Richard Wattis

Speaker 20:01

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.

Richard Wattis0:05

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.

Speaker 30:26

Ha ha ha ha ha!

Speaker 30:30

Yeah.

Presenter0:33

How do you do, ladies and gentlemen? Our castaway this week is a well-known actor. A very well-known actor. It's Richard Watties. Richard, how could you face to the loneliness on this island? Well, I couldn't. I would hate it. I dislike loneliness. I think I'm sort of, oh, far, a lonely person. Rather frightened of people. I was learning to cover that up.

Presenter0:54

But by nature I've been gregarious if I wear the sort of psychological napcase.

Presenter1:00

How much does music mean in your life? A very great deal. I like almost every form of music. Have you any musical skill? No, absolutely none.

Presenter1:09

How did you set about this problem of selecting just eight records? Well, first of all, I thought of it as a sort of series of evocations, I think the word is, was I wanted to have music which would remind me of people and of places that I'd been to. But the snag there was that that excluded all classical music, which does not fulfill any of those requirements. And I realised I must have a certain amount of classical music on the island, so I had to, you know, subscribe that plan and start afresh.

Presenter1:39

What's the first one you brought there? Uh, Kenny Ball playing Samantha. Why?

Presenter1:43

Well,'cause I think it's enormously cheerful. I like the beat.

Presenter1:48

And uh I do like the tune very much. I think it's um one of the best that Coopor ever wrote.

Presenter1:55

Not for nothing, but a certain disjocate

Speaker 32:09

I love you.

Speaker 32:12

My phone

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And my love

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Who's never gonna die?

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Remember

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Oh Samantha, I'm a one.

Presenter2:27

Samantha by Kenny Ball and his jazzman. What's your second choice? Second choice is the Mozart piano concerto number 20 and D minor. Why do you choose this? Well, because I think it's an enormously serene and attractive piece of music, and I do remember my father trying to tell me that one probably had to become a little older fully to appreciate Mozart. And to me, he's gone from sort of being boring pump room to probably really the most marvelous musician of them all. Which part of the work should we hear? Something from the second movement, Mary.

Presenter3:57

Part of the second movement of Mozart's piano concerto number 20 with Richter as soloist. Richard, what part of England do you come from? The Black Country. Do you come from a theatre family? No, not at all, no connection.

Richard Wattis4:07

Yeah.

Presenter4:09

Did you see a lot of theatre as a child? Yes, quite a lot. I think really from a very early age I was taken to the theatre. And I remember seeing Chu Chin Cha with Oscar A.

Presenter4:19

How early do you think you decided you wanted to be an actor? Oh, very, very early. I was always dressing up and all that sort of thing, and I wrote my first play when I was six.

Presenter4:27

Were these aspirations encouraged by your family? They were not discouraged. They were um discouraged only in the sense that they thought that although we were by no means well off,

Richard Wattis4:29

Navin

Presenter4:37

and had a rather spoilt and slightly privileged youth I was a delicate child.

Presenter4:42

and they thought that I wouldn't stand the rough and tumble of the theatre. What was your first job when you left school? Well, actually my first job was wrapping parcels. What was in the parcels? Well, the first time there were clothes, and the second time there were very dull electrical equipment.

Presenter4:58

And what went wrong with this job?

Presenter5:00

Well, I did. I couldn't stand it, you know. I thought it was absolutely awful. And and next? Next, I um had a sort of psychological fit of the salts because I wanted to go into the theatre and I felt, I suppose, slightly that um they might have helped miss by hook or by crook.

Presenter5:18

So I then said, well, I'll either be a dress designer or I will be a landscape gardener.

Presenter5:23

But uh neither of those worked, partly because they didn't want me to go to Paris, which was essential or considered essential in those days to become a dress designer.

Presenter5:31

And they paid, or were asked to pay, quite a lot of money to a well-known firm of landscape gardeners in the Midlands, to teach me how to dig up potatoes at five o'clock in the morning for five years, and that didn't seem good enough. So, what did you do? So, actually, I was pushed into an accountant's office in a vain hope that I would be made a sort of financial wizard, as I couldn't be an electrical one. No good.

Richard Wattis5:55

Yeah.

Presenter5:56

No good at all. Absolutely hopeless. You wanted to get into the theatre? I did really, yes. How did you achieve it eventually?

Richard Wattis5:58

Yeah.

Richard Wattis6:00

I did really, yes.

Presenter6:02

I achieved it eventually by writing a letter completely out of the blue to Robert Donat, who was visiting Birmingham on his way from Malvern.

Presenter6:10

And the play called this evening clergyman. He very kindly answered the letter. I went to see him.

Presenter6:16

And he said, look, please, with your face, don't go on the stage, because it's going to be awfully difficult to cast you, even if you haven't italum.

Presenter6:26

How did you eventually get on the stage? Did he help you? He did indirectly because his wife had heard that at the Croydon Reference Company they wanted men and they were offering free tuition for a term.

Richard Wattis6:30

Yeah.

Presenter6:38

And I borrowed fifty pounds from my father and I went. What was your first professional appearance? I think it was an officer in Marigold. Where? At the Theatre Albright.

Presenter6:49

How long did you stay at Brighton? This was rep again. This is weekly rep, yes. We we stayed actually for three years, but we were very lucky because we used to move around various.

Richard Wattis6:51

This is

Presenter6:57

towns. We didn't stay in Brighton all the time. Mhm. And after Brighton? Well, after Brighton I felt I wanted to move on a bit and um I joined Donald Wolf at in an ill fated, as it turned out, tour of Sirana de Berchrach.

Presenter7:12

Then after that I was offered the job of producer by uh the owner of the refugee company, and I took a company up to Huddersfield, and I don't think I was a very good producer.

Presenter7:23

I think I wanted the actors and connect and fast.

Presenter7:27

And I did also do a season at Norwich and then the war broke out. And you disappeared into the army. For five and a half years, yes. But at this break in your career, I think we might.

Presenter7:36

Stop for another record, What Next?

Presenter7:38

Uh well, next I would like a song from George Gershwin's OK. I choose this because it reminds me of something which I never had, probably never really existed, but I imagine that it did, a sort of wonderful gay silliness of the 1920s when a lot of wicked people sat around sipping cocktails and having green powder put on their faces.

Presenter8:02

I hope you've missed me as I missed you, dear little girl.

Speaker 38:15

I was lonely somewhere, you lonely some two

Speaker 38:23

Dear little

Presenter8:30

Dear Little Girl from Gershwin's O K, sung by Jack Cassidy.

Presenter8:35

You had five and a half years in the army, Richard. What happened after that? Well, after the army, actually I did have a nervous breakdown. They let me off for the last six months of the war and then pushed me out. And I went straight back to the old reputable company, but it happened to be a Chanklin in the Isle of Wight. And I stayed there for about three weeks.

Richard Wattis8:52

Mm-hmm.

Presenter8:54

Then I got a job, which I thought was going to be my first West End job, with the late Sidney Hard in Dandy Dick, Panera's Dandy Dick, but we didn't get to London.

Presenter9:04

You still hadn't reached the West End. You still hadn't reached the West End. When did you, eventually? In a play by William Douglas Hume called Ambassador Extraordinary.

Richard Wattis9:05

Still hadn't

Richard Wattis9:07

Uh

Presenter9:11

which was William being rather duke himself as a grand civil servant, but nevertheless the type of civil servant that I appeared to be going to play for the next, you know, many years.

Presenter9:22

And I think it was, it was an awfully well written part, and I think I did it quite well.

Presenter9:27

But the play itself was not a success. But quite soon you were going to be in a West End play that ran for a very long time. Yes, that was Ring Round the Moon, 1950 to 55. We ran for two years at the Globe. That was one in which you danced that sensational tactic. Yes, with Marjorie Stewart, and it was great fun to do. And we got, I think, you know, a lot of personal kudos out of it.

Richard Wattis9:46

Yeah.

Presenter9:47

What other West End plays? There was another Flop, which I really truthfully can't remember the name of. And then really the next one was a a very sort of glamorous production with Vivian Lee and Laurence Olivier called The Sleeping Prince by Terence Rattigan.

Presenter10:04

And then you disappeared into the film studios for quite a few years. Ten, much to my astonishment, I find. And now you're in a musical? Yes, I'm in a musical. It's the achievement of a you know, it's the dream of a lifetime. I think I'm twenty years too old, but I've done it. And lucky chap playing opposite Dora Bryant. Yes, this is marvellous, except that we make each other giggle far too much.

Presenter10:25

No, your film career, what was your first film? Well, my very first film actually was a sort of per super crowd part in the Yank at Oxford, which was before the war. And I thought that would lead to immediate stardom and recognition, and it just didn't.

Presenter10:38

And your post-war film career started. My post-war film career started actually after I'd collapsed in every way and had become secretary to William Douglas Hume.

Presenter10:47

And he said, you know, Well, look out, chap, you seem to fail hopelessly as an actor, you'd better try what you like as a secretary. And I was working for him when they couldn't cast apart in the happiest days of your life and they gave it to me just like that without a test. You made rather an impact in that sort of thing. Well, it was a very nice part, a long part, and I got some nice notices on the

Presenter11:09

I read somewhere that in the five years from 1951 to 55, you appeared in 50 films. Oh, that's quite possible. I'd stopped counting them out of 120. Some of them are very tiny parts, you know. And usually a man from the ministry. Yes, usually pretty stuffed shirt of some kind or another. You made a corner in the black coat and striped trousers, but.

Richard Wattis11:25

Made a

Richard Wattis11:27

Yeah.

Presenter11:29

Have you any idea how many films all together?

Presenter11:31

No, not really. I think it's n pretty nearly two hundred. Which of them do you like to remember? Well, uh, I love filming. The things that I think have professionally done me the most good were perhaps firstly The Final Test by Terence Rattigan, where I had to talk about cricket and the British, you know, like that.

Presenter11:51

And uh the other was the cold it story, an escape story.

Presenter11:55

Probably the most again glamorous one was with Lawrence Olivier and Marilyn Munro and The Prince and the Showgirl.

Presenter12:02

Let's have record number four now.

Presenter12:04

Well, actually record number four is a Sicilian record. It's a Sicilian lullaby and I like it because it brings the sort of hot African wind into my face when I hear it. And it also underlines, I think, the essential sadness and almost tragedy in Sicily. It's sung by Madugnio, who's more famous for Volare, and it's called Ventu d'Estati, which I think is Sicilian as opposed to pure Italian.

Presenter12:30

See

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Tootsie

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To see

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Magu

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To a Lamunta.

Presenter12:50

Look at Javier.

Presenter12:57

See

Speaker 313:02

Tsunuskoy named Ma.

Speaker 213:08

Uh

Speaker 213:12

Mari tutu.

Speaker 213:19

Nigan

Speaker 213:20

Yeah.

Speaker 313:20

Okay.

Presenter13:29

Vento d'Estati sung by Madognio.

Presenter13:32

Now we've talked about your stage and film career. What about radio and and television? I haven't done very much sound radio. I have done an enormous amount of television, I'm pleased to say. In particular? Really? Again, I've done an awful number. I suppose the thing that I'm most grateful for, although I left it voluntarily, was the Eric Sykes Hattie Jakes series, which I think made me better known to the British public than anything else. Would you say, Richard, that until you became known on...

Presenter13:59

uh the the weekly television series.

Presenter14:01

You were for years the classic example of the actor whom everybody knew by sight on the screen. Always got a friendly reception when you appeared, but hardly anybody knew your name. Oh, absolutely.

Presenter14:11

Yes, this is complete.

Presenter14:13

But now television has cleared that up. Yes, yes.

Presenter14:16

Well now you're cosily in your musical Six of One. What's for the future? There are one or two film suggestions, but I can't really discuss. Have you any particular big ambition of a part you want to play? Not truthfully, I'm dull as ditchwater about that. You're just a fan of the picture. Yes, that's important.

Richard Wattis14:31

How long ago?

Richard Wattis14:33

Yeah, is that important?

Presenter14:35

Next record, please. Well, the next record is where have all the flowers gone. I do take this terribly seriously because I think it's a marvellous record, and I do wish that all those terribly important people in the world would take a little bit of notice of its message.

Presenter14:50

Who's singing it? Uh Marlena Dietrich. In German. In German.

Speaker 214:55

Zach me a vo the mena sing.

Speaker 214:58

Was an eagle believer.

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Zakmi Avodi Manazin

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Basis Cache

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Zakmirvo de Manhurzin.

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So that we begin.

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Fun the money for state

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Ban Wilman Ye.

Presenter15:25

Marlena Dietrich.

Presenter15:27

What's the next one? Well, the next one, I think, is a very tragic piece of music, a piano piece, a prelude in B minor, opus 32, number 10, by Rachmaninoff. Why do you choose it?

Presenter15:39

Because it's absolutely tragic.

Presenter16:37

Part of Rachmaninoff's prelude in B minor, played by Kord Groot.

Presenter16:43

Among your many films, Richard, have you played in any desert island stories? No, none. Or any been on any tropical locations that would have given you some ideas on how to be a good castaway? No, with all the films, for many years I only achieved Manchester and Hazelmere. Since then I've been to Copenhagen, Paris and Berlin.

Presenter17:01

Are you a practical chap?

Presenter17:02

More than one would think, I think. You could build some kind of shelter? Yes, I'd get very tired halfway through, but I possibly could knock something up. Any hobbies that might be useful, can you cultivate or fish? No, I can't do any of those. I'm as I say, I enjoy music very much. I like painting very much. I could do that.

Presenter17:22

Could you make a craft? Or if you found some kind of craft washed up, would you try to escape? No.

Presenter17:28

Far too frighten.

Presenter17:29

So would I. Let's have record number seven. Well, I have one I'm not going to play. It's the Sibelius Symphony number two in D major because I would like the first movement, but I think that it doesn't really register unless one plays the whole of it and I don't think we've got time. So we'll take that as played. Take that as played. My final one is a song from the film Black Orpheus. I think it was a magnificent film and this tune reminds me of the end of the film after Orpheus and Eurydici have been thrown to their death.

Presenter18:00

There's a wonderful scene as the dawn comes up over the Sugarloaf Mountain in Rio.

Presenter18:05

And a little girl starts swaying to a samba, followed by a little boy.

Presenter18:11

and this incredible purity of air and youth and everything. And I'd made such a vivid impression

Presenter18:17

On me is how life just goes on.

Speaker 318:31

Christends at youth, we stand about

Presenter18:50

Adieu Tristas from the film Black Orpheus, sung by Gerard Lavigny.

Presenter18:56

If you would have only one record of the eight that you've chosen, which would it be?

Presenter19:01

Right, a terribly difficult question.

Presenter19:03

I think the motor.

Presenter19:05

And one luxury to take with you, a comfortable bed.

Presenter19:10

One book apart from the Bible and Shakespeare. The book that I happen to have re-read more than any other, the translation of André Merlois's Life of Disraeli.

Presenter19:19

Right. And we'll give you the original as well, and that'll be very good. And thank you, Richard Wattis, for letting us hear your choice of desert island dishes. Thank you very much for having me. Goodbye, everyone.

Speaker 319:23

Yeah.

Richard Wattis19:24

Yeah.

Speaker 319:24

Yeah.

Richard Wattis19:24

Yeah.

Presenter19:42

Uh