Sir John Mills

Speaker 10:00

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 10:08

The programme was originally broadcast in the year two thousand, and the presenter was Sue Lawley.

Presenter0:31

My castaway this week is an actor. The fact that he's always been convinced that he didn't look a day over thirty probably explains why he's still going strong at the age of ninety two. Charm, durability, and above all an effortless talent have made him one of the great British stars of the century. It was fifty five years ago that he first came to fame in David Lean's film Great Expectations. After that, in a series of roles that seemed to embody Englishness, his stiff upper lip was admired by millions. In Which We Serve, Ice Cold in Alex, Oh, What a Lovely War, and Young Winston were just a few of them. But just in case we thought he was typecast, he carried off an Oscar as the village idiot in Ryan's Daughter. He's still doing one man shows because, as he says, none of my life has been work. It's my hobby. He is Sir John Mills. What a lucky man you are, Sir John. Does performing still excite you as much as ever it did?

Sir John Mills1:26

Yes, I I am a lucky man, very lucky indeed, touchwood D V, because I am able to go on doing what I really love doing, and that's walking onto the stage.

Presenter1:38

But what is it that is exciting for you? Is it the desire to please, or do you want to be admired? Or

Sir John Mills1:44

Uh is to do with

Sir John Mills1:47

Having the luck to know at the age of five or six that I had to be an actor. I just knew I had to be one of the actors.

Presenter1:55

How did you know? Why did you know?

Sir John Mills1:56

I don't know.

Sir John Mills1:58

My sister, of course, Annie, was a great influence in my life, and she was much older, so she became a sort of heroine, and she started off being a wonderful ballet dancer. And then she took up exhibition dancing when it was very popular. And there were three couples. There were the Astairs, Sealandvilles, and the Castles. And of course, I did get up from the schoolhouse once to see her dance.

Presenter2:23

She was C. Ellen Mills. And she, of course I should remind everybody, was Annette Mills, whom my generation knew as uh on the BBC with Muffin the Mule of

Sir John Mills2:24

Pins

Sir John Mills2:30

Yes.

Presenter2:31

But you were very specific just now about the age of six, you say. Did you actually perform at the age of six?

Sir John Mills2:36

Yes, I'm afraid I did.

Presenter2:38

What did you do?

Sir John Mills2:38

I went to the schoo village school hall with my sister Annie and she taught me the sailor's hornpipe and my mother made me the costume and I loved every minute of it and I wasn't bad in it at all and at the end of it I got an enormous laugh and I thought that's rather strange and and I looked out and my flap had dropped down. You know, sailors have flaps instead of buttons.

Sir John Mills3:03

And I think I forgot to put my shorts on.

Presenter3:04

Oh no, and you've never forgotten it.

Presenter3:08

But of course, you know, you can never have known that you were going to go on to act with some of the great names of the twentieth century, and indeed to be friends with some of the great names of British cinema in the twentieth century. Tell me about the three Musketeers. Who were they?

Sir John Mills3:24

Well, there was Niven, David Niven, and Larry Olivia, and me. And I suppose we got that tag because we were all in the services at the same time, and we met on leaves, and it was all rather quite hilarious. I mean, I had a small cottage in Denver Village called Misma Cottage at the time I opened the door one day. There was a soldier standing under gas mask in full equipment, and it was Niven underneath it all. It was those sort of things that happened, you know, voice through the gas mask. And Larry was in the Freed Air Arm, and I was in the Army. So it was it was rather fun.

Presenter3:59

And why have you always said, because you have, that Larry Olivier was the funniest man I ever met? Because he was.

Sir John Mills4:05

Because he was. I mean, he was.

Sir John Mills4:08

I think funnier than the comics, and he was witty and amusing and.

Sir John Mills4:14

He was uh physically funny. I mean, because when he when Larry played the comedy parts, there was nobody like him, was there? He was everybody remembers his great tragic acting, but his comedy acting was abs superb, you know, Arms and the Man and things. A very very, very funny man.

Presenter4:33

Let's begin to find out about your desert island discs. Tell me about the first one.

Sir John Mills4:37

Ah yes. Well, that's important because uh no

Sir John Mills4:42

It started me off in in in the in the theatre.

Presenter4:45

No card.

Sir John Mills4:45

And uh I got a job touring with a company which under the illustrious name of The Queens.

Sir John Mills4:53

In the Far East, and I'd been out there about a year. And our advanced manager came along and said, You better get your skates on. Noah Coward's coming in front tonight. And I said, What? He said, Noah Coward is coming in front. I said, So is God. But he was. And he gave me seats for private lives.

Sir John Mills5:15

And I went to see it.

Speaker 45:17

There I find you, moonlight behind you, true to the dream I am dreaming.

Speaker 45:28

As I draw near you, you'll smile a little smile For a little while We shall stand hand in hand I'll leave you now

Presenter5:42

Okay.

Speaker 45:42

Oh, love you forever.

Presenter5:46

Noel Coward singing Some day I'll find you from Private Lives. So with Olivier as your best friend and Noel Coward as your mentor, you can't it's no wonder you didn't go far wrong, really.

Sir John Mills5:56

Well I was very lucky wasn't I was Noah was an enormous help and he became a very very close friend of the family. He was Juliet's godfather and was always terrific and was he guided me the right way. I mean when I was in Cavalcade he I had a pot for fifteen pounds a week.

Presenter6:16

But he actually wrote that for you, didn't he, Joe Marriott?

Sir John Mills6:16

But he actually

Sir John Mills6:18

Did you Joe Marriott? And uh after about a year I was offered the part in the film of Cavalcade for £150 a week and a contract for five years. And of course it was very, very tempting.

Speaker 16:28

Uh

Sir John Mills6:31

And uh no we had supper one night. It went on for hours.

Sir John Mills6:36

And at the end of it he persuaded me not to not to take the contract. And it was the best thing it ever done. He said, you know, I think you have potential, and I think you can become a very great good actor indeed. And I think you can play big things. And if you do that, you'll be a success. You'll be a sort of good

Presenter6:40

I hope

Speaker 16:40

Uh

Sir John Mills6:55

John Jimmy Cagney or somebody, but you won't be playing the classics and good things, and so learn your job first.

Presenter7:01

So he thought you should learn it on the stage first.

Presenter7:04

But of course, eventually he wrote Shorty Blake for you, didn't he? In the film In Which We We Serve. Great part.

Sir John Mills7:07

In the film in which we s we serve.

Presenter7:11

Great part. That was again a very English part, one of those parts I was referring to earlier, wasn't it?

Sir John Mills7:14

And I'd been in the army and I'd come out and I was broke and Noah rang up and said, I've I've written a nice part for you, dear. It's shortly bleak in which we serve.

Presenter7:24

But tell me about that character, because he w he of course he wasn't an officer. You played so m we all remember you as playing the officer.

Sir John Mills7:25

But tell me

Sir John Mills7:30

Yes, I paid an awful lot of lower decks too.

Presenter7:31

Drive it.

Presenter7:33

Here, he was very oily rag, wasn't he, Shorty?

Sir John Mills7:34

Wasn't the shortest. At that time, we were making very good movies, and we had great directors like David Lean. That was his first film. And having been in the services, I knew what it was all about. And I felt at least I could try and put the boys up there as they were. I mean, if I played a submarine captain during the war, I used to dive in the submarines, and I did four or five dives. So when I did get to the periscope, at least I was real.

Presenter8:06

You knew what you were doing.

Sir John Mills8:06

I knew what I was up to, so that was a a blessing.

Presenter8:10

Because you'd been in the army, but you'd have to.

Sir John Mills8:11

I've been in the army, right?

Presenter8:12

You were invalided out.

Sir John Mills8:13

I assume we needed that, yes.

Presenter8:14

That's really why you started making films, wasn't it?

Sir John Mills8:17

Well, uh yeah, I had to.

Presenter8:19

Yeah.

Sir John Mills8:19

But

Presenter8:19

But but also they were being made then in the very early field.

Sir John Mills8:21

Yes, they were. I failed when I came out and Mary nursed me back to health and put me on a mildest diet called a hay diet and uh within two and a half months I was actually in front of the camera and they didn't think I had an earthly chance and so that's how I got started again and of course Noel did start me again with Shorty Blake.

Presenter8:42

Tell me about your second record.

Sir John Mills8:43

I'd really like to play uh a number from Mr Cinders called Spin a Little Happiness which lovely star called Binnie Hale sang.

Speaker 48:53

Although the North is crowned in the sky, when things go wrong, you mustn't

Speaker 18:54

On the darkest crowd or in the sky On Wednesday

Speaker 49:02

And a little happiness of you

Speaker 19:03

Peaceful heaven

Speaker 49:05

Don't fire, just try.

Speaker 49:11

What's the use of worrying or feeling blue? When things go wrong, keep on smiling.

Presenter9:12

Worrying of me.

Presenter9:20

Binnie Hale singing spread a little happiness from the musical mister Cinders. But you might, Sir John, as I understand it, have been a Norfolk seed merchant if your father had had his way.

Sir John Mills9:30

A Norfolk seed merchant, yes, I suppose I could have been. I I um was living in Felix, though, and I got a job. I had to get a job in a large office of R and W Paul Limited. They were corn merchants and uh my family decided I should be a corn merchant. And I stuck that in the office for about two and a half years and hated every second. I was terribly bad at it. And finally saved up, I think it was about twelve pounds, to go to the wicked city and and kind of get myself launched and within

Presenter10:00

With Annette's help.

Sir John Mills10:01

Help I broke it off.

Presenter10:02

But you ended up, I think, selling disinfectant instead of corn in the middle.

Sir John Mills10:06

Well I had to get a job and so I got a job as a travelling assailant for the Sanitas Company, which is a splendid company. What was that lavatory paper? Well they make everything for the lavatory and of course their great number was the toilet paper and I I went out selling that and I I wasn't terribly good at it. My heart wasn't in it and I I must say I found the demonstrations rather embarrassing. I just wasn't very good so I got the sack.

Presenter10:13

What was that lavender paper?

Presenter10:31

But you used to take tap dancing lessons in the afternoon.

Sir John Mills10:34

Yes, well that's what I did, you see, is I sold as much of the wretched stuff as I could in the morning and then in the afternoon I'd go to Zelia Ray's Dancing Academy, who's a friend of my sister and in in the West A and I'd learned to tap dance. And uh my sister said he hasn't got any money, so I agreed to give Zelia ten percent of my first salary.

Presenter10:53

And what was your depth?

Sir John Mills10:53

T teachers adept. I got I there I got a job in the chorus, I got four pounds. So I went along to Z D and said, Here, here's eight shillings for you and uh I paid uh uh ten percent to my agent, ten percent to see, so she wouldn't take it. Even though it would have been sixteen shillings off off four pounds.

Presenter11:06

Even though

Presenter11:10

Next record.

Sir John Mills11:12

One of my very great heroes was Fred Astair. And when I did a musical later on, I was told by Johnny Mercer who wrote the lyrics, that he was not really accepted as a great singer, but he was a wonderful singer, Fred. And he was very popular with Co-Porter and people, because when they wrote tempo, Fred sang it. He didn't muck about with it too much, and he he has a charming voice and sang quite beautifully. And I'm so thrilled that later on in life we became quite close friends. So I'd love to hear Fred Astaire singing. I think I've chosen Night and Day, haven't I? Yes.

Speaker 411:54

Why is it so?

Speaker 411:59

That this longing for you

Speaker 412:02

Follows wherever I go.

Speaker 412:08

In the roaring traffics boom

Speaker 412:13

In the silence of my lonely room

Speaker 412:18

I'd think of you.

Presenter12:21

Night and day

Presenter12:25

Fred Estaire and co-porters Knight and Terrific.

Sir John Mills12:27

Terrific singing.

Presenter12:28

Wonderful, isn't it? I see what you mean. Absolutely on tempered.

Sir John Mills12:29

Say

Presenter12:35

We're talking about Noel Coward saying you should do stage. Of course, you did do a lot of stage before the war. You were the old Vic under Tyron Guthrie.

Sir John Mills12:42

Well

Sir John Mills12:43

Yeah.

Sir John Mills12:44

But there was only stage really, you see, and uh that was my first love and all

Presenter12:47

Yeah.

Presenter12:49

But all those great names, whether Peggy Ashcroft, Ralph Richardson, Alec Guinness,

Sir John Mills12:53

Alexander.

Presenter12:54

So were your ambitions actually Shakespearean at that stage?

Sir John Mills12:58

My ambition really was to try and be a properly good actor, and I wanted to act all sorts of various things, and I've only had one deep disappointment in my life, which was Hamlet.

Sir John Mills13:12

Because I play I went to the Vic with a brilliant director called Ty Guthrie, Tyrone Guthrie, and I did Soups to Conquer and Puck in the Midst of Valentine with the Vic. And I'd arranged to go back in'forty and play Hamlet, Hotspur and one other. And uh of course Mr Hitler decided we'd run another war and I never went back and when I came out of the army, uh Beerharder, I had to earn a living and I was delighted that some films came along and so my life from that on time onwards went much towards movies and theatre.

Presenter13:46

And of course, as I said in the introduction, Great Expectations was the one that gave you an international name, wasn't it?

Sir John Mills13:53

Yeah, that's basically the

Presenter13:54

That was what, about forty six, I think.

Sir John Mills13:56

Yeah.

Presenter13:58

Yes, yes. Um wonderful reputation it gave you. And we all remember that wonderful scene in which you rescue the convict Magwitch from from the the water, from the

Sir John Mills14:06

The door.

Presenter14:07

Again, you doing your own stunts, and that must have been a pretty tough one.

Sir John Mills14:11

Well it was it was a tough one. Um it meant jumping in by the paddle wheel. But the the hero of course was Fidnikuri, who was eighty.

Sir John Mills14:20

and flung himself in and then I had to dive uh after him, but uh uh he got an enormous round of applause. He was a wonderful old man and uh uh a brilliant actor. I thought his magwitz was fantastic.

Presenter14:32

It was. But w what about talking about your own stunts, what about the famous quicksand scene in Ice Cold in Alex and you and Anthony Quayle sort of splattering about up to your noses?

Sir John Mills14:38

Yeah.

Sir John Mills14:43

Yes, that wasn't funny. Uh it it was quite grim actually. And uh Tony Quail had quite a bad time. But we knew we were safe'cause we had lots of chaps round us.

Presenter14:52

Frightening though.

Sir John Mills14:53

Was it ever

Sir John Mills14:56

Yes, yes, yes, a couple. Early on I I used to do everything because I you know I thought it was the right thing to do and I had one occasion when i in a small picture I was driving an old bullnose Morris to the to the cliff and I had to jump out and let the car go over the cliff and they said there's quite a we put a railway sleeper about uh twenty-five yards before the cliff when that bumps over that's when you jump out. So it bumped over the railway sort of thing and as I jumped out I caught my sleeve on the door handle and it was dragging me along and it dragged me within two yards of the cliff, which happened to be Dover. So I wouldn't be here there talking to you if I hadn't torn my sleeve free.

Sir John Mills15:40

I think I cut down my stance after that a little bit.

Presenter15:44

Record number four.

Sir John Mills15:46

The theme music from The Way to the Stars, which turned out to be a very, very good film directed by a very great friend of mine called Puffin Asquith, Anthony Asquith. And I remember it well for the music and for a lovely poem which John Pudney wrote. It was called For Johnny, and sometimes I do it. It's a nice poem. It says it goes, Do not despair for Johnny Head in Air.

Sir John Mills16:12

He sleeps as sound As Johnny underground.

Sir John Mills16:16

Fetch out no shroud for Johnny in the cloud

Sir John Mills16:19

But keep your cheers for him.

Sir John Mills16:22

in after years.

Sir John Mills16:24

Better by far.

Sir John Mills16:26

For Johnny, the bright star, to keep your head.

Sir John Mills16:29

And see his children fed.

Sir John Mills16:32

We were shooting the that poem that day and he said I'd like to shoot that in one and start back and come in close to the end of it when you may be able to find a bit of emotion from somewhere. So he did this and he sat on front of the camera on a little platform, a very, very hot day at Pinewood, and I started off and did for Johnny and finished. And nobody said cut.

Sir John Mills16:56

I looked down and Puffin was fast asleep.

Presenter17:22

The theme tune from the film The Way to the Stars played by the Two Cities Symphony Orchestra conducted by Charles Williams. That was a Terence Rattigan play, in fact, wasn't it? That is it was a a kind of tribute to Anglo-American relations, I think, in the war.

Speaker 417:30

Yes.

Speaker 417:32

Yeah.

Speaker 417:35

Yes.

Presenter17:36

But enough of films for the moment, Sir John, because um by this time you you'd met and married and begun to have babies um with a very special lady, hadn't she, Mary Haley Bell. Where and how did you first meet?

Speaker 117:47

Uh

Sir John Mills17:47

Yes.

Sir John Mills17:51

Well

Sir John Mills17:53

I keep on saying I'm lucky, but thank God I am lucky, Touchwood. And I was touring in the Far East, as you know, and I went to Tinsin and I was playing a poppura play Journey's Inn, Hamlet, Mr. Sinders, and So This Is Love, and there was a gentleman in Tin Sin who was quite remarkable, a marvellous man who I got to know later, called Colonel Haley Bell. And he was absolutely mad about the theatre, and he brought his little brood to see me in Journey's Inn.

Sir John Mills18:24

And we were invited back to lunch.

Sir John Mills18:27

at a large house and I asked if I could play tennis and he said, Yes, you can play with that little girl with the red hair.

Sir John Mills18:33

Actually, about sixteen. Now I'd had several gin slings and I lost six knots, six knots. You know, um

Sir John Mills18:41

I'm not a very clever man, but uh

Sir John Mills18:45

Twelve years later I did a very clever thing. I married the colonel's daughter and since that time she's

Sir John Mills18:52

Provided me with three productions still running with Juliet, JD, Hayley and Jonathan. And she's written lots of lovely books and including Whistled.

Presenter19:02

Including Whistle Down the Wind, of course.

Sir John Mills19:03

She came to Bristol and three plays for me, which I did in the West End. And uh she has been a remarkable lady and uh I'm very very lucky indeed.

Presenter19:13

And it's always been a very romantic relationship, you've made sure of that.

Sir John Mills19:16

Well, we decided that marriage was something to be worked at, and we both decided to make it so. And we have always been very romantic. And I at any public dinner, we were never sitting together, so I always sent down a note in the middle of dinner and said, Darling, did I remember to tell you that I loved you?

Sir John Mills19:39

And we had a at lunch not long ago, and I I said to the waiter, Would you take this note down to that very pretty lady with the red hair? And I looked up and saw him handing it to Princess Diana.

Sir John Mills19:52

But

Sir John Mills19:53

He didn't quite get there, dropped a plate and stopped it.

Presenter19:57

Because the question that comes to mind when you tell that kind of story, and yours has been such a long lasting marriage, is how did you manage it while at the same time cavorting with all those womanizers, you know, all the the Rex Harrison, Stuart Granger, and so on? You know.

Sir John Mills20:13

Why? Um well, I don't know. Um

Sir John Mills20:16

I don't know, it's a silly thing to say, but I

Sir John Mills20:19

I really wasn't tempted. I mean, she was such a staggering lady, and madly attractive, that I'd have been crazy if I'd gone off the rails.

Presenter20:29

Tell me about your next record.

Sir John Mills20:30

This talking about Mary is a terrific number for both of us. And when she hears this, I'm sure she'll reach for the Klendex box. It's called All the Things You Are. And it was at the time that I was a sergeant in the army with a large red moustache, and Mary was in the theatre. And I don't think they weren't married at the time, and she decided to go to New York and do a play to prove that we were mad about each other. And so she took off, was chased by a submarine, spent the entire journey.

Sir John Mills21:06

Life jacket, and the number that we both played, one on each side of the Atlantic, was all the things you are. So that's what I want, and uh it it means um a a a very, very great deal to us. After she'd been in New York uh in the play about six weeks, I had a a telegram and it said, Darling,

Sir John Mills21:26

Glorious news, play complete flop coming home I love you, Mary.

Speaker 421:31

All the things you are mine.

Presenter22:00

Chick Henderson with Harry Roy and his band playing All the Things You Are

Presenter22:05

You've made so many memorable films, Sir John won many awards, but only one Oscar, and interestingly, that was for the non speaking role of Michael Day, the village idiot, in Ryan's Daughter, David Lean's great film. An incredibly powerful character, that, with not a word to say.

Sir John Mills22:25

Yes, it was. It was a wonderfully written character by Robert Bird, and.

Sir John Mills22:31

It was great fun to do. It was a strange experience. I was very lucky. I had a great friend called Bernard Miles, later Lord Miles, and he knew some doctors well and they treated pe people with brain damage on the left-hand side and he showed me a lot of film. And so Michael was at least real. I mean I wasn't just pulling faces and I think probably that's that's why it worked. It was a lot of work before the film started and when I started filming it was a piece of cake and I had no dialogue so I was drinking draft guinea in the pubs and they were all sweating their lungs.

Presenter23:17

This was in the west coast of Ireland, of course. How do you agree that?

Sir John Mills23:18

Yeah, but the strange thing about it was that I'm not a method actor. I don't like the method, but with Michael I couldn't just sit in front of the camera and do it. I had to go and sit on a rock for a good two or three minutes because uh he they think uh very slowly and then intuition comes in a flash and you see the eyes completely light up and become bright and normal and that wasn't uh an easy thing to do uh and that's the only way I could do that was to train my rather ridiculously quick way of thinking and talking slowly and I think that's probably why it worked.

Presenter23:59

And David Lean understood.

Sir John Mills24:00

And David Dean was of course magnificent and I had a great make-up artist who did a great makeup. It took 16 minutes in the chair in the morning. People won't believe it, but it's true. He made a cast of my own teeth and clipped them on. And they had a bulge one side. So it distorted your mouth.

Presenter24:19

So it distorted your mouth.

Presenter24:20

Did not

Sir John Mills24:22

It was I always say the teeth were on the Oscar. I mean it was a piece of cake.

Presenter24:27

And did you know you were going to get that, Oscar?

Sir John Mills24:29

No, no, and and that's the funny thing about David. He had great foresight and he I was watching The Rushes with David one day, I was the only actor who did, and uh uh in the middle of the scene on remember on the beach with the crab, uh he suddenly said to me, Nob, I know he called me Nob, I don't know why he said, Nob, uh have you ever ever had an Oscar?

Sir John Mills24:51

I said no.

Sir John Mills24:53

Nine months later I got it.

Presenter24:56

Tell me about your next record.

Sir John Mills24:58

But my next number is very dear to me. My sister Annette, who was a wonderful exhibition dancer, then was smashed up badly in the war, entertaining the troops, who was in a bad crash, and then she wrote numbers. And she wrote two numbers, two of two were hits, especially Adolph, which the boys loved. And I sang when I was in the army, I said, This is called Adolph, You've Bitten Off Much More Than You Can Chew.

Speaker 425:26

And oh, you've been off much more than you can chew.

Speaker 425:33

Come on, hold your hand out.

Speaker 425:36

Well all fed up with you, good lily and off You toddle off And all your nances too Or you may get something to remind you Of the old red, white and blue

Presenter25:54

Arthur Askey, singing Adolph, which was written by my castaway sister, Annette Mills. Apart from your one-man show, which you do still from time to time, Sir John, as I've said, you have another current success at the moment on video as Gus the Theatre Cat in the show Cats, of course, a part which required you to put on a few years, I think, didn't it?

Sir John Mills26:15

Well that was lovely. Out of the blue Andrew Roy Weber also feel like to do it and uh I said I'd love it if it was another musical and so I did it and uh I was made up and uh took about two hours and they said go down on the stage and let the director have a look at you So I went down and he said that is terrific he said Monova Begab He said take him upstairs and age him up a bit.

Sir John Mills26:41

Have too young.

Presenter26:43

But I sense you rather you rather enjoy your great age, don't you? Isn't there a sort of sort of sense of liberation?

Sir John Mills26:50

Well

Sir John Mills26:51

I think that you have to make ninety two, Sue.

Sir John Mills26:54

There's something extraordinary about being ninety. Uh

Sir John Mills26:57

It touched but it has r really been quite wonderful and uh I found myself getting rather sentimental and able to say things that I couldn't say when I was sixty. And I don't g embarrass myself, and I hope I don't embarrass other people, but uh uh I had such a wonderful time. And when I did the one man show,

Sir John Mills27:16

uh which I do from time to time. I come on and there's such

Sir John Mills27:21

warmth and such.

Sir John Mills27:23

affection and I can even say love coming across the footlights, that it's just a tonic. It has been just wonderful.

Presenter27:30

Next piece of music.

Sir John Mills27:32

I've chosen the C minor Rachmaninoff because it was a great favourite of Mary's and mine, and I have it's very grand, emotional, sweeping music and uh there are two or three themes in it which are absolute knockouts, so I thought I had to have a lot of serious music in. So here's a piece of Rachmaninoff's C minor.

Presenter28:49

Andrei Watts playing part of Rachmaninoff's piano concerto number two in C minor with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Sejai Azawa. So time to cast you adrift towards this desert island, Sir John. Not not a happy prospect for you, huh?

Sir John Mills29:04

There's not really. I can't think of it. I'm too fond of people.

Presenter29:08

And you have so many memories to look back across.

Presenter29:12

The Hamlet you never played, perhaps your greatest regret. But what do you feel as you look back across it? What was your finest hour in films?

Sir John Mills29:22

It's awfully difficult.

Sir John Mills29:25

I think perhaps

Sir John Mills29:27

Two themes I'm not ashamed of. Uh one is William Ossop in Hobson's Earth, and probably the other is

Sir John Mills29:37

Great Expectations. It's Lean's greatest film. There's there's an awful few that I don't mind at all. Some I wish I could do all over again. I mean, I'm I'm never very

Speaker 129:38

Yeah.

Speaker 429:38

Uh

Speaker 129:38

Uh

Speaker 429:38

Okay.

Sir John Mills29:46

happy with what I do. Um I think one of the loveliest stories I've heard of a very dear friend of mine, Ralphie Richardson, Sir Ralph and he'd been on a long time and he was playing in home

Sir John Mills29:59

There met Johnny Gilgard, and somebody said to Sir Rafiro, Tell me about acting. How do you how do you feel about it at the moment? You're so wonderful in this place. Well, dear fellow, etc. I must say I think I'm beginning to get the hang of it.

Sir John Mills30:14

And he's so right. I mean, you know, it's difficult to be happy about what you do.

Presenter30:19

Tell me about your last record.

Sir John Mills30:21

This may sound rather conceited, but the last one is a a a r a number called Ever the Best of Friends. Um I sang it in uh a musical Great Expectations and I played Joe Garjery.

Sir John Mills30:36

They wouldn't let me play Pip, I can't think why, I was only about eighty, but um uh I I I sing it in this Joe Garza, and it's a very sweet little number, and I sing it to young Pip, and the words mean a lot to me now, and um thought we would have that one.

Sir John Mills30:54

Whatever the road our lives may take

Sir John Mills30:58

Wherever the rainbow ends I'll give you my hand for old time's sake.

Sir John Mills31:06

Ever the best of friends, the ups and the downs.

Sir John Mills31:11

The ins and outs, Whatever the good Lord sends Whatever we have, we won't have doubts, Ever the best of friends.

Presenter31:24

My Castaway Sir John Mills, singing Ever the Best of Friends, from The Musical of Great Expectations.

Presenter31:30

Um

Presenter31:32

If you could only have one record on this item.

Sir John Mills31:35

I think I'd have all the things you are.

Sir John Mills31:38

It would remind me very much of Mary.

Presenter31:40

And what about your book? As you know, you get the Bible and you get the complete works of Shakespeare. You get a book.

Sir John Mills31:47

I'd have Anthony Trollope. Um I love his writing and I read it time and time again, uh Barcelona and The Warden. I think maybe I take that.

Presenter31:58

Sir John Mills, thank you very much indeed for letting us hear your desert island discs.

Sir John Mills32:02

Thank you very much, Sue.

Speaker 132:11

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