Christopher Lee

Speaker 30:00

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.

Speaker 30:08

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

Presenter0:29

My castaway this week is an actor. He was born in London's Belgravia, the son of a soldier and an Italian contessa, who was a noted Edwardian beauty.

Presenter0:38

In a career spanning fifty years, he's acted in twenty seven plays, performed on radio, television and on record, and taken part in two hundred and thirty films. Though the statistics display versatility, he is universally known for one particular type, The Curse of Frankenstein, Dracula, Theatre of Death, the titles tell all. Suave, cool and dripping with blood, he is British cinema's king of horror, Christopher Lee.

Presenter1:04

And yet, strange to say, Christopher, you haven't made a horror film for, what, twenty-three years?

Christopher Lee1:09

Something like that. Yes, 22, 23 years. I think it's.

Presenter1:11

But the reputation sticks. How much do you mind?

Christopher Lee1:15

I mind

Christopher Lee1:17

If people only think of me as having done that, and nothing else.

Christopher Lee1:22

I don't mind because there are over two hundred other films.

Christopher Lee1:27

which disprove the fact that I am committed and shackled to the playing of one particular role in one particular kind of film.

Christopher Lee1:34

I made my name known, and my face, which at first was unrecognizable,

Christopher Lee1:40

became known as a result of doing those pictures for Hammer from nineteen fifty seven onwards.

Christopher Lee1:48

I have always been extremely grateful.

Christopher Lee1:50

for the fact that I was given the chance and the opportunity to play a character which by

Christopher Lee1:55

A stroke of good fortune?

Christopher Lee1:57

Happened.

Christopher Lee1:59

To hit home.

Christopher Lee2:01

all over the world.

Presenter2:02

So it's been a blessing and a curse, hasn't it? But I I want to explore both of those aspects of it with you. But but let's get on to your music, which is all opera, because as I understand it, you might, had you not gone into hammer horror or hammer fantasy as you prefer.

Christopher Lee2:04

Yeah.

Presenter2:17

Um you might have been an opera singer.

Christopher Lee2:20

Yes, my great-grandparents.

Christopher Lee2:23

founded the first opera company in Australia, ever.

Christopher Lee2:27

Round about the beginning of the nineteenth century, I can't remember exactly when, and they had five gorgeous daughters, my great aunts, three of whom I knew when I was a very small boy, and they were very elderly ladies.

Christopher Lee2:37

and two sons, one of whom was my grandfather.

Christopher Lee2:41

Now she was an incredible woman, my great-grandmother, and she became world famous as the Tasmanian Nightingale. I have all the old programmes and silk and paper and so on.

Presenter2:52

So it's in the blood.

Christopher Lee2:53

It's in the blood. My mother had a good singing voice, never used it professionally, and I inherited it.

Presenter2:59

Yeah.

Christopher Lee2:59

It's

Speaker 42:59

Hmm.

Christopher Lee3:00

It's an instrument I was given at birth. It's a gift. It's nothing to do with me.

Christopher Lee3:04

And I never really knew that I had this voice until one day in Sweden, in the summer, I was singing at a rather boozy party, which is not unknown in Sweden, particularly in the summer.

Christopher Lee3:15

And

Christopher Lee3:17

I got a sort of

Christopher Lee3:18

pull on the arm. I turned round and there was a

Christopher Lee3:22

small, stocky man, whom I instantly recognized, who looked at me and he said

Christopher Lee3:28

You have the voice.

Christopher Lee3:31

You should use it.

Christopher Lee3:33

Come to morrow at eleven.

Christopher Lee3:35

To the Opera House, you know the Opera House.

Christopher Lee3:38

In South Holland? I said, yes, I do.

Christopher Lee3:40

And sing to me.

Christopher Lee3:43

At eleven o'clock. Well, I didn't think he would be there, but he was, and I have a vague recollection of singing Don Giovanni's serenade, which probably sounded like a call to arms, I was so nervous.

Christopher Lee3:55

And I sang in French, in English, in German, in Russian, and in Italian. So I must have sung at least five things. At the end of it

Christopher Lee4:03

He said, I'll get in touch with you. He did. The upshot of it was that the Stockholm Opera said to me, We will take you and we will train you and you will eventually become a member of the company. But you've got to look after your own board and lodging. Well, I didn't have the money. So it's the greatest disappointment of my entire life because it's a gift wasted. I have sung in films. I have sung in sort of concert things with amateur groups and professional groups. And I've even sung with

Christopher Lee4:35

The man himself

Presenter4:36

And the man in question's going to sing to you on your island.

Christopher Lee4:39

He is indeed, and his name

Christopher Lee4:41

Yussi Bierling.

Christopher Lee4:43

The Caruso of the North

Speaker 45:16

Aden Andrastin Lehnel Fondi.

Speaker 45:33

Ah has lunar somedra

Presenter5:42

You see Björling singing Offenbach's La Belle Elene. Perhaps it isn't entirely chance that you got into horror, Christopher Lee, because you apparently bear an uncanny resemblance to the original fifteenth century figure who inspired the legend of Dracula.

Christopher Lee5:56

Vlad Sepish, Vlad the Impaler.

Christopher Lee6:00

And he did exist, by some strange coincidence, except that my eyes do not bulge. Uh I certainly do resemble him. It's a bit weird, really, when you can't explain.

Presenter6:09

So there are original pictures of him or woodcuts or something.

Christopher Lee6:12

There is a picture. Oh, yes, there's more than one. There is a picture which is in a castle in Austria, which is a famous one, where the eyes are very prominent.

Christopher Lee6:19

But there are also quite a few wood cuts and drawings of him.

Presenter6:23

But you've said before now that you've never played him correctly, that's to say, as Bram Stoker, his creator, saw him. How was that?

Christopher Lee6:27

Yeah.

Christopher Lee6:29

Print

Christopher Lee6:31

Well

Christopher Lee6:32

If you read the book.

Christopher Lee6:34

You will see that when Jonathan Harker comes to the castle the door is opened I can't remember the precise words, but I can get pretty close.

Christopher Lee6:42

There in front of me, or before me, or whatever, stood a very old man, a very tall old man.

Christopher Lee6:47

with white hair and a white moustache, a long white moustache, dressed entirely in black from head to foot, without a speck of colour. Now that's Stoker.

Christopher Lee6:58

It's not hammer.

Christopher Lee6:59

I was in black.

Christopher Lee7:01

But afterwards, they gave me a red line to the cape, which I thought spoiled it. So I'm physically wrong in those. But you also said.

Presenter7:06

But you're also supposed to get younger, aren't you?

Christopher Lee7:08

That's right. But I did do a film, which unfortunately wasn't at all good.

Christopher Lee7:12

We won't go into the reasons for that, in which I did, and I'm the only actor, appear exactly as described by Stoker.

Christopher Lee7:23

And I got younger during the entire film, younger and younger and younger.

Presenter7:27

It's the blood rejuvenating.

Christopher Lee7:29

It's the blood, of course. The blood is the life, you know. And nobody's done it correctly. Even Coppola's film, which is very impressive picture to s to look at, and he's a great distinguished filmmaker, even his picture

Christopher Lee7:42

With all that money, wi labelled as Bram Stoker's Dracula, first time you see him, he's wearing a red what looks like a red dress.

Presenter7:50

Hmm.

Christopher Lee7:50

And no moustache?

Presenter7:52

Would you like to have one last go at him, do him properly?

Christopher Lee7:55

It would tempt me, I think, but it would have to be exactly the way Stoker wrote it, which is literally almost word for word, and I honestly don't know whether people would be prepared to come up with that kind of money these days, to make the film. And for me

Presenter8:11

Let's have record number two.

Christopher Lee8:13

Right.

Christopher Lee8:14

This uh

Christopher Lee8:16

is not entirely personal.

Christopher Lee8:18

It's to do more with my mother. My mother was a very musical person, as I said earlier on, had a good voice, never used it professionally. But because of the fact that she was born in 1889, she was lucky enough to be able to go to the opera and see all the singers of the Golden Age. And we come to the voice, well, the voice of all time, really, and the voice of Enrico Caruso, who knew my mother and always used to say when he met her, Ah, la bella, la bellissima, which my mother wasn't exactly tired of hearing. She was very beautiful. But he he was an enchanting man.

Christopher Lee8:58

And he's singing um here

Christopher Lee9:01

with another man who also in his particular way was unique.

Christopher Lee9:06

And the interesting thing is the fact that the other man's voice, when they both sing together,

Christopher Lee9:11

It almost sounds the same, because Caruzzo's voice was a very baritone voice.

Speaker 49:40

Yeah.

Speaker 49:43

Yeah.

Presenter10:16

Enrico Caruso and Tita Ruffo, the tenor and the baritone, singing the duet Si Pel Cheil from the second act of Verdi's Otello, and that was recorded in nineteen fourteen.

Presenter10:27

Your mother she was an Italian contessa, she was obviously quite a lady. What did she think of your going into films when you said or into onto the stage when you said you would?

Christopher Lee10:35

Her first concern, really, was the uncertainty of it all. Although she did react exactly like an old fashioned tragedienne would have reacted, somebody like Sarah Bernhardt. She literally reeled back and flung

Christopher Lee10:48

Her hand up at her forehead. I'll never forget it, and she said, You can't, you can't.

Christopher Lee10:53

And you think of the disgrace you will bring upon the family. Think of it, think of it And

Christopher Lee11:00

Think of the appalling people you will meet and I have to say

Christopher Lee11:05

She had something there.

Presenter11:07

Hi she

Christopher Lee11:08

But oh yes, but uh in the sec second statement, but she was worried about the fact that I had no money and uh what was I going to live on and the enormous competition even then and insecurity and so on, so I understood her attitude.

Presenter11:08

Uh

Presenter11:21

You were obviously a bit of a performer. Apparently, you were rather good at knife throwing at Square. Oh, yes.

Christopher Lee11:26

Oh yes. Well, uh I for some extraordinary reason was very good at throwing things, whether it was a cricket ball or whether it was a dart or whatever it was, and I always seemed to hit the target.

Christopher Lee11:36

And one day

Christopher Lee11:37

By sheer chance, I picked up a knife.

Christopher Lee11:40

I threw it at something, vum, straight in the middle. I thought, this is fun, I'll take this up. So I went on doing it. I can still do it. I've done it in movies.

Christopher Lee11:49

And

Christopher Lee11:50

The

Christopher Lee11:51

I don't know why they did it, or how they dared do it, but various friends of my sister's, who should be nameless,'cause he's still alive

Christopher Lee11:59

allowed me to use them like the living target in the circus. I actually once put this unfortunate girl up against a door and outlined her with about six or seven or eight different knives. Our father was not pleased.

Presenter12:16

And you've always done your own stunts in films, Anstone?

Christopher Lee12:19

I used to. Yes, I'm uh

Christopher Lee12:22

Not doing that any more.

Presenter12:23

We got the scars to prove it.

Christopher Lee12:23

You got this

Christopher Lee12:25

Oh, I sure have. Well, that little finger I mean, that was Errol Flynn, which is a you know, memory of Errol Flynn after lunch.

Presenter12:32

Yeah. Do you cut it up?

Christopher Lee12:33

Did you cut it off? Very nearly cut it off, yes, in a sword fight. I have in fact done more sword fights, I think, than anyone in history in front of a camera.

Presenter12:40

Let's have a next piece of music.

Christopher Lee12:42

Right, now the next piece, again, there's a personal element here.

Christopher Lee12:46

One of the greatest singing actors that I've seen, a bass, was a Viennese called Ludwig Weber.

Christopher Lee12:55

And I was in Vienna, and I was talking one day to somebody about the fact that I was so sad about not becoming an opera singer, becoming a singer.

Christopher Lee13:04

I said, Well, look, um why don't you go and see Ludwig Weber? And I said, You must be joking. I couldn't possibly go and see Ludwig Weber as one of the great, great stars of today. Wonderful actor.

Christopher Lee13:14

And this will go on, we'll introduce you. So I went along to see him. He lived in suburbs in Grinzing, I think, Vienna. It was very sweet, very charming.

Christopher Lee13:22

Venies and of course

Christopher Lee13:25

Although he is best known probably for his Wagner.

Christopher Lee13:29

He was the greatest Baron ox.

Christopher Lee13:31

in the Rosencavalier, I should think probably of all time. And he sang it in Viennese dialect, which is actually written in.

Christopher Lee13:38

And he gave me a couple of lessons, and he taught me to sing in Viennese dialect, part of the song that we're going to hear.

Speaker 414:06

Yeah.

Speaker 414:26

Yeah.

Speaker 414:30

Bring soldier.

Speaker 414:33

Oh my god.

Speaker 414:36

Basil

Presenter14:43

Ludwig Weber and Hilde Guden and the waltz song from Richard Strauss's Dev Großen Cavalier.

Presenter14:49

Sue, you were too tall to be an actor and your mother didn't want you to be an actor, but nevertheless you became an actor.

Speaker 414:51

Oh didn't work

Christopher Lee14:51

Uh

Speaker 414:51

Uh

Speaker 414:54

Yeah.

Christopher Lee14:54

That side.

Presenter14:55

Tell me about your stage debut. Wasn't it worthing rep?

Christopher Lee14:58

Yes, it was one play a week.

Christopher Lee15:01

for several weeks on end. Marvellous training, of course, but the problem with that sort of thing is that uh after a while you end up giving the same performance in every play, regardless of what you're playing.

Presenter15:11

But you apparently did a lot of overacting and upstaging from up the back.

Christopher Lee15:14

Yeah.

Christopher Lee15:15

I mean I mean really embarrassing to remember the first play I ever did, the first time I was ever on a professional stage, if you like.

Christopher Lee15:23

was at Worthing Rep, and it was in um The Constant Nymph.

Christopher Lee15:29

I was playing Roberto the Butler. I didn't have much to say or to do, but I made up for it. And at the end of the first act I was sitting in the dressing room with the leading character actor who hadn't said a word.

Christopher Lee15:41

And the producer Guy Verney, who's been dead for some years, came backstage, opened the door, walked into the dressing room and said, oh, Christopher, he said, I thought I'd just tell you, in case, you know, I don't want this to be too much of a surprise, but he said, I'm sending the rest of the cast home. You can finish the play on your own. And I said, what do you... I gibbered at him. And I said, he said, well, look, let's face it, you're already playing all the parts.

Christopher Lee16:07

So you might as well continue to do it. You see I didn't know that you didn't act all the time. My point being that if somebody came in and said

Christopher Lee16:16

It's raining up outside, you know, I'm sorry I'm so wet. I would practically put up an umbrella to go with the rain inside the house. If somebody said, Oh, I'm exhausted, you know, I would wipe my brow. If somebody said, Oh, this is a ghastly tragedy. Do you know who died last week? I would, you know, wipe away a tear. I did. I reacted to every single thing everybody did. Well, I learned the hard way.

Presenter16:32

Wipe away a tear.

Presenter16:37

Well I learned the hub.

Presenter16:39

But you didn't have much to say in a lot of your early films, did you? Weren't you in Olivier's Hamlet?

Christopher Lee16:41

Well

Christopher Lee16:44

Yes, but that was entirely unauthorized. Uh I was working in a film at Denham on the next stage called One Night Review, in which I think I had one line or two, and one of my friends, who was literally an extra,

Christopher Lee16:57

I met him at lunch, and he said, Well, by the way, he said, if you can get away from the set next door, nip on to the other thing, and we'll find a costume for you and you'll stand on the stairs, and you'll be able to watch Olivier directing and playing the player's scene.

Christopher Lee17:13

So I did.

Christopher Lee17:15

And I did shout out when somebody I think it was the King played by Basil Sidney shouted out, Lights

Christopher Lee17:21

Because, of course, in the play, as you know, you see

Christopher Lee17:24

The poison being poured into the sleeping king's ear,

Christopher Lee17:28

and he immediately, stunned with shock and horror, shouts out lights, and everybody started shouting lights, including me and I then fled, and to th to this day, I don't suppose, until the day he died.

Christopher Lee17:43

That Lord Olivier ever found out that I'd made this unauthorised appearance, but I was all

Presenter17:47

But it's on your list of films.

Christopher Lee17:48

It's on my list of films.

Presenter17:49

What about the Battle of the River Plate? That was all in Spanish for youth.

Christopher Lee17:53

That was all in Spanish and uh my language facility, I suppose, stood me in good stead over the years because I've made films in Germany and German and I've made films in Russian in Russia, I've made films in in Italian in Italy, in French in France.

Presenter18:08

So you got yourself noticed in those early years. You put yourself about, as it were, and then in 1957 you were spotted by Hammer.

Christopher Lee18:11

Put yourself about, as it were.

Presenter18:15

And you and Peter Cushing did The Curse of Frankenstein. That was for both of you your first film for Hammer, was it?

Christopher Lee18:22

It was certainly mine. I'm not absolutely certain if it was his, but it was certainly the first one we did together.

Presenter18:27

Do you recall the first time you met Cushing on the set?

Christopher Lee18:32

He said in one of his books

Christopher Lee18:34

That the first time he saw me in makeup, he never turned a hair and uh

Christopher Lee18:40

Right at the end of the day I I I took my make up off and went in saying goodbye to him before we both left the studio and I walked into the tr into his dressing room and he practically passed out. It's a good story.

Presenter18:53

But you were covered in it was sort of undertaker's wax.

Christopher Lee18:56

Yes, yes, mortician's wax, undertaker's wax, and God knows what else. It was very uncomfortable. It took about two or three hours to put on.

Presenter19:04

Record number four.

Christopher Lee19:06

Now, record number four, again, somebody I knew very well.

Christopher Lee19:11

A very good friend.

Christopher Lee19:13

I met him backstage after a performance of Electra in Berlin, because I was such an admirer of his, having seen him sing here at Covent Garden, in German and in English.

Christopher Lee19:23

and we became great friends, and he had this demonic voice, and it could not be in a more appropriate role the tormented

Christopher Lee19:34

Flying Dutchman

Speaker 419:45

On this forest are all.

Speaker 420:12

Really?

Speaker 420:16

Yeah.

Speaker 420:18

It's the length of the cartels.

Speaker 420:23

Filled by the size.

Christopher Lee20:25

I don't know.

Presenter20:36

Hermann Ude singing part of the aria Die Frist ist um from Wagner's The Flying Dutchman with the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra conducted by Josef Keilbert.

Presenter20:45

Hammer had started by dramatizing, turning into films popular radio programmes, I think, like P C Forty Nine and Dick Barton and then it did Quatermass, I think, from from the television.

Christopher Lee20:52

A little bit

Christopher Lee20:54

Yeah.

Christopher Lee20:56

That I think was where they really first came to people's notice when they did Koitemerst.

Presenter21:02

And you say you object to the word horror, you prefer fantasy, but

Christopher Lee21:05

Well horror sounds nauseating, foul, revolting, chilling. I mean really chilling.

Christopher Lee21:12

And I'm an entertainer, for heaven's sake, and it's imaginary. It's an imaginary character and an imaginary story.

Presenter21:18

And of course they were very moral, those stories, because the cross always won, didn't it?

Christopher Lee21:20

Cross always won, didn't he? Absolutely.

Presenter21:22

You return to dust, as it were, as the cross held up.

Christopher Lee21:23

Yes, yes, yes.

Christopher Lee21:26

Absolutely.

Presenter21:27

And it's also interesting though that that that they never received any critical acclaim, those films, really. I mean the the critics were very sniffy about that.

Christopher Lee21:31

I mean it took me a

Christopher Lee21:34

Very. They really tore into them.

Christopher Lee21:38

Disgusting, repugnant, repulsive, repellent.

Presenter21:41

Yeah.

Christopher Lee21:41

Not the sort of thing that British films should be known for, etc., etc., etc. You've never come across so many pompous, hypocritical statements.

Presenter21:49

But they're quite mild, of course, in comparison with what you're doing.

Christopher Lee21:51

Compared to what they do now and what they've been doing in the last ten or fifteen years, this is the reason I don't do these pictures anymore.

Christopher Lee21:58

Everything is out there in the open, everything is shown, nothing is left to the imagination.

Christopher Lee22:04

Like Hitchcock, for instance, Alfred Hitchcock was a genius of that thing, sort of thing. What you don't see that is much more frightening than what you just do see.

Presenter22:10

Just the open door.

Christopher Lee22:12

Well, I've said that. And open doors, the most frightening thing on the screen. And leave it open and do nothing, no music, nothing. And all of a sudden the audience will get into a terrible state. Is there someone behind it? Has someone just been through it? Has someone just gone out? Why? and so on and so forth. The two most frightening films that I've seen the only two that ever made me jump in this area

Christopher Lee22:33

One was where you saw nothing, and that was Rosemary's Baby, which was absolutely brilliant.

Christopher Lee22:39

Terrifying and horrifying film.

Christopher Lee22:42

And the second one, which really did make me jump, was the first alien.

Christopher Lee22:47

Well, you did see something, but it was so unexpected, out of

Christopher Lee22:51

The stomach

Christopher Lee22:52

The alien, and it really did shake me.

Presenter22:55

More music.

Christopher Lee22:57

This next

Christopher Lee22:59

piece of singing is really quite phenomenal because

Christopher Lee23:03

We've all heard about coloratura sopranos, but you won't hear it very often from a bass. Now

Christopher Lee23:10

Again, there's a personal connection here.

Christopher Lee23:14

A good friend of mine was Samuel Ramey, an American from the Middle West, from Kansas.

Christopher Lee23:21

Who is to day, without a doubt.

Christopher Lee23:24

The most outstanding bass in all opera. There's nothing that man can't sing absolutely nothing.

Speaker 423:44

Lord, Lord, our charity, holy your living, your love.

Presenter24:35

Samuel Ramey singing in aria from the first act of Handel's Rinaldo with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Donato Renzetti. So by nineteen seventy six you'd had enough of of horror here and you you upton often went to Hollywood. It was a kind of self exile, really. Did you did you do the trick? Did you get away from this typecasting?

Christopher Lee24:55

Absolutely. I worked with directors like Steven Spielberg,

Christopher Lee24:59

Comedy?

Christopher Lee25:00

I hosted Saturday Night Live with John Belusi, Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner. It's the third highest rated show in the history of the show. That was television. That was television. Live. And of course the audience. You're sitting there on the night.

Presenter25:09

Yeah, but it's television.

Christopher Lee25:15

Changing your clothes, taking your trousers off, and putting another pair on in front of the audience, sitting as close as I am to you, and saying, Excuse me, but I've another scene to play that did more for me than anything else probably in my entire career.

Presenter25:26

Not least'cause there was a man called Steve sitting in the audience.

Christopher Lee25:29

There was a man called Steve sitting in the audience, Steven Spielberg, with whom I had the great pleasure of working.

Christopher Lee25:34

And I went into a picture that he directed called 1941, which was panned at the time that it came out. It has some wonderful things in it, and it's now, of course, doing very well. It's become a cult movie.

Presenter25:43

And he had you in gremlins too as well, did you?

Christopher Lee25:45

Now that was Joe Dante, who is the director. I would quite happily spend the rest of my life making films with Joe Dante. He's a joy to work with.

Christopher Lee25:53

And Stephen too, because, unlike many directors, it isn't a confrontation, it's a collaboration, and they like and understand actors and actresses.

Christopher Lee26:03

It was because of this that I did so much comedy in America.

Presenter26:06

But in the end you came home.

Christopher Lee26:08

In the end I came home because I had nothing left to prove.

Presenter26:11

Next record.

Christopher Lee26:13

Without any doubts.

Christopher Lee26:14

Again, opera.

Christopher Lee26:16

fans, buffs, whatever you like to call them, would agree with me.

Christopher Lee26:20

that there was really only one

Christopher Lee26:22

Tenor.

Christopher Lee26:23

and again a Scandinavian, only this time not Swedish,

Christopher Lee26:27

Danis.

Christopher Lee26:28

And

Christopher Lee26:29

He was known inevitably because he was six foot four up and across, practically and he was known, quite understandably, as the Great Dane.

Christopher Lee26:40

And he loved life, and he was such fun. And in this particular opera he is dead at the end, and he has to lie dead on the stage.

Christopher Lee26:51

While the soprano sings, and it's the end of the opera, for something like ten, fifteen, twenty minutes, and used to get awfully bored with this, and he used to sing a great deal with Kirsten Flagstadt. And on one particular occasion she actually said that he had spoken to her while she was still singing out of the side of his mouth. And he had a very strong Danish accent and talked very much like it the whole time, you know, and a very deep voice,'cause he started as a baritone. And he said, Hi up, Kirsten, I want a beer.

Christopher Lee27:24

Uh

Christopher Lee27:24

His sense of humour was legendary.

Presenter27:26

And his name?

Christopher Lee27:27

Lauritz Melchio.

Speaker 427:46

Yeah.

Speaker 427:51

You gotta sit.

Speaker 427:53

Yeah.

Speaker 428:05

Finigas control.

Presenter28:33

Siegfried's Death Song sung by Laritz Melchior from Wagner's Go to Demerung with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Robert Heger.

Presenter28:42

You've been Christopher Lee in more than two hundred and thirty films, which averages out, I think, about five a year during the course of your career.

Christopher Lee28:49

Yes, except that of course sometimes it's a day, sometimes two, or sometimes it's a week coming up.

Presenter28:54

Well if you only say lights, it doesn't take very long.

Christopher Lee28:56

Well, yeah, that doesn't take too long. But that that wasn't in the script.

Presenter28:59

But you're you're seventy two years old and you don't seem to be seventy three.

Christopher Lee28:59

Good job.

Presenter29:05

But retirement for Christopher Lee is simply not something he contemplates ever.

Christopher Lee29:09

No. I I would be bored out of my mind. I would also drive my wife completely mad by being underfoot, you might say.

Christopher Lee29:19

At this time of the year I can't go out and play golf every weekend'cause it's too wet or too cold and I I've got past that particular stage, thank you. Well I'll play in the snow or something like that.

Christopher Lee29:29

I could listen to music forever, I could read forever, and I could, if the weather was good, play golf forever, but that's

Christopher Lee29:35

Not what you'd call a particularly productive life, and eventually, in I suppose a creative sense, one would become terribly frustrated at not

Christopher Lee29:44

doing something which really meant something instead of just enjoying yourself. And so retirement. Well, how many actors have you ever heard of who've retired?

Christopher Lee29:54

Very, very few. I can't think of many, and I don't want to be one of them.

Presenter29:59

More music.

Christopher Lee30:00

again, a very close friend, certainly again in his day, which was right up until quite recently, I would say the number one baritone, operatic baritone in the world. And this is one of the most wonderful tunes ever written in any opera.

Christopher Lee30:20

It's an opera which is frequently performed the tales of Hoffmann, of course.

Christopher Lee30:24

And this is a killer.

Christopher Lee30:27

for a baritone. Particularly the final part of the aria and

Christopher Lee30:32

It's this marvellous piece of music.

Presenter30:35

And the name of the singer?

Christopher Lee30:36

Shuttle Mills.

Speaker 430:48

We're a mess of God.

Presenter31:37

That was Sheryl Milnes singing the aria Sainti diamonds from Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann, with a new Philharmonia orchestra conducted by Anton Guadagno.

Presenter31:47

Do you find the the image of life on a desert island enticing, Christopher? I mean, do you think you could live away from your native Belgravia? Can you rough it?

Christopher Lee31:55

Oh, good heavens, yes. I've been roughing it since I was

Christopher Lee32:00

sixteen when I had to leave school.

Christopher Lee32:03

and uh I had to leave because there wasn't any money. My stepfather went bankrupt.

Christopher Lee32:08

I had to get a job, instead of continuing in my studies, and I went into my first job, which was a messenger boy, office boy, in the city, at a pound a week.

Presenter32:17

So this suave image, this sort of sophisticated Londoner, this this

Presenter32:22

man of the world, this Englishness is is a bit of a front, isn't it?

Christopher Lee32:27

No, I think you are what you are. I mean, uh you're talking about suave and sophisticated and all this sort of thing, which uh can be taken, of course, as a very uh very much the opposite of a compliment sometimes. I know you don't mean it that way, but uh

Christopher Lee32:40

I people think I'm a bit aloof. People think that I'm, you know, slightly forbidding and so on. Part of that's my height and perhaps some of the parts I've played. But that such is the power of the screen.

Christopher Lee32:51

I've always had to cope.

Christopher Lee32:53

As long as I can remember, I've always had to cope.

Christopher Lee32:56

And I was always able to do things on my own. I was perfectly content, which is probably one of the reasons why I didn't get married until I was nearly forty. So being on a desert island, of course, at the beg at the beginning with the sand and the sea and the sun would be absolutely wonderful. And to be able to sit down and read just what you want to read, and to listen to this unbelievable, wonderful music and one to these marvellous voices, all my favourite voices, almost all of them personal friends, that I could do

Christopher Lee33:29

endlessly.

Christopher Lee33:31

I would probably

Christopher Lee33:34

If I got bored.

Christopher Lee33:35

Start designing a golf course.

Christopher Lee33:38

If the island was big enough.

Christopher Lee33:40

Oh, it would be a short par three, of course.

Christopher Lee33:43

That would take a long time.

Christopher Lee33:44

But I think that assuming that I no longer had a family, that is the most important point of all, assuming that I did no longer have a family, I could cope.

Speaker 333:53

Last record.

Christopher Lee33:55

The last record well, here another legendary voice.

Christopher Lee33:59

He made himself most famous singing the greatest seducer in all opera.

Christopher Lee34:03

Don Giovanni

Christopher Lee34:05

And his name

Christopher Lee34:07

Ezio Pinza.

Speaker 434:32

Nor Ser Joy Kona Mekrude.

Speaker 434:41

The loss of yellow man of burden.

Presenter34:56

Ezzio Pinza singing the Aria De Vieni alla finestra from Mozart's Don Giovanni.

Presenter35:02

If you could only take one of those records, Christopher.

Christopher Lee35:04

I think probably Sam.

Christopher Lee35:06

Singing

Christopher Lee35:07

From Rinaldo.

Presenter35:09

Sam Remy singing hand.

Christopher Lee35:09

Sambrimi singing hand.

Presenter35:11

Handles Ronaldo. Mm-hmm.

Christopher Lee35:13

Because I know him, so it would be like having a friend with me, in a sense.

Presenter35:16

What about your book?

Christopher Lee35:19

I would be torn between the sword and the stone.

Christopher Lee35:22

And the Lord of the Rings, because you see, I'm going to cheat a bit there, because the Lord of the Rings is three.

Christopher Lee35:28

Separate books.

Christopher Lee35:30

But it is published in one book.

Presenter35:32

It is. You can get away with that.

Christopher Lee35:33

So you can

Christopher Lee35:34

And here is a man who created the land of fairy.

Christopher Lee35:39

There is humour it's tremendously exciting.

Christopher Lee35:42

And I read it every year.

Christopher Lee35:44

Every, and of course, I see myself playing Gandalf, that's it. It goes without saying.

Presenter35:48

I think you've talked yourself into this.

Christopher Lee35:49

No, because I also see myself playing Merlin.

Christopher Lee35:53

And there is more fun and more love.

Christopher Lee35:57

and more beauty and more magic in the sword in the stone.

Christopher Lee36:01

than there is in Tolkien's imaginary land. So I think if you pin me down to one book, The Sword in the Stone.

Presenter36:08

And what about your luxury?

Christopher Lee36:10

My golf clubs.

Presenter36:12

to play on this golf course, which you will play on.

Christopher Lee36:14

To play on this golf course, it would certainly improve my bunker play.

Presenter36:17

Christopher Lee, thank you very much indeed for letting us hear your desert island discs.

Christopher Lee36:21

Not at all. It brings great pleasure.

Speaker 336:30

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