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Isla St Clair (born 2 May 1952 as Isabella Margaret Dyce) is a Scottish singer, actress and former game show co-host. ==Early career== Isla St Clair was born in Grangemouth, central Scotland, in 1952. Her family came from northeast Scotland and it was here that she spent her early years. It was in Findochty that she gave her first stage performances, aged three years, at her mother's Brownie concerts and with the local Salvation Army. In 1955, the family moved temporarily to Bradfield Green, near Crewe in Cheshire, before returning to Scotland in 1960. Zetta Sinclair, Isla's mother, was a talented songwriter and poet, and became a founding member of the Aberdeen Folk Club. The young Isla accompanied her mother to the club where they would both sing. At the club she came to the attention of a BBC producer. She was twelve years old when she sang on her first television programme ''Talk of the North'', followed by the radio series ''Stories are for Singing''. She was a regular guest on many other television and radio shows including ''Hoot'nanny'', ''My Kind of Folk'', ''Corriefolk'', ''On Tour'' and ''Heather Mixture''. Isla was a pupil at Aberdeen Academy and from 1967 Buckie High School. It was on Zetta's remarriage, in 1968, that Isla adopted the original form of her mother's maiden name, St Clair. In 1969, St Clair moved to Edinburgh to pursue her singing career. During her teenage years she was influenced by her mother's friend Jeannie Robertson, the traditional ballad singer. Another influence was family friend Hamish Henderson of the University of Edinburgh's School of Scottish Studies. He first recorded St Clair when she was twelve, hailing her as the best of her generation. In 1971, St Clair released her first LP ''Isla St Clair sings Traditional Scottish Songs'' and she was voted "Female Folk Singer of the Year" by the ''New Musical Express''. St Clair was offered programmes as diverse as ''To Scotland With Love'' for light entertainment and ''Lets See'' for BBC educational television. There followed numerous appearances, both as singer and presenter, on series such as ''Isla's Island'' (34 programmes), ''Welcome to the Ceilidh'' (2 series), ''The Great Western Musical Thunderbox'' and ''Thingummyjig''. St Clair also managed to fit in concert tours of the British Isles, Europe, the United States, and the Soviet Union (2 tours). St Clair's rise to national prominence was in 1978 when she became co-host with Larry Grayson in BBC Television's ''The Generation Game''. She won a number of awards including the Pye Colour Television Award for "TV Personality of the Year". During her four years on the ''Generation Game'' St Clair made television appearances on ''Morecambe and Wise'', ''Max Bygraves Show'', ''The Royal Variety Show'', ''Parkinson'', ''Blue Peter'', ''Blankety Blank'' as well as her own series ''The Farm On The Hill''. In 1981, the BBC offered St Clair the chance to do a series of her own. She decided to make ''The Song and The Story'' which involved dressing up in historical costume and explaining the social history behind the folk songs. The series was a success and won The Roses Award "Best Television Programme" and in Munich, the coveted "Prix Jeunesse for Best Light Entertainment". In 1981, she was also invited to co-present ''The Travel Show'' with Des Lynam for BBC2 and the following year she was chosen to co-host Central Television's ''The Saturday Show'' with Tommy Boyd. Despite her success as a presenter St Clair wanted more singing roles, and in 1984 she was offered the part of Maria in ''The Sound of Music'' at Worthing, with Edmond Hockridge. Rather than tour with the musical she decided to retire from the business for a while to bring up her young family. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Isla St Clair」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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