Julie gets her voice back

After seven years restricted to speaking roles only, the dulcet tones of Julie Andrews are once more being heard on film.

The British star's singing voice disappeared in 1997 following an operation to
remove a non-malignant cyst in her throat.

Three years later, the star of the much-loved classics The Sound of Music and Mary Poppins conceded that she did not think she would ever sing again.

But, during filming for her latest movie The Princess Diaries 2, she was persuaded to give it a try. And the result was a revelation.

Dawn Soler, the film's musical supervisor, said:

'She nailed the song on the first take. I saw crew members with tears in their eyes.'

The film's composer Larry Grossman, who has worked with the 68-year-old star before, admitted the song did not show off the star's previous vocal capacity but was designed not to be too challenging. ' It is written in just one octave,' he said. ' She told me it works beautifully.'

The Princess Diaries 2 is the sequel to the 2001 film in which an American schoolgirl, Mia, played by Anne Hathaway, inherits the throne of a small European country and is trained for the role by her regal grandmother played by Miss Andrews.

Her 1964 role as Mary Poppinsin which she sang A Spoonful of Sugar and Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, among others, won her a Bafta and an Oscar for best actress.

The next year, as the former nun Maria in The Sound of Music, her renditions of Do-Re-Mi, My Favourite Things and the title track helped keep the soundtrack album at the top of the charts for months.