This Is Your Life: Googie Withers

Googie WITHERS (1917-2011)

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Googie Withers, actress, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews - with the help of journalist Godfrey Winn - at Thames Television's Euston Road Studios, having been led to believe she was there to take part in a programme about famous mothers and their daughters.

Googie was born in Karachi, India, and raised in Birmingham after her family relocated to the UK. She studied at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts and began her professional career as a dancer in a West End revue before moving into films in the mid-1930s. She had lead roles in several minor films and supporting roles in more prestigious productions such as Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes.

By the 1940s, she had established herself as a leading actress, starring in such films as One of Our Aircraft is Missing, Pink String and Sealing Wax, and It Always Rains on Sunday. She often appeared with her husband, the actor John McCallum, with whom she emigrated to Australia in 1958, where she predominantly worked in theatre while raising a family.

"Well, I'm absolutely flabbergasted!"

programme details...

Edition No: 307
Subject No: 309
Broadcast date: Wed 5 May 1971
Broadcast time: 7.00-7.30pm
Recorded: Mon 3 May 1971
Venue: Euston Road Studios
Series: 11
Edition: 25

on the guest list...

Godfrey Winn
John McCallum - husband
Keith Michell
Lizette - mother
Raymond Huntley
Harry - brother
Richard Hearne
Patrick Barr
Marcel Hellman
Michael Powell
Joanna - daughter
Nicholas - son
Amanda - daughter
Michael Redgrave

production team...

Researchers: Martin Robertson, Sarah Dickinson
Writers: Lawrie Wyman, George Evans
Director: Steve Minchin
Producer: Robert Tyrrell

names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life

related pages...

An Actor's Life For Me

spotlight on the stars

Joanna McCallum, daughter of Googie Withers, recalls this edition of This Is Your Life in an exclusive interview recorded in November 2012

Screenshots of Googie Withers This Is Your Life

Brian McFarlane recalls this edition of This Is Your Life in his book, Double Act...

When she and Joanna arrived in the UK, her first thoughts were to help Joanna get settled and to see her started on her career there, but it was not long before Googie was herself involved in several TV series.

One of the highlights of her return to London, and one for which she was quite unprepared, occurred on 3 May 1971. The journalist Godfrey Winn, a long-time friend of the McCallums, colluded with Thames Television to get Googie to a theatre where she supposed she was about to appear in a programme with Winn. When she got on to the stage she was greeted by Eamonn Andrews holding the famous big red book and announcing, "Googie Withers, This Is Your Life!"

As the programme continued, and Googie's astonishment subsided, people from her past, including mother, Wuz, who tried to explain the name 'Googie' again, brother Harry up from Dorset, and Michael Redgrave came on to pay tribute. Or, in the case of the wonderful old character actor, Raymond Huntley, to remind her that she still owed him a penny which, as a child, she'd borrowed for a tram fare.

But the real emotional peak of the evening was the emergence of John, whom she believed to be on the other side of the world, and the children: Joanna had come from Sheffield where, by lucky chance her stage performance had been cancelled for that night, and there was a tearful reunion with Nick and Amanda from Australia.

She would have another forty years to go, but in 1971 'This' was indeed a resonant echo of a 'Life' already fully lived in and out of the spotlight.

Series 11 subjects