This Is Your Life: Claire Rayner

Claire RAYNER (1931-2010)

In a This Is Your Life first - the presenter interviews himself!

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Claire Rayner, nurse, journalist, broadcaster and novelist, was surprised by Michael Aspel on board an Intercity train travelling to London King's Cross from Huddersfield.

Claire, who was born in London, spent time as a teenager in Canada before returning to the UK to train as a nurse. She worked at the Royal Northern Hospital and Guy's Hospital in London while at the same time participating in amateur dramatics and writing articles for the Nursing Times and The Daily Telegraph on issues such as nurses' pay and conditions and patient care.

Having left nursing to raise a family, she subsequently focused on a full-time writing career and, by 1968, had published more than 25 books. She became one of Britain's first 'agony aunts' – writing columns in such publications as Woman's Own, The Sun and the Sunday Mirror, while her television appearances included her own series, Claire Rayner's Casebook, and ITV's breakfast TV-AM as their resident agony aunt.

"Oh crikey, you're not? Mike – what the hell do you think you're doing? Oh my love, I'm gobsmacked!"

programme details...

Edition No: 750
Subject No: 743
Broadcast date: Wed 11 Jan 1989
Broadcast time: 7.00-7.30pm
Recorded: Wed 26 Oct 1988
Venue: Teddington Studios
Series: 29
Edition: 13
Code name: Sun

on the guest list...

Jane Reed
Angela Willians
Iris Burton
Robert Wilson
David German
Michael Legat
Jayne Irving
Des - husband
Amanda - daughter
Adam - son
Jay - son
Oliver Tremor
Max - uncle
Muriel - aunt
Rosemarie Nelson
Keith Fordyce
Jack Tinker
Matthew Kelly
Una Stubbs
Sheila - sister
Danny La Rue
Maxine - sister
Lionel - brother
Michael Aspel

production team...

Researcher: Claire Jenkinson
Writer: Roy Bottomley
Directors: Brian Klein, David Clark
Producer: Malcolm Morris

names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life

related pages...

Stop Press

headlining Fleet Street's finest

The Night of 1000 Lives

a celebration of a thousand editions

Michael Aspel

a career review

Timeline

the show's fifty year history

Secrets Of 'Life': The ones who got away

Producer Malcolm Morris exposes some production secrets to TV Times

My Life in Their Hands

The Mirror interviews Michael Aspel

Michael Aspel

Matthew Kelly

Danny La Rue

Screenshots of Claire Rayner This Is Your Life

Claire Rayner recalls This Is Your Life in her autobiography, How Did I Get Here From There?...

And then there was the time when I was caught for This Is Your Life, which is an extraordinary experience for anyone.

By the time they got to me – after, I was told, several failed attempts – the original presenter, Eamonn Andrews, had died, but they never wasted a script.

When Mike Aspel took over the programme they tried to get me again and this time succeeded.

That meant he had to be a guest on his own show, because he had been written into the original Andrews version. So he interviewed himself about me. I liked it a lot. I don't know if he did.

Scriptwriter Roy Bottomley recalls this edition of This Is Your Life in his book, This Is Your Life: The Story of Television's Famous Big Red Book...

An early mishap nearly finished off one of our other programmes. We were going to surprise Claire Rayner on board the 15.25 train from Huddersfield, with Michael dressed as a ticket collector. We couldn't get on the train as Claire left Huddersfield because she would have spotted us, so we arranged that the camera crew, Michael and I would jump on at Stevenage. Michael and I arrived at Stevenage but we got the message that our camera team had got on the wrong train.

There isn't a lot you can do about that situation except say a few prayers.

The crew arrived with seconds to spare and we all made it on the right train just a few carriages behind a blissfully unaware Claire Rayner. Our lighting man was told that he could plug into the electric circuit of the train, which he did – and all the lights went out. A couple of minutes later the power was restored and we got to about ten yards behind Claire when our main video camera jammed. I pulled Michael back just in time. The train was due in King's Cross within a few minutes, but by the time the camera was fixed we had just two minutes to go. We got her, but it was too close for my liking.

Series 29 subjects