This Is Your Life: Moira Lister

Moira LISTER (1923-2007)

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Moira Lister, actress, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the Vaudeville Theatre in London during a celebration cocktail party with the cast of her new West End play Move Over Mrs Markham.

Moira, who was born in Cape Town, began her acting career in South Africa but relocated to London, where she established herself in the West End theatre, working for actor-managers such as John Gielgud and John Clements in classical and contemporary roles, as well as comedy roles, for which she eventually became better known.

She made her first film appearances in minor roles in the early 1940s, progressing to more substantial roles in films such as The Cruel Sea and The Deep Blue Sea during the 1950s. She had a regular role in the first series of the BBC radio comedy Hancock's Half Hour in 1954 and would later star in the BBC television series The Whitehall Worrier and The Very Merry Widow in the late 1960s.

programme details...

Edition No: 295
Subject No: 297
Broadcast date: Wed 10 Feb 1971
Broadcast time: 7.00-7.30pm
Recorded: Wed 3 Feb 1971
Venue: Euston Road Studios
Series: 11
Edition: 13

on the guest list...

Mrs Gordon Burgess
Vicomte d'Orthez - husband
Bob Monkhouse
Madeleine Masson
Jack Spencer
Doreen du Preez - sister
Maj James Lister - father
Alan Melville
Ian Carmichael
Derek Nimmo
Chantal d'Orthez - daughter
Molly Urquhart
Donald Hewlett
Diana King
Elizabeth Allan
Margaret Courtenay

production team...

Researcher: unknown
Writer: unknown
Director: Margery Baker
Producer: Robert Tyrrell

names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life

With thanks to Chantal d'Orthez for her contribution to this page

related pages...

An Actor's Life For Me

spotlight on the stars

The Night of 1000 Lives

a celebration of a thousand editions

This is his life...

Irish magazine RTE Guide reveals some behind-the-scenes secrets

Eamonn's surprising disguises

TV Times feature on some bizarre outfits

Bob Monkhouse

Photographs of Moira Lister This Is Your Life

Presenter Eamonn Andrews and producer Jack Crawshaw recall this edition of This Is Your Life in their book, Surprise Of Your Life...

It was indeed a very special kind of champagne cocktail that I served to Moira Lister in the bar of the Vaudeville Theatre: one measure of d'Orthez bubbly from her husband's vineyards in France, topped up with a book of her life story which began in South Africa.

Such ingredients always make for a lot of fun, but what made it even more fun for me was knowing Moira so well. I had known her from her early days in London, shortly after she had arrived from South Africa, having paid her way from the winnings she won in a day out at a Johannesburg racetrack.

But Lucky Lister had called on hard work and talent to follow up a debut at the Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon with a career that made her one of Britain's foremost actresses in the theatre, television and films.

When we heard that she was to "star" at a celebration cocktail party with the cast of the new West End play "Move Over Mrs Markham" early in 1971 , we felt this would be the ideal event at which to surprise her.

Researcher-writers Mary McAnally and Martin Robertson had long chats with Moira's husband Jacques, the Vicomte d'Orthez about his wife's story but it was impresario Peter Saunders who made it possible to spring the initial surprise with his party at the Vaudeville in the Strand.

Knowing that she had been told to expect news cameras at the party, we first considered the possibility of my arriving there as an invited guest. Then we thought we could add a little sparkle to the surprise by my dressing up as a waiter and serving her a glass of champagne from the vineyards of her debonair husband, the Vicomte.

I had been smuggled into the theatre wearing my waiter's uniform and was hiding ready to switch places with a real waiter when Moira and other members of a glittering cast, including Tony Britton, Terence Alexander, Cicely Courtneidge and Lana Morris, arrived in the front of house bar.

After a few drinks had been served I made a discreet entrance and moved towards Moira who was looking as glamorous as ever and holding court in the middle of the crowded bar. It was a most extraordinary experience. I went right up to her and offered her some champagne. In her own aristocratic manner she condescended to accept a glass. I poured it and then spoke to her.

I got the feeling she was thinking the waiter was being slightly impertinent, but she passed it over graciously. It reminded me once again of something we so often sense on This Is Your Life: just how invisible you can become in certain circumstances.

Chesterton highlighted it in his story of the invisible postman. He was so familiar a sight that no one ever saw him. People swore the street was empty.

As that waiter I, too, had been invisible. But only momentarily. Moira recognised my voice took another look at the persistent waiter, and saw that, apart from the bottle of bubbly, I was holding a red book. And that book, like the bottle, contained something sparkling that was all her very own.

Series 11 subjects