SERENA CROSS is the producer/director of "Definitely Dusty" the documentary, which aired on BBC 2 on December 26,1999 at 22:50

Q1: What was it that made you want to do the documentary? Had you been a fan
of Dusty?

Yes I was a fan in the sense that I knew her big songs, and loved her voice, but not to the level that I knew everything she’d ever sung and everything about her. Not the trainspotter level of fandom… Though actually I’ve become more like that through doing this programme!
It was a real privilege to be able to make the doc. I found Dusty fascinating: this amazing voice, a great national figure, with a larger than life image… you can’t help but wonder - what was going on behind that? She meant so many different things to different people, and I think that when someone like that dies people step forward to claim their legacy and this can sometimes be horribly reductive, whether they are idolizing or demonising them. Television is inevitably quite simplistic, but I tried to do something truthful, not a fluffy tribute piece nor a hatchet job, just something that looked at the highs and the lows, talked to the people who really knew her… that voice, but not to the level that I keverything she’d ever sung and everything about her.

Q2: Did your perception of her change as a result of the research &
interviews?

Yes it did. I found that there was an uneasy relationship between her public and private faces, but that she had real depth and complexity. As I learnt more about her and spent more time talking to people who were close to her, I found out that she was both a more infuriating, frustrating person than I had thought, and a more likeable one. I ended up really liking her, I found her very touching. I was impressed by the people she surrounded herself with - bright, funny, eccentric, very loyal people. .

Q3: Is there anyone or anything that you haven't got in the show, that you
wish you did have?

In terms of interviewees, I tried hard for Carole King - as a fan of her myself and knowing of her continued admiration for and desire to work with Dusty, it would have been great. But Carole’s a very busy woman and it didn’t work out. Still, I got Burt Bacharach, so…
I had another kind of heaven there!!
Since the film is carried so much by those closest to Dusty, it would have been really special to have been able to interview Dusty’s brother Tom - he’s the only one who could answer questions first hand about Mary O’Brien and the early years……But if Dusty had her shy side, Tom is even more so - he’s a very private person, and he just doesn’t like talking about Dusty in ‘public’ and I obviously respect that. We’ve been in touch as things have progressed and I’ve just had a lovely note back from him after sending him a tape of ‘Definitely Dusty’.In terms of archive material, I would love to have been able to find some more of those Dusty shows which have been so carelessly ‘lost’/’erased’/ ‘dumped’ over the years. I tried libraries, private collectors, internet, but to no avail - so if someone has unlimited time…over to you!

Q4: What was the most surprising thing you learnt about Dusty?

I kept being surprised - by the level of her musicianship, by the depth of her insecurity, all sorts of things …
But on a personal level, it was the realization that however many times I listen to her records or watch her perform, I never get bored of hearing her voice. Believe me, when you’re making programmes, that’s extremely rare. However good someone is, after having to hear them fifty thousand times in the course of making a programme (or 3 !), you’re generally sick of them and need a break of about 6 months from them afterwards. But the opposite has happened with Dusty.

Q5: Is there anything in the programme that we can look forward to, which
hasn't been seen in the other tributes?

I think there is, but not in a shock horror way. It’s not a sensationalist film. It’s about Dusty as a human being, as someone who is not reducible to any of the labels that have been put on her. The really special thing that you won’t have seen before is Dusty’s close friends talking about her - and in a very honest way, including about her ‘lost years’ in the US. The film has got big stars like Elton John and Burt Bacharach in it and they’re great, but the real stars are Pat and Vicki and Simon and co.
In terms of archive, there’s some that’s never been seen in this country, or at least if it has, not for a very long time! I’ve been able to use clips from the two 1966 BBC shows which resurfaced in Jamaica and were returned to the BBC - (some of you saw how great they were at the NFT in June). There’s also some wonderful footage of Dusty tap-dancing in the park, a great interview from 1967, and loads more….

Q6: Do you have any plans to do other Dusty projects?

Oh yes! I’ve now done the quick turnaround tribute introduced by Lulu when Dusty died, a compilation programme with Jools Holland for UK Arena, the ‘Definitely Dusty’ documentary… And I am planning more - whether I get them commissioned or not is another matter. I’ve got so much footage already which I couldn’t fit into the doc, and I’m looking at various ways of packaging some of that. It was be lovely to do something to mark her birthday/anniversary. I’m also involved in planning a big project, which I’ll remain a bit mysterious about for now, but will let you know when it gets a bit further down the line!

Q7: Finally, Serena, what are your own favourite Dusty performances?

In terms of recordings, as I said, before the doc I really hadn’t got past the hits, but the ones I’m still humming now are See All Her Faces, which became the kind of theme song for the programme, You Don’t Own Me - which I I think is a good warning to all of us still, Just A Little Lovin’ from the Memphis album…
The big revelation for me was Soft Core, from the US released album, White Heat - it’s a weird song, with these Kurt Weill type bits, but in between there’s the most stunning, fragile vocals with lyrics that hit you right in the gut - seek it out if you haven’t already!

Regarding filmed live performances, Son Of A Preacher Man on the Tom Jones Show is obviously wonderful and very much of its time; Dancing In The Street on the NME Pollwinners Concert is fab - she blows everyone - including The Beatles and The Stones - away! Her sheer power and energy cuts through….. it’s exhilarating.
Off her own show on the BBC in 1966 and 1967: If you Go Away was a Jacques Brel favourite of mine, she goes for the sentiment full hog and pulls it off; Poor Wayfaring Stranger shows another side (and I know Simon agrees on that one!), Gonna Build A Mountain on one of the rediscovered 1966 shows where she gets down with her backing singers; and the Baby Baby duet with Tom Jones is such great fun - I put it on when I need cheering up!!
Up On The Roof on The Rolf Harris Show in 1971 is a rare gem, Quiet Please…… from her Royal Albert Hall concert in 1979 is wonderfully moving - the concert’s never been shown in its entirety. Where Is A Woman To Go on Later With Jools Holland in 1995, was I believe her first live TV appearance for 15 years and indeed her final live performance on TV. She’s a woman at the height of her powers still - and if she wasn’t loving it, then she made a bloody good show of appearing to..!!

The other Dusty sites on the internet are welcome to quote & refer to this interview, but please refer to the original site & link directly to it.

This interview is (c) SIMON BELL(DUSTY DEVOTEDLY) 1999.