At 92, Dame Vera Lynn has Britain's No. 1 record

(14 Sep 2009) SHOTLIST
FILE: AP Television
London, 30th September 2008
1. Various set up shots Dame Vera Lynn
2. SOUNDBITE: (English) Dame Vera Lynn:
"I suppose for the older people like myself, we can remember the time when we couldn't get this and we couldn't get that and this was expensive, so of course, it's something that doesn't bother us. Because we coped then and this is how people have got to cope today. And they will cope. We've always coped, no matter what the odds were. It's a land of coping. You know, it's born in us I think that, to make the best of what we have."
FILE: AP Archive
London 8th May 1985
3. Dame Vera Lynn singing 'White Cliffs of Dover' for V.E. celebrations
4. Queen Elizabeth II and Queen Mother and Princess Margaret watching from balcony
5. Crowds outside Buckingham palace waving flags
6. Wide lancaster bomber in sky
7. People looking up to the sky
8. Lancaster Bomber flying by
STORYLINE
DAME VERA LYNN CAPTURES NUMBER ONE
At age 92, Dame Vera Lynn has beaten the Arctic Monkeys and even the Beatles to capture the No. 1 record in Britain.
The singer who 70 years ago recorded an evocative reminder of home for British soldiers fighting far away on Monday (14SEPT09) became the oldest living artist to have a No. 1 record in Britain when her album 'We'll Meet Again - The Very Best of Vera Lynn' took the top spot.
This week's British album charts were a veritable trip down memory lane - the Beatles had 17 records in the top 100, thanks mainly to the release last week of their remastered albums.
Michael Jackson had five appearances in the top 100.
Some were expecting the Beatles' offerings to overtake Lynn's record - which was No. 2 last week, after the Arctic Monkeys' 'Humbug' - but their mass release may have prevented any one album from outselling 'We'll Meet Again.'
Lynn was known as the 'Forces' Sweetheart,' and her songs - including 'We'll Meet Again,' and '(There'll be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs of Dover' - were wartime anthems.
Lynn's record entered the charts at No. 20 three weeks ago and a buzz over her return to the country's top-selling records steadily grew.
Both downloads and physical sales count on the Official Chart Company's count, according to their Web site.
According to her record company, Lynn first recorded 'We'll Meet Again' in September 1939, just as World War II broke out.
She wasn't the soldiers' favorite right away but as servicemen all over the world heard Lynn on the radio - and many saw her in person, in far-flung places like Burma and Egypt - she became the voice that would remind them of home.
Her wartime BBC radio show, 'Sincerely Yours,' followed the Sunday evening news and was a must-listen for British troops abroad. She read messages from their families and performed songs they requested.
And Lynn is still speaking out for soldiers - appearing recently in major British newspapers to urge support for troops fighting in Afghanistan.
Made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II in 1975, she has been part of important national functions - such as the 2005 anniversary celebrations of World War II's Victory in Europe Day and the late Queen Mother's birthday.

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