Friends pray as trouper Anna fights for life

May 4 2008 By Marion Scott

Exclusive Fran's Sister In Hospice

THE surviving half of legendary tartan singing duo Fran and Anna is being cared for in a hospice.

Anna, 83, has been described by close family friends as "fading" after becoming terminally ill.

When her beloved sister Fran died of pneumonia at the age of 81 five years ago, Anna spoke of how she could not imagine life without her.

Now she has been taken into St Andrew's Hospice in Airdrie.

Family friend Edward Mairs said: "Anna chats about the good old days but she is fading. It's very sad.

"They were utterly inseparable. Wherever you saw one, there was the other. They touched the lives of everyone who met them, they were both such genuinely nice people. They spent their whole lives spreading love and goodness, not just in Scotland but across the world.

"They worked tirelessly for their church and charities."

Fran and Anna's dad David Watt was a ventriloquist and kids' entertainer whose stage name was Valentine Prince.

They were young children when they joined him and big sister Lily, a pianist, on stage as puppeteers.

It was the beginning of a career that lasted almost seven decades. They were managed by Lily until her death in 1998.

Scottish comic and Clyde 2 DJ Dean Park worked with them many times.

He said: "Fran and Anna were utterly kitsch with their tartan mini kilts, fishnet tights and feathered hats but nobody cared as they were such lovely, lovely lassies.

"I'm devastated to hear Anna is so ill. If we lose her, it's the end of an era in Scottish variety."

Showbiz friend Johnny Beattie said: "They were like two wee lassies dressing up and playing at it, and that's what the audiences loved them for.

"They were so homely and unique, they appealed to umpteen generations.

"Despite all the years working beside them, I never ever saw either one without full make-up and costume, even when they weren't working. They came to the theatre like that and went away like that. In fact, I think they even went to bed like that."

Sir Terry Wogan added: "I have the happiest of memories working with Fran and Anna. I wish Anna all the best and I'm thinking of her right now."

'If we lose her, it will be the end of an era in Scottish variety'

Comedian Dean Park

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