On the eve of Petula Clark's new series for BBCtv which shows an unfamiliar side to her singing, Deirdre Macdonald spent five days in the luxury resort of Megeve, finding out why she and her husband want as little fuss as possible made about her being famous.
The Sound of Petula, Saturday 8.0 BBC1 Colour
Monsieur et Madame Claude Wolff. They married in June 1961
'Claude is realistic,
strong and determined'
PETULA CLARK is looking forward to her new TV series. 'I think these shows, more than most, will give me the chance of showing how I really feel,' she says. 'I shall be able to do songs that really matter to me, not just the ones that I am best known for.'
Each of the six shows, she says, is completely different. For instance, there will be one featuring the songs of the Beatles, and one on the best of Burt Bacharach. For the first, The Girls Who Make Music, she says she and producer Yvonne Littlewood `have chosen songs by the best of today's girl writers and composers - for example Carole Ring, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon and Buffy Sainte-Marie: And one of the shows will make a point of Petula's French connections - a side to her which not too many of her British fans know about.
Off-screen, she's properly known as Madame Claude Wolff - has been since 1961 - and she's more French than English now, even to taking her holidays in Megeve, in the French Alps.
From Geneva, where the Wolffs live overlooking the lake, it's only an hour and a half's drive. The Hotel Castel- Champlat is more a pension than a Hilton: warmth and comfort and heavy, old- fashioned
Petula and five-month-old Patrick--the apple of everybody's eye
'Lovely little man, aren't you, papichon?'
mahogany furniture. 'There are posher hotels in Megeve,' says Petula, 'where you change for dinner and all that. But this is nicer for the children.
`A lot of people choose it. Sacha Distel used to come here before he built his chalet, and Alain Delon has stayed here, too. Nobody stares at you.'
Petula is used to being stared at, having been a child star, and thus as she puts it having `to grow up in public.' Both she and Claude are determined to see their children run no such risk. Next day we go off for lunch at a place a few miles above Megeve. Claude's telling funny stories that Petula knows and loves.
`Listen to this one, it's lovely .` `Patrick's teeth are on the way. Aren't they, papichon?' She dips her finger in sterilising white wine, wipes it dry and investigates his gums with satisfaction.
The Wolffs are building their own chalet in Megeve. At the moment it's still only a shell, and when we get to the site, the architect and electrician launch into long and elaborate discussions with Monsieur and Madame about where power-points should be. `Half the fun at this stage,' says Petula, `is trying to picture what it will be like. The sauna will be here, and that's a sun terrace. The card-playing room - that's Claude's. Nothing to do with me! This little room under the eaves will be the favourite, I suspect.' The chalet, the Wolffs' little holiday home, has assumed