Petula Clark

PETULA CLARK became one of the world's most successful singers with 'Downtown' in the Sixties, but here is a look at the star's hectic life as child star ...

Petula also hosted several of her own television programmes including ‘Petula Clark’, ‘Pets Parlour’ and ‘The Petula Clark Show’.Of course, during this period the young star also continued to perform music, singing songs for the BBC to overseas forces in ‘Calling All Forces’.Petula cut her first recording, ‘House in the Sky’/ ‘Put Your Shoes on Lucy’ in June 1949 for the Columbia label, but it would be another five years until she scored her first chart success. More than fifty hits would follow, including ‘Suddenly There’s a Valley’, ‘Majorca’ and ‘With All My Heart’.In 1957, Petula was invited to appear at the Paris Olympia where, despite a bad cold, she received massive acclaim and launched a new European career for herself. That year, her father had introduced the young starlet to theatre, when he took her to see Flora Robson in a production of Mary Stuart. According to biographer Andrea Kon, Petula later recalled: “I made up my mind there and then I was going to be an actress. Former doctor-turned-comedian Adam Key, who recounted his absurd and strange time working for the NHS in bestseller This Is Going To Hurt, also joins Alan to chat about the power of laughter. She recorded Downtown later that year and, without any promotion, the song reached Number 1 in the US. She beat the Beatles to a Grammy for Best Rock and Roll Recording for the song and became the first UK female to sell a million records in the US.Watch ITV’s Love Your Weekend with Alan Titchmarsh this morning at 10am. This week, Alan welcomes Petula, who opens up about her long and glittering career, while actress Fiona Dolman also makes an appearance to discuss Misdomer Murders.