Aimi MacDonald

Aimi MacDonald (born Glasgow, Scotland, 27 February 1942) is a British actress. She is known for her role as "The Lovely" Aimi MacDonald in the television sketch comedy show "At Last the 1948 Show" (Rediffusion, 1967).

Background and early career

Aimi MacDonald's Scottish father was a medical doctor. Her mother was English. She is the youngest of three daughters ["The Oldie", March 2007] .

MacDonald went to ballet school ["The Oldie", March 2007] and entered show business at 14. She was a dancer, working during her teens in Britain and the United States [Theatreprint programme for "The Mating Game" (Apollo Theatre, London, 1972)] . While performing with a troupe in Las Vegas, she met Elvis Presley at the Silver Slipper casino, remarking years later that he would "jam with the rest of them" and on his ability as a jazz guitarist ["The Oldie", March 2007] .

MacDonald married an American musician at 17 and they had a daughter named Lisa ["The Oldie", March 2007] . The marriage did not last and MacDonald returned to Britain, appearing during the 1960s in musicals in London's West End and in cabaret. [Theatreprint programme for "The Mating Game" (Apollo Theatre, London, 1972)] She recalled that she had to keep working to support herself and her daughter and that this was sometimes a struggle ["The Oldie", March 2007] .

"At Last the 1948 Show"

MacDonald came to national attention in "At Last the 1948 Show", for which she had been spotted by David Frost ["The Oldie", March 2007] . At the opening and closing of the show and between longer sketches, she would present short pieces on the theme of her loveliness. Her excitable, squeaky voice was likened to "a choir of frantic mice" [See "The Oldie", March 2007] . Forty years later a journalist referred to MacDonald as "bubble-and-squeak Aimi" [William Hall in "The Oldie", March 2007] .

"The lovely Aimi Macdonald" as a catchphrase

Forty years after the show had its only run on television, the phrase "I'm the lovely Aimi Macdonald" was still occasionally used by people. [See, for example, Barry Johnston (2006) "Round Mr Horne"; William Hall in "The Oldie", March 2007; "CSMA Motoring & Leisure", September 2007] With the exception of lines in the "Four Yorkshiremen" sketch ("Try telling the young people of today that ..."), it was the only catchphrase from the show.

Other work

Macdonald's acting on television included "The Avengers", "The Saint", "Man About the House", "Dixon of Dock Green" and "Rentaghost". Her appearance in "The Avengers" was in 1967, "Return of the Cybernauts", in which she played a mini-skirted secretary, similar to her "48 Show" role, whose tights were laddered as she was swept aside by a large robot. Macdonald played Wendy in the film "Take a Girl Like You" (1970), based on the novel by Kingsley Amis. Stage roles in London included Susie in George and Ira Gershwin's "Lady Be Good" with Lionel Blair in 1968 and Honey Tooks in Robin Hawdon's farce, "The Mating Game" (1972). In the 1970s Macdonald appeared on the BBC radio panel game "Just a Minute" - as the only female panellist of four, subjected to the jibes of comedian Kenneth Williams that women should not be permitted to take part. [ [http://deanbedford.tripod.com/jam138.html Welcome to "Just a Minute"] ]

Press stories and later life

MacDonald's private life attracted interest in the press. She shared a mansion in Ascot, Berkshire with racehorse owner Geoffrey Edwards, remarking that she was "living in sin ... It's lovely. I shall probably live in sin for the rest of my life" [Quoted in "The Oldie", March 2007] . She owned a racehorse named Weep No More. Her name was linked to politicians, including Labour Minister John Stonehouse (whose secretary and mistress Sheila Buckley named her as one of his lovers) and future Conservative Prime Minister John Major. MacDonald has denied relationships with either, or ever having met "poor John Major", though she did recall Stonehouse as "tall, dark" and "very attractive to women" ["The Oldie", March 2007] . In her sixties she observed that "everyone gets hysterical if I say hello to a politician today ... It's very annoying to be branded a scarlet woman" ["The Oldie", March 2007] .

MacDonald opened a lingerie shop in West London but sold it during a downturn in the economy in the early 1990s ["The Oldie", March 2007] . She returned to show business, taking part in a few nationwide tours, including a 2003 production of Cliff Richard’s 1962 musical film "Summer Holiday" starring Darren Day, in which she played the mother of former Hear'Say singer Suzanne Shaw. Reviewers referred to Macdonald as a "sixties starlet" [See, for example, http://archive.southwalesargus.co.uk/2003/7/25/66548.html] .

In 2007 MacDonald visited Uganda as an ambassador for the London charity African Revival. The purpose was to link schools in Gulu and the United Kingdom ["CSMA Motoring & Leisure", September 2007] .

References

External links

*imdb name|0531597
*tv.com person|88568