Susan Boyle Fern Britton Meets...

-SIMON COWELL:

-What's your name, darling?

OK, and who would you like to be as successful as?

On Saturday the 11th of April 2009, something unforgettable

happened here on this stage in Glasgow.

An eccentric, middle-aged, unemployed woman who lived

alone with her cat marched on the stage.

The audience started to snigger.

And then she started to sing.

# I dreamed a dream in time gone by... #

The phrase "overnight star" is often used to describe someone's path to fame and fortune.

You didn't expect that, did you? Did you? No!

But there could be no better description to describe the journey of Susan Boyle.

The day after her Britain's Got Talent audition, Susan Boyle

achieved national fame.

Within a week, she'd achieved international fame.

About 100 million people watched her audition on YouTube.

# When dreams were made and used and wasted... #

If you were going to draw up a blueprint for a pop star,

a middle-aged woman from a mining village in central Scotland

would not be what you would draw up.

But by the time Susan had reached the final of Britain's Got Talent,

the country's mood towards her had shifted.

The paparazzi were hounding her. There were press reports

of foul-mouthed outbursts.

The pressure was all too much and she had a very public breakdown.

Well, I wasn't aware that I had reached that point.

I just knew that I wasn't sleeping very well and I wasn't eating very well.

So there was a week I was really going about in a kind of trance, if you like.

# And still I dream he'll come to me... #

After a of period recuperating,

Susan returned to the place she was born and raised - Blackburn, West Lothian.

And it's this community of friends, family

and especially her church, that enabled Susan to bounce back.

And boy, did Susan Boyle bounce back!

Her first album became the world's most successful in 2009.

The next three also topped the charts.

She's duetted with Elaine Paige, Donny Osmond, Placido Domingo

and even sang for the Pope.

Yet throughout Susan has kept her feet on the ground.

-# Now life has killed the dream I dreamed.

-#

I think what makes Susan Boyle special, apart from that

remarkable voice, is her persona.

She is a very gentle person and I think the general public

thinks she is one of us, which she is.

As Susan herself admits, she has had her difficulties

with life, with friends, with society.

I've come to the beautiful Stobo Castle to meet Susan

and ask her how her faith has kept her motivated

and enabled her and supported her through the difficult hand that life has thrown at her.

-Thank you very much.

-Not a problem.

-How are you?

-Very well, thank you.

-Good.

-Had a good day so far?

-It's been a brilliant day.

This is really lovely to meet you, Susan.

I've been looking forward to this very much indeed.

Your family life at home sounds so loving and busy and big,

and you were very kind to let us into your house to let us have a look at it.

And you were... How many children were there?

-Well, I'm one of nine.

-One of nine.

There was no television!

BOTH LAUGH

Susan's journey began in Blackburn,

a former mining village, halfway between Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Her brothers and sisters were born in the 1950s and by the time

Susan arrived in '61, the council house her big Catholic family

lived in was already bursting at the seams.

This used to be the lassies' room.

There was a big bed in the corner. There was a dressing table.

And we all used to get ready in here.

The three girls - there was Bridie, Mary and Kathleen.

We all slept in here.

This used to be known as my mum and dad's room.

The bed was over there.

They had a wee Z-bed beside them. Guess who was in the Z-bed? Me!

They had the wardrobe there and everything. I remember it.

Mm-hm. So that's where it used to be - in here.

And my room now used to be the laddies' room.

That's Joe, John, James and Gerry.

Used to be all in here.

So you can imagine what it would be like with four men in here!

But never mind!

# Just walking in the rain

# Getting soaking wet... #

Typical for a community at that time, alongside the pits,

the pubs, the social clubs and the big housing estates, was church.

And in the Catholic tradition, a devotion to mother of God -

the Virgin Mary, known as Our Lady.

And church and religion was always a big part of the household?

It was, yeah, it was.

As people know, we're Roman Catholic and there's a very...

It's a very important part of my upbringing...

Indeed it's the backbone of my life.

Yes, exactly.

Do you remember the first time that you understood that

this was church and you were learning about Our Lady and Jesus and God?

I remember being four years old, and maybe younger, and going to Mass with my dad.

And he had to get in, into some kind of procession.

I can't remember the exact time of the year it was, but I remember

screaming the place down cos he'd left my side.

And when, and your mother...

I think it was your mother who gave you a really strong faith in Our Lady?

-She did, yes.

-Yes, what did she tell you?

She told me to always trust in Our Lady and to always trust in God

because he has a special plan for you...

and he'll see you right.

Frank Quinn has known Susan for years and taught her at college.

He is not only a close friend but, as a devout Catholic himself,

has guided Susan on her spiritual journey.

He's seen first-hand Susan's devotion to her faith and the Virgin Mary.

Susan's faith is like a beacon to her, you know?

It, it gives her light on her journey.

Her prayer, her prayer is very important to her -

she prays devoutly to Our Lady.

She sees Our Lady as being the mother of God.

# How great Thou art

# How great Thou art. #

Across the road from the church Susan attended every Sunday

was the local Catholic primary school.

But from the start she found studying difficult.

I knew I was very slow at school, and I knew I couldn't pick up

things the way I should have.

I was always aware that I was never going to be an academic

and there were some people in my class who were very intelligent

and who tended to get all the attention.

And I was sort of left behind.

I think you find that in most schools, though -

I'm just speaking generally here.

And when you... I read in your book that you said that you knew...

You understood the question and you knew the answer,

but it was trying to get it all together and be able

to say it in time before everyone else had moved on.

That's right. There was a kind of lack of co-ordination, if you like.

I knew what I wanted to say, but it wouldn't come out.

I found that very frustrating.

Yeah, yeah. And singing was always there when you were a little girl at the little school.

And it was the headmaster who had a singing competition one week, didn't he?

It was a Burns Competition, yeah.

And I sang Ye Banks And Braes.

I never really got very far in the competition

but I really enjoyed what I was doing,

and I did a section of poetry as well.

-There you are. OK?

-Hiya.

Lorraine Campbell runs a pub in Bathgate, near to where Susan lives.

She's a close friend of Susan's but was also at school with her

and can recall her difficulties fitting in.

You always knew, you know, Susan was on her own - just watching.

If she did engage in any fun or games, you know,

a big issue always in Susan's life was the bullying side -

folk making fun of her, you know?

Just because she was that bit different from everybody else.

But when she started singing -

at the age of nine, it would be at school -

and that was the first time I realised Susan Boyle

had a voice, and a beautiful voice.

This ability of Susan's to connect to people through her singing

would only be realised later in life.

But first she had to endure the difficulties of being a loner

at secondary school.

I got bullied a lot at school as well and that sort of held me back in some ways, you know?

There's one day I think they sort of chased you home from school, didn't they?

Well, they chased me home from school.

I remember this clearly, actually. And I got to my gate,

and of course they'd no way...

I mean, I just made a hell of a lot of noise.

Of course, my mum came out to see what was wrong.

Saw them, saw what was happening and just brought me into the house.

Sadly, on leaving school, things didn't get any better for Susan.

After briefly landing a job as a kitchen assistant in a local college, she was made redundant.

But of course, that's another knock, isn't it, to confidence,

and you have written very movingly about a depression that crept on you.

People do get depressed at some stage in their life.

I felt as if I was going into a very dark tunnel and I couldn't get out of it.

But there was some light at the end of it, but I didn't know where

that light was and I was kind of searching most of my life.

Did you find joy in anything during that period?

It was a very long period of depression.

And there were times I was OK and times I wasn't OK.

-You do get that.

-Absolutely.

Could you take joy in holidays, in being with your family?

Well, sometimes I felt OK. Sometimes I didn't feel OK.

But the times I did feel OK made up for it,

because it's important to have your family and friends around you.

It was very important then also to have my faith as well.

So let's go from the beginning of the last section.

Back in the '90s, Susan, unemployed and depressed,

decided to throw herself into what made her happy - singing.

First step - lessons.

Fred O'Neil, who lived locally, was her first vocal coach.

It was a November afternoon.

She'd made an appointment a week before.

It was a really rainy day, and she arrived in a yellow raincoat,

with a plastic kind of cover thing,

you know these plastic covery things, and kind of all dripping.

And arrived and was full of enthusiasm and we got on really well from the beginning.

From the start, Fred noticed something quite special about this new pupil of his.

With Susan, what people hear is that, between Susan's emotion

and her voice, there isn't a block -

her emotions and her singing are one.

She thinks of an emotion, or summons up an emotion - she sings,

and it's reflected somewhere in her voice, in her tone.

# Don't let the stars get in your eyes... #

Amongst the Scottish working classes, there was always a great tradition of the sing-song.

# Love blooms at night In daylight it dies... #

In the homes and the pubs.

And even by the '90s, it wasn't difficult for Susan to find somewhere to perform.

# ..it was all so simple then

# Or has time rewritten every line? #

So you would turn up at the pubs and the clubs where they had

singing competitions or open mic or whatever it's called nowadays...

And how did you get the confidence together to think, right,

I'm going to sit here quietly, listen to what's going on

and then it's going to be my turn - I'm going to get up and sing?

It took...took a bit of time.

It was...as I said before, I was very shy at the time,

but the compere at the time, a Mr Murphy, you know, he used to compere

the sing-songs in Blackburn,

and that was very much part of the community then,

that you went to that sing-song on the Thursday anyway.

And it was a good night out.

Everybody took part in it

and he noticed one night that I was a bit shy and, um, he just got me up to sing.

And before you sang, what was the reaction of the audience

as you walked towards the microphone?

Well, I couldn't really gauge it then,

but I went up to sing...

and their reaction was, "You can do it!"

You know? There was a lot of clapping going on.

I says, "Hmm, made a bit of an impact here.

"I'm not coming back here in a hurry!" You know?

Blanket over head job, you know?

Actress Elaine C Smith, herself an accomplished singer,

played the role of Susan Boyle in the musical of her life.

Usually in singers, there's just one or two notes that break your heart,

and Susan's got a bit of...

She has got that in her voice.

She'll hit a certain note and you'll sit and listen to it,

going, "Oh, that's very nice, la la la" and then you know - Wild Horses.

And there's a couple of notes in there that break your heart,

and that's what a true artist does.

And that's about connecting and the desire to connect.

There's lots of artists out there who just want to show off,

and go, "Hey, look what I can do - I'm brilliant at that"

and you go, "Yes, how marvellous".

But there are other ones that make you go (GASPS) and Susan's got that in her voice.

# Wild horses

# Couldn't drag me away

# Wild horses... #

Susan's musical ability was no accident of birth.

There was always music in the Boyle household

and as a miner in the '50s,

Susan's dad Patrick was famous for his tenor voice.

She can recall her dad belting out popular songs like Scarlet Ribbons.

# And I heard my child in prayer

# Send for me some scarlet ribbons... #

So when the strong man in her life became ill, it came as a huge shock.

My dad had been deteriorating for some time

and he went into hospital.

I saw him just before he...before he passed away

and said my goodbyes to him and all that, cos you do that.

But it's the first time I actually encountered somebody who...who died.

And I found that hard to get my head round.

In what way?

Well, it was a new area, but a very frightening area for me.

You know.

What helped you during that time?

The fact that my mother was still there.

But I didn't fully understand what she was going through.

-No.

-The loneliness she was experiencing and stuff like that.

I'm beginning to understand it a bit better now.

Because I'm older now, a bit more mature.

But I didn't have the maturity to understand the situation at the time.

# In our town no scarlet ribbons... #

The setbacks didn't stop there.

Soon after the death of her father, Susan's sister Kathleen,

who she was close to, died of an asthma attack.

Then her mother became ill.

And it fell to Susan to be the carer.

# ..my heart was aching... #

Well, when you're looking after somebody,

there is a small amount of resentment,

because you feel as if all responsibility is on your shoulders

and you can't cope with it.

But then that resentment can turn to love.

It did with me, you know.

I'd be telling a lie to say, "Oh, I was completely loving."

There was a wee bit of resentment because I couldn't do

what other people my age did and I couldn't go out a bit more.

Isolated in the home with her frail mother,

Susan needed direction in life.

From a young age,

Susan found comfort from pilgrimage to Catholic shrines.

So Susan decided to pay a visit the French town, Lourdes.

Here it's said apparitions of the Virgin Mary

appeared in the 19th century.

Now it's a place where people go

to strengthen their faith or pray for a cure for their illness.

And when you went to Lourdes, what did you feel?

I felt a great sense of peace...

A sense of being able to communicate my own personal thoughts.

And, er, there was a detachment, if you like,

from the worries of the outside world.

That's powerful too, isn't it?

Well, sometimes you need that.

You need that kind of detachment, if you like, if you want to, er...

How can I best put this?

If you want to focus more on what's really bothering you.

You need that kind of reflection, if you like,

that reflection to really...make a difference to yourself.

And what was it that you needed to focus on?

I didn't know what direction my life was going.

I didn't know...

Really, what I wanted, you know, so I thought...really, leave it

to a higher authority and let Him sort out my life for me.

So that visit to Lourdes - when you came home, did life change?

Was there a miracle?

I wouldn't say it was a miracle in a way,

but I began to do things on my own more.

This is Susan last year collecting an honorary degree

from Queen Margaret University.

It was in recognition of a course in caring she started after her visit to Lourdes years before.

All part of an effort to be more independent and get her life back on track.

Just hold it right up in the air for us.

Hold it right up.

When I looked at Susan, she had a capacity about her,

and having worked with students for many years, you can pick that up -

it's an intuitive thing that tutors have,

and I knew that Susan had a capacity to succeed.

She wasn't sure whether she did or not,

but I was confident that she had a capacity to actually succeed.

But as Susan was learning how to care for her mum,

her mother's health continued to deteriorate.

I remember her saying to me, and she was pretty low at this time...

"Susan, I'm not going to live very long.

"Look after my house and look after my cat."

And she says something else as well, "Remember you're mine."

And I said, "OK."

I can talk about it now. Couldn't at the time

because I would always burst into tears,

but you get strength from somewhere.

And after my mother's death, I got strength from the Legion of Mary.

I joined the Legion of Mary.

Those who join the Legion of Mary

devote themselves to the duties of their local church,

such as evangelising and caring for the vulnerable, old and sick.

As self-sacrificing as this work was,

it didn't sustain Susan and she struggled to cope.

I was down to six and a half stone.

The house was in an absolute mess, I was in a mess.

I think...yeah...

I was in a mess. Had social services in.

Because you couldn't look after yourself?

I had such a shock at my mother dying,

so I had that for about two years.

Oh, Susan was very low.

She was unhappy, you know,

for about seven months, you know.

You couldn't really talk to Susan, engage in conversation,

cos her social's going to church, going to the local shops,

and just having a wee talk with folk in the street when she's going by,

and that wasn't happening.

And then she kind of thought, I'm sitting here doing nothing.

She had a purpose and she always wanted to make her mum proud, and her family.

And then, just when you, you thought things couldn't...

Maybe can improve a bit, I said, well, there's only one thing you could do,

if you can't have anything else - you could try your hand at singing.

And I hadn't sung for quite some time because of the death of my mother.

So I applied for various auditions and the one I did apply for

was Britain's Got Talent but I never really thought I'd get through.

I just put the form in anyway.

And er...I got, I got through

and then I get a phone call to meet the panel.

So I says, in a way, my mother must have wanted me to do this.

Susan's got a determination in her. Although she can be quite shy

and fragile and, you know, quite vulnerable,

if she wants to do something,

she's determined, stubborn and she'll do what she wants to do.

She got up that day and she wanted to go along to that audition.

That whole day started very, very early in the morning.

Half past six in the morning.

Half past six in the morning.

You were recovering from the death of your mother.

You decided, "I'm going to go and do this".

So you had no-one at home to say, "Hmm, Susan, I don't think the white shoes are right"?

I just stuck anything on me, you know?

Hopped on the bus. It was the wrong bus.

The wrong bus. I could see the place but I couldn't get to the damn place. Excuse me!

Got another bus. Got there.

That's right. I was supposed to be there at half past nine.

I arrived maybe a couple of minutes late, and they said,

"You have to wait till the next batch of auditions."

So I said, "I'm not going back home all this distance,

"having come this far",

so I just decided...well, they decided to put me into the holding room.

Susan performed her audition at the Glasgow's SECC auditorium in January 2009.

-What's your name, darling?

-My name is Susan Boyle.

You sang so beautifully for that audition and when you saw...

Did you feel the audience's atmosphere change?

-I felt...I felt they were listening to me.

-Yeah.

I could also sense that my dad was there as well.

-Could you?

-Mm-hm.

# Then I was young and unafraid... #

-Around you? Next to you?

-Probably next to me.

# And dreams were made and used and wasted... #

So you could feel that and sing so beautifully all at the same time?

Maybe it was him that had helped me.

SHE HOLDS NOTE

RAPTUROUS APPLAUSE

Look at that!

Other than the audience,

nobody knew how well Susan's audition really went.

# That we would live the years together... #

Had you told anyone at home that you were doing this?

I think I told the half the... half the people in Blackburn.

# And there are storms we cannot weather... #

But they used to go, "That's just Susan talking.

"Just leave her. Just leave her alone."

Really? Just thought you'd made it up?

So I got the application form at that time

and I showed it to somebody and they went,

"You didn't do that. I bet you never even went."

I says, "I did. I'm just back."

# Now life has killed the dream I dreamed. #

The minute her audition was broadcast,

there was a knock at the door.

So I goes to answer the door and these screaming kids...

Everybody was sort of, well... Every house was lit up and every door was open

and I was, "Oh, my God!"

You know?

That's when it started going a bit crazy.

Within days, Susan was a national phenomenon.

Within a week, her Britain's Got Talent audition went viral

around the globe and she achieved international stardom.

Overnight, the 48-year-old has become a worldwide internet sensation,

with even Hollywood stars talking about her extraordinary voice.

I had a student.

He'd come to me, a young man, and he said,

"Have you seen the papers?

"There's a woman in Whitburn they're calling Paula Potts".

I said, "Oh, that must be Susan",

because I think they got it wrong in saying Whitburn

and not Blackburn at that stage, and I just knew it was Susan.

There just couldn't be two singers in the area

who would have that reaction. Not at all.

When the whole explosion of Susan took place, I was in the...

I was lucky enough to be in the West End, doing Calendar Girls.

I was in the original cast of that

and we were the first ones to go in the West End.

And on the evening of the Britain's Got Talent now mega-event,

I'd come down after the interval, ready to go on for the second act,

and they were going, "Oh, Elaine,

"there's this wee woman from Glasgow.

"She just went on and she looked terrible,

"and then she sang and we were crying".

And we were laughing. They says, "You should see it".

And I turned to Sian Phillips, who will tell you

this is the absolute truth,

and I laughed, and Sian said, "Are you going in to watch it?"

And I said, "No. I'll end up playing her in the story of her life!"

But becoming an overnight worldwide celebrity

comes with its own pressures,

with red-top tabloids like The Sun demanding scandal about SuBo.

It was quite hard and difficult to deal with.

It was just myself and Susan, out of our comfort zone.

Never experienced anything like this. The only way I could ever say...

It was like Princess Diana, the way she was chased

and the way people wanted a piece of her.

We were staying in London at the time.

Lorraine and I were at a friend's house and she was up in the shower

and I sneaked out to get a paper.

You can't sneak out! You're Susan Boyle.

You're the woman who's on every page!

Well, I sneaked out to get a paper that time, purely for recreation.

And she followed... Lorraine followed me out.

I thought, "How do I get myself back?"

We're supposed to going back to the studios later on.

And I was shaking, you know, cos it was so daunting,

the whole process of trying to get her from a shop,

getting her back to the house.

There must have been hundreds of people round her.

People were running out of shops,

cars were stopping in the middle of the street, buses, everything.

It was...it was bizarre.

But it wasn't just the press making Susan's life difficult -

it was her fear of going on stage.

Yvie Burnett is a vocal coach on many big-branded entertainment shows

and worked with Susan on Britain's Got Talent, on her albums and on her tour.

So how's your voice?

Not bad, but I'm a bit husky.

It's interesting with Susan,

because I think she builds up in her head

a fear of going out on the stage,

and it's so ironic,

because when she is out on the stage, she loves it.

And if she could somehow equate,

if she would somehow convince herself

before she goes on that she loves it,

that would be the key to her nerves.

She always fears she's going to fail.

She fears that people won't like her singing any more.

She's enjoyed so much that people are loving her singing,

she just wants to hold on to that and have everyone still love it and love it forever.

Back in 2009, Susan had to perform both the live semifinal

and the live final in one week.

This, combined with being on the front page of tabloids

on daily basis, meant that Susan was becoming ever more anxious.

Well, I wasn't aware that I had reached that point.

I just knew that I wasn't sleeping very well

and I wasn't eating very well.

So there was a week I was really going about in a kind of trance, if you like.

You know, I didn't really know what I was doing.

So by the final, I looked an absolute mess, you know.

How did you feel inside?

Inside I felt I really tense...

-worried...totally exhausted.

-Yeah.

Did you think to yourself,

"This isn't worth it. I'm going to do a runner"?

"I'm going home"?

I'm not a defeatist. I'd see it right through to the end

and see what the result was.

It was suddenly like not a little show taking place

in Wembley any more - it was this international big deal

that Susan Boyle was in the final

and I think now we look at it, we think,

it must have just been so strange for a little lady from Blackburn.

Just not even in the realms of what she's used to.

The whole day, you could see her getting more and more worried,

more and more upset, feeling ill, feeling sick, thinking she

was going to be sick.

Not normal nerves, and it was, it was hard.

In the run-up to her final performance,

Susan was inconsolable - frightened to set foot on stage.

In desperation, Frank Quinn was called while on holiday.

The phone rang and it was Lorraine, her friend, putting Susan on,

and Susan was indicating to me... And it was one of five phone calls

that day, leading up,

to say that she didn't think she had the courage to go out on stage.

As a friend would do, I focused and refocused Susan

on the fact, "Susan, you are here - this is what you want to do.

"Our Lady is on one side of you, your mum is on the other.

"All you have to do is get out on the stage and sing. I promise you,

"once you start to sing, you will have them in the palm of your hand".

Susan Boyle!

Do you remember anything about leaving your dressing room

and walking to the stage to give that last performance?

I knew I was on automatic pilot.

I can remember some of it. I remember the tension

when I was performing...

..and the kind of disappointment...

..and all the other emotions that goes with it when I came second,

because I thought everything was over then.

Really, you thought that was it?

No-one would ever want to hear from you again?

That's right, I did think that, yeah.

Susan never seen what was happening behind the scenes,

how famous she was, even coming in second, and what was...

what doors were going to open for her.

And she was sad, you know?

It was like she seen it as another failing in her life.

You know, she always wanted to feel she was part of it.

Susan still struggles today trying to feel she's accepted.

It's a word that she always uses - "I just want to feel accepted,

"like everybody else in society".

A combination of the intense pressure

Susan was under, little sleep and an aggressive press exhausted Susan.

# Now you say you love me... #

After the result,

she had a breakdown and agreed to go into the Priory.

It's not a spa or anything like that, like it is here.

It's a kind of place people go to recover, if you like.

You know. I really shouldn't have been there at the time.

I should've been up the road, home.

Susan's stay in the Priory was her rock bottom -

all conducted in the full glare of the world's media.

But after a few days she was finally allowed to return to Scotland.

As the place where Susan was born and raised,

Blackburn means a lot to Susan Boyle.

# Well, you can cry me a river... #

So much so that despite having a big new house built in the village,

she chooses to still live in the ex-council house

she was brought up in.

And despite having millions in the bank, she still chooses to catch the bus to the shops.

Everybody knows Susan and Susan knows many people in her town.

And the locals are fiercely proud of her.

She can sing and I'm glad it turned out how it did for her.

I think she's fantastic. Should have happened years ago.

She's always been a good singer.

I've seen her singing in local clubs for years.

She's a fantastic singer.

She's done well.

And I'm pleased for her, ken what I mean?

And she deserved it.

Her geographical community

is extremely important to Susan, you know?

The whole area of Blackburn.

She wants to stay there,

because she's on first-name terms with her neighbours.

Everyone knows Susan.

How are you? You doing good, yeah?

-Very well. You're looking very nice, by the way.

-Thank you.

-You take care, Susan.

-OK, no problem.

Community is essential for Susan being happy and being joyful

and being able to give and to be able to receive. You know?

She continues to write her story.

-Hello!

-Hello.

Back in Blackburn, Susan was allowed to recuperate.

How long did it take before you could think straight,

sleep properly, eat again?

I think it probably took me

about maybe three to four months. Maybe six months.

Really, as long as that?

You know, to sort various things out as well.

Where I was going to live and all that.

Had a fight, because the record company wanted me to stay in London

and I was lonely in London

because I was away from friends and my family.

So it was agreed to have me up in Scotland.

And I've never looked back since.

Susan's resolve not to give in to other people's demands

is something her friend Paul O'Grady has seen first hand.

She really has got a inner strength, Susan, and she is her own woman.

She's determined and quite feisty, you know.

She's tough and she is blinkered.

You can't get Susan to do something she doesn't want to do. Forget it.

She is not soft. She really is not delicate!

She's a tough old bird, Susan, and that's what I love about her!

It's one of the things I love about her.

Susan's fear that coming second in Britain's Got Talent

would end her career was ill-founded.

It was time to record an album to capitalise on her worldwide fame.

But her management realised

that Susan would only thrive by going into hiding.

# The stars are brightly shining... #

We knew she felt better,

and we wanted to make sure she stayed well,

so she came to stay with me at my house,

and she moved in with the family and we just had normality.

She's a Scottish woman of a similar age to me.

It was totally normal for Susan

to get up, have breakfast with the family,

kids went to school, we had a little sandwich for our lunch,

we did a bit of singing,

then we went out and had a cup of coffee down the road.

The kids would come home from school, we'd all have our tea, watch the telly...

It was normal life and Susan loved that.

She was probably the happiest I've seen her.

The routine just was so nice for her,

after all the chaos, all the madness.

And nobody really knew she was at my house.

And during her stay at Yvie's, Susan felt equally at home in the bubble of a recording studio.

That was a whole new experience.

Never been in a recording studio in my life.

A happy experience?

It was a great experience, yeah.

So you walk in and they say...

You sit there and put your headphones on...

Did it feel natural to you - somehow coming home?

It felt, it felt safe. It felt secure.

And you just tell the story that those songs portray.

You try and do that, according to how you feel with the music.

# Oh, it's such a perfect day

# I'm glad I spent it with you... #

After all the pain, all the setbacks, all the nerves,

Susan's crowning glory are her studio recordings.

Her first album, I Dreamed A Dream,

became the world's biggest seller in 2009.

Her follow-up album, The Gift,

went platinum in the UK, North America and Australasia.

A remarkable achievement. Her latest album, already Number 1 in Britain,

has also reached the top spot in the United States

and she's only the third act in history to achieve that feat

twice within the same year.

So what's her secret?

A lot of older people

can feel kind of disenfranchised by music.

And...their favourite stars,

who they've liked from when they were young,

have grown older and have kind of,

not used up their talent, but, yes, as you go through a long career,

you're using up a lot of the gold dust of your voice

and of your emotional reserves.

And so by the time these people are in their 50s,

they're almost worn out.

There are a few exceptions, but you feel that.

Whereas Susan was someone who was coming from their generation

but completely fresh.

# Such a perfect day

# You just keep me hanging on... #

Susan represents note to self.

You know - it's not about the packaging, it's about the talent.

She also has that capacity,

coming from her compassion probably,

to be able to reach into the pain

of people who feel that they are broken,

who feel that they are very vulnerable

and I think that's a tremendous gift that Susan definitely has.

Susan delights her fans and critics

by being able to sing so passionately about love and romance.

Yet, at the age of 51, Susan has spent

the vast majority of her life single and living alone.

# And I can hear you sing

# My little fish don't cry

# My little fish don't cry... #

Well, I think with what Susan's had to struggle with,

and what always makes me think "Wow" when she's singing,

it's the passion she's got when she sings about love,

where she's never been loved, and it's the thing that she would love

is to find somebody that's special in her life.

And it's never happened.

And she has got that passion when she sings.

And I think that's the way she can convey

what she would love in her life and

the love that she wants is through her music.

# These autumn leaves

# These autumn leaves are yours tonight. #

When she became famous, Susan was thrilled to be invited to duet

with Donny Osmond,

whom she'd adored as a teenager watching Top Of The Pops.

# And they called it puppy love... #

And to this day, she still idolises him.

Have a good look at that.

It's the nearest I'll get to him - there he is!

I'm never too old - I can dream, but don't touch!

But in her late 20s, while still living with her parents,

Susan did have a real relationship, if not a short and chaste one.

You had a very nice boyfriend.

Very brief boyfriend as well!

Yeah, but it was because of your father

that he became a brief boyfriend.

Well, he didn't really think I was ready for a boyfriend at that time,

so, um...we'll just leave it.

What a shame, though, because he was around for,

I think it was five weeks or something?

-About seven weeks.

-Seven weeks.

And you did have a nice time with him, but your father...

on the telephone one evening,

told him that you didn't want to see him,

didn't want to speak to him, and that was the end.

And you obeyed your father.

Reluctantly, but never mind.

Yeah. Well, that's a shame, though.

Do you think your father did the right thing?

Probably at the time, but I don't want to say too much here.

-You know, it's a bit personal.

-Fair enough, of course.

And has there been anybody ever since?

-I had male friends, but I've not had any boyfriends.

-OK.

One ongoing relationship in Susan's life is with her faith

and in September 2010, she was asked to sing in front of Pope

and a congregation of tens of thousands in Glasgow.

But a concern was Susan's nerves.

Since becoming famous, she had been invited to Asia

to perform in huge venues - this was one was in China.

Ladies and gentlemen, Susan Boyle!

But when asked to perform

in a similar venue in Japan, Susan wobbled.

We were doing a rehearsal with the orchestra and Susan didn't want to do it.

She just said, "I can't face it. I don't want to do it".

And she was really, really upset. She was in her room, so I said,

"OK, then, I'll do it." So I went out on stage, got the music,

stood in front the orchestra, was about to sing...

Sure enough, Susan comes toddling along -

"It's OK, I'll do it!" And stands up and does it.

So the thought that actually I would do it,

she wouldn't enjoy doing the rehearsal with the orchestra...

And I didn't intend to do it like that,

but I did smile to myself at the thought

that actually she loves it.

She's nervous, but she didn't want not to do it.

She wanted to do it.

On the day, Susan conquered her nerves.

# When I was a child

# I could see the wind in the trees... #

And she did the same in front of the Pope in Glasgow,

delivering a performance that was one of her finest.

That was some experience. Pope Benedict.

When I met him.

I never thought I'd actually come face-to-face with His Holiness.

I sang...the three songs

and then they told me I was going to meet him afterwards,

but my legs turned to jelly.

But, er, it was quite an experience. Quite awe-inspiring.

# Where there is despair in life... #

You know, in times where she might feel a little bit down

or whatever, that memory of that day was just stunning.

Susan's faith is solid, but she has had it tested, especially during

the "bad periods", as she calls them.

Susan Boyle!

There are times even now I get angry.

And you begin to wonder why

He puts things like that in your path.

But I think, really, it's His way of really testing you.

It is. It is a test.

Has your faith ever been tested to the point where you thought...

"I don't want to believe this any more.

"I don't need it"?

I think as you get older there's always the danger...

..that your faith becomes diluted.

Diluted?

You know, in that, you begin to see it as a kind of...

..a kind of something that didn't really happen.

I would say that...

I'm beginning to reflect on myself just recently...

..and I've realised that during these testing times,

during these kind of moments of doubt,

that I need it more than ever.

I need my faith more than ever.

And I need God to help me through these patches, if you like.

-Hello!

-How are you doing?

Today, the first Sunday of Advent, will mean a lot to many of us.

But to committed Catholics like Susan,

this time of year will have special resonance.

And we're certainly going to see a lot of Susan this Christmas.

On the big screen, she stars in a Christmas film

called The Christmas Candle.

# Like a candle's flame

# Hope will lead us there... #

Tell me the story and the part you play.

I play Eleanor Hopewell.

Come on - britches too.

You're not the first clergyman I've seen in his underpants.

'I'm married.

'Well, wait for it...'

It doesn't last, because my man dies.

So I was a single fish when I went in

and a single fish when I come out!

Do you at least get a screen love scene?

Well, he does get his first screen kiss, yes.

-And that's all I'm saying.

-OK.

Watch and learn!

I will!

But it's a spiritual Christmas story and you play the vicar's wife?

That's right, Eleanor Hopewell. Yeah, that's right.

At the end, you sing THE song of the film.

-Miracle Hymn.

-Miracle Hymn, yeah.

What does that mean to you, that song?

It's a Christmas story.

A joyous story, very religious...

..and it carries a special spiritual meaning...of Christmas.

It really captures the Christmas story.

GENERAL CHAT

Susan's also releasing her fifth album, full of Christmas songs.

And in the bright lights of a press conference last month,

Susan revealed that she is gunning for the Christmas Number 1 slot -

a posthumous duet with no less than Elvis Presley.

# O come all ye faithful... #

With any other artist,

this might be regarded as cashing in on Christmas.

But with the single,

Susan's dedicating all profits to Save the Children

and has become,

along with Paul O'Grady, an ambassador for the charity.

# O come let us adore him

# O come let us adore him

# Christ the Lord. #

Oh, I definitely think for Susan that... If a lot of singers

are doing a Christmas album, they're just doing it because, you know,

it's a good idea to do a Christmas album around Christmas -

just have record sales - but for Susan, with a strong faith,

a Christmas album is a very, very special thing.

Listening to Christmas music

gives you that feeling of going to the church over Christmas,

of really believing, you know, the Bible story, the whole thing.

It means so much more.

I know for Susan it will be a very emotional album to do.

Though she's too modest to say it,

Susan gives lot to charitable causes.

And perhaps this generosity is because, other than having

an exceptional talent, she sees herself as an average Joe

who got a lucky break.

When you're singing, who are you singing to?

Who do you picture in your mind?

It depends on the song, really. The words of the song.

I think there's one particular song called Proud,

from the very first album I did, and that song was about conflict...

And I had a lot of conflict

from my father...and my mother on certain occasions.

And when I was singing that song...

..I was being reflective,

because I think my parents would've been proud of me now.

# If I'm allowed

# One day I'll make you proud. #

You know, there's a great saying in Scotland.

There's an old Burns saying of, "We're a' Jock Tamson's bairns",

which means we're actually all the same.

You can put on your finery

and, you know, dye your hair

and have your hair extensions and your spray tan

and your new teeth or whatever,

but actually underneath it all,

we're a' Jock Tamson's bairns,

and for me, Susan represents that.

She is of us, and connects

at a very, very deep and profound level with people.

-Looking forward to Christmas?

-Looking forward to Christmas, yeah.

What's the best present that you would like to receive?

-I'd like people to, er, just be happy.

-Yeah.

-Just have a happy... Have a happy day.

-Yeah.

I interviewed Dolly Parton two or three years ago

and she has a fantastic faith.

And she says every morning she wakes up and she says,

"I put my hand in God's hand and I say - what are we going to do today, God?"

How would you say your relationship is now with God and Our Lady?

My relationship's a very good one with God,

and especially with Our Lady,

because I feel I've got a second mother.

I've got a second mother, spiritually, and she, she...

drives me, she drives me on.

-Well, I wish you a very happy Christmas, Susan.

-And you too.

I'm thrilled to have met you.

-Thank you very much indeed.

-Not at all.

-Happy Christmas.

-Happy Christmas.

Susan Boyle. SuBo.

Someone to laugh at.

It's very easy to create a description like that.

And throughout her life, Susan has had people

underestimating her and hurting her.

And yet, she bears no malice towards her tormentors.

Instead, she shares her gift of singing with us

and requires nothing in return.

Once people laughed at her. Who's laughing now?

Next week I meet a journalist

who has lived his life on the front line.

BBC World Affairs editor John Simpson talks frankly

about how his belief in God sustains him

when reporting from some of the most dangerous places on Earth.

# You're going to reap just what you sow

# You're going to reap just what you sow. #

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd