Watch: Isla St Clair plays songs from another generation
She was one of Britain's most famous faces in the late 1970s, but Isla St Clair says she is just as happy singing to a roomful of pensioners.
The singer starred alongside Larry Grayson on The Generation Game, to Saturday night audiences of more than 15 million. Now 63, she continues to perform and was in the region to take part in a programme of events to mark World War Two.
Yesterday she performed songs from the war years to an audience in Welshpool to coincide with a programme of events to mark the 70th anniversary of the Second World War.
She said: "I'm still recording and I enjoy touring. I have been to this area many times and I love coming here for holidays."
Isla also revealed she is no big fan of Saturday night television today. She called for a return of shows for the whole family – and said she would love to see The Generation Game come back.
Isla co-hosted The Generation Game with Larry Grayson from 1978 to 1981.
She said: "The Generation Game was a fabulous time in my life. Larry was amazing to work with, so easy going and I enjoyed his company.
"I would turn up each week and have a beautiful brand new frock from the BBC and then get to perform on television.
"I think Saturday night television is still in need of a show where all the family can come and sit together to watch.
"The Generation Game was just that. It was such a laugh and I hear it could make a comeback. I would like to see that."
When the series ended, Isla presented The Saturday Show on ITV before returning to singing and recording.
Born in Grangemouth, Scotland, Isla, now 63, has two sons from her former marriage and now lives in Buckinghamshire with her partner, Patrick King, a journalist and film maker who was also performing to pensioners at Church House in Welshpool yesterday.
She said: "I started singing aged three at my mother's Brownie concerts and with the Salvation Army services. Then I presented folk songs on several TV and radio programmes from the age of 12.
"By 19, I'd released my first record and toured across Scotland. After living out of a suitcase for ages, I returned to Scotland where I was spotted on TV by the director of The Generation Game.
"He'd been scouting the country looking for someone to partner this camp comic called Larry Grayson and then I travelled down to London to have a meeting with the producers.
"Never in a million years would I have thought about becoming a game show hostess, but that's what I did every Saturday night in front of 18 million viewers. The Generation Game was good, wholesome family fun. Everybody loved it and it's still fondly remembered to this day. Larry was a great guy – a dear man whom I liked very much.
"After The Generation Game I continued working on radio and TV including ITV kids' programme The Saturday Show for two years, with guests such as Cliff Richard and Eric Morecambe.
"I was also a guest on The Morecambe & Wise Show as their hillbilly sister singing Misty."
Isla went on to play Maria in The Sound Of Music on stage, then took a break to raise her sons, before returning to her roots singing in clubs and making albums.
She said: "I met Patrick 17 years ago when I sang on his documentary film.
"I'm still recording and I enjoy touring with various stage shows including Eyes Front.
"We still make documentaries and programmes and have a great time touring around the country together. It is great to meet people and sing to them like inWelshpool today.
"We pick and choose what we do and what makes us happy and we love it.
"I also enjoy my garden, keeping bees and writing."
And she revealedshe has a book in her. "I'd love to write a book about some of the incidents that have happened in my life. It's all passed so quickly," she said.
"I think some of it would be quite humorous – it would be faction – a mix of facts and fiction, but so many funny things have happened in my life."
