Those were the days Genoa sends its love to Fran and Anna

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THE Italians knew a good thing when they saw it. And Fran and Anna, the singing sisters from Coatbridge, were definitely a good thing.

Which is why, in January 1980, the red carpet was laid on for them in Glasgow.

They were the honoured guests when the city’s Lord Provost,

David Hodge (photographed with the sisters, above), and Dr Osvaldo Franchi, the Italian consul in Glasgow, presented them with one of Italy’s top showbusiness honours.

A hand-painted scroll from the Genoa branch of the equivalent of the Variety Club of Great Britain, it praised Fran and Anna for having “delighted us with their sweet voice, their warmth, their musical talent, outstanding personality and sympathy”.

Fran – or perhaps it was Anna? – said: “The Italians love Scots people who can make a joke of themselves. We have appeared in Genoa many times and taken part in charity shows there.”

The sisters had long endured some good-natured mocking from Jack Mclaughlin, “the Laird o’ Coocaddens”, on the popular STV show Thingummyjig, which featured traditional Scottish music and dance.

They said they did not mind being insulted by him, because he was funny, and had discovered them.

But they weren’t keen on other entertainers introducing them to audiences and trying to copy Mclaughlin: “He never tells us what he is going to say until we are out there,” they said.

The presentation ended with a lunch at La Costiera restaurant, owned by Alfredo Crolla, who had attended the event as a representative of Glasgow’s

Italian community.

The merry lunch saw the sisters singing the Italian version of Auld Lang Syne.

Frances Watt died in 2003 and her sister Anna in 2009.