Im stephen sackur. Getting to the top in showbusiness is hard, but staying there is much, much harder; few stars can match the sustained success in music, film and theatre that clark has enjoyed. Petula clark went on to have a host of hits in the uk, france, the us and pretty much everywhere else. She has worked with legendary names from fred astaire to serge gainsbourg, and continues to sing and tour. So what makes her tick . Petula clark, welcomed the hardtalk. Thank you, stephen. I have to begin by talking about the voice because you do have one of those wonderfully distinctive, Clear Singing Voices and wonder when you reflect on your long career if you feel the voice is the same now as it ever was . Pretty much. Today i am a bit husky, i have a good old english cold. My i have a good old english cold. My voice is perhaps a little bit stronger than it used to be and probably a bit more base in it. Do you think voices mature with age and experience . Of course, they do. Eventually they start to. You are not there yet. Have you in your life any memory ofa time have you in your life any memory of a time when you were not a singing performer . Even when i was very, very young, well, i used to sing all the time. I was one of those musical kids andi i was one of those musical kids and i lived inside my home head. Own. There was was music going on in telling stories. Very imaginative. That was in wales and it fitted in very well in wales because everybody is very musical in wales. Has it always brought you joy . Yes, absolutely. The first time i sang in public was in chapel, in front of the congregation andi in front of the congregation and i was about six. And i was hooked from then on. Your story is extraordinary because by the age of about nine you are actually singing to a very wide public through the radio. A fairly young medium then but you were a star as a child it suggested you are quite precocious. Precocious . Ready to put yourself out there in front of an audience. I was not a showbiz kid and im not now. My and im not now. My father was very strict and he was taking care of me and managing me, i suppose, taking care of me and managing me, isuppose, in taking care of me and managing me, i suppose, in a way and this was a different time. There was a great deal of discipline so, though, was not the showbiz kid, i was not spoiled by i liked to sing. I was shy and like a lot of performance they are shy until they get on stage. I would love for you to watch with the elite of clip of you. 0h, with the elite of clip of you. Oh, dear. This was captured by the news. You singing voice was so lovely and pure, the British Forces fighting in the Second World War really enjoyed it and you became a star very young. The news marked your stardom. Yes, petula clark is like many little girls and enjoys the same things as friends but more than anything she likes singing and the public loves petula clark, especially the soldiers whom she reminds of their kids at home. Everybody knows donald looking at his mammy, with eyes so shiny blue. I have to ask you, what does it feel watching that now . It is sort of charming, ina way, it is sort of charming, in a way, it is almost like watching someone else, though. Ido like watching someone else, though. I do sort of remember those moments in front of a bbc microphone. Standing on the box because youre so tiny. I had to stand in a box. It was quite sweet that a true little voice. Very true. I want to tease out the relationship with your father. He was quite strict. Today, in showbiz and indeed in top sports as well, there is this concept of the very pushy parent who really has grand ambitions for their child and will not let them rest until those ambitions are met. Was he a bit like that . I suppose he was a bit but i absolutely adored him. He could do no wrong and, it is true, he always wanted to be an act to himself. He was very handsome. Was never allowed to go into showbiz and so i think, through me, he was living out his fantasies. I suppose he was a bit pushy but i was a child and somebody had to push we forward. The complication is that your father and he became your manager and he became your manager and by your early 20s, when you were starring in movies and you were a major recording star in britain, it must have been quite difficult to see where the barriers were, the lines between dad and manager. Yes, you are absolutely right, it did become difficult asi it did become difficult as i was growing older and wanted to make my own mistakes. It became difficult for us both because we would go home after working i would go home andi after working i would go home and i was not sure if i was having dinner with my dad or my manager. We were not always agreeing on everything and he eventually. We had to split and it was ha rd we had to split and it was hard for both of us. There was a gap when we did not see each other very much and i know that was hard for him and for me too but i think it had to be done. After that we were fine. We had to do that separation. One of the Big Decisions in your life was actually to go and live in france because you had become a Big Star In Britain but youd then. You met and eventually married a frenchman and you went to live in france and you have said that going to france, to paris and discovering edith piaf and a whole bunch of great artists in paris really change your life. I was wondering in what ways . My i was wondering in what ways . My life was totally changed by going to france. Idid not changed by going to france. I did not want to go and live in france, it was an accident but that is another story. I found myself living in paris which at that time was very foreign indeed. Idid not was very foreign indeed. I did not speak any french and then i was meeting all these amazing artists. The first time i saw edith piaf, it was amazing, i never saw anything like that. When i saw her she was already quite a sick lady and she just made onto centrestage and i thought, this is not going to be very good. This is uncomfortable for me and then she started to sing and then she started to sing and that is when i learnt dont about singing with your Heart And Soul and everything else. You know, she sang about love, death, hate, met us, sex, everything, you know andi sex, everything, you know and i have never seen anything like that before. So it was really a learning experience. I learned from her personally and professionally. It made you much more self aware and ready to express your true self . Yes and i was also married and had two children. The great thing for me, there was always that image because i had been a star in england, it was difficult for me to get past that. Whereas in france, they knew nothing about that and they just like me asi about that and they just like me as i was. And that was amazing for me. Pretty wonderful. Imean, in pretty wonderful. I mean, in a sense, what you seem to be saying you were much more than able to express sexuality, that depth of your soul. Yes, absolutely. You worked with petula clark, quys you worked with petula clark, guys that were deeply sorrowful and sexy. The heavies laughter. By that time you then launched yourself into america, you were a much more confident performer and artist. Yes but then again america was very different to france andi was very different to france and i was learning again in america because in America The Americans know about pop music, it is their music, after all, it is their music, after all, it is their music, after all, it is where it came from. You cannot cheat. The audiences are very knowledgeable and found myself having to learn to sing better over there. Really . 0h, really . Oh, yes. So you deliberately changed the way he change . In france it was for about the lyrics and a more personal kind of charm whereas in america it is about really, really singing well. And you obviously by then could sing in french as well as english and you have this french experience behind you but you were actually in the mid 60s in the us part of that brit invasion. The beatles were making it big. Other bands were cracking america and you came along and you had and you came along and you had a massive number one hit quite quickly . Yes, downtown by then we went on to have many after that but downtown was the beginning of that. Thank you for queueing up. Perhaps your best known song of all, downtown, which you performed just after it was was aa single. This is you in an american tvs to view in 1965 stopper if you know some legal places to go. Downtown. Just listen to the music of the traffic in the city linger on the sidewalk where the neon signs are pretty how can you lose . The lights are much brighter there you can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares so go downtown, thingsll be great when youre downtown, no finer place for sure downtown, no finer place for sure downtown everythings waiting for you downtown. It is such a pleasure to watch. That song i can beat you you could go to any city in the world and start humming that song and people would join in. It isa people would join in. It is a brilliant pop song. It is a brilliant pop song. It is, its a great song and of course i still sing it on stage and as soon as they hear introduction on the piano, we are. We are off. Tony hatch, who wrote it and gave it to you, did you just think as soon as you heard it, this is an extraordinary song . I loved it from the first minute i heard it. The first time i heard it he played it on the piano for me in my apartment in paris and we did not know it was in a sound like that. Of course, when we went into the studio a couple of weeks later, and heard that orchestra, it was so thrilling. To nys it was so thrilling. Tonys orchestrations we re tonys orchestrations were wonderful as well. It was notjust were wonderful as well. It was not just a song, were wonderful as well. It was notjust a song, it were wonderful as well. It was not just a song, it was were wonderful as well. It was notjust a song, it was me, the whole thing around. The other thing that strikes me andi the other thing that strikes me and i dare say might strike a lot of people watching, there was something wonderfully demure and innocent about the way you sang the song. There were no tricks and goodness, we are so used out the female stars sort of, how can i put it. Taking their clothes off . That is part of it. The way people present pop music is so very different. Yes. When you look at that now, did you feel, goodness, that was rather prim and proper or do you think thats wonderful because it allows you to focus on the song and voice . The stones, the beatles, all of them and it was all a bit kind of rock n roll. I was sort of reassuring for the parents as well. This is a nice Lady Singing Pop Songs so, yes, i was sort of like the big sister, if you like. You had been in paris and seen what passion and sexiness can do toa what passion and sexiness can do to a song and yet, you still have that big sister thing going on. Was it because it work for you or was it your temperament . That is just the way it came out. There was no agenda with me. If a song requires some kind of sexual something, then i will give it that. Dont sleep in the subway is a far more sexy song. I dont know what i am trying to say here, but each song, when i sing a song, there is a kind of movie going on in my mind. It is different each time. Another one which intrigues me and is very much to do with the era we are talking about, mid to late 1960s, there was a lot going on across the world, in the United States there was the civil rights movement, there we re was the civil rights movement, there were social unrest in many cities. There was an extraordinary moment for you in there was an extraordinary Moment Foryou ina there was an extraordinary moment for you in a Television Studio with the black songwriter and singer Harry Belafonte. You were friends of his, you perform together on a tv show and as i understand that you touched him, in a sympathetic, nice way and you were singing together. And some of the advertisers on that particular tv show said we want that cut, we dont want that particular. Yes, the sponsor didnt want that, i dont want my start touching the black man. I didnt know that we, harry and i, we couldnt hear that. We were in the studio and this was happening in the sponsors box, up near the directors box, and then everything went crazy, you know. So i had no idea what had happened, but my husband, who was executive producer, and my lawyer, were there, and took me downstairs to a place where this quy me downstairs to a place where this guy was watching the tapes, he was eating a sandwich, and my lawyer said we want you to erase these ta kes, said we want you to erase these takes, and this is the one we want to go out. And the guy said, i cant do that. And you wanted to keep the one where you and Harry Belafonte touched. That was the one we wanted touched. That was the one we wanted to go out, because that was the real one. Because that was the spirit of the soul of it. Exactly, and the poor guy had to press the button and erase the takes. So you got your way. Absolutely. In a sense that leads me to wonder if you feel as an art of the duty sometimes to be political or to make a statement if you feel something in the culture around it is going wrong, or is out of kilter,. Where are you, in terms of kilter,. Where are you, in terms of being political . Well, i dont get into politics and Protest Songs and all the rest of it. But that song you did with Harry Belafonte, it was a sort of anti war song. Lie yes, it was an anti war song and i had co written it, and we both felt strongly about the subject. Of course, i didnt realise where i was going with this, you know. It was right in the middle of the civil rights movement, and ifound myself in the middle of it, and it made headlines, and all the rest of it. But i had my pianist, my Music Director in the states, was black and was with me for 12 years. Our choreographer was black. I just didnt get it. Just makes me wonder, given that you sort of by accident ended up being involved in that sort of state and at that time. What i wasnt going to be pushed around. Know, so here is the thing. I know that you are going to go back to the United States later in the year and sing, and we have seen so many different performers, artists, movie stars and others, feel that they have the sort of use whatever platform they have got to speak out, some of them very clearly angry and upset about some of Donald Trumps odysseys. Errol street, et cetera. Would you do that . Meryl streep. Probably. Yes. Ifi would you do that . Meryl streep. Probably. Yes. If i felt that strongly, and if i felt that it would be some use. But im not sure that it would be some use. But im not sure thatitis would be some use. But im not sure that it is of any use, that is the thing that bothers me about it. It can sometimes look as if you are trying to make yourself look good. And i dont want that. Let me ask you about a different aspect of your long career, and that is, it is almost constant performing, touring, different countries, different cities. And in the middle of all of that you have managed to raise a family. Youve got kids, and our grandchildren as well. Mmhm. Out of has been to fulfil yourself both as an artist and performer and as a mother how tough has it been . Well, it hasnt been easy, i have to admit. And at the time when the children were young, i was right up there at the peak of my career. And as you say, i was all over the place. And the children came with us a lot, and in fact it was quite a good education for them, because they saw a loss of the world. And i have had this guilt thing hanging over me for years of not being the perfect mother, you know. But they. You know, we talk about it, i talk about it with my kids, and they say, come on, you know, it was fine, we are great. And they are great, they are great kids, they are great, they are great kids, they are great human beings. At the guilt was very real, was it . It is very difficult to do it all. I thought i was going to be superwoman and have a career and the family, be a great wife, great mother. It aint easy. But as you say, you have got great kids and you did have a great career. If you look back, would you have done anything differently . Care well, it was a copper mines. It was a Copper Miners from my family Point Of View and my career Point Of View compromise. Of view and my career Point Of View compromise. I was never totally into my career or totally and my family, it is always a bit like this. Now that you look at the Music Industry today, and you are still in it, both recording and touring, is it, both recording and touring, is itan it, both recording and touring, is it an industry where you would have thought, if your children or grandchildren had wanted to go into it, as they grow up, do you think it isa it, as they grow up, do you think it is a Healthy Business to be an . Healthy . Well, i never discourage them or encourage them to go into it, and they saw from a very early age what it was, what it is. You know, it is not. We hear a lot about the glamour, we dont hear about the glamour, we dont hear about the glamour, we dont hear about the hard work, the axed, the pressure. about the hard work, the axed, the pressure. Tanks. They sought it, andi pressure. Tanks. They sought it, and i guess they decided it wasnt for them. I guess what they said at the beginning is true. It is hard to make it in the music business, but it is even harder to stay at the top of the music business, year after year after year. You have done it. It isa year after year. You have done it. It is a bit like trying to go up the down escalator. To stay in one place you have to keep walking. Yes. But you have to keep walking. Yes. But you know, i have never really felt that, because i have alwaysjust done it for the pleasure. I have never had anyone behind me saying youve got to do it this way, youve got to change, because this is the way it is now. It has always been very organic. I failed, way it is now. It has always been very organic. Ifailed, of course, from time to time, that i know. How do you mean failed . Well, you know, i havent always got it right. You wa nt to i havent always got it right. You want to know how . I am intrigued. You know, i dont listen to my own records, but recently i had to because they are putting out a compilation. I