In the 1950s the Beverley Sisters – Joy, Babs and Teddie, who is the last of the trio to have died, aged 99 – were a familiar and popular vocal group with endless variety show appearances on radio, television and stage. They released more than 250 songs with several hit records. And, despite their wholesome image, offered social commentary with We Have to Be So Careful (1953), poking fun at the BBC’s broadcasting standards, and It’s Illegal, It’s Immoral (Or It Makes You Fat), which joked about the pleasures of the day, in 1958. “We wanted to pierce the 50s bubble of primness,” Teddie later said.
The Beverley Sisters’ parents were Victoria (nee Miles) and George Chinery, who had worked the music halls as Coram and Mills, and they were living in Bethnal Green, east London, when Teddie was born, as Hazel, along with her twin, Babs (Babette).
