Kenneth Connor

Speaker 20:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Disc's archive. For rights reasons we've had to shorten the music. The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen sixty four.

Presenter0:22

Uh

Kenneth Connor0:22

Yeah.

Presenter0:22

Yeah.

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Each week a well known person is asked the question

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If you were to be cast away alone on a desert island, which gramophone records would you choose to have with you?

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As usual, the castaway is introduced by Roy Plumley.

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How'd you do, ladies and gentlemen? Our castaway this week is an actor, and it's Kenneth Connor.

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Kenneth, have you ever daydreamed about being a Robinson Crocer? Yes, very often.

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Do you like yourself in the park?

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Well, I wouldn't say I liked myself in the part. If ever the part came out that I had to play it, I'd be quite capable of carrying it through. What would you be particularly afraid of, apart from the loneliness?

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Well

Kenneth Connor1:10

Well

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I am fearful of loneliness at home.

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When the house is empty I can't bear it.

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But uh surrounded by the ocean, forced to live under these circumstances, I would not be fearful of loneliness at all. It would be part of one's everyday life, put up with it all the time.

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I would dream a lot, of course that would upset me a bit.

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And I'd be rather frightened, I think, in case any of my fonder dreams came true.

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Do you play the grammar phone a lot?

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Only when the boy's home. And then it's

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A great time.

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What job do you want these eight records to do for you on the island? Cheer you up, remind you of the past, bring you human voices, and what? Every one of those things. What's the first one? Samantha.

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Bing Crosby singing Samantha. Why'd you choose this?

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Because it is a lovely song.

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And the way it is done on this record.

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It's full of sincerity.

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Real meaning. Real truth.

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The music is right for the words, the words are right for the music.

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And there is just nobody.

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Who could sing?

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The way it's been crossed it has.

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So ma'am

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When I love

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We'll never know. Uh

Kenneth Connor2:34

Remember

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Some man for

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I'm a one girl.

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Oh God.

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Bing Crosby. What's your second choice?

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And the second choice is a Portuguese record.

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to remind me of my first holiday.

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with my family.

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My boy was about three and a half.

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We made real friends.

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On that holiday.

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One of them?

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a Portuguese bull fighter who brought two of his wonderful horses on to the beach one day and rode them through the waves.

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The Kid lived in heaven. He's never left it.

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And at night we would sit and listen to the bullfighter play his records, which he brought into the bar. And one of them was this Doctor

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Augusto, somebody or other, bless his heart, singing a Fado song or a blues song, from Quimbra, the university town or city of Portugal.

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That would remind me of my holiday.

Kenneth Connor3:39

You see no

Kenneth Connor3:43

Naun perhung to his coim.

Kenneth Connor4:00

Naum Prabhu Kisha.

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A Portuguese fado sung by Doctor Augusto Camacho.

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Kenneth, where were you born? London. Do you come from a theatrical family? No, not at all.

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My father was one of the leading lights of the Royal Yachts concert party.

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He was a member of the crew, was he? Mm-hmm. Petty Officer Rigger, he was. Yes. And their great joy was to have

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Always a magnificent concert ready for when King George the Fifth and Queen Mary were on board.

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Cows Week and the various other functions.

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and he, along with all the other sailors, have entertained an audience practically consisting of royalty from every country in Europe. And my brother and myself I was about nine, my brother was seven.

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We used to work with that concert party f i in their charity works.

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the South Coast, Trafalgar Day Orphanage Fund. And one of our greatest highlights was The Portsmouth Hippodrome with the Royal Marine Band in the pit and we sang a comedy duet character comedy song. And this gave you the idea you wanted to be a professional actor.

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Yes, yes. How did you set about it?

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Well, it was again my father who uh went to see Jessie Matthews when she was at the King's Theatre, Southsea, took me in with him, forced his way in, he did. I was most embarrassed.

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And uh

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She said elocution lessons first and foremost.

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That's what I did.

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went on and played Shakespeare in an amateur way in Portsmouth.

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and then came to the Central School of Drama.

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In London. Yes, where I believe you left with the gold medal for acting.

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Mm-hmm.

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Which Sir Lawrence Oliffey had also done a few years before. That's right. He tied for it, you know. Had to share it with somebody. Whereas you? Outright, of course.

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What was your first job when you left the Central School? JM Berry's The Boy David.

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With Elizabeth Bergman. Yes, Guthrie Turle, the young quarterman. This wasn't a a very long engagement, was it?

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No, unfortunately. No. And then?

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It was repertory.

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Bits and pieces here and there. Do you know, one night in the war I was on guard, and to keep myself awake I worked out how much I'd earned as a professional actor in those three or four years, and I still cannot get it above ten shillings a week average.

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Oh dear.

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Well, after those odd weeks in repertory.

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I finished up nineteen thirty nine Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park, and I was called up for six months' training by Horba Lisha. That was the best engagement I've ever had. It worked out to six and a half years. Was there any theatre work in the army? All the time, concert parties, all the time.

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Fifteenth Scottish Division, the Tamashantas, we had great fame and fortune.

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Then they abandoned that and I found myself in the pool of artists, the stars in battle dress.

Kenneth Connor6:47

No place.

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Well, while you're in the army, I think this is a a point where we can break off for another record. What next?

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Jimmy Duranty, schnozzl, singing A little bit of this and a little bit of that.

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Why'd you choose Snottle?

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Well, he is the most uncomplicated person I've ever met.

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I hope I'm right.

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Because he could play Hamlet for me and walk away with the show. Folks, I'm gonna tell you about my galaxy.

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I'm gonna tell you about the girl that's a pip.

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When I'm finished telling you about McGal, it's got in

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Why didn't Pitt won't be the right word to describe her?

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She's not only got it, but she's got that. And between it and that, she's a pip.

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She's a little bit this and a little bit that and a little bit short and a little bit fat But everybody loves my gal

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Little bit this, little bit that, Jimmy Duranty.

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Kenneth, when you left the army?

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Yes.

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A troop ship back to Southampton. From where?

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From uh Alexandria. Mm-hmm.

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A cable had been sent to me, a green cable, saying Join the Bristol Ovic immediately.

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Why did you play the?

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All the fools in Lear.

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and plays by Priestley.

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And Irish plays, Playboy of the Western World. Mm. How long were you at Bristol? Eighteen months. And after that? London Olvik for nine months. Shakespeare Fools again? Yes, yes. And after the Olvik.

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Uh the bottom seemed to fall out of things for a moment or two. I did some concert party work in Brighton.

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That was rather

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uh going back to what I did in the army, so I didn't like that very much. Then I came to London, where I played a a lovely part in Queen Elizabeth Slept Here at the Strand Theatre. An old gardener. That's right. Michael Dennison, Dulcie Gray.

Kenneth Connor8:34

Like a

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That ran for a year or more.

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Then I left the theatre for eight years, I should think, mm and concentrated on radio. Yes. And when you came back to the theatre?

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A review at the Duke of York's about two years ago I took over from Kenneth Williams. At a one over the eight it was called. Oh, that's right. And of course at the moment you're in that very successful A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Oh, it's wonderful, Maddie. Well, now radio and television, which has played a a very big part in your career, when were you first on the air?

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Sid Walker, one of the sketches he used to do, uh What Would You Do Chums or something? Bandwagon, before the war. Were you in that? Just the ones. Mm-hmm. And since then, of course, hundreds, if not thousands, of appearances.

Speaker 39:09

Yeah. Before the war.

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A lot of the time is comedian's labourer. All the time. Many more years to come, they tell me. With Ted Ray for many years. And Eric Barker. I was with Ted for.

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Eight years or probably more. On sound. Mhm. And on television as well? Towards the end we did the two, yes. I played his brother-in-law on television.

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And Eric Barker, that was the Just Fancy series.

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I often feel that acting th those little vignettes of Eric Barker will always stand me in in very good stead for microscopic

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Observation parts in films or plays of the future. They were wonderful things to play.

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And you you've played, of course, uh uh in on occasionally in in serious plays on on the radio.

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Yes, yes, third program, things like that.

Speaker 39:59

Yeah.

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Quite a lot of

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Well, let's have report number four now. Where have we got to?

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Well, this would take me to television The Greatest Joy, the Black and White Minstrel Show, which I was with for three seasons, with Glenn Mason and Benny Lee. I couldn't unwind. I never slept any night after a transmission of this show, and I would like the Banjo Kings playing Down South.

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The Banjo King's playing Down South, a television memory.

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Oh, films, Kenneth. You've been in a lot of films, haven't you? Yes, yes.

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Lately, we've been in a very long series of carry-on films. How many altogether?

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I think it's eight or nine that I've done. And there's another one coming up for me in July. What's this one? Carry on, Cleopatra. Have you any big ambition?

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Yes, I would like to get around now to playing.

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character roles of some

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Dramatic importance in films and in the theatre and on television. Yes, not not purely comic. No, I don't want to be an any more really uh

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Half-hour shows.

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Have you any ambitions to direct?

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No no, I never have had. I have always thought that it would be impertinent.

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For me to tell established artists what to do. That's our record number five. Yes, please. East of the sun and west of the moon. Why?

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I have sung this.

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Very often, ever since I first heard it.

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As a young man.

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It's a complete love song to me.

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And who's singing it on this record? Frank Sinatra, please. Well, East of the Sun.

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And the west of the moon. Uh

Kenneth Connor12:08

Yeah.

Kenneth Connor12:10

We'll build a dream hollow

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Of love.

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Near to the sun in the day

Kenneth Connor12:24

Brave

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Frank Sonatra, which brings us now to number six. The Moonlight Sonata, Beethoven, played by Moisevich. Why'd you choose this?

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This is full of the magic of the night. Now and again one experiences it, coming home late.

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Standing in the garden.

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when it's quite dark.

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Wonderful.

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But really, when these moments do occur, you realize that the whole of your life you go through working at nights, coming home, putting the card away, doing this, that and the other, and the romance and magic of night escapes you.

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All the time, I bunt this.

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Mazeyevich playing the opening of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata.

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Now you talk glibly just now, after having built your shelter and got the fish in.

Kenneth Connor14:15

Yeah.

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You'd be as good as that on a desert island. You could look after yourself. Oh, yes, indeed. What are your hobbies? Gardening. Hm. So you could cultivate a bit? I already built a camp in the garden for my son and myself. Yes.

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Could you build a boat?

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Yes, I could build a boat.

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Would you try to escape?

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Oh, after a certain length of time, of course, one would escape, if only to find out what one's manager was up to.

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Yes, this would be a wedding.

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Another record. Another record. Les Silphide.

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The ballet

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This is just beautiful.

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Are my reasons?

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for loving this are so private that I wouldn't even tell myself on the desert island.

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The nocturn from Desil Fide.

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Auger Desomier conducting the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra.

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What's your last one going to be? This will be the Royal Marine Band, Portsmouth Division, the Royal Yacht Band.

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playing uh a life on the ocean wave. Why? Because I lived, as I've said, uh in Portsmouth and I used to go every Sunday to see the church parade of the Royal Marines.

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I loved it.

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I was very short, of course I still am very short a little bit taller than I was then.

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And the Royal Marines always used to, because of the undulations, you know, in the parade ground, always gave me the impression that they were marching on their knees. I was very moved by the

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Brave sight my patriotism was unlimited, but at the same time I couldn't stop laughing at the boy because they were moving in a foreshortened way on their knees.

Kenneth Connor16:45

On that

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Um I would like it also to remind me of those early days of the Royal Yacht concert party.

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and my father who served in the yacht.

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Also I would use this for marching up and down the beach of this desert island. I'd have fashioned a rifle out of wood. I was always passionately fond of arms drill in the army, square bashing, I'd do an awful lot of that and I'd use it also as a sort of workers' playtime or music while you work style of thing, for when I'm building the boat to get me really at it. And of course

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I would definitely play it.

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At the loch

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A life on the ocean wave, the royal yacht banned.

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If you could only have one of these eight records you've chosen, Kenneth. Which?

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Schnauzel Duranti, little bit this and a little bit of that.

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And one luxury to take with you.

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Uh a guitar.

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Do you play one?

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Only

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Cowboy songs. But I can't play the guitar at all. I've always meant to learn. This would be the great time to learn. Yes, and one book apart from the Bible and Shakespeare.

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Well, I can only think of the last book I've read, and that is JB Priestley's Margin Released, which is so full of good things that I must read it at least another's.

Presenter18:55

six dozen times to get the full meaning out of it. Right. And thank you, Kenneth Connor, for letting us hear your choice of Desert Island Disc. It's been a great joy. I hope I enjoy it as much as I've enjoyed this session.

Presenter19:07

Goodbye, everyone. Goodbye.

Speaker 319:19

The guest in today's recorded programme was Kenneth Connor.

Speaker 219:22

Yeah.

Speaker 219:24

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Islandists archive. For more podcasts please visit bbc.co.uk slash radio four.