voice that I would love to have if I was going to sing this kind of thing. This is the way I would like to sing. It's very pure and and very, very moving.

Speaker 418:12

Troshkiski Tro

Presenter18:30

Part of Goretzki's Symphony No. Three, sung by Dawn Upshaw with the London Sinfonietta, conducted by David Zinnman. So it was the late fifties. Petula Clarke went to France on a tour and met a man called Claude. It was kind of love at first sight, wasn't it? Yes, yes it was. It wasn't really a tour. I went there for one night and I had been talked into that. I did not want to go to France. I didn't speak any French. I had the most dreadful cold. I remember I went over. Eventually they talked me into going over to do this one night at the Olympia, which is a bit like the Palladium over here.

Presenter19:04

And I I I could virtually almost not sing. I mean I had I went to a doctor in the afternoon who gave me a very strange kind of remedy for my voice. I won't go into it on the radio. You know what the French are like. And I was totally shocked by the whole thing. What am I doing here?

Presenter19:24

Anyway, the remedy worked, and I went on and I sang.

Presenter19:28

And they loved it. They just thought it was wonderful. The French audience went crazy. I never really understood why. And the next morning I was in the office of the re recording boss,

Presenter19:42

over their vogue records, and he was trying to talk me into

Presenter19:45

Recording in French.

Presenter19:47

I had no desire to record in French.

Presenter19:50

All I wanted to do was get out of there. And the lights went off. It's a bit like in the studio. If the lights went off, we'd be in total darkness, right? There were no windows.

Presenter19:58

So this guy called something out in French, and this young man staggered into the room, stood on the desk, and changed the light bulb.

Presenter20:06

And the light went on and there he was.

Presenter20:10

And I said to this bossman, I said, Who who who is this? you know and he said this is this is Claude Wolfe, you know, he is our public relations and he will be taking you around the studios, you know, and meeting the people uh all over Paris if you come back with a record in French, you know. So you signed up. Well, okay, I'll think about this.

Speaker 420:28

You read it well.

Presenter20:32

And three weeks later I was back there with my first record in very bad French, may I say. And Claude was the guy and that was it. And you married and you went to live there and it took me eighteen months to to get him. Did it? Yes. But you got him in the end.

Petula Clark20:41

I went to live there and I was

Petula Clark20:46

But you got him in the end.

Presenter20:48

But so when you went over that, I mean, you began that was when you really began to grow up, as as we said at the beginning, you were kind of liberated. So not just your professional life changed, your personal life changed, everything, didn't it?

Petula Clark20:53

So could be

Presenter20:59

And and your style of singing changed, because you've been very much brought up in the the sort of British music hall tradition of sequins and the big ballad. What tell me about the French influence on you then, professionally? Well, I remember going to the music hall for the first time in in Paris and I saw Piaf.

Presenter21:18

I thought, well, what's all this about? You know, this little lady comes out in this rather shabby little black dress and sings about death and madness and sex and all kinds of, you know, heavy stuff. And this isn't musical, you know.

Presenter21:33

And I'd never seen anything like that before. And of course she's not the only one.

Presenter21:38

Well, there was Arsnavoir, obviously, but there were there are many, many singers like that and it just sort of taught me so much. But a fascinating thing that within what two or three years you had beaten Piaf to that top place in the in the French estimation, you were the number one female vocalist in France. Yes, um it was amazing really. I d I never really understood how that happened. But I had some very good songs and I was working with some marvellous people.

Petula Clark21:56

And

Petula Clark21:58

Uh

Presenter22:05

But were you happy? Did it all make you happy? Did you suddenly think, now I'm living?

Petula Clark22:08

It would be

Presenter22:11

and was extremely happy. I was working very hard, and of course by then I I had two children, uh two girls.

Presenter22:18

And it was it was hard work. What did your father think of all this success?

Presenter22:23

He was very pleased. I think he realized after a while that this was very good for me as as a person and as a performer, and he grew to like Claude a lot. But it was difficult for him at first. Yes,'cause Claude's a very strong man.

Presenter22:38

I suppose the one man replaced the other in your life, eh? Yes. Was that too much pop psychology? I think it's very true.

Presenter22:47

Next piece of music.

Presenter22:48

Quincy, Quincy Jones, talking about my my f French career. I mean, I was really very busy and then in in suddenly in'sixty four' Tony Hatch came along with the song called Downtown and it became a hit here and then it became a huge hit in the States. And

Presenter23:05

There I was being sucked into American show business and it was very, very exciting. But it just complicated my life so much because I was already very busy in France. So when America called, I mean it was it was difficult for me to get there, you know, physically to get there. But once I got there, that was incredible. And I learned a lot there too, and I learnt a lot from Quincy. I got to work with him and he's just an amazing man.

Presenter23:57

Quincy Jones and Birdland.

Presenter23:59

So you were a great hit in the States and Downtown was followed by Don't Sleep in the Subway and I Know a Place. I Know a Place. And I couldn't live without your love. I mean they rolled on, didn't they? Those numbers. Lots of them.

Petula Clark24:06

A place.

Petula Clark24:09

Yeah.

Presenter24:12

But you'd also had these babies, as you say. And all of this was happening in the sixties, and you were making films. How did you cope domestically? I mean, it must have been agonizing.

Presenter24:20

I thought I was coping quite well, but uh I wanted it all. I w I wanted the career and I wanted a good

Presenter24:27

marriage and a good family life. And I th I think having a good career is a full time job and having a good personal life is a full time job and two full time jobs, that's that's

Petula Clark24:36

Uh

Speaker 424:36

Full-time jobs.

Presenter24:38

Rough. You did try once, didn't you? Giving up professionally and and and taking to domesticity.

Petula Clark24:41

Professional.

Presenter24:44

What is?

Petula Clark24:44

But yes.

Presenter24:46

I got very bored, uh and very boring, apparently.

Presenter24:50

Let's face it, you know, I started this when I was very young, I didn't know how to do anything else.

Presenter24:55

But the two years were good. I had wonderful times with the children, and they have wonderful memories of their childhood. But you were really trying to be Superwoman, as you say. You were trying to be the perfect wife, the perfect mother and the perfect professional performer.

Petula Clark25:04

Yes, I was.

Presenter25:08

And the press liked like talking about it, saying, Oh, you know, she's she's doing this and she can do this and she can do that and that you see it can be done. And I'm not sure that it can be done, you know. I had sometimes have a feeling that if I had concentrated all my energies on my career, I would have

Presenter25:23

Done a lot better.

Presenter25:24

And certainly I know that if I'd concentrated all my energies on my family I would have done a lot better s with that.

Presenter25:30

Why are you so certain of that?

Presenter25:34

I I think it's a marvellous thing to be a good wife and mother.

Presenter25:38

I admire it very much and I I don't think I I don't think I did it very well.

Presenter25:44

I did what I could but uh

Presenter25:46

Yeah, I was trying to do too much.

Presenter25:48

So of the three roles, you think you were best at being a professional performer, were you?

Presenter25:54

To the detriment of the other two. Yeah, but you see, I have I have w a wonderful relationship with my family, and uh we talk about this quite a bit.

Petula Clark25:55

But you Uh

Presenter26:04

And they have only marvellous memories of their childhood, and we are very, very close, probably a lot closer than than most. And so I guess it wasn't that bad after all.

Presenter26:16

Record number six.

Presenter26:18

I've met some really great people through the years of my career. I've sung with some great people too. And I sing often with Michael MacDonald. I think he's just one of the greatest pop singers of them all.

Speaker 326:37

See you.

Speaker 326:38

As she rises to her apology, everybody else would surely know.

Speaker 326:48

Watching her go

Speaker 426:51

Uh

Presenter27:01

Michael MacDonald and the Doobie Brothers and What a Fool Believes. Your children are grown up now, Petula. They're in their twenties and thirties. Um your marriage is more than thirty five years old, but you live separate lives, really, don't you?

Speaker 427:08

Yeah.

Presenter27:14

Yes, we we do. I mean, but we s we'll be spending Christmas together, you know. Or my husband and I will be spending Christmas together. The kids will be doing their own separate things, but uh Yeah. It's difficult, isn't it? The the business of of of marriage is sort of moving apart a bit, you know. But you've obviously found a way of going on. You don't want to divorce.

Petula Clark27:29

You know

Presenter27:34

I think marriage is a is a very difficult thing. It's wonderful, but even when it's wonderful, it's it's not easy.

Presenter27:41

I'm I'm in a very demanding kind of uh profession.

Presenter27:46

And we live apart in a way, but in a way, some strange sort of way it works. You know, that's difficult to explain to people. Well, I think if you have so much history, which you have, it's very difficult suddenly to be totally apart, isn't it? You remain with friends. Does he still advise you professionally and so on? Absolutely, yes, yes. And he's always there at the important moments.

Petula Clark28:01

How we friend

Petula Clark28:03

Professionally and so on.

Presenter28:09

Sure.

Presenter28:10

But but you you you do live separate lives. I mean would you would you like someone to come in and whisk you off your feet and make you feel special again?

Presenter28:21

Well, the nice thing about my life at the moment is that I'm coping very well on my own and um

Presenter28:27

I've done a lot of growing up over the last few years, although I don't think I'll ever grow up entirely, and I'm not sure that I want to grow up entirely. I think that you know, I still find life wonderful and I get excited about things and I'm still learning. But professionally, I mean, we've looked back across a long and incredibly successful career of yours. But you have had a few ups and downs. But you said to me during some music just now that you didn't really feel you'd done very much. Can that be true?

Presenter29:00

I have to say I I don't think I've done anything particularly remarkable, you know.

Presenter29:05

I think the the best is yet to come. I hope so.

Presenter29:10

Record number seven. Okay. One of my trips to to Canada, I think it was to Montreal, uh I was being interviewed and uh this guy said to me, uh

Presenter29:20

And how do you feel about Glen Gould passing away? I didn't realize he died and he had

Presenter29:26

just died a few days before.

Presenter29:30

And he said, Well, how do you feel about it? I said, Well, yes, that's very sad because he was brilliant. He said, Yes, but you know, he was.

Presenter29:37

A great fan of yours. I said, You're kidding me, aren't you?

Presenter29:41

And he played me this tape and showed me some cuttings of um Glen Gould. And uh th this marvellous genius was was a Pet Clark fan, which is I found rather extraordinary.

Presenter30:48

One of Bach's Goldberg variations played by Glenn Gould.

Presenter30:52

So what about this Christmas, Petula? Where will you be? What are you doing? Well, I'm going to be on the QE two in the Caribbean. What doing concerts. Mhm. Yep, I'll be doing a couple of concerts on the QE two and having my turkey and my Christmas pudding at last, because you see in France you don't get any of that stuff.

Presenter31:10

Well, maybe you'll get a little bit of dand, you know, a little bit of turkey with a bit of foie gras. No Christmas pudding. I usually turn up to the chalet in France with my own little Christmas pudding, which I eat on my own.

Presenter31:22

Because all they all think that Christmas pudding is hysterical, you know. So you've missed your good English traditional Christmas over all these years.

Speaker 431:29

Yeah.

Presenter31:30

What but what about when you did have the big family Christmases and so on? Didn't you cook the turkey then?

Speaker 431:30

Yeah.

Presenter31:35

Yes, but you know, they would turn their noses up at it mostly. You know, we'd finish up going out somewhere, you know, to have s have a proper meal afterwards. But that isn't Christmas, is it? No, I know it's not, but they don't understand it, you see. You cannot teach the French about Christmas. And what I wonder um here's a difficult qu this is the most difficult question of all.

Petula Clark31:42

But that isn't

Presenter31:53

What will be your New Year's resolution when the moment comes?

Presenter31:56

To really be happy without hurting anybody else.

Presenter32:00

I've got a few ideas of things that make me happy. I really want to try to help out with the refugees. I've done a lot of work with UNICEF and the UN or with the refugees, but it's becoming such an enormous problem. And I've really to make myself happy, I've got to do something about that. I don't quite know what, but something's going to have to be done.

Presenter32:21

Last record.

Presenter32:23

I think on this island I would like to have something that I could listen to at night.

Presenter32:29

Under the stars.

Presenter32:30

And Mozart's the Man.

Presenter33:34

Part of the second movement of Mozart's piano concerto number twenty one in C major, played by the London Mozart Players conducted by Howard Shelley.

Presenter33:43

Now which one of those eight records, Petula, if you could only take one? Oh, Mozart.

Presenter33:48

Meds are right. What about your book?

Petula Clark33:48

Definitely

Presenter33:51

You got the Bible, you got Shakespeare.

Petula Clark33:51

His Bible

Presenter33:54

I I need something funny,'cause I really like to laugh.

Presenter33:58

Maybe uh a a chum's book, you know, like um Peter Ustinov, you know.

Presenter34:03

Because he's a wonderful man. I've spent many marvelous hours with him.

Presenter34:08

He he works a lot with the UN as well. So uh yeah, something by Eustanov. And your luxury.

Presenter34:14

My piano

Presenter34:16

I have a lovely piano which is is now in Miami.

Presenter34:20

Grand, baby, grand, baby, grand, an extraordinary piano. It's 1925 and the black keys are painted gold, my dear.

Petula Clark34:21

The baby cried.

Presenter34:29

It's very, very beautiful. It's a lovely piece of furniture, and it it's it's a fairly good piano, but it's just got a lot of heart and soul to it, and I would love to have that. And I could do some song writing.

Presenter34:39

Petula Clark, thank you very much indeed for letting us hear your desert island discs, and happy Christmas. And same to you.

Petula Clark34:53

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

Speaker 435:45

Uh