Petula Clark CBE is one of the worlds most successful and respected female entertainers. Her remarkable career has spanned six decades, and started during the Second World War when, as a child, she performed more than two hundred concerts for the troops.
The peak of her popularity, however, came in the sixties when she was a major television, film, radio, stage, and recording artiste. Petula is now in her mid seventies and still performs to her many lifelong fans around the world.
Her amazing career is revisited on a new DVD release, Portrait Of Petula Clark (released in the US only, Infinity Entertainment, 2009). It captures her at the very pinnacle of her career performing in one of her own television shows originally transmitted in 1969. The very fact that the show was filmed in London, Paris, New York, Los Angeles, and Geneva highlights the scale of her popularity at the time.
It opens with scenes of a very swinging London of the late sixties, and includes guest appearances by her great friend Andy Williams; French star Sacha Distel, who died in 2004; and actor Ron Moody who had recently leapt to fame following his portrayal as Fagin in the film Oliver.
Scenes of the Eiffel Tower, the Brooklyn Bridge, Times Square, French ski slopes, Central Park, the Tower of London, and Buckingham Palace add to the truly international flavour of the programme.
Opening with a solo performance of “This Girl’s In Love With You” it is immediately apparent that she possessed a delightful voice and an endearing stage personality. She is soon adding the ever popular “My Funny Valentine”, “When I Was A Child”, “Mademoiselle de Paris”, and the lovely “You And I” from her film Goodbye, Mr. Chips.
These songs are shown with background footage, shot around the world and even includes an intimate section of Petula and her, then young, family. Joined by crooner Andy Williams she performs renditions of “Visions Of Sugar Plums”, and the Roger Miller penned country romp “You Can’t Rollerskate In A Buffalo Herd”. They then sing their joint hit single “Happy Heart” which is set amid a romantic picnic scene.
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