Clodagh Rodgers (born 5 March 1947) is a retired singer from Northern Ireland, best known for her hit singles including "Come Back and Shake Me", "Goodnight Midnight", and "Jack in the Box".
Rodgers was born in Warrenpoint[1] and began her professional singing career at the age of thirteen, when she opened for Michael Holliday.
[1] In November 1963, she flew to Nashville, Tennessee at the invitation of the American singer Jim Reeves, to perform at the Grand Ole Opry.
[8] In May 1970, Rodgers appeared on the bill at the NME poll-winner's concert, hosted by presenters, Tony Blackburn and the now-disgraced, Jimmy Savile.
According to John Kennedy O'Connor's The Eurovision Song Contest – The Official History, the BBC were concerned over the reaction the UK entrant would get on the stage from the Irish public.
As a Catholic female from Northern Ireland, she received death threats from the IRA who regarded her as a traitor, as a result of her appearing for the UK.
Rodgers admitted to Ken Bruce during his eponymous BBC Radio 2 show in an interview broadcast on Friday, 25 May 2012, that the intention had been to release "Another Time, Another Place", which had placed fourth of the six entries in the Song for Europe contest as the follow-up single to "Jack in the Box" and she began promoting it whilst in Dublin for the Eurovision final.
[14] Despite only one more Top 30 chart single, "Lady Love Bug" in autumn 1971, Rodgers continued to be a major TV star in the UK, guesting on many shows (including playing herself in the BBC sitcom Whack-O!
On Irish television, The Clodagh Rodgers Show won an award at the Golden Rose TV festival in Montreux.
[3] In August 1973, Rodgers hosted the first edition of BBC2's Show Of The Week: The Young Generation Big Top,[18] the forerunner of the later BBC1 series Seaside Special.
Rodgers also made a mark with her impressions of fellow artists such as Cilla Black, often working with Mike Yarwood, Des O'Connor, Tommy Cooper, Bob Monkhouse, and Dickie Henderson in variety.
[citation needed] She was a regular performer in UK resorts' summer seasons, sharing the bill with Mike and Bernie Winters in Blackpool, Matt Monroe in Great Yarmouth among others.
Having left RCA in early 1974 (after two well received albums It's Different Now and You are my Music, Rodgers then released a single for the Pye label, "Saturday Sunday" later that year.
Later in 1978, Rodgers teamed with Terry Wogan on the ITV game show 3-2-1 in the programme's first Christmas Special Celebrity edition.
She split from her manager/husband not long after their son's birth and opted for motherhood over a musical career; although she released two singles on the Precision label in 1980.
In the TV series Monty Python's Flying Circus, Episode 34: "The Cycling Tour", Mr. Gulliver (Terry Jones) receives a head trauma from a car accident and is convinced that he is Clodagh Rodgers.