Yana (singer)

[1] Yana was born Pamela Guard on 16 February 1931, in Billericay, Essex (her later publicity people thought that it sounded more interesting to describe her as "Cornish-born", and her given name was sometimes rendered "Pamella").

In 1955, she had made a somewhat similar brief appearance (as a civilian singer in the fictional "Coastal Forces Club") in another very British film, The Ship that Died of Shame, based on the Nicholas Monsarrat short novel of the same name.

The recently launched ITV commercial television channel (there was, at the time, only one in the UK) featured Yana in its immensely-popular variety show Sunday Night at the London Palladium from 1955.

She was famous enough by then to be mentioned briefly in American newspapers without needing much introduction, as when the gossip columnist of the Milwaukee Sentinel, Earl Wilson, whose column was syndicated throughout the US, noted (in March 1956) that "the shapely British singer, Yana, is being sought by Columbia Pictures.

"[11] Corbett also noted that, during the run of the show, Yana was having an affair or at least a flirtation with its writer, Digby Wolfe, who later found greater success with That Was The Week That Was and Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In.

[12] Yana appeared rather frequently in pantomimes and in variety shows generally, alongside such British stars as Norman Wisdom, Tommy Steele, Arthur Haynes and even George Formby, with whom she was said to have had an affair.

She was briefly rediscovered, featuring in the British TV nostalgia show Where Are They Now?, and cast in a pantomime, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Yana's role was the Good Fairy)[11] in Crewe, Cheshire, but her last job was that of demonstrating a slimming machine at Harrods department store.