This Is Your Life: Ivy Benson

Ivy BENSON (1913-1993)

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Ivy Benson, musician and bandleader, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews while working at a recording studio in central London.

Ivy, who was born in Leeds and played the piano from the age of 4, made her first radio broadcast at the age of 8 on BBC Radio's Children's Hour. As a clerk at the Burton factory, she joined the company's operatic society as a singer before getting part-time work as a musician playing in small bands in the Leeds area.

After moving to London and joining the Teddy Joyce band in 1936, a part in the touring review Meet the Girls led to the launch of her all-girl band in 1940. Despite prejudice, Ivy's band quickly built an international reputation as one of the best bands in the world, touring Europe regularly and developing a massive following amongst the British and American troops.

"Oh, you're joking! Oh, you're not, Eamonn! Oh dear! I'm sick in my stomach!"

programme details...

Edition No: 446
Subject No: 443
Broadcast date: Wed 1 Dec 1976
Broadcast time: 7.00-7.30pm
Recorded: Wed 27 Oct 1976
Venue: Euston Road Studios
Series: 17
Edition: 6
Code name: League

on the guest list...

members of her band
Douglas - father
Arthur Askey
Sally Harker
Granville Graham
Kathleen Graham
Johnny Addlestone
Hylda Baker
Sheila Tracy
Elsie Ford
Ruth Harrison
Gracie Cole
Gloria Russell
Claudia Colmer
Isabelle Lucas
Robey Buckley
Col Ted Banks
Joe Loss
Jack Warner
Briquette Balwar
Bob Monkhouse

production team...

Researchers: Lavinia Warner, Debbie Gaunt
Writers: Tom Brennand, Roy Bottomley
Directors: Royston Mayoh, Terry Yarwood
Producer: Jack Crawshaw

names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life

related pages...

A Musical Life

blowing a trumpet for the musicians

Screenshots of Ivy Benson This Is Your Life

Janet Tennant recalls this edition of This Is Your Life in her book, Sax Appeal: Ivy Benson and Her All-Girl Band...

In December 1976, Ivy was the subject of the popular television program This Is Your Life. Some of Ivy's past band members were flown in for the program, and host Eamonn Andrews talked to Ivy about her work as a bandleader and her personal life, including where she had lived and her love of furs and jewellery. She was wearing a large ruby ring that night on the show. Toward the end of the taping, the old band members were asked to group around her in place of family members. The show made obvious, says Claudia Lang-Colmer, that she was wealthy and had an ailing father. Any viewer of that night's episode would also have been aware of the area where she lived.

Unfortunately, the price of such fame was that in early 1977, not long after the episode aired, Ivy's home in Chiswick was broken into and robbed by two criminals. Her address had been in the phone book!

The thieves took thousands of pounds worth of jewellery and a mink coat worth three thousand pounds. Ivy had been out of the house at the time, playing at a British Legion club, but her father had been at home. The men beat up the eighty-six-year-old Digger, hitting him with a piece of metal tubing and tying him up. He died shortly afterwards at Great Yarmouth, most likely as a result of his injuries. The two thieves went to prison for three years.

Series 17 subjects