Petula Clark
Singer and Actress
Petula Clark, born Sally Olwen Clark on 15 November 1932 in Epsom, Surrey, is one of Britain's most successful and enduring recording artists, best known for the 1964 hit "Downtown" alongside a string of other international successes. She was not born in Wales, but her Welsh heritage runs through her mother, Doris May Clark (nee Phillips), who was born in Mountain Ash, Llanwonno, in the South Wales valleys.
During the Second World War, Clark and her sister spent time living with their Welsh grandparents near Merthyr Tydfil, in a small stone house without electricity or running water. It was there, by her own account, that she picked up some Welsh from grandparents who spoke little English, an experience that gave her a lasting personal connection to the country beyond her mother's ancestry. In 2007 she explored this heritage in more depth for the BBC Wales programme "Coming Home".
Clark went on to a career spanning eight decades, moving fluidly between pop singing, film and stage acting, and remains, by some measures, the best-selling female British recording artist in history, a remarkable legacy that Wales has long been proud to claim a genuine, if partial, stake in through her mother's roots.