Wilfrid Brambell

Speaker 10:01

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio Podcasts. Hello, I'm Lauren Laverne, and this is the Desert Island Discs podcast. For rights reasons, the music is shorter than on the original broadcast. The presenter is Roy Plomley. I hope you enjoy listening.

Presenter0:31

How do you do, ladies and gentlemen? On our desert island this week is a very well-known actor.

Presenter0:37

He's created a character on television that's very quickly become a national figure. It's the man who plays Steptoe Sr., Wilfred Bramble.

Presenter0:45

Wilfrid, you've made this great success playing a cockney part. Are you indeed a cockney? No, I'm an Irishman. I'm from Dublin, a paddy. Really?

Presenter0:54

Would you call yourself a a musical artist?

Presenter0:57

Uh yes, without any technical knowledge except that I can strike middle C. Can you play an instrument? No instrument. I did sing.

Speaker 11:04

Do you know Insider?

Presenter1:06

originally but uh

Presenter1:09

The voice didn't match with the silhouette.

Presenter1:12

Did you hear a lot of music as a child? Yes, and I'm assured that I knew the first act of Carmen before I was seven. How was that?

Presenter1:19

My mother was a singer, a professional singer. Yes.

Presenter1:23

Well, you have eight records to take with you to this desert island. How did you set about choosing them?

Presenter1:28

It was a fearful job, and I settled for...

Presenter1:31

What I hope is a wide variety so that I wouldn't get bored with any one kind. What's the first one you've chosen? First one is the Beethoven Symphony number seven.

Presenter1:41

The slow movement. Why do you choose this?

Presenter1:45

It always shakes me up.

Presenter1:47

You know, it's a glorious, somber melody written on so few notes.

Presenter2:51

Part of the slow movement of Beethoven's seventh symphony, Otto Klemper conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra.

Presenter2:57

Wilfrid, how early in life did you decide that you wanted to be an actor?

Presenter3:01

Well, it was really decided for me. The virus was instilled when I was two and a half in 1914.

Presenter3:08

I entertained the first batch of wounded soldiers who came from the 1418 war back to Dublin. By doing what?

Presenter3:15

Uh, strange little songs and dances. The only thing that must have been good about it was that I didn't know I was good because I loathed child prodigies. When you left school, you went straight into the theatre, did you?

Presenter3:28

Uh no, uh by this time my parents.

Presenter3:31

It took up the attitude that there was no profession for man.

Presenter3:35

So I had to go and find myself a pound a week job in a newspaper office doing what? Bookkeeping and generally running messages.

Presenter3:42

And I put ten bottles of this pound a week towards drama school fees.

Presenter3:47

And when did you make your first professional appearance?

Presenter3:50

After about

Presenter3:52

three or four years I branched out as a semi-professional.

Presenter3:57

You know, working both jobs at once. You were in the newspaper office by day and working in the dark. For the gate and the abbey and so forth. Yes.

Wilfrid Brambell4:02

Yeah.

Wilfrid Brambell4:03

Yeah.

Presenter4:08

When did you decide to be a full-time professional actor?

Presenter4:10

Well, when the war broke out and Ensor was formed, I joined Ensor. You came to London? Yes, and was immediately posted straight back on high security to the north of Ireland.

Presenter4:20

For you

Presenter4:22

Join an answer troop over there. Yes.

Presenter4:24

and did one play every eight weeks, right during the war. Yes.

Presenter4:29

And after the war?

Presenter4:30

After the war I packed my bag again and came to London.

Presenter4:34

and started from scratch knowing only

Speaker 14:35

Oh no.

Presenter4:37

That Shaftesbury Avenue on Charing Cross Road was where the agents lived.

Presenter4:40

Did you find any of them helpful? Yes.

Presenter4:44

They were, and I took all sorts and conditions of jobs, touring, review.

Presenter4:51

When did you make your first West End appearance?

Presenter4:54

This came

Presenter4:56

From a play which opened in the Mercury Theatre.

Presenter5:00

Play called Happy as Larry. That had a long run in the West End. Yes, it moved into the Criterion and stayed there for 18 months. And after that?

Presenter5:08

After that I went to Swansea.

Presenter5:10

Where a theatre was being formed.

Presenter5:13

and quality plays were being sponsored by the Arts Council fortnightly.

Presenter5:17

And I had a marvelous time there. How long did you stay there?

Presenter5:21

Again, this

Presenter5:23

Eighteen months, said Zen. This was the pattern. Repertory, the occasional tour.

Presenter5:30

The odd foray into the west end.

Presenter5:32

Yes, and the odd foray into the food office. The food office?

Presenter5:37

Yes, I went in and wrote envelopes in the food office around here. Pet.

Presenter5:42

Any other odd jobs we did during bad patches?

Presenter5:46

Yes, I worked for the first radio cabs.

Presenter5:49

Taking messages.

Presenter5:51

And I sat with a brazier in front of me in a little hut outside Evening Broadway.

Presenter5:57

Counting cars all night. What was the idea of counting cars? Well, there was a census of some description went on, but my form looked convincing, but it was...

Presenter6:07

Very inaccurate. When did you make your latest theatre appearance? Oh, uh.

Presenter6:14

I went back to Chesterfield Rep.

Presenter6:17

for their 500 production.

Presenter6:19

That was just a little while ago. Yes, last November.

Presenter6:23

Let's have record number two.

Presenter6:24

Duna, what's that going to be?

Presenter6:26

May I have

Presenter6:28

For nostalgic reasons, and because I played with him in a film called The Castaways, I never thought I'd have the honour.

Presenter6:35

Marie Chivalet singing Louise.

Speaker 36:38

Wonderful, oh it's wonderful to be in love with you.

Speaker 36:45

Beautiful, you're so beautiful You haunt me all day through Every little breeze seems to whisper wheels Earth in the trees seem to twister wheels

Speaker 36:59

Each little roll tells me it knows I love.

Speaker 37:05

Love you.

Speaker 37:07

Every little

Presenter7:08

Maurice Chevalier singing, Louise.

Presenter7:11

The Castaways that you mentioned, this was a film, of course.

Presenter7:13

Yes, a Disney film.

Presenter7:15

Have you played in a lot of films, Wilfred? Uh

Presenter7:19

Quite a few, but it was only comparatively recently that I got on the widescreen Kala La.

Presenter7:26

Before that we played in small MB films, you know, the occasional

Presenter7:31

Two or three days.

Presenter7:32

When did you start playing on television?

Presenter7:35

This was in, I think, 1955, six.

Presenter7:40

I had been in a a play in the West End which didn't run.

Presenter7:44

And my agent, or as she is now, management.

Presenter7:49

came round and said, I thought you were a Shakespearean comic.

Presenter7:54

and asked me if I would

Presenter7:56

Join her.

Presenter7:58

After this I went to Chesterfield.

Presenter8:01

And Joan Blesserhouse.

Presenter8:04

Got me three televisions.

Presenter8:07

When I was still in Chessfield,

Presenter8:09

With producers who have never even seen or heard of me, this is a very good management indeed to have.

Presenter8:15

She is a dolly. You were in both the Quatermare serials on television, weren't you? Yes, this is the beginning of the hairy old man period.

Presenter8:23

And indeed in 1984 too. Yes.

Presenter8:29

Both for Cartier. Yes. And what else? Some of the May Gray stories?

Presenter8:34

Well, I've been solidly living off the box since 1955.

Presenter8:39

How did steptoe and sun start?

Presenter8:42

A complete accident. The writers, you know, Ray and Alan.

Presenter8:47

on whom we largely, almost solely depend,

Presenter8:51

We're commissioned to write 13 comedy playhouses.

Presenter8:55

And this was one of them. They had a say in the casting.

Presenter8:59

And it was they that suggested Harry and myself. Had you worked together before?

Presenter9:04

We had once.

Presenter9:05

But we were so far apart that I had forgotten that it was Harry.

Presenter9:10

And this was to be just one single engagement, a comedy playhouse. Yes. You had no idea it was going to be a series. Not a notion.

Speaker 19:14

I had no idea it was good.

Presenter9:17

And Trunch was suggesting I nearly had a fit because I thought I would rather work than do a series. Little did you know. Let's have record number three now.

Presenter9:27

May I have Maggie Jade singing Plaiser d'Amour?

Wilfrid Brambell9:35

Ah

Wilfrid Brambell9:39

Versor viso y vomdo la prime.

Presenter10:00

Maggie Tay singing

Presenter10:01

Yadamu

Presenter10:02

How many steptone sound programs you would unknow?

Presenter10:06

In all, and this is over a period of

Presenter10:09

Over two years. Nearly three, I think.

Presenter10:12

21. Is that all? Yes.

Presenter10:15

There'll be more to come.

Presenter10:17

Who knows?

Presenter10:19

I imagine that the BBC will want to dig them up again, and I hope they do, because I enjoy them, but not for a year.

Presenter10:28

They're going out overseas now and being a great success there. Yes, apparently they're tops in Australia.

Speaker 110:33

And

Presenter10:34

Well, I must say, as you sit there, you don't look a bit like Steptoe Sr. Who thought out the makeup?

Presenter10:41

Well, I don't use any.

Presenter10:43

I just don't shave for four days and put my bottom teeth in my pocket.

Presenter10:47

And the makeout girls dream of home. All the rest is acting.

Presenter10:52

Well, thank you for saying so. What are you up to at the moment?

Presenter10:56

I'm doing a film with the Beatles.

Presenter10:58

What part are you playing?

Presenter11:00

Ooh, I'm playing uh

Speaker 111:01

Blame

Presenter11:03

Paul McCartney's grandfather.

Presenter11:05

This is the film in which a few weeks ago you were going all over England on a very secret train, so that nobody knew where. Yes, this is what we hoped and thought that.

Presenter11:17

The girls were out and the material types.

Presenter11:21

We're also screaming occasionally.

Presenter11:24

I was pleased to hear a voice.

Presenter11:27

In the words of the bard, shriller than all the rest, saying, We once stepped out.

Presenter11:34

Wilfrid, what's your big ambition?

Presenter11:38

I want to keep healthy.

Presenter11:41

I want to keep my memory.

Presenter11:43

And I want to keep working.

Presenter11:44

You have no particular direction in which you want to work. You don't want to control your own company or Olden or might lose money on it.

Speaker 111:50

I'd lose money?

Presenter11:52

It's seriously possible.

Presenter11:54

Let's have another record.

Presenter11:57

May I be

Presenter12:00

Like all the rest and ask for GJ Man's Desiring, played by Mara Hess.

Presenter13:04

Myra Herz playing her own arrangement of Bach's GZO Joy of Man's Desiring.

Presenter13:09

What next, Wilfrid?

Presenter13:11

May I have Hiddel Nash scene?

Presenter13:14

Serenade from the Fair Maid of Perth. And don't put it on at the beginning. I want to hear the end. They always cut this off on housewife's choice.

Wilfrid Brambell13:21

I will go back to my home, my girl.

Wilfrid Brambell13:32

Hope and love may return with all

Presenter13:49

Edel Nash singing the serenade from the fair maid of Perth and you had that lovely note at the end right to the very end. Is that what you wanted? Yes, I love it. Good. Wilfrid, how well do you think you could endure loneliness?

Presenter14:02

I should loath it.

Presenter14:04

After about three hours.

Presenter14:07

In a practical sense, could you look after yourself?

Presenter14:10

No.

Presenter14:12

Because whereas I like steaks, I'm not a butcher.

Presenter14:16

And our message is a very well

Presenter14:19

Fertilized.

Presenter14:20

Vegetable fool I am, I'm going to starve to death.

Presenter14:23

You can't garden.

Presenter14:25

No. And any hobbies that might be useful? Have you ever camped out?

Presenter14:30

Yes, I've camped out, but always, you know, called at a butcher's on my way there. The best kind of camping out.

Presenter14:36

Um

Presenter14:38

Worrying is but only fishing.

Presenter14:40

Yes, once, and I didn't know how to kill the damn thing, so I had to let it go back.

Presenter14:45

If you decided to build a craft and found you could build a craft or found a craft or something of that sort, would you try to escape immediately, even if you weren't quite sure in which direction you ought to go?

Presenter14:57

Yes.

Presenter14:58

And if the craft didn't turn up, I think I'd get into the gramophone and hope it might float.

Presenter15:02

Come to the nearest sign of civilization and say, which way to Pimlico?

Presenter15:07

floating up the Thames to Pimlico.

Presenter15:10

Power station just here. Let's have record number six now.

Presenter15:14

Well, I've chosen two mozzarelles, but...

Presenter15:18

I would rather hear a lot of wham.

Presenter15:22

So may I have

Presenter15:24

Meters try.

Presenter15:25

Seeing the Queen of the Night.

Presenter15:28

The wife who chosen that.

Presenter15:29

Oh, I think it's beautiful. Every time I hear it, I get shivers up down my spine.

Wilfrid Brambell15:38

Oh, the crafted minded Hilton Turnfettire.

Wilfrid Brambell16:04

So be stronger, he will be So be stronger, lady to hear the boy

Speaker 116:14

Do you know?

Presenter16:33

Rita Strike singing the Queen of the Nights aria from the magic flute.

Presenter16:38

Now what's the other Mozart you were choosing, Wilfrid? Because as you have the whole of the Queen of the Nights area, I'm afraid we won't have time to play this one.

Presenter16:46

for it was Don Giovanni.

Presenter16:49

Give me your hand.

Presenter16:50

Sung by Imgard Seyfid and Tietrich Fischer Diska.

Presenter16:56

Well now what's the last record you've chosen, the one that we're going to hear now?

Presenter17:00

More nostalgia.

Presenter17:02

I want Frank Sinatra.

Presenter17:04

And I've chosen these foolish

Wilfrid Brambell17:08

A cigarette

Wilfrid Brambell17:11

That bears a lipstick tracer

Wilfrid Brambell17:16

An airline ticket to romantic places

Wilfrid Brambell17:24

And still my heart has wings.

Wilfrid Brambell17:30

These foolish things

Wilfrid Brambell17:33

Remind me Uh

Presenter17:37

Frank Sinatra.

Presenter17:39

Well, there are your records. If you could only choose one, which would it be?

Presenter17:44

I think it will be G2Joy.

Presenter17:47

And you're allowed to take one luxury with you to the island.

Presenter17:51

What are you having?

Presenter17:54

I think I'll have an adequate supply of scotch.

Presenter17:57

And an adequate supply of lager. Very sensible. And one book.

Presenter18:05

A dictionary.

Presenter18:06

Big Dixie. Yes, a great big one.

Presenter18:09

Why particularly?

Presenter18:11

Well, you can look up one word and then

Presenter18:13

Look up

Presenter18:14

The meaning of the um

Presenter18:16

Definition

Presenter18:18

Right. And thank you, Wilfred Bramble, for letting us hear your choice of desert island disc.

Presenter18:25

It's been a pleasure and I hope we never meet there.

Presenter18:27

Goodbye, everyone.