Betty Driver

Presenter0:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young. Thank you for downloading this podcast of Desert Island Discs from BBC Radio 4. For rights reasons the music choices are shorter than in the radio broadcast.

Presenter0:10

For more information about the programme, please visit bbc.co.uk/slash radio four.

Presenter0:34

My castaway this week is Betty Driver. For more than forty years she's been pulling pints and dishing up her hotpot in the Rovers' Return. But her career in show business started decades before she took up residence on Britain's most famous street. She was a child when her mother put her on the stage, touring the country with an act that showcased her stunning singing voice. It brought success, but not happiness. I did it for over twenty years, she says, and hated every day of it. While life off stage was far from easy, her career prospered. She had her own radio series and was a respected actor in film and television, working with everyone from Arthur Askey and Noel Coward to Bruce Forsyth and Tommy Cooper. She thought she'd retired in 1966. Then a phone call came from out of the blue asking her to join the cast of something called Coronation Street. I thought it would be for six episodes, and then I'd be home again.

Presenter1:31

I wouldn't change my life, she says, though I'd have liked a bit more happiness. Betty Driver, welcome. You are unbelievably ninety now. You sit opposite me, rude with health. Oh, never mind. You've been working for the past eighty years.

Betty Driver1:40

Yeah.

Betty Driver1:42

Oh no.

Betty Driver1:46

Yes, I know, it's amazing, isn't it?

Presenter1:48

Does retirement hold no appeal?

Betty Driver1:49

I just love working, and I n will never retire. Ever, they'll have to shoot me to get rid of me.

Betty Driver1:56

Yeah.

Betty Driver1:56

Make a

Presenter1:56

Everything.

Betty Driver1:57

Big

Presenter1:57

Uh

Betty Driver1:57

Viewing figures in that

Presenter1:58

But

Betty Driver1:58

Yeah.

Presenter1:58

Left.

Betty Driver1:58

Yeah.

Presenter1:58

Absolutely.

Betty Driver1:58

What is it about the work?

Presenter2:00

Yeah.

Betty Driver2:00

You love so much? I've made tremendous friends. I mean, when you're in the theater, when you're doing variety, you work for a week and you meet somebody, you may never meet them again. So you don't really make friends. When I join the street, I've made friends and I'm the happiest person in the world. It's just like a big family, and I

Presenter2:23

Just love it. That is lovely to hear you say that there is a great sense of happiness because I know and and hopefully we'll talk about this in s in a little bit more detail. I know in your early life there wasn't a lot of happiness around. So so now you you've you think you've you've found a sense in which you you feel fulfilled.

Speaker 12:30

Uh

Betty Driver2:30

Yes, bro.

Betty Driver2:32

So

Betty Driver2:37

I know. We we had no happiness when we were little. Me and my sister Frida, no, we went to a different school each each week, which was horrendous. So you never really caught up on any education. It was awful. We had a mother that was a matriarch, and uh she just wanted me to be in the theatre, irrespective of whether I wanted to or not, and she wanted me to sound like Gracie Fields, and I hated Gracie Fields. So, constantly, it was a battle.

Presenter3:05

We'll talk a lot more about that a little later. But do you remember getting that first call that for something called Coronation Street and them saying w you know, we think people like you?

Betty Driver3:06

I'd love to lay.

Betty Driver3:12

Oh, yes, it was amazing. We took a little pub in Derbyshire and uh one day the phone went and it was executive producer of Coronation Street. He said, Could I come and see you? I said, No, don't be so daft, it's a pub, of course you can come and see me Yes, come on So he came round, I said, Wha what's the matter? He said, Well, you're pulling pints here, why don't you come and pull pints and the rovers return? I said, Where's that? He said, In Coronation Street. I said, Yes, and well, we'll probably do about six episodes and I'll be back. Forty-one years later, I'm still churning out hot pot.

Betty Driver3:45

It's amazing.

Presenter3:47

It is amazing. I couldn't help, of course, but mention the hotpot. Do you know how to make hotpots? No.

Betty Driver3:47

It is

Betty Driver3:53

No, I'm dreadful. I'm a terrible cook. My friends, I've got seven men friends and uh they all know I'm rubbish in the kid. I really am rubbish. I mean, I bought some steak the other week and I looked at it and I thought, It's a bit thick that I bet that'll be tough. And I hammered hell out of this piece of meat. You could have sold your shoes with it. And of course I tried to eat it at the end. No way. Went straight into the bin.

Presenter4:17

Speaking of which, now tell me why you've chosen this first piece of music and tell me what it is.

Betty Driver4:22

Oh, I want to apologise to start with for playing this piece of music, which I can't stand. I can't bear my voice. I hated it when I did it when I was eighteen, and I'm ninety now. And oh, I just can't bear it. But all my friends like it, you see, so I did it when I was making a film. I got a contract to do three films, and this was this song was in one of the films. And it did quite well, and I thought, ooh, I'm going to be a big film star. Oh, lovely, you know. I finished the three films, and then the war broke out, and all the contracts were cancelled, so that was the end of my filming career. I've hidden these records, I've got really old records, right at the back of the wardrobe, so nobody would find them at all. But my friends, oh, they're like little squirrels, you know, they found this, and it's called I'll Take Romance. Oh.

Speaker 45:14

I'll take romance.

Speaker 15:16

Yeah.

Speaker 45:18

While my heart is young and eager to fly, I'll give my heart a try, I'll take romance

Speaker 45:35

I'll take romance while my arms are strung and eager for you.

Presenter5:44

That was my castaway, Betty Driver, and I'll take romance. We placed that at the top of our eight discs today, Betty, because you you promised us you really wanted to get it out of the way quickly because you've

Betty Driver5:53

Are we still friends?

Presenter5:56

I liked it. You played it because your friends implored you to to put it on your list, but I noticed all the way through that you were grimacing and you were huffing and puffing and

Betty Driver6:05

Coughing.

Presenter6:06

BOOOOOO

Betty Driver6:06

What a little

Presenter6:06

I can't bear it, it's no good. I sound like an old tin can. That was released then in 1938. You were 17, 18. By that time, you'd already starred in a West End show. As we know, you'd taken on your first film roles, spent a good number of years in rep, and all because Mummy wanted you on the stage. Oh, yes.

Betty Driver6:11

178

Betty Driver6:16

Damn you f

Betty Driver6:23

Yeah. I did a seasoning rep when I was about eleven. But it uh it was very good for me because it taught me how to learn lines and uh how to enter onto a stage and I don't know, it was probably very, very good for me. Probably. Um but did you say to your mother, I don't want to do this? Yeah, every day. She said, You're going to do it no matter what.

Betty Driver6:43

No love attached at all, I mean nothing. We never got a kiss, we never got a present, nothing.

Presenter6:49

What did your father have to say about this?

Betty Driver6:51

Well, my mother was so strong that I think my dad just he just gave up. He was a sweet person, but he just gave up. She was so so domineering that there was nothing you could do about it. Why did she want you to do it? Was it the money?

Betty Driver7:04

I don't know. I will never know. It was just.

Betty Driver7:08

Very, very sad little life. Me and my sister

Presenter7:12

It's an unusual degree of cruelty though that doesn't allow a child to celebrate Christmas or birthdays or give them a hug or where do I mean d where d where did that come from? Why did it know?

Betty Driver7:17

Yeah.

Betty Driver7:20

I don't know. We never no we didn't we we always had a Christmas tree and uh Daddy used to put lights on it and it was lovely and Frida and I used to put our little presents all around which we'd bought during the year for them. But there was never one from my mum or my dad, ever. Never. From the age of, I think, seven was the last time we ever had a present. So those presents that you'd got you had you got them for your parents? Yes, yes. My grandma and my granddad, my mum and my dad, and aunties and that, all there, but we never got any anything.

Speaker 47:46

Yeah.

Speaker 17:46

This

Betty Driver7:55

And we never got a kiss, only on New Year's Eve.

Betty Driver7:58

The bells would go for New Year's Eve and my Dad would say Happy New Year a kiss on the cheek and my mum would grudgingly say Happy New Year Right, that's it.

Betty Driver8:07

That was the love for the year.

Presenter8:09

When you were a grown-up, did you ever have it out with your mother? Did you ever say, What was all that about? No.

Betty Driver8:14

No

Presenter8:15

What's that point?

Betty Driver8:15

There's no point. I think she always wanted to be on the stage and never really achieved anything, so that was the nearest thing to me bunging me on, you know, a little girl. I mean, she used to stand on the side of the stage, and obviously this night I didn't do it, and came off and wham, straight across my face, and had to go and take a curtain call with this great big red hand mark and crying.

Betty Driver8:38

Oh, it was awful, really awful, but she was just a go getter. I don't know whether it was the I never saw any money. I mean, my mother did all the money bits, so Frieda and I got about half a crown a week, and when I was uh twenty one I got ten shillings a week.

Presenter8:55

Isn't it awful, really? It is. It is awful. Let's have some more music and tell me about what we're going to hear for disc number two, Betty. Oh, yes, Stephen Hoff.

Betty Driver8:56

It

Betty Driver8:57

Yeah.

Betty Driver9:03

Great friend of mine, a world class pianist. Oh, I just think he is so, so wonderful, and I would love you to play the um Tchaikovsky's piano concerto. It's gorgeous.

Presenter10:16

That was Stephen Hoff, playing the opening of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerta Number One in B flat minor. So, Betty Driver, you've already, and we've only just started talking, mentioned your sister, Frida, many times. She she was your younger sister.

Betty Driver10:26

Yeah.

Betty Driver10:28

Yes, yes, two and a half years younger.

Presenter10:30

And was she the person then who made life bearable as I was?

Betty Driver10:32

Yes, she was like a little rock. We lived together nearly all our lives. Was she a performer? She was a very beautiful coloratura soprano. Was she. And I had her trained at the Royal College of Music. But my mother didn't want to know about that. She said, No, no.

Speaker 410:41

Yeah.

Betty Driver10:47

Variety's all right for us. And she finished it and just absolutely broke Friela's heart. So you paid for her training and she studied and she had a promising career.

Presenter10:53

And she studied and she had a promising career. Of course, um I mean, kids always want to please their parents, don't they? That's the that's the awful truth of it. I'm I'm I'm constantly struck, as you speak about your mother, of of the mother in the the wings in Gypsy shouting, Sing out, Louise Was she one of those?

Speaker 110:59

Yeah.

Betty Driver10:59

That's the that's the awful truth.

Speaker 111:00

Uh

Betty Driver11:07

Was she

Betty Driver11:08

Oh yes. Oh yes. Well she would have loved to have gone on the stage but because she had no talent.

Presenter11:08

Oh yeah.

Betty Driver11:14

In a word?

Betty Driver11:16

Oh god.

Presenter11:17

I

Betty Driver11:17

Limited.

Betty Driver11:18

To see a strange life.

Presenter11:19

Very strange. Do you think she sort of at once, you know, she knew obviously that you could go out there and earn cash, but do you think there was a bit of her that slightly resented the fact that you had the talent? Oh, yeah, she

Betty Driver11:27

Oh yes. Oh yes. Oh yes. She wanted me to be like Gracie Fields and I did not want to be like Gracie Fields and I would not sing like her.

Presenter11:37

Did you ever work on the same bill as Gracie Fields?

Betty Driver11:39

Yeah.

Presenter11:39

Yeah.

Betty Driver11:39

Do you have a

Presenter11:39

Yeah.

Betty Driver11:39

Uh

Betty Driver11:40

Well, I had the same agent as Gracie Fields. One day I went to my agent's house and a man and a woman stood there, this woman in a a plastic raincoat, like a leopard skin, and a headscarf on, and dark glasses, and big flat

Betty Driver11:57

Brown shoes on the thought. She's probably come to do a bit of cleaning, she'd better be a cleaner or something. So my agent came down the stairs. She says, Oh, hello, Betty, darling how she says, You've met Grace, haven't you? I said, Oh, it's a great pleasure And Grace Eve is looked at me from the bottom to the top and she went

Betty Driver12:12

Likewise, I'm sure, and that's the only thing she ever said to me.

Betty Driver12:17

She was very jealous of me'cause I was only when I went into the show that she had made famous, I was fourteen. Yes, that was the leading lady. That was quite a show to carry. Yes. At fourteen. Fourteen years of age.

Presenter12:23

Secondly.

Presenter12:27

And and hadn't you auditioned at the Windmill Theatre around about the same

Betty Driver12:30

Yeah, yeah.

Betty Driver12:33

I happened to look.

Betty Driver12:35

To the side in the wings.

Betty Driver12:37

and saw a load of girls with no clothes on. Well, I'd never seen anybody with no clothes on, ever. I was very shy. Then I looked the other side, and the boys were there with no clothes on. Well, that was the end of that. And I just grabbed my handbag, and off I shot down Shaftesbury Avenue. It was horrific.

Presenter12:52

Now your mother taking you to the windmill theater when you were just a young girl I mean it was it was world famous for the fact that it had these nude they weren't quite dancers'cause they weren't really allowed to move, but they had a feather that they moved. So she knew what she was doing when she took you to the windmill.

Betty Driver12:52

Sh

Betty Driver12:54

Yeah.

Betty Driver12:55

It was

Betty Driver13:00

Until the

Speaker 113:00

BIP

Betty Driver13:01

They had a feather that they moved.

Betty Driver13:04

As I say, I'd never seen anybody without the clothes on. I thought, Oh, aren't they rude? you know.

Presenter13:10

How naïve can you be? Betty, we're on disc number three. Tell me about this. Tell me why you've chosen this track now.

Betty Driver13:18

This um Ella Fitzgerald. Oh, I think she's I thought she was so wonderful. Apparently she lived on the borders of Canada and America and she used to get Coronation Street and she watched every episode. She used to write to us, we sent her tapes and photographs and she was such a a brilliant technician. You know, she was magical really.

Speaker 413:25

Mm.

Speaker 413:42

You are the one.

Speaker 413:46

Only you beneath the moon and under the sun

Speaker 413:54

Whether near to me or far It's no matter, darling, where you are I think of you night and day

Presenter14:08

That was Ella Fitzgerald and Night and Day. So, inevitably, Betty Driver, your talents as a young woman took you into the movies. Y your first film was with George Formby, is that right? You went on a little later to work with uh must have been a quite a young Carol Reed as director.

Betty Driver14:18

Yeah.

Betty Driver14:23

Oh yeah.

Presenter14:24

Yeah.

Betty Driver14:25

was wonderful. He directed my first film. He was a kind, very kind man. He used to t take me through all my scenes and say, This is how I want it and I'd do try and d do it this way. So brilliant, I'd no idea that people could be kind like that. I thought you would just be shoved on and that was it. But he was love

Presenter14:44

And did Hollywood ever come calling? Because I'm thinking this was a time, maybe a little bit before, but sort of Lucille Ball time, when it was fine for me. I know lots of people who watch you in Corey say they love your comic timing. Yeah. I can't help thinking that that could have been a possibility for you. Yes, it could have, yeah.

Betty Driver14:51

Flamme lost before.

Speaker 114:52

Uh

Betty Driver14:52

Or is it

Speaker 114:53

Uh

Betty Driver14:53

Uh

Betty Driver14:57

Yes, he could have, yeah, but no, she didn't want to know. I think I had a c a couple of inquiries to go to do something on Broadway, but of course mummy didn't want to know about that. We're not going there. No way we're not going to there. No.

Betty Driver15:10

All she wanted me to do was variety.

Presenter15:12

What was your mother spending all the money on? Do you know?

Betty Driver15:16

No, I don't

Presenter15:16

Don't know.

Betty Driver15:16

The

Presenter15:17

But did your mother and father have a grand house, and did they both have a mother?

Betty Driver15:19

No, no.

Presenter15:21

But she had a good

Betty Driver15:21

Tyne. Was she a drinker or a gambler? No, no, she didn't drink or gamble.

Presenter15:23

No, we're not.

Betty Driver15:26

I don't know where she went or what she did. I don't know. We never ever did find out, Freda and I.

Presenter15:31

You were in your were you in your mid-thirties when your mother died? Were you were you there when she died?

Betty Driver15:35

Yeah.

Betty Driver15:36

No, I wasn't. No, my sister was with it.

Betty Driver15:39

Oh, it was all awful, awful.

Presenter15:41

Yeah.

Betty Driver15:41

Yeah.

Presenter15:41

And did she have any final conversation with your sister? Did

Betty Driver15:43

With my sister she asked us to forgive her.

Betty Driver15:46

Will you forgive me? did she?

Speaker 415:48

Hmm.

Betty Driver15:50

Well, what do you say? So yes, of course you do. Did you ever forgi could you forgive her in your heart for no? No, she never asked me to forg no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Betty Driver15:59

No, I was the meal ticket for the entire family my mother, my father, my grandma, my granddad, my aunts, everyone.

Betty Driver16:06

They all had a nice little share of my money.

Presenter16:11

See, you've got a very good sense of humour, haven't you? Because as you're saying that, yes, thank God.

Betty Driver16:13

Because as you're saying that, yes, thank God. Thank God. I have a tremendous sense of humour. A bit naughty sometimes, but I have a very, very good humor.

Presenter16:15

Yeah.

Presenter16:21

Sense of humor. Because there are people who could say the things that you're saying to me now across a microphone and I would think that's sort of killed their spirit. Not you. Here you are, all twinkly and

Betty Driver16:28

You are

Betty Driver16:29

Yeah. I have a very good sense of humour and I think that's what's got me through life.

Presenter16:35

Uh

Betty Driver16:35

We're going to hear disc number four. What are we going to hear? Oh, gosh. Brass bands. Oh, I love brass bands. Now, I used to have a pub in Derbyshire, so I had to travel r from Derbyshire to Granada. I stopped at some traffic lights and I could hear brass band music, and I thought, wonder what where that is? I was following this noise. Must have looked insane. Followed it until we came to a little tiny single-storey building. And Sir Harry Mortimer came to the door and he said, Um, can I help you? I said, Well, I don't know. I said, I'm mad on brass bands. And he said, Oh, it's you, the hot pot quest, yes. So I go and sit there. There I sat throughout their rehearsal. It was wonderful. Beautiful.

Presenter18:13

That was Sir Harry Mortimer conducting the G U S brass band and Thunder and Lightning. You looked like you were really enjoying that, Betty Driver. In your younger days, I saw a terrific photograph of you in your autobiography, of you standing next to Henry Hall, and you're wearing this wonderful dark pant suit. It's beautiful. Very, very glamorous. Do you remember having that photograph shaken?

Betty Driver18:28

Oh yeah, but

Betty Driver18:31

Yes, I do. That was during the war. That was when Coventry was bombed. And uh we were there at the theater there the actual night that it was bombed. And I had Julie Andrews in the dressing room with me as a little a little girl and she used to come on and sing in a little frilly frock and little bows on the shoes and that. And did did you think when you heard her sing she's got some? Yes, she's a sweet voice. And she was a lovely little girl. I think she she probably would only be about twelve or something like that. And she spent the entire week with me and Frida. And of course the n the night the bombing was on, it was awful. And she slept in my dressing room and Frida and I slept on the floor. And we spent the entire night like that. And when we went out the next morning, of course, Coventry.

Presenter18:53

Oh, yeah.

Betty Driver19:14

It was g well, it was just flat. Terrible, but I've never ever met Julie Andrews since, and I often wonder, did she ever remember that night? I'm sure she did. I'm sure she must do.

Presenter19:24

I'm a sh

Presenter19:26

You performed all the times throughout the war going on.

Betty Driver19:28

Oh yes.

Presenter19:29

Abroad everywhere. You must have seen some terrible sights.

Betty Driver19:33

Dreadful.

Betty Driver19:35

I think the thing that sticks in my mind most of all

Betty Driver19:39

I can't remember whether it's Holland or Germany, I'm not sure, but it was the last place that boys went to before they came home.

Betty Driver19:47

and it was called a delousing centre. And we went there were hundreds of them in this hall, and they all looked dead, these boys. The commanding officer said, Well,

Betty Driver19:59

I don't know whether

Betty Driver20:01

They'll respond at all. Their faces were covered in white all over and they looked like ghosts. They put a powder all over them to kill any lice or anything that's on them. Well, they have no expression at all on their faces, nothing. They just look like dead boys. I said, Now then, boys, I've got some very old songs, you know them, and I want you to sing with me.

Betty Driver20:27

And one or two murmured and I thought, Oh, this is awful.

Betty Driver20:31

So I'd come off the stage and go in the audience, and I said,'Now then, boys, come on, push these chairs back now' and I said'and and I'd got one boy that sat on his knee, nineteen he was, and

Betty Driver20:41

God, he was so poor, crying his eyes out, and I'm crying, I'm saying, Look, you'll soon be home. Don't worry, y you'll soon your mum will still love you when you get home. Anyway, I sang to them for hours, and uh by the end of the time they were cheering, and the commanding officer said,

Betty Driver21:02

I don't believe it. I've never seen anything like that in my life, he said. From dead people to alive, and it was wonderful. We danced until the early hours of the morning, and they all were normal boys by the time we left. And to me, that was the most fantastic achievement. If I never do anything else in my life, I think I've done something wonderful there by bringing those boys back to life. Unforgettable.

Presenter21:27

Yeah. Let's have some more music. What are we going to hear now? We're on disc number five, Betty. Yeah.

Betty Driver21:31

Oh, number five. My great dearest friend, a black girl called Winifred Atwell. She was a classically trained, but she made her name by playing honky-tonk music. I used to always have her on my variety bills, because we were great friends, and uh she used to play the the black-and-white rag. I used to love this.

Presenter22:46

That was Winifred Atwell and Black and White Rag, your good friend there, Betty Driver, bringing back lots of memories for you. Um you've mentioned on a few occasions Henry Hall. You were singing uh with Henry Hall in the BBC Dance Orchestra. You have said that if circumstances had been different he might have been the man for you.

Speaker 122:51

Toyota

Betty Driver22:52

Yeah.

Betty Driver23:04

Yes, I adored him, but he was such a gentleman. He was wonderful to my sister Anne and me a very kind, sweet man.

Betty Driver23:13

And I'd had a very bad nervous breakdown, and he got me back.

Presenter23:18

Yeah.

Betty Driver23:18

You know, help me back into

Presenter23:18

They are

Betty Driver23:19

But me my sanity

Presenter23:21

Back.

Betty Driver23:21

Uh

Presenter23:21

You were in your mid-twenties when that happened. Did I mean, did you call it a nervous breakdown or did you just think I I can't cope with my world any more?

Betty Driver23:29

I just couldn't cope any more. I just passed out on the stage while I was singing. I just blacked out.

Betty Driver23:35

And of course they

Betty Driver23:36

drew the curtains over, and my mother threw a cup of water all over me, and said, Come on, get up, you damned fool Stop play acting.

Presenter23:43

Yeah.

Betty Driver23:44

And so you you you had to go home because you couldn't you you physically couldn't. I just I just couldn't cope anymore. It was

Presenter23:48

Yeah.

Betty Driver23:50

I w I got agoraphobia. Yes. I was eighteen months and uh I wouldn't go through the door. And Frida was my god. And then one day Henry Hall phoned through to Friedra and said, Is Betty any better? she said.

Betty Driver24:05

Well, a bit better, said Look, I want you to try and get her.

Betty Driver24:09

to come and watch the bound.

Betty Driver24:11

So we go to Nottingham Empire.

Betty Driver24:13

And I'm standing on the side of the stage and uh the band are playing and I think, Oh, this is lovely. All of a sudden.

Betty Driver24:20

I hear Henry say

Betty Driver24:22

There's somebody on the side of the stage who you love.

Betty Driver24:27

And I ju would just like you to say hello to her'cause she's been not very well.

Betty Driver24:32

and Frida pushed me on to the stage.

Betty Driver24:35

And of course I didn't see the audience. All I saw was Henry's face, and he said,'You're out you're fine. I'm with you. Nobody's going to hurt you'. The audience is still there, all crying, and I'm crying as well. But we started to sing this little song.

Speaker 124:45

And as well

Betty Driver24:48

And I sang it and I finished the song and from that day to this.

Betty Driver24:53

I've never been off since. Given that it came like

Presenter24:56

Like a bolt from the blue. Do have you ever, when you've been performing live since, worried that it might come back or have you you put it to bed?

Betty Driver24:57

Yeah, have you

Betty Driver25:00

Yeah.

Betty Driver25:01

No, I would never let it, because I've got nobody that bullies me. And I think a lot of it was being bullied.

Betty Driver25:09

What was the point in your career when you started to do the things you wanted to do?

Betty Driver25:14

When my mother had to go home, she had um very bad asthma.

Betty Driver25:18

The day she went home, my sister said, Right. We're changing all your music, we're changing your act, we're changing your gowns, that's it And we did, gradually together, we changed she was wonderful, my sister an angel.

Betty Driver25:34

She be began to tell me I was good, which I'd never heard that word in my life, and it was through Frida that I s blossomed out.

Presenter25:43

Let's have another piece of music then. We're going to disc number six now.

Betty Driver25:46

Oh, now then.

Betty Driver25:47

Ballet. I'm a very romantic person. You wouldn't think to look at me big and fat and old, would you? But I am very romantic. I love romantic music. I love Russian composers. And this one, Tchaikovsky, Swan Lake.

Presenter26:55

Leonard Slatkin, conducting the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and the overture to Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky. Um can we talk briefly about your marriage?

Betty Driver27:03

But my mar well, it wasn't a very happy marriage. I mean, I think I did it out of spite, really, to get away from my mother. Got in with this man, and I loved him, but uh he loved other girls more than me.

Presenter27:17

He was a performer, too, you'll see.

Betty Driver27:18

Yes, yes. He was a very South African chap. He was a lovely guitar player, and he played guitar in my in my act for me. But he was very jealous because I earned the money. It ju was just awful. He was quite good at spending your money. Oh, yes, very good at that, yes. He wanted to be an agent, so I bought him an office in Bond Street, and it had just happened to be Winnifred Atwell's husband owned this office. And uh, Winnie's husband was very fond of me, and one day he went into the office to my husband and caught him with a girl there over the desk and gave him a damn good punching up, and split his mouth, and he phoned me up. He said, I've I'm afraid I've I've hit your husband. I said, Good

Presenter28:03

In spite of all the the years of of being badly treated, you did follow him back home to s his home, to South Africa.

Betty Driver28:08

Africa. Yeah. When he came home one day, he said, Right, just I'm going home on Thursday. This is Tuesday.

Presenter28:09

Why when he came?

Betty Driver28:14

I told them about South Africa.

Betty Driver28:16

He said yes, I said

Betty Driver28:18

What do you want me to do is please yourself?

Betty Driver28:21

Now I f I felt that in my life I wanted to be married, be happy, to one person, and that was it. And it was just a hell of a shock when it didn't happen, you see.

Betty Driver28:32

Anyway, he went to South Africa and uh

Betty Driver28:35

He said, Well, you stop here, sell this, then c about three months' time, come over to South Africa. Like an idiot, I did.

Presenter28:42

And why did you do it? Why did you not?

Betty Driver28:44

Because they

Betty Driver28:45

But I'll

Betty Driver28:46

I'm a st I'm a stupid, that's why, because I just belie I believed in marriage and I believed that, you know, you should try and all that kind of which is a load of rubbish, really.

Presenter28:47

I'm like

Betty Driver28:56

And I went there and from a lovely home

Betty Driver28:59

I arrived in Johannesburg, and he said Well, he said, I've we've managed to get a flat. I said, Oh, good Well, there was a bed in it, a table, two chairs, and a few pans, and I'd left this gorgeous, gorgeous house.

Betty Driver29:14

I didn't know a soul in South Africa.

Betty Driver29:16

And I stuck it for four months.

Betty Driver29:19

And then one night he came home at five in the morning and he said,'I'm in love' I said

Betty Driver29:23

Well, that's nice. Who is she? he said. Well, I don't know her name. I said, Have you spoken to her?

Betty Driver29:29

No.

Betty Driver29:30

You don't know her name? No. And you're in love? said Wright. Oh, well, I said, good luck to you.

Betty Driver29:36

So I can get on the phone to to Frieda in Manchester. I say, Will you send me my fare home? Because I haven't any money. He'd had it all. It went through whole fortune completely gone.

Betty Driver29:48

He takes me to the airport, never speaks to me ever again.

Betty Driver29:51

Dumped me in the middle of the airport with my cases and went, left, didn't say bye-bye, nothing. And that was it. That was my life.

Presenter30:00

Had any children? No.

Betty Driver30:01

I couldn't have children.

Presenter30:02

Do you think that I mean, it's much more uh what you've just described is much more than you know, duty was a very important thing. It you it used to be. And certainly in your generation it was people who did their duty. But what you're describing to me is so much more than a sense of duty. I mean why do you think you allowed him to treat you as badly as that?

Betty Driver30:09

But you use it.

Speaker 130:10

It used to be. And certainly in your generation it was people who

Betty Driver30:20

I don't know.

Betty Driver30:23

I don't know, I adored him to start with, but by the time I finished I hated him.

Betty Driver30:29

Let's have some more music, Lucy. Tell me what we're going to hear now.

Presenter30:30

Yeah.

Betty Driver30:32

Now then, hoagie Carmichael.

Betty Driver30:35

Fabulous singer, lovely pianist, and he had a quaint voice, slightly hoarse and lovely. He used to.

Betty Driver30:44

Do one little song that I absolutely fell in love with, and it was called Skylark.

Speaker 130:50

Skylar

Speaker 130:54

Have you seen a valley green with spring?

Speaker 131:01

Where my heart can go a journeying

Speaker 131:08

Over the shadows and the rain

Speaker 131:12

To a blossom covered lane

Presenter31:17

That was Hoagie Carmichael and Skylark. So tell me, Betty Driver, your working week these days is what? How often are you in the studio?

Betty Driver31:23

Field

Presenter31:24

Yeah.

Betty Driver31:24

Uh well, the company are very, very kind to me. I'm only usually in no more than two days a week.

Betty Driver31:30

They're very they're wonderful with me, thank God.

Presenter31:32

And that's quite a nice balance, isn't it? You feel like you're engaged in your domestic. Oh, yes, yes, yes.

Betty Driver31:34

Oh you're engaged.

Presenter31:37

How much fan mail do you get?

Betty Driver31:38

Yeah.

Presenter31:38

Yeah.

Betty Driver31:38

Yeah. Oh, tons Oh, tons A heck of a lot of it from little children. Oh, yes, wonderful. I bet they do. It's wonderful. We had one the other day, I think, a little boy. I am six. My nana is very poorly at the moment, and I think she's going to die. So will you be my nana because I love you?

Betty Driver31:59

Oh, well, you can imagine the mess I'm in when I'm reading that. It's

Presenter32:03

It's amazing. Do you find that it was interesting, I don't know how many years ago it was now, but you received a Lifetime Achievement Award for your contribution to the world of soap. And of course, we know that tens of millions of people

Speaker 132:11

See banana.

Presenter32:15

Will move nothing in their life to see their soap and to watch Coronation Street. Are you able to?

Presenter32:21

You know, to enjoy it, to think, yeah, you know what, I'm really, really good at what I do, and the reason I've had this long career is because people regard me very highly.

Betty Driver32:31

It's a funny thing, you see. When you're in a show, I my idea is that the audience have got to like you before they like the character. And I and I've been very fortunate. I had a character that could be liked. Deep down I was very kind to people, more like a mother figure.

Betty Driver32:52

But now I'm a nano figure.

Presenter32:54

So on the days, on the other days when you're not in at Coronation Street working, the other five days of the week, what else do you do for fun? You've got these friends around you, these seven friends.

Betty Driver33:03

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Betty Driver33:06

I'm mad about flowers. I love the earth. Anything to do with the earth, I'm madly in love with. I would sooner.

Presenter33:15

Sooner have flowers than a meal.

Betty Driver33:16

Yeah.

Presenter33:17

So, of course, I'm about to, Betty Driver, cast you away onto a desert island. No no more caste and friends around you for company. How's that gonna be?

Speaker 133:24

Anthony

Presenter33:26

How lovely. Well, you'll enjoy it. You'll enjoy the peace and quiet, will you? Beautiful. Will you? Beautiful. What sort of desert island do you imagine for yourself? One with flowers, one with exotic blue. Oh, yes. I'm wondering how you'll cope with the loneliness on the island. How will you be? I mean, it will be quite quite lonely.

Betty Driver33:27

Well you

Betty Driver33:29

Quite beautiful.

Speaker 133:30

Yeah.

Betty Driver33:34

Oh, yeah.

Betty Driver33:43

I don't know. I don't see how you could be lonely with so much beauty around you and

Betty Driver33:49

I just adore everything to do with nature. Do you think you might even start singing to yourself again?

Betty Driver33:55

Singy

Betty Driver33:57

Oh, I d probably, yes. I can't sing r myself now because I'm too old. But yes, probably would. I'd bore me.

Presenter34:05

Myself into the ground.

Betty Driver34:06

Uh

Presenter34:06

Uh

Presenter34:06

Tell me then about we've come to your final disc to day, Betty Driver. Tell me what it is we're going to hear now.

Betty Driver34:12

Oh, Stephen Isselis

Betty Driver34:14

Cello player

Betty Driver34:16

Gosh, he's a great friend of Stephen Hoff, the pianist.

Betty Driver34:20

And I go to their concerts. They do concerts at this little church in a place called Grappenhall. Stephen Hoff plays the piano and Stephen Issselis. And of course Stephen Isselis is such a sweet man. I mean, he's so lovely. And he he walks on. I mean, before his moo he's sat down, I'm in tears because he walks on with this little battered cello.

Betty Driver34:43

And of course it's the one instrument in the whole orchestra that makes me cry, because it always sounds so lonely, and that lonely sound always makes me want to cry.

Betty Driver34:55

I think it's so beautiful, but he's such a glorious glorious player.

Presenter36:00

That was Stephen Isserlis, accompanied by your good friend Stephen Hoff, playing the adagio from cello sonata No. two in F major by Brahms. So, Betty, we come to the point in this programme where I'm going to give you some books. I give you the complete works of Shakespeare, I give you the Bible, and you can take another book too. What would you like to take?

Betty Driver36:13

Yeah.

Betty Driver36:18

Well, I'm I'm not a r a reader, but

Betty Driver36:21

One book that I love sounds stupid is by Daphne Dumurrier, Rebecca.

Presenter36:27

Oh, well a lot of people love that, yes.

Betty Driver36:27

I love that. I love that book.

Presenter36:29

You can have that. And we do allow you a little luxury to make life just a bit more bearable on the island. What would your luxury be? Oh, dear

Betty Driver36:40

Yeah.

Presenter36:41

Perfume I'm mad on perfume.

Betty Driver36:43

Are you? I adore perfume.

Presenter36:45

Any particular type, any particular make?

Betty Driver36:48

Um I use a perfume by Sicily called Eau de Soie.

Presenter36:53

Right.

Betty Driver36:53

Right.

Presenter36:54

Absolutely glorious. And if I were to ask you to pick just one of the eight, if you had to save one disk, which one would you pick?

Betty Driver37:02

It's got to be Stephen Hoff, because he's a very dear friend of mine and I admire him tremendously.

Presenter37:08

The Tchaikovsky is yours. Betty Driver, thank you very much for letting us hear your Desert Island discs.

Betty Driver37:10

Betty Dry

Betty Driver37:13

Oh, greatest of pleasure. Lovely meeting you.

Presenter38:01

You've been listening to a download from the BBC. You'll find more information on the Radio Four website bbc. co dot uk slash radio four.