Fiona Kennedy Clark (born 2 July 1955), OBE, DL is a Scottish singer, actress and broadcaster, and the daughter of Scottish and Gaelic singers Calum Kennedy and Anne Gillies. As a child she appeared with her parents as they performed as a family, and this developed into a successful solo career.
Kennedy's TV appearances include the 1971 series The Witch's Daughter , Sutherland's Law and Mauro the Gypsy, made for The Childrens Film Foundation and released in 1972, four series of Record Breakers on BBC1 and the New Year Show with Sir Trevor MacDonald. She also presented Behind the Scenes at Monarch of the Glen . She has also appeared on BBC TV's Songs of Praise as a singer. [1]
She had a role in the 1973 film The Wicker Man , in which she played Holly Grimmond. [2] Her production The Kist has enjoyed 5 star reviews at The Edinburgh Festival Fringe and has also been performed in Aberdeen, Glasgow and New York.
She has recorded several albums including Maiden Heaven and Coming Home. Her 2017 album Time to Fly includes songs co-written with Beth Nielsen-Chapman and duets with Ross Wilson of Blue Rose Code.
Kennedy sang for Queen Elizabeth II on a number of occasions and performed at the G8 Summit at Edinburgh Castle. She has sung at the first NATO Burns Supper in Brussels, performed at Celtic Connections and Transatlantic Sessions on BBC 2, touring with Runrig, hosted television programmes for PBS in America, narrated Peter and the Wolf and The Snowman with the RSNO, presented Live at The Lemon Tree for BBC Scotland with Phil Cunningham, and narrated The Three Ships with Sir Tony Robinson, composed by Paul Mealor. She has acted in a number of plays including Alfie in the West End and Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaites at the Edinburgh International Festival. [3] [4]
A visit to Ellis Island inspired her own production The Kist, which appeared at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, as well as at venues in Scotland, London and New York. She collaborates regularly with writer and director John Bett including ten years of Nae Ordinary Burns Supper. [3]
Kennedy is a Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Aberdeenshire. She is Honorary President of VSA, and is the Patron of charities including FROM Scotland (Famine Relief for Orphans in Malawi), Speakeasy, St Margaret’s Braemar, Jazzartuk and Pitlochry Festival Theatre. In addition, she is a Trustee of the University of Aberdeen's Development Trust and an Ambassador for London Scottish Rugby Club.
Year | Title | Role | Company | Director | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1982 | Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaites | Danger | Scottish Theatre Company | Tom Fleming | play by Sir David Lindsay, adapted by Robert Kemp |
Kennedy was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2014 New Year Honours for services to music and for charitable services in Scotland. [5]
Richard Wilson is a Scottish actor, theatre director and broadcaster. He is most famous for playing Victor Meldrew in the BBC sitcom One Foot in the Grave. Another notable role was as Gaius, the court physician of Camelot, in the BBC drama Merlin.
Sir David Lyndsay of the Mount was a Scottish knight, poet, and herald who gained the highest heraldic office of Lyon King of Arms. He remains a well regarded poet whose works reflect the spirit of the Renaissance, specifically as a makar.
Karen Matheson OBE is a Scottish folk singer who frequently sings in Gaelic. She is the lead singer of the group Capercaillie and was a member of Dan Ar Braz's group L'Héritage des Celtes, with whom she often sang lead vocals, either alone or with Elaine Morgan. She and Morgan sang together on the Breton language song "Diwanit Bugale", the French entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1996. She made a cameo appearance in the 1995 movie Rob Roy singing the song "Ailein duinn".
Liz Lochhead Hon FRSE is a Scottish poet, playwright, translator and broadcaster. Between 2011 and 2016 she was the Makar, or National Poet of Scotland, and served as Poet Laureate for Glasgow between 2005 and 2011.
Alexandria "Sandi" Thom is a Scottish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Banff, Scotland. She became widely known in 2006 after her debut single, "I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker ", topped the UK Singles Chart in June of that year, as well as in Australia and Ireland. The single became the biggest-selling single of 2006 in Australia, where it spent ten weeks at the top of the ARIA Singles Chart.
Andy Gray was a Scottish actor and writer from Perth.
A Satire of the Three Estates, is a satirical morality play in Middle Scots, written by makar Sir David Lyndsay. The complete play was first performed outside in the playing field at Cupar, Fife in June 1552 during the Midsummer holiday, where the action took place under Castle Hill. It was subsequently performed in Edinburgh, also outdoors, in 1554. The full text was first printed in 1602 and extracts were copied into the Bannatyne Manuscript. The Satire is an attack on the Three Estates represented in the Parliament of Scotland – the clergy, lords and burgh representatives, symbolised by the characters Spiritualitie, Temporalitie and Merchant. The clergy come in for the strongest criticism. The work portrays the social tensions present at this pivotal moment in Scottish history.
David Rintoul is a Scottish stage and television actor. Rintoul was born in Aberdeen, Scotland. He studied at the University of Edinburgh, and won a scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.
Pauline Goldsmith is an actress, theatre maker and comedic writer from Belfast in the north of Ireland. She has lived in Glasgow and Belfast. Her plays include "Bright Colours Only" which has been created several times for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Robert Kemp (1908–1967) was a Scottish playwright. Along with Tom Fleming and Lennox Milne, he was a founder of the Edinburgh Gateway Company.
Thomas Kelman Fleming, FRSAMD was a Scottish actor, director, and poet, and a television and radio commentator for the BBC.
Walter Carr was a Scottish actor and comedian.
The Scottish Theatre Company was started in 1980 under the direction of Dundee-born actor Ewan Hooper who had revived the Greenwich Theatre, London in 1969, but for most of its 8 years it was directed by his successor Tom Fleming. From its production base in Glasgow, where its home theatre was the Theatre Royal, it set out its policy of presenting Scottish and international classic drama, and commissioned new plays of Scottish drama. It was launched with a performance of Let Wives Tak Tent, Robert Kemp's translation into Scots of Molière's L'Ecole des Femmes, at the McRobert Centre at the University of Stirling on 16 March 1981. It toured nationally and appeared at the Edinburgh International Festival. The company represented British Theatre at the International Theatre Biennale in Warsaw in 1986 with Sir David Lyndsay's Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaites.
John Cairney was a Scottish stage, film and television actor who found fame through his one-man shows on Robert Burns, Robert Louis Stevenson, Robert Service, Charles Rennie Mackintosh and William McGonagall.
Thomas Welsh Watson was a Scottish-born stage, television and film actor.
Cedric Thorpe Davie OBE was a musician and composer, most notably of film scores such as The Green Man in 1956. A high proportion of his film and documentary music and his concert pieces have a Scottish theme.
The Gateway Theatre was a Category C listed building in Edinburgh, Scotland, situated on Elm Row at the top of Leith Walk.
Wildcat Stage Productions was an influential left-wing theatre and music production company based in Glasgow. Founded in 1978 as a spin-off from the 7:84 Company, it formed a key part of the Scottish touring theatre network for the next 20 years, creating more than 80 shows and giving many thousands of performances across Scotland, the UK and internationally. The company was named after the term for unofficial industrial action, excluding the word “theatre” from its name to avoid middle-class or bourgeois associations.
Sadie Aitken was a Scottish theatre manager, producer, actor and theatre activist prominent in Scottish theatre from 1935 until her death. Her contribution to theatre in Scotland spanned amateur, community, applied and professional drama. As a compliment, she was nicknamed "The Caledonian Lilian Baylis".
Dr. David Purves was a Scottish environmental scientist, playwright and poet, and a champion of the Scots language.