Patricia Bredin, a singer who represented the UK at Eurovision more than six decades ago, has died aged 88.
The late musician was just 22 years old when she became the first act to represent the nation at the competition.
While Eurovision first took place in 1956, the UK made its debut the following year, having held a different competition during the song contest’s inaugural year instead called Festival of British Popular Song.
The UK then competed for the first time in 1957 in Frankfurt, with Bredin finishing in seventh place with her song All, which was the first to be sung at English at the event.
According to regional newspaper Hull Live, her family confirmed that she died on Monday August 14.
Bredin previously opened up to the BBC about what it was like to take part in Eurovision all those years ago, describing the experience of performing alongside a 60-piece orchestra as like ‘being on clouds’.
Speaking to BBC Radio Humberside in 2016, she said: ‘Television? I’d never heard of it! I didn’t know what they were talking about. But it could be candy and you don’t say no to candy.’
Bredin starred in the original cast of the musical Free as Air in 1957, before appearing in the comedy film Left Right and Centre a couple of years later opposite celebrated actor Ian Carmichael.
Her other movie credits included The Treasure of Monte Cristo and Desert Mice, while she also appeared in the TV variety show The Good Old Days.
Bredin also took her talents to the stage, succeeding Dame Julie Andrews on Broadway in her role in Camelot.
In 1964, Bredin married Welsh singer Ivor Emmanuel, before the couple divorced two years later.
She later moved to Nova Scotia and married a Canadian businessman called Charles McCullough, but he died on their honeymoon.
In 1989, the late singer published a book called My Fling on the Farm, in which she wrote about her cattle-breeding efforts over a decade on the estate she shared with her late second husband.
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