Patricia Routledge

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

Presenter0:31

My castaway this week is an actress. Three years ago she was voted the nation's favourite actress, thanks to her performances as those two redoubtable dowagers of the B B C's television schedules, Hyacinth Bucket, pronounced bouquet, and Hetty Wainthrop.

Presenter0:46

The roles in which she's found such success disguise the depth of her craft. At Stratford, in Shakespeare, at the National Theatre, in a musical such as Carousel, or in sensitive portraits like Allan Bennett's Talking Heads, she's displayed her effortless versatility.

Presenter1:03

But she knows how much of a disguise it all can be. The essential you comes out, she says, because you're vulnerable up there, whatever big hat you've got on. She is Patricia Routledge. Do you still feel vulnerable, Patricia, after all these years of being up there? Oh, yes, because every time you appear in front of a camera or walk out onto a stage

Presenter1:26

For me it's like the first time.

Presenter1:29

Even night after night.

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Uh when you put your hand on the handle of that door.

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Uh it's an unknown quantity, however much you've rehearsed. Because it's always different when you get out there, or because you it's always the performance and you're always properly nervous. Yes, that's correct. And the audience is an unknown quantity.

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And you have to share.

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An imaginative experience with the audience, and you hope that they're going to receive it.

Presenter1:56

So you must never get complacent is really what you're saying a guiding principle is in all of this.

Presenter2:02

Well, I don't think I don't think it's possible to, really.

Presenter2:07

It's all a bit nerve-wracking.

Presenter2:09

You might never have done it, though, of course. You might have been a headmistress. Let me quote you to yourself. I always intended to be a go ahead headmistress in a red sports car who had romances all over Europe in the holidays. That's right. What went wrong, I wonder? Something went wrong.

Patricia Routledge2:22

Oh no wonder.

Patricia Routledge2:24

Oh, what went on?

Presenter2:28

Great relief to my father, I must say. But he wouldn't have liked you to be a head teacher. Oh, no, he didn't want me to go into teaching at all. Why not?

Patricia Routledge2:31

Echoes

Speaker 22:31

Yeah.

Patricia Routledge2:31

Yeah.

Presenter2:35

'Cause uh I would become stuffy and opinionated.

Presenter2:40

But it's interesting, isn't it, that a lot of the characters you've played have been well, they've had something of the headmistress about them, I assume. Oh, yes. Well, they're the most interesting people, really. The strong-willed, the bossy ones. Yes. I think compliant goodness is very difficult to play. What about Hyacinth, though? She's pretty monstrous. Oh, she's an absolute monster. Absolute monster. And I enjoyed playing her enormously. Did you like her? I didn't like her, but I had to find out really what made her tick. I think that's what you have to do. What did make her tick? I mean, she's just sort of riddled with social pretension. That's right, that's what made her tick. But also, coupled with that was her aim for everything to be right and to be the best, which is a good thing.

Presenter3:28

It got out of hand, obviously, in that she had to be above the Joneses next door.

Presenter3:36

But she was vulnerable. She was always getting it wrong and slipping on the banana skin and then coming back and flying the flag again. Tell me about your first record.

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My first response to classical music

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Was through hearing Tchaikovsky's music. We did a little operetta at my school.

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which used a lot of Tchaikovsky music.

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And I loved it. I'd like to hear

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Something from Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. Four.

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Uh conducted by Leonard Bernstein.

Presenter5:02

The New York Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Leonard Bernstein playing part of the third movement of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. Four in F minor. You um you worked with Bernstein back in the seventies, didn't you, Patricia? Yes, I did. I was chosen by him to play Eight First Ladies of the White House.

Patricia Routledge5:13

Do you

Presenter5:18

In a celebration of the bicentennial of the White House,

Presenter5:22

Which was called 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. It was a disaster. We opened on a Tuesday night and we closed on a Saturday. But I wouldn't have missed it for anything. I mean, not only was he a a great composer at his best,

Presenter5:40

But he inspired uh wonderful performances. I'll never forget the orchestra call. We had the creme de la creme from the students of the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. Now usually an orchestra call for a musical is two sessions of three hours each, six hours.

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We had three days.

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And I sat in on the whole thing and it was like a masterclass. It was wonderful. I think people, some people forget you can sing. I mean, we were reminded of it not long ago when you did Carousel and sang, of course, Junior's busting out all over. And you never walk alone, of course. That's right. The great number. Wonderful. Might you have had a a singing career? Well, that was very much on the cards.

Patricia Routledge6:22

That's right, man.

Patricia Routledge6:24

One

Speaker 26:27

Well, that was very much.

Presenter6:30

long ago because I I I found that I had this voice, and was in the school choir and a church choir. But I wanted, of course, to teach English, this wonderful language we all abuse and misuse.

Presenter6:46

And so I went to university, to the University of Liverpool, to read English for four years.

Speaker 26:51

Mm-hmm.

Presenter6:52

And so it was late, you know, to make a start.

Presenter6:57

For another three years' training. So when you were small, I mean, at your primary school and your junior school, you were acting then. Yes, all the time. I can look back now and see how it all came about. I mean, I was.

Patricia Routledge7:04

Yeah.

Presenter7:09

Or was the one who was chosen to be.

Presenter7:12

Christopher Columbus discovering America or Alice in Wonderland and I used to be asked to if there was a minute to go before four o'clock and no teacher wasted time in those days, I was asked to say a poem.

Presenter7:27

by Walter Delomere, say, and I'd get a penny for it. And I remember thinking, why aren't the other little boys and girls doing this? and I decided they were all lazy.

Presenter7:38

I didn't think there was anything special. It was all part of education. But you probably thought everybody could do it. It was you did it more than most.

Patricia Routledge7:43

Yes, I did.

Presenter7:45

That's right. You're absolutely right. But apparently you were quite disruptive at school. At a certain time, yes, I was in the thirteen, fourteen period.

Presenter7:55

Well, I could disrupt a class with gags and things in no time, and the teacher would turn round and it wouldn't be me, you see, but all these other rather

Presenter8:05

Weaker spirits would have gone by that time. But you've been able to wipe the smile off your face quick enough to be a little bit more.

Patricia Routledge8:09

Yeah, it's a little alarming.

Presenter8:12

There's little alarming.

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But you weren't?

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Y uh disruptive. At home, you were a good girl. Oh, very, very. I knew what was good for me, you see. What would have happened if you'd been a bad girl, then? Oh, well, I wouldn't have been uh heavily punished. But uh uh there was a tremendous sense of discipline at home, you know. A very loving atmosphere. But you knew your place, actually. Speak when you've spoken true. Yes, indeed, at family gatherings.

Presenter8:39

Uh when granddad and nanna were there, and uncles and aunts round the table. Yes.

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I listened a lot to the grown-ups came in handy later on, I suppose.

Speaker 38:47

Same in

Patricia Routledge8:47

Yeah.

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Record number two.

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I do think Gustav Holst is a composer of genius.

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This man who taught music at St. Paul's Girls' School.

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And he wrote a piece that could have been written yesterday.

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the planets, in which he encompasses the character.

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of as many of the famous planets as possible.

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And I'd like to hear

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JUPITER THE BRINGER OF JOLLITY

Presenter10:16

Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Seiji Ozawa, playing the opening of Jupiter, the bringer of jollity from Holst's Planet Suite. And memories for you, Patricia Routledge, of concerts at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall. Yes, that is where I used to go as a schoolgirl and a student.

Presenter10:32

And uh I loved it. Liverpool, of course, much bombed in the war. Do you remember Liverpool? Oh yes, we were still there on the Birkenhead side of the River Mersey.

Speaker 210:37

Oh yes, we was

Presenter10:43

And it got several peltings, as you know.

Presenter10:48

I suppose I'm lucky to be here, really. And the big bombing, of course, in 1942. Was the docks and the customs house in Liverpool.

Patricia Routledge10:52

Yeah.

Presenter10:56

Um that was a terrible night. But on our side of the river.

Presenter11:01

It was known as the night that the Argyle Theatre burnt down, which was the.

Presenter11:06

Variety theatre in the town. And that's where you went. Was that where you saw your first theatre?

Presenter11:11

Yes, it is. I mean, I wasn't old enough when I used to listen to my parents and grandparents discussing the quality of the music hall bill the previous week. They went every week. It was really the heart of their entertainment. Very important place. If you were on the way up, you would appear at the Argyle Theatre, Birkenhead. If you if you were right at the top of your profession, like Rob Wilton, you would appear there. If you were on your way down, you would appear there. It was run by two Clarke brothers. And my father used to allow the theatre to hang their bill on the side wall of his emporium.

Presenter11:52

Um Edgar Routledge, high-class gentleman and outfitter. High-class? Oh, of course you were always high-class in the north. And don't you forget it. And for that privilege he was given two complimentary tickets for the first house on a Monday, the unexpurgated edition.

Patricia Routledge12:09

The um

Presenter12:12

Well tell me about his shop. Was it all mahogany counters and sliding doors? Yes, a little bit. It wasn't enormous, but it was properly.

Patricia Routledge12:16

A little bit.

Presenter12:20

managed and and solid. And he with a tape measure round his neck. That's right, yes. Were you allowed in? I was allowed to play on a Sunday with the socks.

Speaker 312:24

He will take

Presenter12:32

And the ties, but not with the white collars. My goodness, everything you see was parceled. Everything was parcelled meticulously with slip knots.

Patricia Routledge12:36

I think the thing you see was

Presenter12:43

And so there was a great ritual about presenting the goods then, which he loved, you see, little touch of drama there.

Presenter12:51

And when you went to the pictures on a Saturday afternoon in Birkenhead as a a teenager, who did you see? Who did you admire? Who did you want to be? Well, sixty glorious years I saw for a penny. That was Anna Neagle, wasn't it, about Queen Victoria.

Patricia Routledge13:00

Yeah.

Presenter13:07

And Gracie Fields, of course, adored her. Jeannette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy. The musicals, you see, interesting.

Patricia Routledge13:14

Interesting.

Presenter13:15

And Alastair Sim, I think he was. Alastair Symm, when one got a little older, he was making the Ealing comedies.

Presenter13:22

And we used to go, group of us, from school, and I remember we always wanted Alastair Sim as an uncle and Margaret Rutherford as an aunt. You worked with him, haven't you? Yes, yes. I went to Chichester in

Patricia Routledge13:32

Yes

Presenter13:34

nineteen sixty nine, in order to work with him. He wanted me to play his wife in Pinero's The Magistrate, and that was Alastair at his peak.

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Absolutely at his peak.

Presenter13:48

Joyous time it was. But if anybody had told Patricia Routledge, aged fifteen, of Birkenhead, that she would one day work with this man on the screen Amazing. Yes. I couldn't believe it. I mean, when I was rehearsing with him, I just couldn't believe it.

Patricia Routledge13:56

Is fit.

Presenter14:02

Record number three.

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Remembering how important the Argyle Theatre Birkenhead was.

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and that the first visit that I paid there

Presenter14:15

was when Rob Wilton

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Headed the bill.

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I would like to hear Rob Wilton.

Presenter14:23

Performing back answers. Now just listen to this for timing and precision.

Patricia Routledge14:29

I'm subject to colds and they make me quite deaf and then I can't hear what you say.

Patricia Routledge14:34

A fellow once asked me if I'd have a drink, and I heard that with a cold, by the way.

Speaker 214:38

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

Patricia Routledge14:39

As we drank, we got chatting of girls we had met.

Speaker 214:39

As we drank, we got

Patricia Routledge14:42

I described a sweet bird dressed in red.

Patricia Routledge14:45

My description was good and my pal went half mad.

Patricia Routledge14:48

It was the girl he was going to wed.

Patricia Routledge14:52

He said, I'll crunch your head. I said, whose? He said, yours. I said, mine. He said, yes. I said, oh.

Presenter14:58

Rob Wilton and back answers and memories for you, Patricia, of the Argar Variety. It's wonderful. And that pianist, you see, is equally brilliant. That accompaniment. It's wonderful.

Patricia Routledge15:01

Wonderful.

Presenter15:07

But I think that whole background that you've described and all of that music hall and some that that that North Country respectability, as it were, goes a long way to explain why you're so brilliant at those Alan Bennett characters. A woman of no importance, Miss Fossard finds her feet, a woman of letters.

Presenter15:25

They are all classic Northern women of a certain age, aren't they? And you know about you've got a direct line to them, it seems to me. Yes, I remember them. You see, as a child I did observe a lot.

Presenter15:37

And uh i I mean the the the the Methodist Church was full of them really.

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Uh

Presenter15:44

And so it it there's a residue left inside me. Alan Bennett's always said that they were his aunts. He observed his aunts just looking at the pressure. But we share a kind of common denominator of a rhythm of language.

Patricia Routledge15:49

Uh

Speaker 215:49

Uh

Patricia Routledge15:49

Dallin Gret

Patricia Routledge15:57

Deshaun

Patricia Routledge15:59

But we share

Presenter16:05

And an appreciation of North Country idiom and colour and humour.

Presenter16:12

So he says that you elevate his like he writes in that sort of cliche. How dare I say Alan Bennett writes in a cliché? Well I have said that he turns cliché into poetry and he does. He does use clichés and they come thick and fast.

Patricia Routledge16:20

Well I

Patricia Routledge16:24

Yeah.

Speaker 216:24

Need up

Patricia Routledge16:24

How's your time?

Speaker 216:24

Yeah.

Patricia Routledge16:25

Yeah.

Presenter16:29

But it's the pattern of that and the use of them. And the syntax of it, it's the arrangement of it. It's that noun pushed to the end, isn't it? That's right. It's the rhythm. I mean, in all comedy, rhythm is very, very important. As you've just heard, quite a lot. You know? Yes. But what you you bring to it on top of all of that and that that innate understanding of of

Speaker 216:32

And the syntax of

Patricia Routledge16:33

That is

Patricia Routledge16:37

That's right.

Speaker 216:38

It's the rhythm.

Speaker 216:43

As you've

Speaker 216:45

Quite a children.

Presenter16:52

where it's coming from are all those facial gestures as well. And I wonder if if those are particularly northern or not, those sort of slight sort of double chin well. I don't know what my face does. I'm just I don't know what. Well, your eyebrows go up and your chin goes up. So does it? Oh dreadful.

Patricia Routledge17:02

I don't know.

Patricia Routledge17:05

I don't know what your eyebrows are.

Patricia Routledge17:08

Who does it? Who are not

Presenter17:13

Well, how dare I again name it, is it? Exactly. And it's that judgmental stuff. It's that you know, well, they think they're through. Yes. Yes, but is he good at that up there? It is Northern, isn't it?

Patricia Routledge17:16

Technological

Patricia Routledge17:18

Exactly.

Patricia Routledge17:20

Oh yes.

Patricia Routledge17:22

I think Mr. Lamb is always very amusing.

Patricia Routledge17:25

Yes, we're gonna have to do it.

Presenter17:29

Well, I think it's shared everywhere in a way, but we do it better than anybody. I suppose there's a bit of a data. Something to do with the non-conformist background.

Speaker 217:34

Something to do with the

Presenter17:37

Do you think? You know, I think so, yes.

Presenter17:40

And the the North Country work ethic?

Presenter17:44

And you justified your existence by hard work. And knowing what's good for you and knowing what's good. That's right. I'm a war baby. I d I don't uh leave a plate with anything on it.

Patricia Routledge17:44

And oh you'll

Patricia Routledge17:49

That's right.

Presenter17:56

Eat up, eat your grub. You keep bits of string in the back of the drawer. Oh, yes, don't throw anything away.

Patricia Routledge17:56

Literally

Patricia Routledge17:59

Yes, don't throw anything away.

Presenter18:02

But interestingly, when Alan Bennett first approached you with the very first one he ever wrote and he wrote it for you, a woman of no importance

Presenter18:09

For television, you thought it wasn't work. He was extremely patient.

Patricia Routledge18:11

Well I said

Patricia Routledge18:12

He was

Presenter18:15

I said it wouldn't work, you know that people had switch off in their thousands. And he said, Well, look at the newsreaders, they don't switch off for them and I said, Well

Presenter18:25

They're always m cutting to atrocities and other pictures.

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But he persuaded me to do it and uh

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I've

Presenter18:35

Took a deep breath and did it. He was right, wasn't he? Yes.

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What he said was, if you've got a good story to tell, people will listen, and of course, this is.

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Been true down the ages.

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Next record.

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If I was on my desert island

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A feeling

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A little bit down. I would love to hear

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The voices of the St. Paul's Cathedral choristers

Presenter19:02

Singing for the beauty of the earth.

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Set by John Rutter.

Speaker 219:27

Sun and stars, sun and stars tonight, Lord O living.

Presenter19:49

The Saint Paul's Cathedral chorister singing For the Beauty of the Earth with the City of London Sinphonia, conducted by John Scott. So if you've got a good script, Patricia Routledge, you you're a wee way down the track.

Presenter20:01

You rehearse and you rehearse, eventually you get out on the stage and it works. That must be an enormous sense of power. I don't know. You make it all sound so easy, and as though it goes step by step in the right direction. It doesn't, of course, mean there are lost hours of sleep if you can't uh seem to get it right.

Presenter20:21

This text tells you everything.

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And to stray from that

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Court's disaster, I think.

Presenter20:32

I mean, there are too many young smart Alex now who decide to put a concept on a piece.

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Um and it

Presenter20:41

It

Presenter20:41

It A it's not honest.

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And B I think it

Presenter20:48

Takes an audience in the wrong direction.

Speaker 220:50

Hmm.

Presenter20:51

Because if the writing's good, then it will dictate your timing of the delivery? Well yes, it tells you.

Presenter20:57

You know, with the with Bennett, uh

Presenter21:01

With um restoration comedy, with wild.

Presenter21:06

The shaping of the sentences tell you.

Presenter21:09

Which direction are you going in? But you could get driving right, haven't you? Oh, yes. Well, I'm

Patricia Routledge21:11

To get driving right, haven't you?

Presenter21:15

Concerned with the play at the moment, the importance of being earnest, and uh thank God for singers' breathing, really.

Presenter21:23

Because the cadences are very broad.

Presenter21:26

And the um

Presenter21:28

Dependent clauses, you know. Can you give me a nice support?

Patricia Routledge21:31

Yeah.

Presenter21:33

Oh

Presenter21:34

Well, hang on a minute.

Presenter21:38

Apprised, sir, of my daughter's sudden flight by her trusty maid, whose confidence I purchased by means of a small coin, I followed her at once by a luggage train. Her unhappy father is, I am glad to say, under the impression that she is attending a more than usually lengthy lecture by the University Extension Scheme on the Influence of a Permanent Income on Thought.

Presenter22:04

Breathe, breathe.

Patricia Routledge22:05

Britain.

Speaker 222:06

Please

Presenter22:08

So, how do you do that? Do you sit down and think now this is where I'm going to be? No, you don't sit down. I mean, we've got.

Patricia Routledge22:12

Uh

Presenter22:14

You know, we've got nothing else to think about. We rehearse all day. People say, how do you do it? But we've nothing else to think about. You turn up at ten o'clock or nine o'clock and that's your business through until six o'clock to get it right. And if you do it well

Patricia Routledge22:26

And get it right.

Presenter22:29

You get the laugh because, as you say, it's written well. That's very heady stuff. Oh, it can be heady stuff, yes.

Patricia Routledge22:35

Yes.

Presenter22:36

Yes, it can go to your head, too. But I don't approve of self indulgence. Uh look at the way Rob Wilton didn't hang about.

Presenter22:44

So you're listening all of the time to get the time. And there's one part of your brain which hears the

Patricia Routledge22:47

That is why

Patricia Routledge22:48

And which here

Presenter22:50

coughers and the uh laughers out there.

Presenter22:53

And another part of your brain which is doing it as you want to do. And are you thinking, good, that went well, right. Well, you're you're in trouble if you're thinking that, really.

Patricia Routledge22:59

Well, the already

Presenter23:03

But it it's on a good night. We had a wonderful audience last Saturday, and it was like being on a trampoline. They just supported you. It was like skiing and going over the next little bump.

Presenter23:19

It was wonderful. We all felt this.

Presenter23:24

And when it isn't going right, it's like Well, the danger is that you work it too hard. You've got to hold on to your original intention, really. Tell the story.

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That's what it's about.

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Number five.

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I remember coming back from touring pre-Broadway with the first musical I did in America.

Presenter23:49

And we'd been on the road, I think everybody ought to be

Presenter23:54

In an American musical on the road. It really separates the men from the boys, and you find out what stamina you have. And we came into New York on a Sunday from Boston, and I set myself up in my hotel, and I'd made a a young friend in the company, and he said, Come round and I'll fix supper for you. And I went round to his little apartment.

Presenter24:17

And while he fixed supper,

Presenter24:19

He put on Shostakovich's Symphony No. Five, and I had never.

Presenter24:24

Heard Shostakovich before. I'm talking now about nineteen sixty seven.

Presenter24:28

and I was completely bowled over by it.

Presenter24:31

And made him.

Presenter24:32

Play the whole thing.

Presenter24:34

Over again, straight away.

Presenter25:33

Part of Shostakovich's symphony number five in D minor, performed by the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Kirill Kondrashin. And memories for you, Patricia Ratledge, of being in New York, where you were in, I think it was 1967, wasn't it, with Darling of the Day. That's right. But they'd fallen for you, I think, the Americans, a couple of years before that, when you'd gone over with a piece called How's the World Treating You? You must, I mean, they know you, they loved you. A long time ago, you must have been wooed by American producers. Yes, I was taken out to smart lunches and offered television series. And you'd say to these cigar-smoking producers.

Patricia Routledge26:04

Mm-hmm.

Presenter26:13

Well, uh

Presenter26:14

Have you a script to show me?

Presenter26:16

Oh, no, we've just got this idea, Miss Rutledge. Anything I mean anything Yeah, anything that you uh suggest, you know. Uh and the next minute when you got on to the pudding you'd realize that they would want you to sign up for five years with no evidence on the page, you know? Extraordinary. I mean, an act of there is a certain act of faith you've got to make uh when you say yes to

Speaker 226:20

Not listening.

Presenter26:42

A sitcom series, for instance. But it's nice to see four out of six scripts, if you possibly can. But to see no script at all. So what did you say?

Speaker 226:52

What did you say?

Presenter26:53

I said, well, I don't think this is going to work out for me at all.

Presenter26:59

And uh I think I want to go home. Miss Rutledge, one feller said, do you mean to say you don't want a villa in California and a swimming pool?

Presenter27:09

Our little beach hut in Malibu.

Presenter27:12

And I said frankly, no.

Presenter27:14

Not on these terms, no. I want to go home.

Presenter27:19

So you did have very similar things. I mean, I've performed uh in New York uh several times and in uh

Speaker 227:20

That's it.

Presenter27:28

Los Angeles once, Washington and so on. And I've made a lot of very good friends over there. Record number six.

Presenter27:38

I couldn't be on a desert island without hearing a beautiful singing voice, and among the most beautiful that must ever have been.

Presenter27:49

Is Dame Janet Baker a very, very great instrument and consumate artistry.

Presenter27:55

I couldn't be on a desert island.

Presenter27:57

Without Elgar's music.

Presenter28:00

And so I'd like to hear Dame Janet.

Presenter28:02

Singing the Angel

Presenter28:04

From the Dream of Garantius.

Speaker 228:17

Dear Lampsen soul In my most loving arms, I now went for

Speaker 228:45

Oh, the King of Waters has their

Presenter28:56

Dame Janet Baker as the angel singing softly and gently from Elgar's Dream of Garantius. Very much um Patricia Routledge, a a a meditation on the immortality of the soul. Your religion is obviously very important to you. Yes, it is important to me. I think there is a spiritual

Presenter29:14

A dimension to life.

Presenter29:16

And even though one

Presenter29:18

Attempts

Presenter29:19

during one's youth and even later to kick it over.

Presenter29:24

Uh there's always been a pull.

Presenter29:26

You've gone as far as to say that that acting is, in a sense, a form of prayer. Can you explain that?

Presenter29:34

Well, you offer yourself up, really. You

Presenter29:38

Use strip

Presenter29:41

Away, even though you appear to be hiding behind a persona.

Presenter29:47

You strip away.

Presenter29:49

At its best.

Presenter29:51

The coverings

Presenter29:54

and get to the core, really.

Presenter29:57

You've also um I think ha had your very much your fair share of bereavement. Your your mother died when you were in your twenties, I think. Yes, and I was uh very, very close to her.

Speaker 230:06

Yeah.

Presenter30:09

And then your your father's second wife, your stepmother, died later on.

Patricia Routledge30:12

She has a fumer.

Presenter30:15

And then your father and latterly your brother. Yes, that's right. So you wake up one day and you are nobody's child.

Presenter30:22

I think Harold Nicholson said that. He must have given a lot of thought to death then over the years. Yes, I remember long, long ago when I was about thirteen.

Presenter30:31

And I was reading Lorna Doon. I never finished it. And Lorna Doone has.

Presenter30:36

Very dark atmosphere.

Presenter30:39

And I remember going through a time when I

Presenter30:42

uh thought about my mother and father not being there.

Presenter30:47

And I would uh lie awake at night weeping.

Presenter30:51

So in a way I came to terms with the fact.

Presenter30:55

Of the

Presenter30:56

Of loss? Very early on, really.

Presenter31:00

And think of it daily.

Presenter31:02

It's the one great fact of life, is it not? Still, today you think of death.

Speaker 231:02

Do the one great f ⁇

Patricia Routledge31:07

Uh

Speaker 231:07

Oh yeah.

Presenter31:08

Oh yes, I think one has to embrace it.

Presenter31:12

in order to live in the present.

Presenter31:17

Pick up number seven.

Presenter31:20

The Amadeus Quartet with Robert Cohen, who's a

Presenter31:25

An extra violin cello for this piece.

Presenter31:29

Playing the adagio from Schubert's string quintet in C major.

Presenter31:34

Perfect, perfectly formed music.

Presenter32:28

The Amadeus Quartet with Robert Cohen playing part of the adagio from Schubert's string quintet in C major. So let's get you off to this desert island, Patricia. Do you think you'll like it there? Oh yes, I'll like it.

Presenter32:41

I won't be very practical to begin with. I'll sit about and think a lot.

Presenter32:46

A bit of a dreamer, you see.

Presenter32:48

And I shall be perfectly happy in my own company for quite a while. What will you miss most?

Presenter32:56

My fax machine.

Presenter33:03

And I'm one of the world's great faxers. Did you not know that? Haven't got onto email yet. No, no, no, no, no. I'm still on the nursery slopes.

Patricia Routledge33:08

No.

Presenter33:13

And let me just ask you this funny. Were you to be able to have somebody else with you on this island, and you can't?

Presenter33:19

Which of the characters you've played would you choose? Which of them could you bear to be alone with for possibly a very long time?

Presenter33:30

Beatrix Potter. Why Beatrix Potter?

Presenter33:34

I would learn so much from her.

Presenter33:36

And she'd help me with the practicalities of living there.

Presenter33:42

We'd probably get across each other.

Presenter33:44

because she was quite a stubborn old bird.

Presenter33:47

But uh

Presenter33:49

The Routledges came from Cumbria, and uh and she had North Country blood in her. And she might write you a good script. She might write me another nice little story.

Presenter34:00

Last record.

Presenter34:04

I must have the piano, and I shall always remember

Presenter34:08

The tremendous joy and privilege of hearing Alfred Brendel.

Presenter34:13

Last year at the Cheltenham Festival.

Presenter34:16

Working his way through the five Beethoven piano concerti.

Presenter34:21

Within the space of five days and two evenings he played two concerti in the one concert.

Presenter35:18

Alfred Brendel playing part of the second movement of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. five in E flat, The Emperor, with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducted by James Levine.

Presenter35:28

Well, Patricia, if you could only take one of those eight records, there's a difficult choice. Oh, what a dastardly question.

Presenter35:35

I thought it was going to be the dream of Garantius, but it's going to be

Presenter35:41

The Amadeus Quartet.

Presenter35:43

Playing

Presenter35:45

Schubert String Quintet in C major. What have you changed? It's perfect.

Presenter35:51

Perfect.

Presenter35:52

Unadulterated, wonderful music.

Presenter35:56

Such peace and trust

Presenter35:59

and submission.

Presenter36:00

Contentment. It's wonderful.

Presenter36:03

What about your book? You've got the Bible, you've got Shakespeare? Well, I would like..

Presenter36:08

The most comprehensive.

Presenter36:10

Publication of poetry in the English language. So that includes Robert Frost and Emily Dickinson and

Presenter36:19

Longfellow and some Americans. And if you could only take one poet.

Patricia Routledge36:21

Sh

Presenter36:24

You're not really supposed to have an anthology. Breaks the rules. Oh, very reluctant. One poet. Yeah, gone.

Patricia Routledge36:28

Yeah.

Presenter36:32

On top of my Shakespeare. Yes.

Presenter36:38

John Donne.

Presenter36:41

And your luxury.

Presenter36:44

Tea making outfit?

Presenter36:47

With uh two china cups and saucers, because somebody would turn up at some time.

Presenter36:54

and silver teapot, and every known possible tea.

Presenter37:01

Tricia Routledge, thank you very much indeed for letting us hear your Desert Island discs.

Presenter37:05

Thank you.

Speaker 337:14

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