Moira Anderson

Moira Anderson0:00

This is the BBC.

Speaker 30:05

This download is the only extract the BBC has of this edition of Desert Island Discs. The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen sixty nine, and the presenter was Roy Plumley.

Speaker 30:17

Do you come from a musical family, Mora?

Presenter0:18

Uh

Moira Anderson0:18

Yes, we're all musical. Uh my mother and father are good singers.

Presenter0:23

Mm-hmm.

Moira Anderson0:23

Didn't do it professionally of course, but uh we were all

Moira Anderson0:27

would all sing just about the same time as we could talk and three, uh my sister, my brother,

Moira Anderson0:33

and myself, we were all members of the choir, and that was quite a distinction in fact because I think we were the only family in Kirkintilla to have

Moira Anderson0:41

uh three members uh of the one family in the choir.

Presenter0:44

How old were you when you joined it, do you remember?

Moira Anderson0:46

I think about seven.

Presenter0:47

Were you? And of course you you travelled about Scotland with the choir?

Moira Anderson0:50

Yes, and England.

Presenter0:52

Did you want?

Moira Anderson0:54

We went to the Eistedford in Glangochlen, I hope I've pronounced that correctly.

Presenter0:57

I hope bye for now.

Moira Anderson0:59

And we carried off

Moira Anderson1:01

Uh first prize, which was really something.

Presenter1:05

So you started your travels early.

Moira Anderson1:07

And of course

Presenter1:07

And of course, as we've heard, you made records and you broadcast as well.

Moira Anderson1:11

And broadcast as well. Yes, I in fact I was underage when I did my first broadcast and they gave me another name, Mary Winters.

Moira Anderson1:19

put me on a box'cause I couldn't reach the microphone.

Presenter1:21

You were you were a soloist with the choir, then?

Moira Anderson1:23

Yes, and also did uh

Presenter1:24

Mm.

Moira Anderson1:26

Songs of my own and a

Moira Anderson1:29

children's uh radio programme.

Presenter1:31

Yes. Had you decided then as a schoolgirl that you wanted music to be your career?

Moira Anderson1:35

Not really.

Moira Anderson1:36

But of course this is what happened, you know, it became an all consuming

Moira Anderson1:41

hobby really and I've decided that I wanted to do that more than anything else.

Presenter1:45

So what happened when you left school?

Moira Anderson1:47

Well, I went to the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and uh studied there.

Presenter1:50

Yeah, and

Presenter1:52

Yes. What subjects did you take?

Moira Anderson1:53

WhatsApp

Moira Anderson1:54

piano and singing.

Moira Anderson1:57

And a clarinet.

Presenter1:58

With a view to what? To teaching or performing or

Moira Anderson2:01

Yes, with a view to teaching.

Presenter2:02

Mm.

Presenter2:03

So, when you were a student, did you do any professional work at all?

Moira Anderson2:07

Well, encouraged to do this, of course, because it's his great experience the only way to

Moira Anderson2:12

gain experience is to get out there in front of a live audience.

Presenter2:16

Sir.

Moira Anderson2:16

And uh I did quite a lot of uh messiahs and um

Moira Anderson2:22

you know, operas and things.

Presenter2:25

Operas. Which ones?

Moira Anderson2:26

Yes. Well, I did uh Susanna and the marriage of Figaro.

Presenter2:30

Who was that for?

Moira Anderson2:31

The S Glasgow Drawing Room Opera Society, which is a rather formidable title, but uh it's a very, very good group of uh

Moira Anderson2:42

of singers in Glasgow.

Presenter2:43

Have you done any operations?

Moira Anderson2:45

I haven't, actually, I'm not terribly fond of opera.

Presenter2:48

What happened when you left the Glasgow Academy?

Moira Anderson2:50

Well, I I then embarked on a teaching career.

Moira Anderson2:54

In Ayrshire.

Presenter2:55

And what taught to school?

Moira Anderson2:57

Well, it I did several schools in fact because there was quite a shortage, as there still is, as you know, of of uh

Moira Anderson3:04

music teachers, in fact teachers in general.

Presenter3:05

In fact

Presenter3:07

How long did you teach?

Moira Anderson3:08

for about two years.

Presenter3:10

Now, you were teaching in four schools at once and doing concerts as well?

Moira Anderson3:12

Uh

Moira Anderson3:14

Yes, I'm chasing up to Glasgow.

Moira Anderson3:17

For singing lessons, which I continued of course after I'd left college, and uh also to concerts. I used to go to the

Presenter3:18

Second.

Moira Anderson3:25

St Andrew's Halls in Glasgow to be Scottish national orchestra concerts.

Presenter3:27

Yeah.

Presenter3:31

Now you you'd done some solo broadcast as a member of the choir.

Presenter3:35

Were you still doing any radio?

Moira Anderson3:37

Well, I at about this time applied for an audition at the BBC in Glasgow.

Moira Anderson3:42

Mainly with a view to singing Scottish songs and

Moira Anderson3:47

I was uh

Moira Anderson3:49

successful at the audition, and they asked me if I could sing.

Moira Anderson3:52

anything else, so I gave them a bit of Mozart and I forget what else it was, but they they seemed to be very pleased with that. And of course I had eventually the opportunity to to sing a varied um

Moira Anderson4:07

Selection of songs in the one programme, not just uh Scottish songs.

Presenter4:11

Yes. And then you went on The White Heather show.

Moira Anderson4:14

That's it on television.

Presenter4:16

With Andy Stewart.

Moira Anderson4:17

Yes.

Presenter4:18

And that led to quite a lot, didn't it?

Moira Anderson4:21

It did indeed.

Moira Anderson4:23

I've toured abroad, in fact with Kenneth McKellar, two of my

Presenter4:25

Mm-hmm.

Moira Anderson4:26

Uh Canada and America and Australia and New Zealand.

Presenter4:30

So it was goodbye to music teaching.

Moira Anderson4:33

I'm afraid so.

Presenter4:35

I should think there's no better audience for a a Scott show than an overseas audience w when the local Caledonian club is in, in in New Zealand or Canada or somewhere like that.

Moira Anderson4:44

I know it's it's quite fantastic.

Moira Anderson4:47

Sometimes you wish you weren't really Scots because it's quite overpowering, you know, to um land at some airport and uh find the place all festooned with tartan and a pipe band playing and the

Moira Anderson5:01

You know, if it's a wet morning and all the other passengers are looking rather depressed and they look round and think who's you know, who's responsible for all this?

Moira Anderson5:10

But oh it's marvellous, it really is that they we get such a welcome.

Presenter5:15

And then back to Scotland and your own radio series.

Moira Anderson5:20

which they eventually put on television.

Presenter5:22

Mhm. What did you call it, first of all?

Moira Anderson5:25

I can't help singing.

Presenter5:26

Yeah.

Moira Anderson5:27

Took the Diana Durban song and

Moira Anderson5:30

Made it. Mine.

Presenter5:32

And n since then you've done summer shows?

Presenter5:36

And winter shows.

Moira Anderson5:37

And winter shows indeed.

Presenter5:39

And uh last month the Royal Command performance.

Moira Anderson5:42

But yes.

Moira Anderson5:43

That was the

Moira Anderson5:44

Climax really to be asked to sing for Her Majesty. It was a thrilling evening.

Speaker 35:53

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive. For more podcasts please visit bbc.co. uk slash radio four.

Moira Anderson6:02

This is the BBC.