Return of the nightingale: Wartime chanteuse, co-star of Noel Coward and mother of Jane Birkin, Judy Campbell is now preparing for cabaret - at 86. Paul Webb meets her.

(From The Daily Telegraph)

Byline: PAUL WEBB

Visiting Judy Campbell at her house in Chelsea is a curious mixture of stepping back into a wartime Noel Coward movie and being at the centre of a chic modern world of singers and film stars.

She is an actress who toured wartime Britain as Coward's leading lady (she created the roles of Joanna in Present Laughter and Ethel in This Happy Breed). She is also the mother of Jane Birkin, the actress and chanteuse, whose relationship with Serge Gainsbourg was a staple of 1960s gossip columns, and whose own daughters have joined the ranks of the jeunesse doree of the European and Hollywood film worlds.

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