Episode 2
The story of the multi-million-selling Welsh vocalist reaches its conclusion, in a revised repeat of Paul Sexton's 2009 series, now airing to mark Dame Shirley's 75th birthday.
The story of the multi-million-selling, world-famous Welsh vocalist reaches its conclusion, in a revised repeat of Paul Sexton's 2009 series, now airing to mark Dame Shirley's 75th birthday.
Before addressing the entertainer's modern-day renaissance, the documentary features Bassey's best-loved songs of the 70s, including vibrant covers of Something and Light My Fire and such ballad favourites as For All We Know and Never Never Never.
The entertainer also talks about her gay following, her hilarious comedy sketch with Morecambe & Wise, and reveals surprising feelings about the songs that brought her to a new audience in the 80s and 90s - Yello's Rhythm Divine and History Repeating with Propellerheads. Chris Rea talks about working with the singer on a 90s film project and Cerys Matthews also contributes her Bassey memories.
We hear Dame Shirley's recollections of her headline-making Glastonbury Festival appearance of 2007, and find out what happened with some reindeer on the set of her Christmas commercial for a well-known high street retailer. Also in tonight's programme, La Bassey talks about the art of performing live and how she goes about building a set list for her show, carefully positioning newer songs among classic hits.
Episode two also features several tracks from Dame Shirley's 2009 album The Performance, including Gary Barlow's This Time, Tom Baxter's Almost There and the Pet Shop Boys' The Performance Of My Life. Barlow, Baxter and Neil Tennant all feature, along with fellow contributors to the album, Nick Hodgson of Kaiser Chiefs and Richard Hawley, plus producer David Arnold.
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Clip
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The making of Dame Shirley Bassey's 'The Performance'
Duration: 04:28
Broadcast
- Tue 17 Jan 2012 22:00Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 2