Joan Turner: The Highs and Lows of  the Wacky Warbler

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Joan Turner: The Highs and Lows of the Wacky Warbler

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Joan Turner: The Highs and Lows of  the Wacky Warbler

Lesley Garrett tells the fascinating story of operatic comedienne Joan Turner.

Lesley Garrett tells the story of the operatic comedienne whose turbulent lifestyle brought both success and failure. From 2010.

Lesley Garrett tells the story of an operatic comedienne. 

Joan Turner was a larger-than-life star who enjoyed a successful stage and TV career in the 1960s and 70s. 

Joan was born in Belfast in 1922 and made her debut at the Finsbury Empire as a singing comedienne.  She could perform pop or opera with her four-and-a-half-octave soprano voice, impersonate Judy Garland and Bette Davis, and then change to stand-up comic.

She worked with The Crazy Gang, appeared at many Royal Events, recorded for Pye Records and became the highest-earning female singer in Britain. Touring the music halls she was considered a 'female Harry Secombe', and in the States they billed her as "The Wacky Warbler".  

One reviewer described her as having "the voice of an angel and the wit of a devil". 

Even though she gained a reputation for being difficult and unpredictable she remained a much loved figure on the show business circuit.   

Her daughter Susanna Page always believed that "the best way to describe Mum is that she thought every day was Christmas". She was to discover painfully that it was not.

By the late 1990s an unkind reverse reduced her to the status of a bag lady walking the streets of Las Vegas and Los Angeles searching for work.  She battled with gambling and alcoholism.  

A few film and TV roles saw a short revival in her fortunes but her last live comeback attempt ended in a drunken shambles. She spent her final years in sheltered accommodation in Surrey. 

Contributions from:

*  Actor, Harry Dickman
*  Variety entertainer, Roy Hudd
*  Joan's daughter,, Susanna Page   

Producer: Stephen Garner

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2010.

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