Jane MacDonald

CARRY ON CRUISING

Throw Jane Macdonald back a hundred years and introduce her to Catherine Cookson and yet another airport bodice ripper would ensue. The story of success despite childhood deprivation is one of which Ms Cookson could make yet another million-selling book. Add to that the fact that it starts out in the North (Wakefield) and has a happy ending and mega sales would be a foregone conclusion.
However, as all avid viewers of BBC's The Cruise know only too well, this is real life and now it emerges that the happy ending may not be as happy as at first seems.
The 36 year old miner's daughter has been a professional singer since she was 18. For 12 years she flogged her way round the northern club circuit, just another girl singer doing the old numbers. She was never going to make it following in the well worn footsteps of a never ending queue of girl singers trying to be someone special. Female club singers were, and still are, ten-a-penny.
Just as her spirit was wilting a friend suggested she apply for the cruise liners. Sure she wouldn't get on she applied and won a short contract on a small ship moored in Tenerife. Five years later and she was still afloat when she landed a job on The Galaxy and fate, in the shape of the BBC, took a hand. Appearing for 12 weeks in the fly-on-the-wall phenomenon endeared Jane to the viewing public and ensured that her first album went straight to No.1. However, it was her stage fright and the battle to overcome it that won over any sceptics.
To take advantage of her affection in the hearts of the audience, the BBC arranged to do a one-off special on Jane's wedding to boyfriend Henrik. From there it was just a small step for a round of sell-out concerts, filling the Albert Hall and landing her very own TV series, Star For A Night, in which she attempts to do for other hopefuls what the BBC did for her.
But, behind this mask of good fortune lurks a shadow which, as shadows often do, threatens to bring it all tumbling around her shoulders.
Jane's childhood was blighted not so much by poverty but by emotional deprivation. Her father was a typical northern man, unable to show emotion. He compensated by pushing Jane in her career and acting as manager/roadie but was very strict with her. Now she has married a man who is, to all intents and purposes, her father reincarnate. Henrik shouts at her, bullies her and tells her how to dress and behave.
In her book, Follow Your Dreams, Jane tells of an incident when Henrik and she were on a romantic holiday and he told her she was too fat. The minute she got home she hired a personal trainer and dietician!
Reading Jane's book it seems that, despite all the success, she is an unhappy, insecure little girl. Very much an older version of Geri Halliwell!

Follow Your Dreams - Harper Collins £16.99
First published on Gay UK Net
© Paul Towers 3/1/2000