Dame Felicity Lott

No, well, I've got parents who wouldn't have had me at home if I'd gone off like that.

I used to get really cross.

I had an agent in Paris, a lady, and she would say, no, madam can't sit near the window because there are drafts and madam can't do this.

Oh, for goodness sake.

I mean, it's quite important to keep out of drafts, I realise, later, but not tell everybody, oh, poo.

No, it's not.

You don't half miss it after.

when it's all gone and you're queuing up for your cheap flight to wherever it is.

Yes, absolutely.

I took the family mainly when our daughter was small.

I went to sing in Chicago for the first time.

They sent a black limo to the airport and my mum and dad came too.

And my dad thought he'd died and gone to heaven, you know, in this car.

He probably had booze in the back as well.

It was wonderful.

That was lovely.

They were so proud.

They didn't always enjoy everything, mind you, but they were happy and that was lovely.

We didn't have many records at home of classical music, but we had Elisabeth Schwarzkopf singing the four last songs of Strauss, which are wonderful.

I loved those and I received the vocal scores as a prize in Cheltenham for something or other that I won.