Diana Dors: Britain's Blonde Bombshell - Full Documentary
Celebrating the life of Diana Dors, one of Britain's most celebrated post-war actresses. Initially pigeonholed as Britain's answer to Marilyn Monroe, her career spanned theatre, film, television variety shows, easy-listening records, sitcoms and more. This revealing documentary also charts the highs and lows, transitions and reinventions of Diana Dors career. Including contributions from family and friends.
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00:00:00Diana Dawes was a British sex symbol, steeped in Hollywood glamour.
00:00:08She was associated with the high life, the sexy life, the showbiz life, the glamour of it all.
00:00:14Diana made headlines wherever she went.
00:00:17She didn't get into a mink bikini for no reason, she got into a mink bikini because she wanted the publicity.
00:00:22She was seemingly led astray by the men in her life.
00:00:26She was married three times, she had a lot of love affairs.
00:00:29Since when has it been immoral for a husband to come to his wife's bedroom?
00:00:33And became better known for her looks rather than her talent.
00:00:36She couldn't quite escape the fact that that was her look and that was essential to her identity and her success.
00:00:42She radiates a kind of sexual energy, you know, her blondness, it's like she bleaches out the screen.
00:00:50So Diana fought to be recognised as more than just a glamour girl.
00:00:55Dawes was definitely not the dumb blonde, she was a very, very clever woman.
00:01:02And reinvented herself multiple times over 30 years to stay in the public gaze.
00:01:08Done everything except circus, plenty of time for that.
00:01:11What do you think you'd be in a circus?
00:01:13Following the elephants or something?
00:01:15And now, nearly four decades on from her death,
00:01:18Diana's family, friends, fans and co-stars have assembled to remember her.
00:01:25She was just the most lovely, generous-hearted, fun, adorable but also wonderful actress.
00:01:32She just looked to me like an angel. She was absolutely gorgeous.
00:01:37And share stories about her personal struggles as she battled to keep her life on track.
00:01:43She was a woman who loved deeply and that came sometimes with a lot of chaos.
00:01:47I shall fight it all the way. It's chosen the wrong person by actually choosing me.
00:01:52As we get to know Diana Dawes, Britain's blonde bombshell.
00:01:58I'm quite happy to be a glamour girl as long as the public want me to be and let's face it, as long as I can be.
00:02:09Diana Dawes dazzled our film and TV screens for nearly four decades.
00:02:16I'd say he doesn't care, does he?
00:02:18At first, she strived for stardom.
00:02:22Then worked hard to cling on to it.
00:02:26By the 1970s, she'd become known as a larger-than-life TV celebrity.
00:02:31Always sharp-witted on chat shows.
00:02:34You can't top waking up next to Omer Sharif one morning and saying you're not very interesting, can you?
00:02:38I mean, it would be death sitting...
00:02:40Well, I suppose the only other thing would be waking up with you one morning and saying it was.
00:02:45And she also dazzled in sitcoms, where the scripts played to her strengths at delivering sassy put-downs.
00:02:53Not custard tarts, love. Individual cream caramels.
00:02:59Chalk them up, will you?
00:03:01And no-one could take command of a comedy sketch like Diana Dawes,
00:03:05especially as the tyrannical leader of a world run by women.
00:03:09As soon as we took their trousers away, they were putty in our hands.
00:03:13She felt totally natural. She loved the camera, she loved the limelight.
00:03:17It made us feel at ease watching her.
00:03:21There's something rampant and out of control about her sexuality.
00:03:25I just got this sense that she was enjoying life, and she still dressed the part.
00:03:32Many of these roles in Diana's later career are her best known.
00:03:36When she frequently sent up the sexy starlet image she embodied in previous decades.
00:03:42She was a very glamorous person, the most glamorous actress we probably ever had.
00:03:47There was no replacement for Dawes, and there never will be.
00:03:51She put on the glam, she put on the charm, but she could absolutely flatten you with a sentence.
00:03:57I haven't said all I want to say about my divorce yet, so you'd better come to my room later.
00:04:02Diana's on-screen performances were always eye-catching.
00:04:06But it was her private life and the publicity around it that many remember her for.
00:04:12A lot of what struck me about the story of Diana Dawes was around her interactions with the men in her life.
00:04:17She was married three times, she had a lot of love affairs.
00:04:20It did seem that some kind of drama or chaos followed her around,
00:04:25which was always strange because she seemed very able to deal with anything.
00:04:32Her granddaughter, Ruby Lake, grew up hearing family stories about the iconic relative she's too young to have known.
00:04:40She was staggeringly beautiful, and there weren't many women that looked like her.
00:04:45The big lips and the boobs and the curves was something that people weren't used to seeing.
00:04:50What was being portrayed in cinema at that time were proper British women with British dresses.
00:04:57You didn't get your ankles out, you definitely didn't get your boobs out.
00:05:01Diana's biographers have documented the extent to which her blonde bombshell image was shaped by Dennis Hamilton,
00:05:09her first husband and would-be Svengali.
00:05:13The narrative has been that he controlled her career and controlled the things that she did,
00:05:18but I think that she had more control of her career than people thought.
00:05:24Diana married him in July 1951 after a whirlwind romance when she was 19 and he was 25.
00:05:33Diana had turned her brunette hair platinum blonde just before her marriage,
00:05:38but it was Hamilton who captivated the press with stories about her bombshell personality.
00:05:45When I was growing up, Diana Dawes was an absolutely massive name,
00:05:49I'm talking about the 50s onwards, really box office, she seemed to be in the papers all the time.
00:05:56At first, Diana was happy to go along with Hamilton's stunts, to be certain of newspaper attention.
00:06:02People see him and her pushing her into the spotlights, playing the silly pranks,
00:06:07but she saw it as a tool of getting to a place where she wanted to be, which was a star.
00:06:13Think of those images of her at the Venice Film Festival in a gondola.
00:06:18She knows that glamour is a performance.
00:06:22She didn't get into a mink bikini for no reason, she got into a mink bikini because she wanted the publicity.
00:06:27The attention was useful to Diana at first, but she soon became frustrated,
00:06:32as she would recall later, with resigned amusement.
00:06:35There was a point in my life when I just used to answer to, come here Britain's Answer, you know,
00:06:40I mean, I was Britain's Answer, Veronica Lake, you remember her, and Betty Grable and Lana Turner,
00:06:44and then of course Jane Mansfield, you know, I was so tired of being Britain's Answer.
00:06:47I wasn't really Britain's Answer to anyone, I was me, you know.
00:06:51And she's like, well, you know, I can't be a carbon copy of Marilyn Monroe, I'm Britain's Answer to Diana Dawes.
00:06:57I don't think that she had many characteristics that were similar to Marilyn Monroe,
00:07:02except for that she had boobs and blonde hair.
00:07:06Diana wasn't only frustrated with the press, but also with Dennis Hamilton managing her life and career.
00:07:13According to her biographers, when she became pregnant with their child in 1951,
00:07:19he asked her for a termination, so that she could keep on working.
00:07:23He had a temper, he demonstrated that on many occasions,
00:07:27embarrassing her in front of people, you know, pushing her down the stairs in front of a journalist.
00:07:32She had to stay, because that's what you did.
00:07:35You stayed in those relationships at that time, and you tried to see it through.
00:07:40But actor and best friend Jess Conrad always believed it was Diana who held the upper hand in her often troubled relationships.
00:07:49The thing about Dawes was, with her relationships, she wanted to be the feminine one, and she was.
00:07:56But deep down, most of the time, she knew that she was the brainiest one.
00:08:05Despite the stresses in her first marriage, Diana worked hard on her acting career throughout the 1950s.
00:08:12She'd set her sights on achieving Hollywood stardom from a very early age.
00:08:18Diana Dawes wrote in a school essay that she was going to be a film star with a cream telephone and a swimming pool.
00:08:27But her route to fame was laced with danger, almost from the first step.
00:08:33She kind of exploded from this very ordinary background,
00:08:37actually lying about her age, in a way that I think got her into some rather dangerous situations, really.
00:08:49In 1956, at the age of 24,
00:08:53Diana Dawes finally achieved her childhood dream of going to Hollywood and making a movie.
00:08:59What is the big idea of sending me flowers?
00:09:02I love you.
00:09:04Who do you think I am?
00:09:08Such film star glamour would have been a wild fantasy in 1931,
00:09:13when she was born as Diana Fluck in Swindon, Wiltshire.
00:09:18Her mother Mary was one of Britain's first postwomen,
00:09:22and her father Bert a railway clerk.
00:09:25Diana came into the world in this terrace, which was once the Haven nursing home.
00:09:33Diana's mother had been married for 13 years,
00:09:37and she was in her 40s when she had Diana.
00:09:40Mary doted on Diana.
00:09:42She had this chance to have a family later on in life.
00:09:45They really bonded. They used to go to the cinema together.
00:09:48She'd bunk off school and they'd go see a film.
00:09:53It was these secret cinema trips that first inspired Diana with dreams of becoming an actress.
00:09:59She had this image of what a Hollywood lifestyle might be like.
00:10:03Diana Dawes wrote in her school essay that she was going to be a film star
00:10:08with a cream telephone and a swimming pool.
00:10:11And prior to the Second World War, when she was a child in Swindon,
00:10:16that was pretty much unheard of.
00:10:18Diana's father was not keen on her chasing her dreams in such a precarious profession.
00:10:24Her father said to her,
00:10:28And settling down and having...
00:10:30And it's like, that was the last thing she wanted to do.
00:10:36And as World War II began,
00:10:39it was through her father that Diana would have her first taste of stardom.
00:10:45Diana's father was a famous film director.
00:10:48He was the director of the first film in the world.
00:10:51He was the director of the first film in the world.
00:10:54Diana would have her first taste of stardom.
00:10:57US servicemen were now arriving at a local airbase in Shrivenham,
00:11:02and Bert had been given a role to help keep the troops amused.
00:11:06She actually found the war quite exciting.
00:11:09Her father was a very talented pianist,
00:11:13and he used to play the piano at the army camp for entertainment.
00:11:19Well, by this point, Diana's going for dancing classes,
00:11:23seeing if she can tap dance.
00:11:25She'd been out with GIs and to the dances with them
00:11:28and enjoyed the attention that she'd had.
00:11:31Once the war was over, aged just 13,
00:11:35Diana felt her first taste of the limelight,
00:11:38though it wasn't exactly Hollywood.
00:11:41Diana, every year for her holiday with her parents,
00:11:44they would go to Weston-super-Mare,
00:11:46and one year there was a bathing beauty contest.
00:11:50And I've seen photographs of her in her bathing costume
00:11:54and her wedge heel shoes.
00:11:56She decided when she was very young that she wanted to be a movie star
00:12:00and went about doing it and started performing in talent shows
00:12:04and really pushing herself forward.
00:12:07Diana was delighted to come third in the contest,
00:12:10and the experience would leave her with a taste
00:12:13for appearing in front of an audience.
00:12:17Focused on a career in performance, Diana enrolled at Lambda,
00:12:22the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art,
00:12:25while still only 14 years old.
00:12:29To help make ends meet while she studied,
00:12:32she continued to model for photographers in London,
00:12:35and for the first time, she found herself in the company of men
00:12:39whose motives were not always honourable.
00:12:42She kind of exploded from this very ordinary background,
00:12:46doing modelling, signed up to an agent,
00:12:49and actually lying about her age, I think, from quite a young age.
00:12:54People always thought she was older than she was,
00:12:57and she capitalised upon that
00:13:00in a way that I think got her into some rather dangerous situations.
00:13:05She modelled for the Camera Club,
00:13:08which, you know, was kind of, I guess,
00:13:10you know, a certain type of men
00:13:12who were interested in taking a certain type of photo.
00:13:15She went along in her bathing costume,
00:13:18and then they asked her if, for a little bit of extra money,
00:13:22would she be prepared to pose in the nude, which she did.
00:13:30One of Diana's earliest modelling assignments
00:13:33was for a retired naval officer who plied her with drinks
00:13:37asking her to pose nude for his camera.
00:13:40He offered her a drink when she got there, and Diana didn't drink.
00:13:43She said it didn't taste particularly nice, but she had it.
00:13:47And then all of a sudden, there was a ring at the door,
00:13:51and I think his wife had come back unexpectedly.
00:13:54So he put a £5 note in her hand or something like that,
00:13:58and she had to get out really quickly.
00:14:01She was getting into these horrible situations
00:14:04where she was offering herself up for modelling work
00:14:07that, you know, she was lucky to escape unassaulted from.
00:14:14While the 14-year-old Diana was learning the risks
00:14:17facing every young woman in show business,
00:14:20she was also finding her way to a personal brand.
00:14:24Years later, she would share the story of creating her stage name
00:14:28with co-star Bonnie Langford.
00:14:30Diana's surname was Fluck,
00:14:32and from a very early age she knew to change that.
00:14:35And she always said that that was because if her name went up in lights
00:14:39and a particular letter dropped out,
00:14:42then you couldn't possibly have a leading lady with a name
00:14:45Diana Fluck without the L.
00:14:47My mother, bless her, said, well, why don't you use a family name?
00:14:50She said, which was your grandmother's name, which was Dawes,
00:14:53because the two names begin with the same letter.
00:14:56I didn't think it was a very good idea,
00:14:58but actually I realise now she was right
00:15:00because Dawes is a very uncommon name.
00:15:02She was determined and hard-working
00:15:04and would stop at nothing kind of to get to what she wanted.
00:15:07That's the person that I really heard about when I was growing up.
00:15:11Once Diana graduated from Lambda,
00:15:14she signed a contract with the J. Arthur Rank Organisation,
00:15:18the UK's answer to Hollywood at the time.
00:15:21Rank owned Pinewood Studios and the Odeon cinema chain,
00:15:25so an audience was guaranteed for the movies it made.
00:15:31Diana was now sent for further training in their company of youth,
00:15:35also known as the Rank Charm School.
00:15:40Madeleine Smith, who played Diana's daughter in the film
00:15:43The Amazing Mr Blunden,
00:15:45heard her accounts of the school's limitations.
00:15:49Diana came from a time where you were pretty much told
00:15:53what to do and where to go.
00:15:55They would have been taught to get in and out of a car correctly.
00:15:59I know they did things with stuff on top of their heads
00:16:02and they would have been given parts to play
00:16:05and told what part you're going to play.
00:16:07In other words, you were fodder.
00:16:09Diana was certainly quite disparaging of her time at the Rank Charm School.
00:16:14It was there to train actors,
00:16:16but also had an element, I think, of the finishing school to it,
00:16:20instructing future stars how to be proper.
00:16:25And I don't think Diana Dawes really took that well
00:16:28to being told how to do those things.
00:16:31Her Charm School training had given her a cut-class accent
00:16:35and perfect poise, but her first film role
00:16:38saw her as a rather less demure chief villain's girlfriend
00:16:42in a thriller called The Shop at Sly Corner.
00:16:45You've been a long time. Where have you been?
00:16:48Diana would play flirtatious bad girls like this
00:16:51for much of the next two decades.
00:16:54Nice way to treat a lady.
00:16:57She already has that kind of rather overly sophisticated quality,
00:17:03you know, putting other characters on the back foot with her knowingness.
00:17:11Diana's breakout role would come a year later, in 1948,
00:17:16in David Lean's hugely successful adaptation
00:17:19of the Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist.
00:17:22She played Charlotte, the bedraggled-looking daughter
00:17:25of the sinister undertaker Mr Sowerberry.
00:17:28Oliver, here's your tea, and take them bits.
00:17:31And make haste, because they want you to mind shop.
00:17:34Working with David Lean on Oliver Twist,
00:17:37that was a big deal for Diana Dawes.
00:17:39He'd just had great expectations out,
00:17:42and of course he'd made Brief Encounter.
00:17:45She was this sort of quite wicked teenager who tortured poor Oliver.
00:17:50I think she was quite young at the time when that was being made.
00:17:53I think she was about 17.
00:17:55Diana was now established in mainstream movies
00:17:59and hoped it would lead to further success,
00:18:02but behind the scenes she was growing increasingly accustomed
00:18:05to a worrying trend.
00:18:07There were people in that film world who saw that rank battery of starlets
00:18:12as a kind of sexual cookie jar.
00:18:15So I think we shouldn't underestimate the, you know,
00:18:19the danger and the anxiety that attended her in those years.
00:18:27Even David Lean couldn't resist making a pass at Diana
00:18:31during the filming of Oliver Twist.
00:18:35One day she is in the dressing room going through her script
00:18:39and David Lean comes in and just wants to go over the lines with her
00:18:45and he makes a pass at her, which throws her a little bit.
00:18:50She pushed him off.
00:18:52He just goes back to hearing her lines and goes back to the set
00:18:57and nothing ever was said again about it.
00:19:02And she said, I totally forgave him because it was such a wonderful film.
00:19:06I think she saw some of this stuff as collateral damage along the way
00:19:10that she had to go through these experiences
00:19:12in order to get to where she wanted to be.
00:19:16By the late 40s, Diana's film career was going places
00:19:20and she'd learned the hard way how to protect herself from men making advances.
00:19:26Soon she would meet her first husband, who would transform her into a star,
00:19:31but his antics would also damage her Hollywood career.
00:19:37Dennis Hamilton punches a photographer, knocks him into a swimming pool.
00:19:42The National Enquirer issues, through a headline,
00:19:45notice that she should leave the country and take a husband with her.
00:19:57By 1948, 17-year-old Diana Dawes was enjoying her freedom in London
00:20:03while working on her acting career.
00:20:06She met her first serious boyfriend, hedonistic entrepreneur
00:20:10Michael Caborn Waterfield, who was two years older.
00:20:14Their play-hard lifestyle would clash with Diana's day job,
00:20:18especially when she was cast as a saloon keeper in a new film drama.
00:20:23She got the part in Diamond City.
00:20:25She was very excited about making the film, but she was partying a lot
00:20:29and perhaps that was dominating her life a little bit more than it should have done.
00:20:35Diana fell pregnant.
00:20:38The career-focused Diana wanted to keep the new secret from her parents,
00:20:43who didn't like her boyfriend Michael.
00:20:45Neither of the young lovers could afford to start a family.
00:20:49Diana felt her only option was to visit a quiet area of South London
00:20:54for a secret backstreet termination, which was illegal in 1949.
00:21:01It was a horrible experience for her as a young woman to kind of go through that.
00:21:06I say at a young age, and to then pick up again and, you know, go back to work.
00:21:13Diana and Michael stayed together for another two years
00:21:17while she focused on her career.
00:21:19But she was shocked when he was sent to prison in 1951
00:21:23following a shady business deal.
00:21:25She sees him in the cells below the court, you know, and it really upsets her.
00:21:32She made some bad decisions in terms of her love life
00:21:35and I'm sure she would have admitted that herself.
00:21:40It was during Michael's fortnight in prison that a new suitor appeared on the scene.
00:21:47Dennis Hamilton, another charismatic wheeler-dealer, swept Diana off her feet.
00:21:53Dennis Hamilton was a character, and that was evident from the first moment
00:21:57that she saw him zooming down the road in a fancy car.
00:22:01They initially met for the first time in a restaurant.
00:22:04He paid for everyone's dinner.
00:22:08After a whirlwind five weeks of dating, Diana married Dennis in 1951.
00:22:14He instantly set about transforming the blonde bombshell into a media sensation.
00:22:22The couple became famous for throwing great parties.
00:22:25But as the 1950s went by, these became more and more debauched.
00:22:31Dennis Hamilton had a sort of wild streak.
00:22:35There obviously have been stories of wild parties,
00:22:40one-way glass in bedrooms, this kind of thing.
00:22:44And, you know, to her it was always just a big laugh.
00:22:49So the infamous sex parties, she obviously knew what was going on.
00:22:55There was a secret room with a mirrored ceiling and a bed
00:22:58and people would gather and watch as people partook in activities.
00:23:03The wild side of their relationship would occasionally manifest during Diana's day job,
00:23:09as when she worked for the small British production company Adelphi Films in 1952.
00:23:18A lot of household names started out with Adelphi.
00:23:21And, of course, Diana Dawes was one of the early talents that they spotted
00:23:24and they really understood how big she could be,
00:23:29which was why they put her in starring roles.
00:23:32How do I look?
00:23:34Diana's first role for Adelphi was the comedy My Wife's Lodger.
00:23:39Hello, Dad.
00:23:40Where are you going, lass?
00:23:41I'm going out.
00:23:42One day on set, she failed to return from her lunch break.
00:23:46Her husband Dennis Hamilton had turned up and demanded to see her in their car.
00:23:51The third assistant director came back and said,
00:23:53Well, I found Diana, but I couldn't really do anything
00:23:57because she's in the Rolls-Royce having it off with her old man.
00:24:01So the first assistant director said, Right, I'll sort this out.
00:24:05And off he went, wrapped on the window of the Rolls-Royce,
00:24:09Come on, Diana, you're late, you're back on set.
00:24:14Ten minutes later, she's back on set, not a hair out of place.
00:24:21In 1956, Diana was cast in what would become her most enduring film role.
00:24:27She was offered the part because the director, J. Lee Thompson,
00:24:31had worked with Diana before and knew her talent.
00:24:35The director of the film practically insisted on my playing this part
00:24:41in face of grave opposition, I may say,
00:24:43because there were many people who thought that I couldn't do it,
00:24:46and they may still. The film hasn't been seen yet.
00:24:50Yield To The Night proved to be a dark and powerful thriller
00:24:54in which Diana was cast against type,
00:24:57not as the blonde bombshell Hamilton had been promoting,
00:25:00but as Mary Hilton, a young woman awaiting execution for murder.
00:25:05Will you be with me when they do it?
00:25:08Will you?
00:25:10Yield To The Night is one of the great performances of British cinema.
00:25:15She brings with her a kind of world of experience.
00:25:18She's not really that old, but there she is,
00:25:21really kind of stripping everything back.
00:25:25It is a great snapshot of that era, the last days, if you like,
00:25:30of capital punishment in the United Kingdom,
00:25:33but also of London in that era, of Soho in that era,
00:25:37and it's a remarkable performance from Diana Dawes.
00:25:40Yield To The Night shows two very different sides
00:25:44to Diana's character, Mary Hilton.
00:25:47She's seen in a state of misery on death row,
00:25:50and in flashbacks to a previous, more glamorous life,
00:25:53we learn what made her commit the murder that led to her incarceration.
00:25:58Why do you knock yourself out for this girl?
00:26:00You're just another man to her. I can't help myself!
00:26:03Just seeing how she plays both this glamorous young woman
00:26:07and then, you know, the make-up-less anguish
00:26:10of the woman on death row awaiting execution,
00:26:14it's just such an amazing performance,
00:26:16and there's this whole sense of as the execution gets closer
00:26:19that there comes this point of no return
00:26:21where actually you stop fighting it, you stop being unable to sleep
00:26:24and you become almost like an automaton.
00:26:26I don't know how you act that,
00:26:28because there is no experience to compare it to,
00:26:30and it's completely convincing and compelling.
00:26:35Playing this part with such conviction,
00:26:37Diana proved that she was an actress of versatility and depth.
00:26:42The role offered her the recognition that she had always dreamt of.
00:26:46What my dad used to say about my grandmother
00:26:49was that she was so desperate to be taken seriously as an actress.
00:26:54Please don't. You'd better go now.
00:26:58Goodbye, friend.
00:27:00And I think that it was almost a relief for her, I imagine,
00:27:03to be able to have that typecast blonde bombshell role
00:27:07kind of taken away from her.
00:27:09I remember watching that one with her and just riveted watching it.
00:27:14And then afterwards, you know, and she turned to me and she said,
00:27:18it's a bloody good film, isn't it? I'm like, yes!
00:27:21I want to be sorry for what I've done, but I'm too afraid to be sorry.
00:27:27I want to be brave, but I can't.
00:27:31Diana's success in Yield to the Night
00:27:34attracted the attention of serious Hollywood producers.
00:27:37She was offered a three-movie deal by RKO Studios,
00:27:41the home of King Kong, Catherine Hepburn, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.
00:27:46RKO at this time have got a comedian on their books called George Gobel.
00:27:53And the idea was that if we get Diana over to Hollywood
00:27:58to do this comedy film with George Gobel,
00:28:01she's going to sell him in England
00:28:04and he's going to help sell her in Hollywood.
00:28:07So she goes over to do this film called I Married A Woman.
00:28:12Diana was accompanied to Hollywood by her husband, Dennis Hamilton,
00:28:16but his behaviour was causing her problems.
00:28:20He again assumed the role of her Svengali,
00:28:23but he wasn't very welcome, I think, in those situations.
00:28:27The couple found themselves a luxurious new home
00:28:31and introduced themselves to A-list stars and journalists
00:28:35at a lavish poolside party.
00:28:37It was supposed to be a great moment for Diana to show off her star potential.
00:28:42Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way.
00:28:45At some point during the party,
00:28:47Dennis and Diana get pushed into the swimming pool.
00:28:51The upshot of it was that Dennis punched a reporter in the face.
00:28:57Everybody fled from this party
00:28:59because they didn't want to get bad publicity.
00:29:02Police were involved, so it was a big scandal at the time.
00:29:07Dennis Hamilton's family have challenged stories
00:29:10that he pulled guests into the pool
00:29:12and say he punched the photographer to defend his wife.
00:29:16But RKO viewed Hamilton as a liability.
00:29:19They banned him from the set of Diana's second film, The Unholy Wife,
00:29:24a romantic crime thriller co-starring Rod Steiger.
00:29:28I suppose I'm not so tough after all.
00:29:31I suppose I knew that from the very beginning.
00:29:34She thought he was a phenomenally wonderful actor.
00:29:37He was cultured, he was eloquent,
00:29:40everything really that Dennis Hamilton was not.
00:29:44Diana's rapport with Steiger soon blossomed into an affair.
00:29:48It was a significant moment for her stateside career.
00:29:52One of the reasons why things didn't work that well for her
00:29:56in the end in Hollywood, she was telling me,
00:29:59was because she had an affair with Rod Steiger.
00:30:03And Hollywood is like a village, really, and everybody knows everybody.
00:30:08And when Diana revealed the news to her husband,
00:30:11Hamilton burst into the studio and threatened Steiger.
00:30:15Years later, the veteran actor would recall the incident in a frank interview.
00:30:20You want to step outside? I'll show you who's a stupid...
00:30:24And when he left, I said, Holy God, he had a gun!
00:30:27He had a gun, he could have shot me!
00:30:31Steiger ended the affair,
00:30:33while the fallout from their relationship and the pool party scandal
00:30:37prompted RKO to terminate their contract with Diana.
00:30:41The National Enquirer issues, through a headline,
00:30:45notice that she should leave the country and take a husband with her.
00:30:49It ruined her chances of, you know, potential stardom, I think, in America.
00:30:56Diana reflected on her bruising treatment
00:30:59in a revealing and bittersweet television interview
00:31:02with American journalist Mike Wallace.
00:31:04I suppose coming here with this terrific blaze of publicity
00:31:08and being the kind of sex symbol blonde,
00:31:11I, as not in the case of Hollywood but everywhere in the world,
00:31:16set myself up in a position to be knocked down like a skittle.
00:31:19Diana Dawes' time in Hollywood does seem complicated.
00:31:23It seems to be an era of close but no cigar,
00:31:28of almost getting roles, of almost getting contracts,
00:31:31of there being talk of her being cast in this film against this actor,
00:31:36but things never quite working.
00:31:40Down but definitely not out, Diana flew back to England,
00:31:45determined to rebuild her career
00:31:47and to rid herself of the manipulative husband
00:31:50who had wrecked her Hollywood dream.
00:31:52But Hamilton had one last stunt to pull.
00:31:56Her being forced to sign documents that will give him,
00:32:00you know, more financial power.
00:32:03Diana Dawes flew back to Britain from Hollywood in 1957
00:32:07with her movie dreams in tatters,
00:32:10partly due to the antics of her husband, Dennis Hamilton.
00:32:14She now knew the only means of saving her career was a divorce.
00:32:18The end of their relationship was inevitable
00:32:21because she just couldn't go on
00:32:23with this millstone around her neck of,
00:32:26of, you know, a divorce.
00:32:28She just couldn't go on with this millstone around her neck
00:32:32of Hamilton and his behaviour.
00:32:36Meanwhile, Hamilton refused to agree to a divorce
00:32:40and secured their joint assets for himself.
00:32:43Said to be worth £100,000 at the time and more than £2 million today,
00:32:49these included a coffee bar, a nightclub, two cars
00:32:52and the fee from her latest movie.
00:32:55Diana would later claim that she signed these away
00:32:58under threat from Hamilton's shotgun,
00:33:00but there were no witnesses to confirm that part of her story.
00:33:04I don't think we can ever be quite sure,
00:33:07but I think we mustn't, you know,
00:33:10underestimate that she was subject to his violence.
00:33:15This is like something from a Victorian melodrama.
00:33:19A gun in his hand and her being forced to sign documents
00:33:22that will give him, you know, more financial power.
00:33:26By 1958, Diana was officially separated from Hamilton.
00:33:31Their divorce case continued for another year,
00:33:34but she was in control of her finances at last
00:33:37and determined not to let his legacy break her.
00:33:40Diana needed a new income to fund the lavish lifestyle
00:33:44she had become used to,
00:33:46and so she sold the story of Hamilton's raunchy sex parties
00:33:49to a tabloid newspaper.
00:33:51She became a pioneer for celebrities making big bucks
00:33:55from so-called kiss-and-tell stories.
00:33:58What she does is she sells the story of this,
00:34:01putting on 100,000 readers for the news of the world
00:34:04in the weekend that her story ran,
00:34:06making herself a kind of spectacle.
00:34:09She was always a really smart operator
00:34:12because she was blazingly intelligent.
00:34:15The story earned her £35,000,
00:34:19nearly £800,000 in today's money,
00:34:22but at the time, not everyone saw her move as inspirational.
00:34:27At Diana's birthplace in Swindon,
00:34:29the mayor claimed she had brought shame on the town,
00:34:32and even the Archbishop of Canterbury waded in
00:34:35by denouncing Diana in a sermon as a...
00:34:40Calling someone a wayward hussy,
00:34:42I mean, if you have to talk about someone else like that,
00:34:45then clearly you've got some insecurities yourself.
00:34:48That might be saying something about the Archbishop of Canterbury
00:34:51rather than saying something about my grandmother.
00:34:56Had there been magazines like OK! and Hello! magazine,
00:34:59I think she would have been in it a lot.
00:35:01She probably would have done a Kardashians-type show, I think.
00:35:04I think she was quite happy to use her celebrity.
00:35:09After the divorce,
00:35:11Diana used her celebrity for another money-making tactic.
00:35:15In what would be the first of many reinventions in her later career,
00:35:19she started touring a cabaret act in nightclubs,
00:35:22alongside her acting career.
00:35:25And she always insisted on being paid in cash, up front.
00:35:31She always made sure she got the money first.
00:35:33I don't know how much she was getting, probably then £500,
00:35:36which was a lot of money then, £500,
00:35:39because I used to have to count it sometimes.
00:35:43Diana proved to be a trooper
00:35:45when it came to finding facilities at venues on the nightclub circuit.
00:35:50She then wants to go to the toilet.
00:35:53I'm dying for a pee, darling.
00:35:55I said, well, there's not a toilet here, I said, but there's a bucket there.
00:35:58She said, I'll use the bucket.
00:36:02Because we're close, we're friends.
00:36:04Well, she peed in the bucket.
00:36:08The success of Diana's cabaret act gained the attention of TV producers,
00:36:13and while she was still licking the wounds of her failure in Hollywood,
00:36:16she was loved enough in the UK to land her own ITV series,
00:36:20The Diana Dawes Show.
00:36:22Miss Diana Dawes!
00:36:24ITV also captured some of her entertaining routine
00:36:28on its roisterous cabaret showcase, Stars and Garters.
00:36:32Diana, sing a couple of lines from a song, huh?
00:36:36She'd sing a song and then do 45 minutes of anecdotes
00:36:40and then finish with a song.
00:36:42Hour.
00:36:44Thank you very much. Into the bank.
00:36:47It's a thrill to have the world at your feet.
00:36:51The praise of the crowd is exciting.
00:36:54But I've learned that's not what makes life complete.
00:36:57She'd be like, is that you?
00:36:59And she would single out a man, you know, who would be with his wife usually,
00:37:04and she would pretend that they knew each other.
00:37:07And then she would end up, like, sitting in his lap
00:37:10and doing this, you know, this love song to him.
00:37:14And it always got an incredible response.
00:37:17Make just one someone happy
00:37:21And you will be happy too
00:37:27And you
00:37:30Will be happy too
00:37:38The voice wasn't bad at all.
00:37:40She had a better voice than most pop stars.
00:37:45While Diana was busy paying her debts
00:37:47and settling her divorce with Dennis Hamilton,
00:37:50she met a new flame on a night out in London,
00:37:53the actor and comedian Richard Dawson.
00:37:56He was performing, and I guess to stand out from the crowd,
00:38:00Dickie Dawson, this sort of persona that he'd created,
00:38:04he put on this sort of pseudo-American accent
00:38:07that sounded vaguely Canadian.
00:38:09And she thought he was Canadian.
00:38:11It wasn't until after they dated for quite a while
00:38:14that he actually came clean and said he wasn't Canadian.
00:38:18In fact, Dickie came from working-class roots in Hampshire,
00:38:23and his real name was Colin.
00:38:25The wisecracking entertainer was soon starring with Diana on TV,
00:38:29and by April 1959, the pair were married.
00:38:33They brought celebrity pizzazz to Diana's ITV series,
00:38:37The Diana Dawes Show.
00:38:39Well, I've only been married three weeks.
00:38:41As a matter of fact, I'd like you to meet my husband too.
00:38:44Dickie Dawson, come on out here.
00:38:46It was clear, I think, from early on in their relationship
00:38:49that she was the one with most success
00:38:51at the time of their initial marriage and their initial relationship.
00:38:54You know, she was always the one earning.
00:38:57Diana and Dickie had two sons,
00:39:00Mark, born in 1960, and Gary, born two years later.
00:39:05Are you going to put your son on the stage?
00:39:07Oh, I've been asked that question before.
00:39:10I think I will leave it entirely up to him
00:39:13and just give him the advice and the knowledge that I have about it,
00:39:17and if that doesn't put him off, well, then I'll just let him do it.
00:39:21One of my earliest memories, when she would come home,
00:39:25and I remember her getting ready for, like, a premiere or something...
00:39:31..she just looked to me like an angel.
00:39:34She was absolutely gorgeous.
00:39:37While Diana's career was undergoing a resurgence in the UK,
00:39:41Dickie was finding even more success across the pond in America.
00:39:45Diana and Dickie's relationship had now become a long-distance one,
00:39:49and that spelt trouble.
00:39:51My mum bought the house in Beverly Hills,
00:39:55but she wasn't getting the kind of work in the States
00:39:59that, you know, she was used to getting.
00:40:03Diana was no longer being offered roles in America
00:40:06and would work in the UK, offering better profile and income.
00:40:10She found herself increasingly away from her family.
00:40:13One such film was the gritty 1963 crime drama West Eleven,
00:40:18in which she played the downtrodden girlfriend of a con man
00:40:22and found that her art was now imitating her past life.
00:40:26He seemed very nice when I first met him.
00:40:29Polite, considerate, romantic.
00:40:32Opening doors, helping me on with my coat, all that jazz.
00:40:37Then, after he moved in, wham!
00:40:40He can be pretty nasty when he wants to.
00:40:42She plays this woman who is kind of sidelined and disappointed,
00:40:47freighted with all of Dorsey's real experiences
00:40:51of how disappointing men are.
00:40:56In order to stay working,
00:40:58Diana spent more and more of each year in the UK,
00:41:01away from her sons who lived with their father in Hollywood.
00:41:05I did have that part missing, my mother not being there.
00:41:09It was a normal thing for my mum, you know, not to be around a lot.
00:41:16It was inevitable that Diana's long-distance marriage
00:41:19to Dickie Dawson would be strained.
00:41:22They divorced in 1967.
00:41:25She made the really difficult decision
00:41:28of letting my brother and I grow up in the US.
00:41:32Because she really felt that we would have much more opportunity
00:41:36and it would be a better environment for us to grow up in.
00:41:40It was a decision that she regretted right after she did it.
00:41:46And we were kind of in the middle of that push and pull,
00:41:51you know, between my parents.
00:41:53Living in a different country to her children was hard enough,
00:41:59but Diana was about to be plagued by money problems.
00:42:03In 1968, she faced a demand for the inland revenue
00:42:07for nearly £50,000 of unpaid taxes.
00:42:11She also incurred debts following the death
00:42:14of her first husband, Dennis Hamilton.
00:42:16While living the life of a movie star,
00:42:18paying bills had rarely been uppermost in her mind.
00:42:22She wanted a good time, she wanted things.
00:42:27She wanted a big house.
00:42:29She bought herself a powder blue Cadillac.
00:42:32She wanted money, she wanted success.
00:42:34She was never really good with money.
00:42:36She spent and lived a very lavish lifestyle.
00:42:40When she attended the London premiere of Sidney Poitier's new film
00:42:44To Serve With Love as a celebrity guest,
00:42:47she was served with a bankruptcy notice,
00:42:50a moment caught on newsreel cameras.
00:42:53Diana appeared at two bankruptcy hearings in 1968,
00:42:57where investigators found she had failed to declare
00:43:00much of her cabaret cash income.
00:43:03They stopped short of charging her with fraud,
00:43:06but made her repay her debts and unpaid taxes through the court.
00:43:10Yet again, her private affairs were playing out
00:43:13in the most public way possible.
00:43:16She was always somebody who could survive.
00:43:21I think pretty much anything.
00:43:23She always knew what to do when everything collapsed,
00:43:27so when she was made bankrupt, she was knocked down,
00:43:31but she was never out.
00:43:33Now in her 30s, Diana found that she was touring her cabaret act
00:43:37more and more to keep the money coming in.
00:43:40And with the public slowly becoming addicted to television,
00:43:43the British cinema industry was going into decline.
00:43:47So while constant cabaret tours were paying the bills,
00:43:50Diana set her sights on television
00:43:53as a way to keep hold of her fame and fortune.
00:43:56Diana's movie career can be seen
00:43:59as reflecting the British film industry, really,
00:44:02at a high in the 50s,
00:44:04but certainly starting to collapse a little in the 60s.
00:44:08Diana, the Queen of Reinvention,
00:44:11would now add another string to her career bow,
00:44:14television acting.
00:44:16In the 1968 ITV series The Inquisitors, she played a stripper.
00:44:21No film copies survive, only photographs,
00:44:24but it was important for Diana.
00:44:26This is where she met actor Alan Lake,
00:44:28who would become her third husband.
00:44:31The director introduced them and apparently he said to her,
00:44:35I'm so chuffed to meet you, Diana, you know, I'm a great fan.
00:44:39And the director actually said, that's not what you told me.
00:44:42When I told you I'd cast Diana, you said,
00:44:44oh, no, not Madame Tits and Lips.
00:44:47And apparently she just fell about laughing
00:44:50and that sort of was the start of their friendship.
00:44:56The couple were soon madly in love
00:44:59and Diana was swept up in yet another whirlwind romance.
00:45:03They tied the knot on 23rd November 1968,
00:45:07just weeks after meeting.
00:45:09He absolutely revered her, he adored her.
00:45:12He just couldn't stop talking about her.
00:45:14That was a real, real love.
00:45:16Alan Lake was the love of Diana Doll's life.
00:45:20It was the third marriage for her and they had a son together, Jason.
00:45:25My dad just described her as a very, you know, normal mum.
00:45:29She loved him deeply and I think she did what she could do
00:45:33to protect him as much as she could.
00:45:35With her personal life taking an upward turn at last,
00:45:39Diana could put all her fighting spirit
00:45:42into the reinvention of her acting career on TV.
00:45:45She started the 1970s by accepting the lead role
00:45:49in a brassy new ITV sitcom, Queenie's Castle.
00:45:54And don't I count as a ratepayer?
00:45:57That's something of a moot point.
00:45:59Don't you moot point me, missus.
00:46:01It's a fabulous show, really well written, the characters are fantastic
00:46:04and she gives a wonderful performance as the matriarch
00:46:07of this rough family in Leeds.
00:46:09Our Douglas. Tell Mrs Petty where we want to go and live.
00:46:13Country. Aye, the countryside.
00:46:16She really surprised people. She could do comedy.
00:46:19Anyone who knew her knew she was a very witty, very funny woman.
00:46:22But to the British public, this was a side of her they hadn't seen before.
00:46:26How the hell can you remember? You were only three.
00:46:30Though Diana's days as a leading lady in cinema were over,
00:46:34she could now embrace challenging character roles.
00:46:38In 1970, when she was 38, she gave a startling performance
00:46:42as a predatory woman taking advantage of a teenage boy
00:46:46in the movie Deep End.
00:46:48Are you keen on football?
00:46:50All the boys are, aren't they?
00:46:52Yes. One way or another.
00:46:54It's always tackle, dribble, dribble, shoot.
00:47:00Deep End is interesting.
00:47:02Tackle, dribble, dribble, shoot, as I think she says in that movie.
00:47:06I mean, it's only a cameo role, really,
00:47:09playing a sort of sex-crazed customer at a swimming bath.
00:47:14It's a very odd film.
00:47:16But it's interesting that she was in it.
00:47:18No, this is a bloody nuisance as well.
00:47:21You might as well undo it while you're here.
00:47:23Arty director Jerzy Skolomowski, Polish director,
00:47:27asked her to do this extraordinary scene
00:47:30with the young John Mulder-Brown.
00:47:33She just overwhelms him.
00:47:36Why can't you look into my eyes?
00:47:38Look, boy. Stop it.
00:47:41Stop staring at my tits.
00:47:44It was a tongue-in-cheek performance in a film
00:47:47that she understood was a very different prospect for her.
00:47:51As ever, Diana was always happy to push boundaries,
00:47:55meaningfully sending up her old blonde bombshell image
00:47:58from two decades earlier.
00:48:01In 1973, she tackled another memorable guest role,
00:48:05as she tried to seduce Harry H Corbett
00:48:08in one of the raucous big-screen versions of Steptoe and Son.
00:48:12Can you, er... Can you see anything you like?
00:48:15It's a sexy housewife role.
00:48:17Look, she's great in it, but you do kind of think
00:48:20she could be doing better.
00:48:22It was a big movie.
00:48:23There was a big trade in the 1970s
00:48:26of movie spin-offs of TV shows.
00:48:29Please don't go. Stay with me.
00:48:31Look, I'm very flattered, madam, but...
00:48:33I need your company, you see. You've got such a kind face.
00:48:36My husband, he was such a brute.
00:48:38Is it something that, you know, she was hugely proud of?
00:48:41I think it's debatable,
00:48:43but it was big and she was getting seen.
00:48:46She was still in the spotlight.
00:48:48Ah!
00:48:50Who's that? Him!
00:48:52He's dead!
00:48:53Well, I told you he was!
00:48:55At last, Diana's career seemed to be firmly back on track
00:48:59and her next big role would be a total revelation.
00:49:03By the time they'd finished with her,
00:49:05she actually didn't look like Diana at all.
00:49:09BELL RINGS
00:49:17As the 1970s began,
00:49:19Diana Dawes was living the movie star dream
00:49:22with her husband, Alan Lake, and their newborn son, Jason.
00:49:26They created their family home in the rambling Orchard Manor
00:49:30at Sunningdale in Berkshire.
00:49:32Jason only ever spoke about his mother with extreme affection.
00:49:36She always said it was Hollywood in Berkshire, the lifestyle.
00:49:40She would go into Sunningdale with Jason,
00:49:44in her Rolls-Royce, park up and go into the co-op.
00:49:48There was this very real side to her
00:49:50and I think the public loved her for that as well.
00:49:53Diana was still reinventing her career as a character actress,
00:49:57looking for challenging new roles.
00:49:59In 1972, she would give what would become
00:50:02one of her standout performances.
00:50:04It was Wickens, the evil housekeeper in The Amazing Mr Blunden.
00:50:09How's that consommé coming along?
00:50:12Diana was an absolute stunner, still, when she made the film.
00:50:16They made her look dreadful, absolutely dreadful,
00:50:20warts all over her face and a terrible wig.
00:50:23It's taking too long, Mr Wickens!
00:50:29By the time they'd finished with her,
00:50:31she actually didn't look like Diana at all.
00:50:34Aren't you interested in cash, you great lump? Cash!
00:50:38I'm happy to say I spent three hours every morning in the make-up chair
00:50:42having rubber wrinkles and my teeth blacked out
00:50:44and wigs and all sorts of things and padding put on.
00:50:47In fact, when it all came off, I quite liked the look of myself again.
00:50:50It was really rather nice.
00:50:52Psychologically, it's very good for you to put all that padding on
00:50:55because when you take it off, you feel like Twiggy.
00:50:58Diana's performance of enthusiastic grotesquerie,
00:51:03she couldn't have been nastier if she'd tried.
00:51:06You make sure they haven't put no extra blankets on, it's bad for them!
00:51:10Yes! Yes, Mrs Wickens! Yes, Mrs Wickens!
00:51:13You skinny slut!
00:51:15She didn't have to be quite as revolting,
00:51:18but it's a pattern that you can see,
00:51:21at least as far back as Yield to the Night,
00:51:24of unedifying physical details
00:51:27that I think a lot of actors would run a mile from,
00:51:31particularly actors who have been great beauties in their youth.
00:51:34I would say her favourite character that she ever played
00:51:38was Mrs Wickens.
00:51:40Wickens!
00:51:42You've gone too far!
00:51:46She used to go round the house
00:51:48and sometimes she'd break into character of Mrs Wickens.
00:51:53She'd be doing the dishes and it'd be,
00:51:55Wickens, you've gone too far!
00:52:00The amazing Mr Blunden is fondly remembered,
00:52:03but in the 1970s, it didn't open the door
00:52:06for Diana to play other challenging parts.
00:52:09Diana often said, I took some rubbish work,
00:52:13but she said, what's the point in waiting for the lead at the RSC
00:52:18when I've got offered a B movie which is going to pay the bills?
00:52:22She would do anything to keep the money rolling in,
00:52:26as an actress, and to keep her in the public eye.
00:52:30My mother has always been art for art's sake and money for God's sake.
00:52:34It was in the late 1970s that Diana's second son, Gary,
00:52:38from her marriage to Dickie Dawson,
00:52:41accepted an invitation to live with her new family in England.
00:52:45I lived with my mum and Alan and Jason,
00:52:49and it was the nuclear family,
00:52:52which I had not really ever experienced.
00:52:55My mother was cooking, she was cleaning,
00:52:58we'd have Sunday lunches together.
00:53:01It was a wonderful family experience.
00:53:05Diana was not only a parent in real life.
00:53:09In 1978, as a nouveau riche matriarch in ITV's drama series
00:53:13Just William, she found herself playing Bonnie Langford's mother.
00:53:17Just William was a TV series about a boy in the 1930s
00:53:21who got into all sorts of trouble.
00:53:23Stop it, all of you, it's Christmas!
00:53:25Ethel, take William home.
00:53:27Diana played this northern woman
00:53:30who was, you know, thinking she was going to be posh,
00:53:33and she just ate it up.
00:53:37Oh, William Brown, you're a nasty, upsetting little boy!
00:53:43She had this aura about her of fun, down-to-earth,
00:53:48she knew what she was doing, and she just wanted to get on and do it.
00:53:52I'm so excited! Oh, what do I look like?
00:53:56Is me hair all right?
00:53:58You didn't remember the bread and butter, did you?
00:54:03Besides being a consummate professional,
00:54:06Diana enjoyed making people laugh
00:54:08and was just as ready to be the butt of the joke herself.
00:54:13She always drove her Rolls Royce.
00:54:15She got out of the car one day and she was wearing old leggings
00:54:19and a huge T-shirt and flip-flops.
00:54:21The T-shirt she had on, across the front it said,
00:54:23BITCH, and across the back it said,
00:54:27I WAS BRITAIN'S SEX SYMBOL,
00:54:29and I just thought, she's amazing.
00:54:32Diana's trademark humour
00:54:35made her a formidable sparring partner for any interviewer
00:54:38who wasn't on his guard.
00:54:40The Queen of Reinvention embraced yet another role during the 70s,
00:54:44as a doyen of the chat-show circuit.
00:54:46You can't top waking up next to Omer Sharif one morning
00:54:49and saying you're not very interesting, can you?
00:54:51I mean, it would be death-sitting.
00:54:53Well, I suppose the only other thing would be waking up with you
00:54:56one morning and saying it was.
00:54:59She was a wonderful guest. She was very warm, she was very witty,
00:55:02and she had a tale or two to tell.
00:55:04She told them brilliantly.
00:55:06She'd be on a lot of variety shows,
00:55:08and I do remember her in The Worm That Turned, the two Ronnies thing.
00:55:12As soon as we took their trousers away, they were putty in our hands.
00:55:16CHEERING
00:55:18She's sort of playing a parody of a kind of general
00:55:21in this sort of evil feminist republic.
00:55:23There's something rampant and out of control about her sexuality,
00:55:27and yet every performance she gives is pure comedy.
00:55:30Driven to keep working and paying her bills,
00:55:33Diana appeared on the game show Blankety Blank three times.
00:55:37Her cheeky gift of the gab made her the perfect guest
00:55:40for the double entendre-filled game show,
00:55:43famous for its low-value prizes.
00:55:45Each time she was on, she stole the show.
00:55:48And if your answer coincides with that of Suzanne,
00:55:51it's the old duvet and bed linen set, eh?
00:55:54I bet you haven't got any of that at home.
00:55:56Do you go with it, Terry? No, no.
00:55:58Do you go with the bed? No.
00:56:00Don't you start all that stuff.
00:56:02When you see her on game shows, even if it's Blankety Blank,
00:56:05I always thought of her, she's that amazing, older, sexy lady
00:56:09who is clearly having a great, sexy life.
00:56:12You realise that there's a kind of positive role model there
00:56:15in a woman who's completely unashamed of who she is
00:56:18and cannot be shamed.
00:56:20Diana, how grand to see you.
00:56:22I never rude to you when I come on the show, am I?
00:56:24It's good to see you. That's why they keep asking me back.
00:56:27Diana remained popular and present on UK TV screens
00:56:31into the early 80s.
00:56:33She was visibly gaining weight
00:56:35and, unknown to the public, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
00:56:40At first, she kept it secret
00:56:42and was determined not to be beaten by it.
00:56:45She co-wrote a book on weight loss
00:56:47and joined ITV's brand-new breakfast station, TV AM,
00:56:51to host a dieting segment.
00:56:54In the early days of TV AM,
00:56:56the station struggled terribly to, you know,
00:56:59get established in a brand-new world of breakfast television
00:57:02and a master stroke was bringing along Diana Dawes.
00:57:07Can we just establish what you were?
00:57:09Originally? Well, originally, first of all...
00:57:11Originally, 15 stone 3. 15 stone 3. And what were you last week?
00:57:14And last week, I was 12.5. 12.5. Yeah.
00:57:17She'd put on a lot of weight
00:57:19and so it was decided that we'd do a regular series on her
00:57:24teaching people about healthy eating.
00:57:27And then comes dinner and the big splurge.
00:57:30And this is quick and easy paella.
00:57:33And each week, it was my job to weigh Diana on the scales.
00:57:36Absolutely marvellous. Well done.
00:57:38And now I was 12... I broke the barrier last week, didn't I?
00:57:41I probably break the scales this week.
00:57:43And each week, her weight would go down
00:57:45and it was remarkable.
00:57:47In the space of 13 weeks,
00:57:50she'd lost a whacking 54 pounds.
00:57:54Later, it emerged that she'd started off
00:57:59with a load of weights on her person
00:58:02and with each ensuing week, she diminished the weights
00:58:06so that, you know, obviously,
00:58:08what registered on the scales came down and down and down.
00:58:11I don't know whether it's true or not,
00:58:13but I kind of like to believe it,
00:58:15cos that's Diana Dawes for you.
00:58:20Despite the laughs Diana was having on screen with Nick Owen,
00:58:24she was masking the severity of her illness.
00:58:27And soon she would reveal that she was facing a battle
00:58:31that not even she could win.
00:58:33I don't want it to keep coming back,
00:58:35but then, on the other hand, I shall fight it all the way.
00:58:39By 1983, screen icon Diana Dawes had seen her career
00:58:44take in modelling, acting, singing,
00:58:47and she was now a firm favourite on breakfast TV.
00:58:51But in October that year, she discovered her time was running out.
00:58:56She chose to speak out about her ovarian cancer
00:58:59in a frank interview with the BBC.
00:59:02You know, I've lived an extremely full life.
00:59:05I've had a wonderful life.
00:59:07I've also been, in my day, I've been a wicked so-and-so.
00:59:11I have.
00:59:12And I figure that you pay in life for what you've done
00:59:17and you also get out of life what you put into it.
00:59:21It was clear she was pretty seriously ill.
00:59:24She was in a very bad state of mind.
00:59:28It was clear she was pretty seriously ill.
00:59:31I did actually ask her if she was frightened of dying.
00:59:36Of course I'm scared, but you see, I'm still scared of cancer
00:59:40inasmuch as I don't want it to keep coming back,
00:59:43but then, on the other hand, I shall fight it all the way.
00:59:46It's chosen the wrong person by actually choosing me.
00:59:49She knew I was going to ask that. She wanted to answer it.
00:59:52She was a very brave lady
00:59:54and I'm brave to talk about it like that.
00:59:57Diana stayed working at TV-AM for another four months
01:00:01until February 1984,
01:00:03despite sometimes feeling so ill that it was an effort to get out of bed.
01:00:08I spoke to her on the phone two or three weeks before her death
01:00:15and she was going in for an operation.
01:00:19And she downplayed it and she said to me,
01:00:22whatever happens, just remember how much I love you.
01:00:26And that was the last time I spoke to her.
01:00:33Diana spent her final days in the Princess Margaret Hospital in Windsor
01:00:38and her best friend, Jess Conrad, was at her bedside.
01:00:42I went to see her at Windsor and she had the pink nightdress on
01:00:49and, um, God, she looked very beautiful.
01:00:53And, um...
01:01:00..she just died.
01:01:05And, um...
01:01:08..I'd lost probably the best friend I ever had.
01:01:12Diana died on the 4th of May, 1984, at the age of just 52.
01:01:21Her funeral was a huge event and attracted a plethora of stars.
01:01:26I went to the funeral and that was quite an occasion.
01:01:31I mean, the showbiz who's who there was remarkable.
01:01:36Danny Le Roux, Barbara Windsor, Freddie Starr,
01:01:40those sorts.
01:01:44It was so sad.
01:01:47Alan Lake, her husband, was so visibly distraught.
01:01:53And there next to him was their little lad, Jason, only about 14.
01:02:00Terribly, terribly sad day.
01:02:02The passing of a legend.
01:02:04I was in touch with Alan and Jason, but it was, you know,
01:02:09our lives had been turned upside down, basically.
01:02:14After Diana's death, her husband, Alan Lake,
01:02:17burned most of her clothes and fell into a depression.
01:02:21Five months later, he took his own life,
01:02:24leaving their 14-year-old son, Jason, an orphan.
01:02:28The tragedy of Alan Lake,
01:02:30killing himself with a shotgun in Jason's bedroom.
01:02:36Losing Diana and Alan at such an early age,
01:02:40it must have been so traumatic for him.
01:02:45Alan had put Orchard Manor up for sale before his death.
01:02:49He no longer wanted to live there without Diana
01:02:52and he couldn't afford to lose her.
01:02:54He no longer wanted to live there without Diana
01:02:57and he couldn't afford to keep it.
01:02:59The house was sold, along with many of Diana's possessions.
01:03:04I think it took a great toll on my dad,
01:03:08at such a young age, for your whole life
01:03:12to kind of come crashing down and completely change.
01:03:15However, my dad was never bitter,
01:03:21always spoke so fondly of his parents.
01:03:25Jason died due to drug and alcohol issues in 2019
01:03:29at the age of just 50.
01:03:31I did actually wear my dad's jacket today
01:03:34because I wanted to bring a little piece of him with me,
01:03:37so it's nice to sort of feel him with me, so, yeah.
01:03:42Diana's last film, Steaming, was released in 1985,
01:03:47a year after her death.
01:03:49It proved to be a poignant swan song
01:03:52and gave her a last word on an issue
01:03:54which had troubled her in later life.
01:03:56There's only three ways of getting money.
01:04:00One, you inherit it.
01:04:02Two, you marry it.
01:04:03And three, you earn it.
01:04:05Dawes plays the manageress of a women-only baths
01:04:10and it's kind of a quiet exit for her, really.
01:04:16It's really good to see her at the very end
01:04:19in this totally female space
01:04:22with actors who are as great as her,
01:04:26as Sarah Miles, Vanessa Redgrave,
01:04:29you know, Dawes and Redgrave together in one scene.
01:04:32That is, you know, that is classy.
01:04:34Maybe Sarah's right. Maybe we can save the baths.
01:04:37Well, we can always try. That's the motto.
01:04:41Diana had taken on life
01:04:43and fought each of her battles with a smile.
01:04:46She talked her way into a movie career at the age of 17
01:04:50and when times were bad, she reinvented herself
01:04:53in search of new income and new audiences.
01:04:57And the public loved her for it.
01:04:59Certainly in UK pop culture,
01:05:02there's been no-one else like Diana Dawes.
01:05:04She was undeniably successful, she was undeniably famous,
01:05:08but she also just seemed like one of us,
01:05:10someone we could easily have a chat with.
01:05:12So that's something we really took to our hearts.
01:05:15I think part of the appeal of Dawes,
01:05:18the reason why there's a kind of mythology about her,
01:05:21is because of that sense of a talent
01:05:23that couldn't quite find a place,
01:05:25a talent that was exploited in the wrong kind of way
01:05:29and that never quite found proper expression.
01:05:35I never met anybody again that was ever...
01:05:38could touch her for laughter, for glamour
01:05:41and just for being a magnificent specimen of a woman.
01:05:46She was Britain's biggest star back in the 1950s
01:05:52and also was a larger-than-life television personality
01:05:56that really became just loved by millions of people
01:06:01and she truly was a national treasure.
01:06:06So David Jason sits down and talks about his time behind the till
01:06:11with fellow comedy genius Ronnie Barker.
01:06:14It's open all hours, 50 years of laughter,
01:06:17brand-new tomorrow night at ten to nine.
01:06:19Next up, we're in 1970 for the year's greatest hits.
01:06:35.