This Is Your Life: Shirley Bassey 2

Shirley BASSEY (1937-)

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Shirley Bassey, singer, was surprised by Michael Aspel as she took her applause at the end of a sell-out concert at London's Royal Albert Hall.

Shirley was born in Tiger Bay, Cardiff, and found fame in the UK as a recording artist from the mid-1950s. She became internationally known, in particular, for recording three of the theme songs for the James Bond films - Goldfinger in 1964, Diamonds Are Forever in 1971 and Moonraker in 1979.

During the 1970s, Shirley had 18 hit albums in the UK Albums Chart, her own BBC television show which ran for two series and several television specials. Throughout most of the 1980s, she focused on charitable work and her concert tours throughout Europe, Australia and the United States. With her powerful voice, Shirley has been called 'one of the most popular female vocalists in Britain during the last half of the 20th century.'

Shirley Bassey was a subject of This Is Your Life on two occasions – previously surprised by Eamonn Andrews in November 1972 at Heathrow Airport.

programme details...

Edition No: 851
Subject No: second timer
Broadcast date: Wed 6 Jan 1993
Broadcast time: 7.00-7.30pm
Recorded: Thu 10 Dec 1992
Venue: Teddington Studios
Series: 33
Edition: 15
Code name: Feather

on the guest list...

Beauroid Mills
Sharon - daughter
Steve - son-in-law
Mark - adopted son
Ella - sister
Iris - sister
Marina - sister
Eileen - sister
Henry - brother
Grace - sister
Luke - grandson
Ernie Wise
Millicent Martin
Susan George
Michael Alexander
Danny La Rue
Norman Newell
letter from Elizabeth Taylor
Des O'Connor
Sebastian - grandson
Nathan - grandson
Tatjana - granddaughter
Anthony Newley

production team...

Researcher: Sue Green
Writer: Roy Bottomley
Directors: Brian Klein, Malcolm Morris
Associate Producer: John Graham
Producer: Malcolm Morris

names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life

related pages...

Shirley Bassey

first tribute

Life Second Time Around

surprised again!

A Song For Life

it's the singer not the song

Screenshots of Shirley Bassey This Is Your Life

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...

'Once she packed saucepans at a Cardiff factory; tonight she's packed the Royal Albert Hall,' said a nervous Michael Aspel, backstage at that venerable venue.

Packed was right - five and a half thousand fans were there on the night of 10 December 1992 to hear Shirley Bassey in concert.

The finale was not what she expected. She got the deafening standing ovation she deserved. But as Michael stepped onstage behind her, the international singing star was puzzled by the sudden increase even in that decibel count.

The she saw Michael. Her first instinct was to back off. The audience willed her back to Michael. With all the drama we expect of her, she succumbed. The vast audience was in raptures.

And so was Shirley when, safely back at the Teddington Studios, in front of a somewhat smaller, though no less vociferous, audience, she got her first surprise. We had flown in her sister, Grace, who went to live in America forty-five years ago, for a tear-stained reunion. And that was only the start.

She told us how Shirley's first audiences were the neighbours back in Tiger Bay. If Shirley was mopping the doorstep or beating the carpets, they would yell, 'Come on Shirley, give us a song.' She never needed asking twice.

Hard to believe, looking at the glamorous woman in the guest-of-honour seat, she was celebrating forty years at the top.

As Elizabeth Taylor wrote, asking Michael to read her letter, Shirley is 'undeniably one of the greatest singers of our time'.

Not bad for the youngest of seven children of a Nigerian seaman and a Yorkshire mother who divorced when Shirley was only two. Her life had not been without tragedy, especially the deaths of her first husband and her daughter. Little wonder the roller-coaster drama of her life comes through in her passionate delivery of her songs.

Series 33 subjects