A collection of performances from the BBC Archives that highlight the wit and intelligence of Kirsty MacColl, including such hits as A New England and Day

Last December, it topped the charts following the death of The Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan, with whom she memorably collaborated on the ever-popular song. At the time it was recorded in 1987, few would have predicted that the famously hard-living MacGowan would have outlived her by such a considerable amount of time.

Back then, MacColl was arguably at the peak of her fame, having scored hits with There’s a Guy Down the Chip Shop Swears He’s Elvis and A New England, and with a cover of The Kinks’ Days and Walking Down Madison to come. She’d also written Tracey Ullman’s song They Don’t Know, and collaborated with some of the biggest names of the era, including Simple Minds, U2, The Smiths, Talking Heads and Alison Moyet.

Despite all this, and the fact that as the daughter of Ewan MacColl she was born into folk music royalty, she remained steadfastly ‘normal’ with a deep dislike of celebrity and pretending to be anything she wasn’t. She was also said to hate promoting her records with a distaste bordering on the pathological, and once claimed that having chart success “doesn’t mean anything really”.

She further explained: “You get lucky and you get unlucky, but basically, as long as I can be given the chance to continue to make records, then that’s the main thing – writing the songs and getting the chance to record them and then playing them to people.”

MacColl died in December 2000 when she was struck by a motor cruiser after surfacing from a scuba dive with her then-teenage sons Jamie and Louis off the Mexican coral island of Cozumel, close to the Yucatan peninsula. She managed to push her elder boy, Jamie, out of the boat’s path, saving his life, but could not escape herself.

At her memorial service a month later, Billy Bragg, who penned A New England, remarked: “I considered her not just a friend but also a comrade. While others just sing about issues Kirsty always got involved.”

Phill Jupitus added: “I count myself extraordinarily fortunate that there was some fragments of my life that have been imbued by Kirsty MacColl,” while her partner, James Knight, said simply: “The space left by her is bigger than the universe we live in.”

To remind ourselves of what we’re missing, BBC Two is marking MacColl’s 65th birthday (five days early) with an evening dedicated to her.

It begins with archive clips in Kirsty MacColl at the BBC, which is followed by a chance to see her last-ever TV concert, recorded in Glasgow nine months before her death, in Kirsty MacColl: The Boxed Set (9.40pm). The night draws to a close with her brief appearance in Queens of Song at the BBC (10.30pm), alongside such luminaries as Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin and Tina Turner.

Thank you for the days, Kirsty.