Britt Ekland

Britt Ekland0:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.

Britt Ekland0:08

The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen ninety four, and the presenter was Sue Lawley.

Presenter0:29

My Castaway This Week is an actress. She was born and brought up in Sweden, where she developed from a podgy child into a beautiful teenager. Lured away by a Hollywood contract, her life swept along in a show business whirlwind. After a ten-day romance, she married Peter Sellers. She had a passionate affair with Rod Stewart, and she enjoyed the company of the rich and famous on both sides of the Atlantic. In between, she made several films, very few of which have stood the test of time.

Presenter0:55

Now fifty one, she lives with her small son in London and in Stockholm. She's written a novel, and last Christmas she appeared in Pantomime. She looks forward, she says, to what happens next. She is Britt

Presenter1:08

You're obviously very resilient, Britt. I mean, someone less strong might have gone under in the face of so many personal disappointments. I never see myself as going under.

Presenter1:19

But where do you get the strength from? I mean, you're obviously a very determined, very positive person, aren't you?

Presenter1:24

I think it's inherited. I got it from my mother.

Presenter1:27

And

Presenter1:29

Also, if you have children.

Presenter1:31

And you are more or less a single mother, then you have to find the strength.

Speaker 31:35

Hmm.

Presenter1:36

Uh

Presenter1:36

And you've found the strength on the whole to to fend for them as well, because you you've always worked to try and keep them, haven't you? Oh, yeah.

Britt Ekland1:42

Oh yeah.

Presenter1:43

Always. Although you you've had some generous liaisons. I've had some.

Presenter1:48

Very wealthy liaison, shall we say generous? I'm not so sure.

Presenter1:53

I've never really profited from my liaison, except for e except for my children. That that was the profit.

Britt Ekland1:57

Except for

Presenter2:01

Which is fine.

Presenter2:03

I'm not a person who really asks for material things, because I know.

Presenter2:08

that if that's something I can provide myself.

Presenter2:11

Do you think you're the sort of person who who invites trouble? Uh I mean, you do seem to have had more than your fair share of it. I mean, do you are you the sort of person who's

Presenter2:20

followed her heart rather than her head on too many occasions? Almost definitely. I think even today I I would find it difficult to lead a perfectly normal, straight life as Brid Eckland. As a mother, of course I do. I'm I'm perfectly normal and straight and disciplined and

Presenter2:38

read stories and do all of those things. But

Presenter2:41

In my personal life I want excitement.

Presenter2:44

So you you've actively looked for excitement, have you?

Britt Ekland2:45

So you

Presenter2:48

I think so. You brought it all on yourself. Yes, I probably have.

Britt Ekland2:50

Uh

Presenter2:51

Do you do you regret doing that? I mean you suffered an awful lot. No. And I'm I'm not and I'm I must say this emphatically, I'm not a victim, never have been.

Britt Ekland2:52

I mean, Yeah.

Presenter3:02

I'm not a victim kind of woman.

Britt Ekland3:02

I'm not sure

Presenter3:05

What about through all of this music? Has it been important to you? Music has been the one thing that has been my constant companion throughout my life.

Presenter3:15

In fact, two of your liaisons, of course, were one husband was a rock star, and of course there was Rod Stewart, who was a rock superstar. So music must have played something. And Lou Adler, who's the father of my

Presenter3:24

Middleson, who is a a promoter and producer.

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The first record reminds me of.

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a time I spent in Rome before I I made it as an actress, before I was really famous. I went there to do a movie.

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lived on spaghetti, got very fat. But everything that this record represents is true. I mean, Rome really was, in the early sixties, the most incredible place. And it's Frank Sinatra and Three Coins in the Fountain.

Speaker 44:01

Three coins and the fountain

Speaker 44:06

Each one seeking happiness

Speaker 44:12

Thrown by three hopeful lovers Which one will the fountain bless?

Presenter4:25

Frank Sonata and Three Coins in the Fountain and Memories of Rome, nineteen sixty three, when you were desperate and penniless and eking out the cappuccinos and suddenly

Presenter4:35

This wonderful thing happened. A man came up and asked you if you wanted to be in films. I mean, it's too good to be true. He was a talent scout, and we were sitting on Via Veneto, an American girlfriend and myself, and he just came right up to me and said

Presenter4:50

Did I want to meet Mr. Daryl Sanek? And did I want to do a a a Test film?

Presenter4:58

But why did he know you were an actress? Did he know? I think he just saw someone incredibly fluffy and big and blonde.

Britt Ekland5:00

Yeah.

Speaker 35:00

In the

Britt Ekland5:00

No, I don't think so.

Presenter5:08

Sitting there. And I was I mean this was I was my last, last penny and the only thing I had left was my ticket home and I did not want to get home. I wanted to stay. I wanted to be in the movies. And you were what, nineteen, twenty? I was twenty. No, I was I just turned twenty one. It was October. This was in November. I turned twenty one in October. So you went for a screen test, you did? I went to meet Mr. Zanuck. This is Darrell Zanuck, twentieth Century Fox. Twentieth Century Fox. And it was decided I would

Britt Ekland5:21

Now if

Britt Ekland5:22

No

Britt Ekland5:27

So you went

Britt Ekland5:32

This is Daryl Zannab, twentieth century folk.

Presenter5:38

Goes to New York.

Presenter5:40

to go in a in a sort of cinematic drama school for three weeks and then I would do a test film for them.

Presenter5:48

And um and then you waited for the response. And then you go home to Sweden, you wait for it. How much later did the call come when you gone home to Sweden?

Presenter5:56

I spent Christmas at home and I'd gone with a girlfriend skiing in Switzerland and my mother called me and she said, There's a telegram here and I said, Open it, open it, open it

Presenter6:06

And it said, you know, congratulations, seven seven year contract is yours. And um, when I started my first film and where I had to be. And the first film was in

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London

Presenter6:20

The Gansa Batasi.

Presenter6:22

Brudich of Attenborough and John Leighton. And this contract was uh a seven-year contract with the Hollywood studio, Twentieth Century Fox, for two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. I've been trying to work out how much that would have been today. I mean, it's a lot of money.

Britt Ekland6:29

Yeah.

Speaker 36:29

Uh

Britt Ekland6:29

We

Britt Ekland6:33

Well what

Britt Ekland6:35

Today

Presenter6:37

It is and it isn't. It w it it would have been um, let's say ten thousand for the first, fifteen for the second. You do two films a year, um twenty, twenty five, thirty, thirty five, forty, forty five, fifty.

Presenter6:51

You know, a staggering five thousand each film. But the expectation that you were gonna get bigger and bigger. Yes, but if you think of someone

Britt Ekland6:51

You know

Britt Ekland6:55

If he

Britt Ekland6:57

Yeah.

Presenter7:00

In that situation today, Julia Roberts, she probably got for her first film, she probably got, I don't know, $100,000 maybe. I mean, it this might be fantasy money, I really don't know. But having been spotted, picked up, as it were, off the street in Rome, you weren't doing too badly at this point. Oh no, I mean I was I was thrilled. Thrilled that I never got any of the money, of course. Because it was a contract you were never to fulfil because you married Peter Sellers, which we'll talk about in a minute. But let's have your second record. This takes me back to my childhood, and this is very sad.

Britt Ekland7:12

But how

Britt Ekland7:17

Oh no, I mean I would

Britt Ekland7:23

It was a

Britt Ekland7:25

Yeah.

Presenter7:32

Maybe that's how it all started.

Presenter7:35

When I um fell in love and then was desperately hurt by the

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Young boy

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I would cut myself, and then I would write in my diary with the blood.

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you know. It's over. And then I would play Swan Lake and this here we would play the beginning of Act Two of Jaikovsky's Swan Lake.

Presenter8:57

Beginning of Act Two of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, played by the orchestra of the Royal Opera House Govangarden, conducted by Mark Ermler.

Presenter9:04

And memories of your diaries written in blood. Have you still got them? Yes, I do. Have you? Yes.

Presenter9:10

So let's talk about meeting and marrying Peter Sellers. It all happened in about ten days flat. Was he so devastatingly attractive? Or, looking back, was it you who was rather naïve?

Presenter9:21

It was probably a combination. He was very suave.

Presenter9:25

Very sophisticated.

Presenter9:27

He wasn't handsome in the classical word handsome, but he was attractive looking. He was in his um thin period. And he was already very successful. The the Pink Panther was playing and was a huge success. And Doctor Strange Love.

Presenter9:43

was coming out as well. So he he was successful, very, very successful. So he was already Inspector Cluseot and he made you laugh. Yes. But nevertheless, ten days from kind of meeting and being wooed to marrying him is is an incredibly short period of time. I mean, do you remember much about it?

Britt Ekland9:47

So

Presenter10:00

I remember dinners.

Presenter10:03

Trader Vicks, those drinks with straws. I remember a little dog. He gave me a little dog. It's not a very practical gift, I suppose.

Presenter10:16

I remember else that the house that we were later to live in, he took me out there.

Presenter10:21

I remember him taking me to meet Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon. In those first ten years, I think it was a very good idea.

Britt Ekland10:26

In those first ten minutes?

Presenter10:29

When and where did he propose to you?

Presenter10:31

I had to in the midst of this I had to go back to New York to do some photo sessions, and um I was lightly clad, laying on a fur rug, when the phone went in the studio, and he asked me there, over the phone, if I wanted to marry.

Presenter10:51

Because I said yes. So you got married and then really quite soon after that he had to go away uh to the States.

Britt Ekland10:58

We got Marathon.

Presenter11:01

And he left on the Saturday because he had to start working on the Monday in Hollywood. And very quickly he wanted you by his side and you had this contract to fulfil in London. What happened?

Presenter11:12

Easter was coming up. His children were going out to spend time with him. And he said, Can't you come?

Presenter11:18

I said, Well, I will ask the film company and They said no, they wouldn't give me the time off.

Presenter11:23

So he said

Presenter11:26

Well just

Presenter11:27

Take the time anyway. I I will arrange it. I'll I'll fix it.

Presenter11:32

I knew in my heart.

Presenter11:34

I have very, very good instincts, and I knew when I don't follow my instincts, things always go wrong.

Presenter11:40

And I knew my heart was doing the wrong thing. I just knew it. But I wasn't my own woman in those days. So I went.

Presenter11:48

And I mean, it was fabulous being together. He brought me to this marble palace in just off Sunset Boulevard.

Presenter11:57

Outside Beverly Hills. But beautiful. I mean, it was everything that I, in my dream in Sweden, thought Hollywood should be. And a room full of clothes for you, too. He had a whole wardrobe filled with clothes. Everything from shoes, bathing suits, dressing gowns, night gowns, day clothes, evening gowns. Did it all fit? Yes, most of it fit. Yes. Which that's extraordinary. And.

Presenter12:24

And jewellery. I mean, every and it was a whole room filled.

Presenter12:28

So at from that moment on really you were taken over by Peter Sellars. A at which point did he start getting difficult and unreasonable, not to say impossible?

Presenter12:39

By the time we got back to England that summer, I was pregnant. And the first time I really felt that that this is not normal was when Hugh Heffner called him and said we have photographs of Britt in the nude that we're going to publish in the paper.

Presenter12:58

But we feel that you're such a wonderful photographer, so why don't you take some photographs of her?

Presenter13:03

And we published those instead. And I said I said, But Peter, I have never, ever in my whole life posted nu for nude photographs.

Presenter13:10

But he wouldn't listen to me said You have necess you have, you have.

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And he wouldn't listen to me. There was nothing I could say or do.

Presenter13:19

I knew that this this is not normal, this is not how

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A normal man should behave towards his wife, particularly when she is pregnant.

Presenter13:27

What did you put it down to, that kind of unreasonable behaviour? Did you think that he was just older than you and therefore had different standards from you? Or did you think that he was just such a genius he was allowed to behave like this? I think you always said he's a genius. He can do anything he wants to do. Because if you are a genius

Presenter13:45

Is a license to behave badly?

Presenter13:47

And looking back now, do you believe that you really loved him, or were you just indeed dazzled?

Presenter13:54

Oh no, I really loved him.

Presenter13:56

And you stayed five years and tried to prove it.

Presenter13:58

I did, and I did my best.

Presenter14:01

Let's have record number three.

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When this record came out in Sweden, it just was like nothing we've ever heard. We were used to jazz, we were used to classical music.

Presenter14:13

And this was a kind of sound that was totally revolutionary.

Presenter14:20

Living doll.

Speaker 414:21

Got myself a cryin' talking, sleeping, walking, living dog.

Speaker 414:28

Got to do my best to please her just cause she's a living doll

Speaker 414:36

Got a roving eye and that is why she satisfies my soul

Speaker 414:43

Got the one and only

Speaker 414:45

Walking, talking, letting down

Presenter14:52

Cliff Richards and Living Doll. Apparently, Britt Eklund, your nickname at school was Dumbo, because you were the size of an elephant and had large flapping ears, which is very hard to believe. And I had very large protruding front teeth as well.

Presenter15:06

All since fixed. But you were genuinely fat. Yes, I was. You were a fat little girl. Does it still haunt you, old? Oh yes. I mean, do you remember what it was like to suffer?

Speaker 315:10

Yeah, little girl.

Presenter15:16

I mean, I will never be a thin person.

Presenter15:20

In your mind? No, never. Well, you were teased a lot then, were you? Yes. And to protect yourself, you become funny.

Presenter15:28

And

Presenter15:29

You allow everyone to make jokes about you and push you around and you d I mean, you do mad things.

Presenter15:37

Just to entertain people. Just to stay in play, to not be ostracized. And also to be part of the group.

Britt Ekland15:39

Played

Presenter15:43

Hmm.

Presenter15:44

But at some point in your teens, obviously, you metamorphosed. When and how did it happen?

Presenter15:49

I was around fifteen, and over the summer months.

Presenter15:55

I came back to school slim and I also discovered peroxide.

Presenter16:02

When you poured a whole bottle over your head. Well, you you you put it on a piece of cotton wool and then you pull the cotton wool through your hair like in streaks. And the effect was what can I say? Simply stunning. I thought anyway.

Presenter16:18

My father was not quite as enthused as I was. But there was nothing he could do about it. So then suddenly you you won the acclaim of your classmates, not for being fat, but for being a Brigitte Bardot lookalike, weren't you? Mm. I did a sketch for um Swedish television where they needed someone that looked like Brigitte Bardot. And these are the days of Jingham and um Lace and uh Bruderie Anglais and

Presenter16:42

And it suited me perfectly. The blonde hair in the suit, but it w I mean it was white blonde. It was no definition. It was just white blonde.

Britt Ekland16:44

The blonde hair in the city.

Presenter16:51

And big black eyes, and you you had that shimmering lipstick.

Presenter16:59

And um

Presenter17:01

It was quite exciting to go from Fatty and Dumbo into this blonde doll. Record number four.

Presenter17:10

Ah, well

Presenter17:12

Now we go to Switzerland. My parents thought that I should learn French and spent some time at the university in Lausanne. And I was living in a pancione with a Danish girl and two English boys. I think one of them was a lord. I don't know.

Presenter17:29

Who he is today. I've lost track of them. All I know is that he had a.

Presenter17:35

Well, it wasn't old in those days, but today it would be an old MG, one of those square boxes, and we used to drive up in the hills and drink wine. And I haven't chosen the old version. I have chosen Captain Sensible in Habitor.

Speaker 318:05

Dream come true.

Presenter18:09

Captain Sensible and Happy Talk.

Presenter18:11

So, Britt, when your marriage with Peter Sellers ended, you came back to London with your small daughter and you had a succession of of famous lovers, Patrick Litchfield, Warren Beatty, George Hamilton, and so on. You lived the high life. Was it as glamorous as it sounded?

Presenter18:27

Yes, I guess it was.

Presenter18:29

You really could enjoy yourself without retribution from anyone. There was no.

Presenter18:35

politically incorrect way of living.

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And people were very nicely behaved.

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Did you come close to marrying any of those men?

Presenter18:45

No, I didn't.

Presenter18:48

I think when I got pregnant with

Presenter18:50

Nikolai

Presenter18:52

I sort of knew that Lou wasn't going to marry me. Record promoter. Record producer.

Speaker 318:56

This is Lou Adler. Lou Adler, yes. Record promoter.

Britt Ekland18:59

Uh

Presenter19:00

American Millionaire.

Britt Ekland19:01

American Millionaire.

Presenter19:03

who is the father of my big son.

Presenter19:08

If Lou had wanted to marry, then I would have married him. It really didn't come out that I was pregnant until I was almost seven months pregnant. And you had to say who the father was?

Presenter19:17

Yes. And and we both announced it in the paper and and Lou was very graceful and articulate about it. He would always look after us and he was very happy. So the

Presenter19:31

Another relationship had founded and now you had two children and you were not entirely sure what you were going to do with your life and Joan Collins invited you to a party to cheer you up and introduce you to Rod Stewart.

Presenter19:43

That's right. I lived out in Malibu, in Lou's house. I was very miserable. I had a eighteen month old son and

Presenter19:51

No father. Well, he he had the father, but I didn't have the man. And she we we were very good friends in London. She always invited me to parties and

Presenter20:02

And she asked me to come with her and her husband on Cass. And I'd met him in London and I thought he was a bit scrawny and very sort of cocky English pop star and I really wasn't very interested.

Presenter20:15

But she insisted, and I went.

Presenter20:18

Um it was just to get me out of the house.

Presenter20:20

Right, let's pause there for some more music, and then we'll hear what happened.

Presenter20:24

Well, this is probably my favorite artist ever.

Presenter20:28

John Lennon.

Presenter20:29

This track represents one.

Presenter20:32

I live with Rod Stewart.

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He was complaining about lyrics, that he couldn't write

Presenter20:38

the way he wanted to and I

Presenter20:41

I said to him

Presenter20:42

Listen to John Lennon and listen to particularly that track, Mother.

Speaker 420:50

Are you friendly?

Speaker 420:53

But I never had

Speaker 421:04

I wanna do

Speaker 421:08

Yeah.

Presenter21:12

John Lennon and Mother. So it was nineteen seventy five. You went to the party with Joan Collins, met this scrawny British rock star, as you just called him, and fell for him hook line and sinker. Why what was it?

Britt Ekland21:22

Oh yeah.

Presenter21:24

There was something very appealing, little boy lost quality, very cheeky.

Presenter21:31

Um great sense of humour, wicked sense of humour.

Presenter21:35

It was so instant for both of us that it was almost frightening. But I wonder weren't you worry having been through this kind of experience before where suddenly you're swept off your feet and

Britt Ekland21:40

But I wonder

Presenter21:46

I don't think you are when it happens to you.

Presenter21:49

I did keep my own house and my my setup, and he had his house and his set up.

Presenter21:56

We eventually merged, but um why didn't you ever marry?

Presenter22:02

I think he was very frightened of getting married.

Presenter22:06

But also he wanted children.

Presenter22:08

And

Presenter22:09

Nicolai was only eighteen months old, and I really did not want to have another child, and I did not want to have another child unless I was married. But I didn't want a child at that point. I want I just wanted to be with him.

Presenter22:21

So are you suggesting that if you had been willing to have another child, then you might have married the whole thing might have happened, might have been different?

Britt Ekland22:26

The whole thing might have

Presenter22:29

Well, I mean, his subsequent wife was, whatever, three, four months pregnant when they marry. So but I don't I did I never felt that

Presenter22:38

That was a good enough reason to marry.

Presenter22:41

How long did it last, the relationship in the end?

Presenter22:45

Three and a half years.

Speaker 322:46

Hmm.

Presenter22:47

And when it ended, he ended it and I was a little bit more.

Speaker 322:49

No, you didn't.

Presenter22:56

But

Presenter22:57

I ended it because I could not live with someone that was unfaithful. And you found it incredibly painful.

Presenter23:03

It was probably.

Presenter23:05

The most.

Presenter23:06

Painful period of my life.

Presenter23:08

Was he the love of your life?

Presenter23:12

Maybe.

Presenter23:13

It's hard I don't know. Do you think there might be another one yet?

Speaker 323:16

Come on, yes.

Presenter23:18

Trust me, I'm not looking.

Presenter23:21

Do you see him these days? Do i've last time I saw him was before I had met Jim, but before I'd married Jim.

Presenter23:29

It was a very nice, very pleasant

Presenter23:32

Very normal meeting. So you don't have ongoing acrimonious relationships with with the men that you've had affairs with? Oh no, no, I don't. I don't and

Speaker 323:39

Loana

Presenter23:43

I had a lot of problems with Peter Sellers over the years.

Presenter23:47

But it wasn't really.

Presenter23:49

anything coming from me, I was very upset that he did not take care of his daughter. And I don't mean necessarily financially, that he just did not devote time to her.

Presenter24:02

That he always

Presenter24:03

cancelled trips with her and it was left to me to explain away nicely that daddy was working. And do you think your daughter Victoria suffered as a result of that?

Presenter24:14

Almost definitely. But I think from that

Presenter24:17

And when her father died, she was fifteen.

Presenter24:21

She was told by the estate that here's your cheque for it has been reported in the paper seven hundred and fifty pounds, but he was a little bit more generous than that.

Presenter24:31

It was in fact twelve hundred pounds.

Presenter24:33

And

Presenter24:35

And nothing else.

Presenter24:37

No photographs, no person. She she owned actually nothing that was her father's. Why do you think that was his attitude?

Presenter24:44

Seems incredibly harsh.

Presenter24:46

I'm quite convinced that it's something that he would have changed.

Presenter24:51

Had he lived longer.

Presenter24:54

It it was like asking, I'm gonna divorce you now.

Presenter24:59

and then mon torturing you through the weekend, saying it to you on a Friday night, knowing that there's nothing you can do. You have to be in the same house for these three days. And then on Monday morning

Presenter25:11

you know, having threatening with the lawyers and everything, Monday morning, everything is nice, you go into town and have lunch at the Caprice and and buy another cartoon watch. And I think that was his attitude with his will as well.

Presenter25:22

You know, there had been more than one, and I think he just played whatever he mood he was in.

Presenter25:29

That was the way the will would be, and it was very tragic that this is how it ended. She had nothing, I mean, she didn't even have a shirt that was his.

Presenter25:39

More music.

Presenter25:41

Ah, this is a very, very inspirational piece of music. I was living in Lu's house at um Stone Canyon. This is after I split up with Rod Stewart and I moved out. And

Presenter25:56

I'd always been into fitness and but I'd never been running.

Presenter26:00

And the Stone Canyon is a fairly long road going up, up, up, up, up, up, up.

Presenter26:06

And I started running to this song, The River.

Speaker 426:10

For my 19th birthday, I got a union card and a wedding coat.

Speaker 426:19

We went down to the courthouse and the judge put it all to rest.

Speaker 426:26

No wednesday smiles, no walk down the aisle No flowers, no wedding dress That night we went down

Presenter26:38

Bruce Springsteen and the River. Music for Bruce Eklund to run to. How how hard do you work on all of that, running and keeping fit and your appearance and so on? Do you put a lot of effort in?

Speaker 426:42

How

Britt Ekland26:42

Bod

Presenter26:48

My appearance I would have to work on quite a lot every morning.

Presenter26:53

My physical workouts are it's a joy, it's a pleasure. That's my hobby.

Presenter26:58

Have you ever over all these years and you know, after Rod Stewart, you talked about the forgotten years, I think four years, you seem to go into a kind of decline, really. Have you ever used drink or drugs, or have you always managed to avoid that?

Presenter27:12

I did, um I did do, as they say, cocaine in the

Presenter27:17

late seventies, early eighties, because that was

Presenter27:21

That's what you did. It it was as common as champagne.

Presenter27:25

I've always liked to drink champagne, white wine.

Presenter27:30

I spirits only if you're on a holiday and they put sort of strawberries and umbrellas and little cherries in them and they mix them with lots of pineapple juice or something. Otherwise I don't drink spirits. But you didn't become dependent on either the drugs or the drink by the sound of it. You avoided that.

Britt Ekland27:43

The drugs are the drill.

Presenter27:46

You you

Presenter27:47

Eventually, after these forgotten years, ended up with a man again, a much younger man, a man eighteen years younger, but another rock star, Jim MacDonnell.

Presenter27:57

But that hasn't lasted either, has it? So what's gone wrong? What goes wrong for you time and time again? I think eleven years with one man is

Presenter28:07

Quite a good

Presenter28:09

Time.

Presenter28:10

We had a a very nice life together. We had a beautiful house in LA, with all the accoutrements, swimming pool and sauna, and the cars, and uh the dogs, and the baby.

Presenter28:24

But it just wasn't enough. I knew there was something more in me, something more that I wanted to do. Do you feel disappointed in yourself that you have never made any of these relationships last? I mean, do you believe that there's something lacking in you that doesn't seem able to get it together, despite, as you say,

Britt Ekland28:36

See you. Uh

Presenter28:41

Having all the accoutrements, as you call them.

Presenter28:44

Maybe there is something lacking in me, but

Presenter28:47

I'm not disappointed in myself.

Presenter28:49

On the contrary, I feel that whatever has happened, I've I keep going.

Presenter28:55

And I keep going much much more successfully than a lot of people that have been in similar situations. You're a survivor. You'll be all right on this desert island. Look after yourself. Oh, yes. And I will enjoy it.

Britt Ekland29:04

Yeah.

Presenter29:07

Cause I love the sun.

Presenter29:09

Let's have record number seven.

Presenter29:11

It's um actually the favorite film that Jim and I saw, and we saw it again and again and again. I think we probably saw it like eleven times. And it's the theme from the film Amadeus.

Presenter29:57

Diaziri from Mozart's Requiem from the sound track of the film Amadeus. If you never came back from this desert island that we're sending you to, what would you want people to say about you? Would you

Presenter30:08

Want them to say that you were glamorous or you were a successful actress or now that you've written a novel that you were a good author.

Presenter30:15

What what do you think you'd like them to think about you?

Presenter30:19

None of those things, really.

Presenter30:21

I think I would like to be remembered for having been.

Presenter30:24

A good person.

Presenter30:26

And a good mother.

Presenter30:29

What would you

Presenter30:30

not like to think they were saying about you.

Presenter30:35

That I was a victim?

Presenter30:37

That I was a failure.

Presenter30:39

That I was tragic.

Presenter30:42

I like to think

Presenter30:44

That people look at me

Presenter30:46

in a more positive light, because I am a very positive person.

Presenter30:50

I have loads and loads of friends.

Presenter30:55

I'm by no means lonely. So you're happy on your age. Yes, I am. And you're actually quietly proud of the fact that you're not dependent on any man.

Britt Ekland30:59

Yeah.

Presenter31:05

Oh, he asked.

Presenter31:06

I think I think if women just

Presenter31:09

Stepped back a little bit and looked at their own lives and said, I can do without this, I can do without that.

Presenter31:15

A lot of them would be much happier. You'd recommend it, would you? Oh, I would, yes, most definitely.

Presenter31:21

Last record.

Presenter31:23

This is um a group that I got to know in the early seventies. They have remained my friends to this day, even though they are no longer together as a group.

Presenter31:34

Very clever individually. And that's Abba and I've chosen Dancing Queen.

Speaker 331:58

Who see that girl?

Speaker 332:01

Watch that scene, tickets

Presenter32:08

Abba and Dancing Queen. So if you could only take one of those eight records, Britt.

Presenter32:13

I would have to take John Lennon.

Presenter32:16

A mother. Now, you know, on this island, we give you the Bible and the complete works of Shakespeare. You're allowed to take one other book with you. What would that be?

Presenter32:25

I have to be perfectly honest, I very seldom have the time to read.

Presenter32:30

Anything as lengthy as a book.

Presenter32:32

Could I go for magazines? Yes, of course.

Presenter32:35

There'll be no problem, then. I'll just take

Presenter32:38

Every Harper's in Vogue and Vanity Fair and Health magazine I have laying at home since.

Presenter32:45

Last summer that I have not had time to read.

Presenter32:48

And what about your luxury? You're allowed one of those. A man?

Presenter32:52

No, sorry, you're not allowed anything animate.

Presenter32:56

something that you class as truly luxurious, really special.

Presenter33:00

that would just, you know, help you in this terrible, lonely existence that we're condemning you to.

Presenter33:07

Et box avion.

Presenter33:09

Fillot champagne. Why can't it be in a champagne box?

Presenter33:13

I am

Presenter33:15

Despite the media's insistence, I am a very discreet person.

Presenter33:21

And I wouldn't want to cut a whole box of champagne to Desert Island.

Presenter33:25

Britect, and thank you very much indeed for letting us hear your desert island discs. Thank you soon.

Britt Ekland33:37

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive. For more podcasts, please visit bbc.co.uk/slash radio four.