Introducing Aimi Macdonald
Although, for many, she needs no introduction and will always be known as 'The Lovely Aimi Macdonald'. After being spotted by David Frost, Aimi joined the team on the iconic television sketch show, At Last, the 1948 Show, where she starred alongside John Cleese, Marty Feldman, Tim Brooke-Taylor and Graham Chapman. She was always introduced as 'The Lovely Aimi Macdonald' and the moniker stuck.
Photograph of Aimi by Peter Robertson
Having begun her career as a dancer in Paris and Las Vegas, Aimi found herself catapulted to fame in 1967 by At Last, the 1948 Show and she quickly became a household name on television. Roles on the big screen and West End stage followed and, over the years, Aimi worked with most of the best known stars of the era, both in the UK and on overseas tours. The list is long and distinguished - Oliver Reed, Richard O'Sullivan, Roger Moore, Shirley Maclaine, Jack Jones - to name only a few.
Aimi's film and stage credits read like a catalogue of the greatest hits of the 1960s, '70s and beyond: Ray Cooney's Run For Your Wife, Coward's Present Laughter, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Sez Les with Les Dawson, Celebrity Squares with Bob Monkhouse and, more recently, the stage production of Summer Holiday with Christopher Biggins. She also performed with Lionel Blair in Lady Be Good at the then beautiful art deco Saville Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue. She will never forget the opening night: "After the show, I had Jane Russell and Jack Benny in my dressing room! I was so young, I was barely more than a child and totally in awe. My big ambition had always been to star in a musical so I felt a bit as though I lost a little of my ambition after that high spot."
Aimi with the cast of At Last, The 1948 Show
A few decades later, Aimi has come full circle, having returned to cabaret, where she started out. In her youth, she played very much the soubrette whereas, now, she regales audiences with a lifetime of wonderful, engrossing anecdotes, illustrated with classic songs. She is thoroughly enjoying writing and directing her own shows and, after years of screen work, performing with her pianist, Trevor Defferd, in much more cosy, intimate settings. Thanks to an abundance of her early work now being available on the internet, she is also finding it very amusing and rewarding to be recognised in public by much younger audiences and delighted that they are enjoying the shows that made her name.
Aimi is, indeed, very lovely and we guarantee she'll entertain you to within an inch of your life with I Did It This Way so come and catch up with all her gossip - you know you want to.