Terry Scott

Speaker 10:00

This download is the only extract the BBC has of this edition of Desert Island Discs. The presenter was Roy Plumley.

Speaker 10:08

Yeah.

Terry Scott0:08

Teddy, how well do

Speaker 10:09

You think you would face off

Terry Scott0:09

Oh, I couldn't. I couldn't. Of course I'd have to. Now I'm stuck on this island, but

Terry Scott0:14

I like arguing, I like discussing, and I'm not very nice to live with sometimes.

Terry Scott0:19

And if I'm gonna be stuck with myself on this desert island, it's a bit of a bit of a job.

Speaker 10:23

Apart from solitude, is there anything in the situation of being a desert island castaway that would frighten you particularly?

Terry Scott0:29

Yeah, can I

Speaker 10:29

Uh

Terry Scott0:29

Oh yes, because

Terry Scott0:31

Uh I don't mind fighting a lion. I'll have a go with the lion, but you see my mother

Terry Scott0:35

When I was a kid, if there was a mouse or anything Oh, quick, there's a mouse, quick and

Terry Scott0:40

And it's something deep inside me. Anything that runs quickly frightens the life out of me. So I would be petrified of the spiders and the quick darting things. Do you have a religious faith that would help?

Terry Scott0:51

Uh yes, I have. Um very strong Church of England. I couldn't just live there on my own and think of me as the only person.

Speaker 10:55

I couldn't just

Terry Scott0:58

Is music important to you?

Terry Scott1:00

It's important as a background and also in the right time and the right mood.

Terry Scott1:06

Music

Terry Scott1:08

And

Terry Scott1:09

Records of all descriptions excite men.

Terry Scott1:12

And give me something which

Terry Scott1:14

Nothing else can give. What's the first one you've chosen? The first one is Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty, the Grand Pard de Dare. Why'd you choose that? Well.

Terry Scott1:23

My wife was a ballet answer, a very good ballad answer.

Terry Scott1:26

And she taught me how to enjoy ballet music.

Terry Scott1:30

Not to the full yet, I'm still trying. And

Terry Scott1:33

My daughter is seven, my oldest daughter, she's unfortunately a bit like me.

Terry Scott1:37

And very often we clear the room and she puts on our little ballet dress and we do the pas de d'au. We don't dance very well. She's has very good lessons, but I

Terry Scott1:46

know how it should feel.

Terry Scott1:49

And we look into each other's eyes.

Terry Scott1:51

and we dance round that room as if we were the same height.

Terry Scott1:55

And as if we really could dance.

Terry Scott1:57

And we dance the Grand Pard de Deux.

Speaker 12:03

Uh

Terry Scott2:03

I'm not sure if I can do it.

Speaker 12:05

Uh

Terry Scott2:05

Brian Rick's team at the White Hall Theatre. Yes. The the actual reason I got into, the reason why he he wanted me, he spotted something. Again somebody saw something in me. I was doing a small part in one of his television plays. I wasn't actually at the White Hall, and the cameras broke down for three quarters of an hour, and somebody had to fill in.

Terry Scott2:23

And they asked me after about five minutes, and I went on. It wasn't very difficult because it was an audience who'd come to see a fast. They knew there was a panic on, and suddenly this Bob pushed himself forward and chatted and giggled and roared away for three quarters of an hour, and Brian

Terry Scott2:36

thought it was marvellous. He said, No, I'd I'd like you to do some more with us, which led to a bigger part on television and then eventually to actually joining one for the pot, you see.

Speaker 12:44

And when did your next television break down?

Terry Scott2:47

Well

Terry Scott2:47

Uh I was doing a part in one of Vernon Sylvain's farces on the television and one of the bosses saw it on television. A new boss and another new boss said this man has promise.

Terry Scott3:01

I thought here we go again.

Terry Scott3:02

And he said, We ought to be in a television series. And I didn't say any more. I said, Oh, yes.

Terry Scott3:08

And he said, we've got a chap called Hugh Lloyd. I said, good heavens. Because I've been working with him in summer shows, you see?

Terry Scott3:15

He said he's been doing awfully well in Hancock and um lots of other programmes. Would you like to work? And I said, Marvellous. Who's going to write it? they said. That's the first question everybody asks when you get on television. And I said, well, I've met John Chapman at the Whitehall. He was in one of the farces.

Terry Scott3:30

And he might be willing to

Terry Scott3:32

and John wrote her synopsis. They accepted it.

Terry Scott3:35

And he's written sixty one of them.

Speaker 13:37

Yeah.

Terry Scott3:38

He will not. Yeah.

Speaker 13:39

How many years has it been running now? Four years.

Speaker 13:42

And very successfully. How much of your own character do you think John Chapman puts in

Terry Scott3:45

Just a bit too much. He's frightening the way he knows me.

Terry Scott3:58

But sometimes I have to do things to Hugh, and I have to be crafty with him, and afterwards I think I hope really and truly I'm not that bad.

Terry Scott4:06

Maybe as I'm conscious of it, maybe I maybe I won't be, maybe I'll cut it off, maybe I'll stop myself becoming like that.

Speaker 14:12

Yeah. Now you and he'll work together outside television. You you do summer shows together.

Terry Scott4:16

Yes, we do summer shows, pantomimes. We do a lot of work together and also a lot of work apart. It's essential that we work apart because we don't want just to go together. We've got things we we must do on our own.

Speaker 14:25

Yeah. Recently you've done some solo television shows.

Terry Scott4:28

Yes, yes on BBC Two they were repeated on one. They didn't go down too badly, quite well. Terry, your career is unusual in the number of times you've been up and down. How do you account for this? Because I make mistakes.

Terry Scott4:38

I'm I'm not not ashamed to say I make hideous mistakes and I'll go on making them.

Terry Scott4:43

I'd rather make mistakes and be a bit mad occasionally than be stayed and safe.

Terry Scott4:49

Because when you've made a mistake and you go down, there's always that thrill of

Terry Scott4:53

of being able to pay the mortgage off after a few months. What's your big ambition?

Terry Scott4:59

To learn enough.

Terry Scott5:01

to feel

Terry Scott5:02

That I'm almost a star when I'm say sixty-five and I'm not ashamed of taking the money anymore.

Terry Scott5:09

And I think, well, I've learnt it, and I think I'll have that much money, and they'll say, We'll be honored to pay it. I don't suppose it'll ever come to that in my thoughts.

Speaker 15:14

Yeah.

Terry Scott5:16

Comedy acting. I think I think I'll have to be a comedy actor, but if it so happened that I went into musicals

Terry Scott5:24

Rex Harrison did. Suddenly he went into my fair lady. What could happen in twenty years' time with me playing an old man? I don't mind if it's twenty years' time, as long as one day I could be half as good as that.