Isla St Clair

Isla St Clair (born 2 May 1952), born Isabella Margaret Dyce, is a Scottish singer, actress and former game show co-host.

Early career

She was born in Grangemouth, central Scotland, in 1952. Her mother, Zetta, sang in folk clubs and wrote songs.

The family moved to Aberdeen and Isla sang with the Aberdeen Folk Singing Club from the age of 10 and by the age of 12 she had appeared on television in My Kind of Folk. When her parents divorced, Isla adopted her mother's maiden name, Sinclair, adapted slightly.

St Clair attended Buckie High School and the Aberdeen Academy. Although she fulfilled a childhood dream by becoming a groom in a holiday riding school, it was meeting Jeannie Robertson, and subsequently adopting much of her repertoire of traditional songs, that persuaded her to become a professional singer. Another major influence was seeing The Corries. Hamish Henderson of the University of Edinburgh's School of Scottish Studies hailed the young singer as the best of her generation, and by 1971 St Clair was voted Folk Singer of the Year by the New Musical Express.

In the mid-70s, Isla presented a children's programme on Grampian TV called Isla's Island. But she rose to prominence when in 1978 she became the assistant to game show host Larry Grayson in the hugely successful BBC show The Generation Game. Her Scottish accent was an accompaniment to Grayson's camp ambivalence.

In 1981 St Clair was contracted to appear in a series of programmes for BBC children's television, The Song and The Story. This involved dressing up in historical costume and explaining the history of folk songs. She relished the opportunity to ride a horse again as the highwaywoman Sovay. Maddy Prior of Steeleye Span was hired as a researcher, primarily for the songs, and was given a researcher's credit. The programme won European television's "Prix Jeunesse". In the same year Roger Macdonald, the producer of BBC2's new consumer travel programme, The Travel Show, invited St Clair to co-present the series with Desmond Lynam. Isla was very nervous about accepting, pointing out she knew little about travel, but Macdonald - a devotee of The Generation Game - was convinced she could handle the challenge. The partnership with Desmond proved a huge success.

In 1982, following the demise of The Generation Game, she was chosen to co-host the popular ITV Saturday morning kids' show The Saturday Show, alongside Tommy Boyd. She left in 1984, after two series.

Songs of North-East Scotland

For the next ten years, St Clair disappeared from the public eye while she raised a family. Then, starting with Inheritance in 1993, she produced several albums devoted to Scottish folk songs. In 1997 she had a series on BBC Radio 2, Tatties and Herrin', devoted to songs from the North-East of Scotland. She has recorded many of the Child Ballads. In 2003 she released My Generation, a collection of children's songs, many of them remembered from her own time in the playground. St Clair's most recent album is called Looking Forward to the Past.

In 2003 she appeared in, and co-produced, a documentary film called When the Pipers Play, about the Great Highland Bagpipe. The film was released by PBS television in the United States and went on to win four film festival awards. Later that year, she was asked to sing her mother's song "Dunkirk - Lest We Forget" at the Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall.

In 2003 St Clair was awarded an honorary degree as a Master of the University of Aberdeen for her lifelong contribution to the traditional music of Scotland.

Discography

• Isla St Clair (1972)
• 70 Golden Nursery Rhymes (1979) (various artists: Isla St Clair, Martin Carthy, Shirley Collins and Percy Edwards)
• The Song and The Story (1981)
• Shape Up and Dance (1982)
• Inheritance (1993)
• Scenes Of Scotland (1996)
• Tatties and Herrin' - The Land (1997)
• Tatties and Herrin' - The Sea (1997)
• When The Pipers Play (1998)
• Murder and Mayhem (2000)
• Royal Lovers and Scandals (2000)
• My Generation (2002)
• The Lady and The Piper (2002)
• Amazing Grace - anthem to inspire (2003)
• Looking Forward to the Past (2003)
• Scottish Connections - Live DVD (2003)

External links

• Personal website