Bill Nighy

Speaker 20:00

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 two thousand and four, and the presenter was Sue Lawley.

Presenter0:30

My castaway this week is an actor. His laconic world-weary style has been most recently on view in the film Love Actually, where his performance as an aging rock star carried off several awards. It's a success born of a long career. He learned his trade at the Liverpool Everyman, made his first film twenty-five years ago, and has played a succession of distinguished roles on the television and stage, particularly at the National Theatre. This thoroughly exemplary C V comes with a running commentary from its self-deprecating owner. Acting, he once said, is a kind of legitimized loafing. He sums it all up with the view that he has a nice relationship with the world. I've been vaguely familiar for some time, he says, and it's gone up a notch or two in the past twelve months. What's wrong with that? He is Bill Nye. Nothing wrong with that at all, Bill. Indeed, I mean your your role as Billy Mac in the tight trousers and the aging rock star in Love Actually has been a delight to us all. It was a gift of a part, wasn't there?

Bill Nighy1:29

Yeah, it was a great day. When you get a Richard Curtis script through the door you know you're in business and then when you discover that that particular part belongs to you it's a red letter day.

Presenter1:37

But you stole the show. I mean, you won all these awards, including a BAFTA and and all those other people starring alongside you and Alan Brickman, Hugh Grant, indeed, you eclipsed even Hugh Grant.

Bill Nighy1:49

Um

Presenter1:49

Devil pull a face.

Bill Nighy1:50

I w I don't quite think of it in that way myself, but I I I did have a very good part with some uh seriously funny jokes and I'm very, very grateful.

Presenter1:58

Yeah, but uh I mean working with that lot, Liam Neese and Emma Thompson I mean it was just must have been amazing. It was very stellar setup.

Bill Nighy2:04

It was very great.

Bill Nighy2:06

Yeah. They had a trailer park which was a triumph of the language of trailers, you know. And uh it was a bit like you joined the circus and they had kind of streets between them and corners and you'd meet Liam on the corner or go visit Emma and have a cup of tea and it was it was extremely satisfying and they're all very nice people and we've kind of known each other all our lives and kind of grown up to

Presenter2:24

But a just a real fit for you. Not least because you can sing. I mean, this must have been a bonus. Would Richard Curtis have known this when he cast?

Bill Nighy2:31

Would Richard Curtis

Bill Nighy2:32

Well, I did make a film called Still Crazy where I played another surprise, surprise, aging, knackered, middle-aged rock star who'd seen better times. For that one they were going to have me mime, but in fact I passed the singing audition. I had to sing Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple to a karaoke machine, which was a deeply lonely morning.

Presenter2:50

Two.

Presenter2:52

Uh

Presenter2:52

But but uh the singing then you would have known because you sang at length in that unlike as in in Love Actor.

Bill Nighy2:57

I mean they gave me a bit of help in the studio. I mean I can hold a tune. The high notes, as Jerry Lee Lewis famously sang, whiskey and smoke took all the high notes, now all I can sing is the blues in some song I can't remember the name of. But that's c pretty much what happened to me.

Presenter3:15

But but is there a frustrated rock star in you? Is that is that what you might like to have done?

Bill Nighy3:20

When I was a boy I used to throw shapes in front of the bathroom and mirror which I hoped might suggest that at some point in the not too distant future I might turn out to be good in bed. And I wanted to be selected by the gods of rock and roll and it didn't happen. You know, I wanted to be Keith Richard, I really you know, more than anybody else. Not Mick Jagger. Uh well I didn't Mick Jagger was kind of out I figured out of my range really. But Keith always looked kind of moody and magnificent and he could play the guitar. But the Rolling Stones, you know, were a big were my big group.

Presenter3:38

Not Nick Jagger.

Presenter3:52

We should have record number one, tell me Pala.

Bill Nighy3:55

Record number one, you mentioned legitimized loafing. Well, this is Give Me Shelter by the Rolling Stones, which I think is one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard. It reminds me of loafing, and it reminds me of when I was probably in my early twenties, loafing around in other people's houses while everybody else went to work, which I never really got over. I used to think it was so glamorous. So this is kind of the soundtrack to glamour loafing.

Speaker 44:18

You turn the shadow, you turn the straight away.

Presenter4:47

The Rolling Stones and Gimme Shelter. You won't thank me for this, Bill Nye, but one of the other things that people might remember you for is um you're behind.

Presenter4:57

Um in

Presenter4:58

The men's room. What, about a decade or so ago? I mean, you be it became a national talking point, bare buttocks.

Bill Nighy5:04

Well I I wouldn't go that far but uh yeah

Presenter5:05

But how was it for you becoming, as they say, becoming a sex symbol? Because that's what happened then, isn't it?

Bill Nighy5:11

Well, so I'm reliably informed. I mean, it didn't actually you know, I didn't get to hear about it too much. A woman did jump out of a black cab one time and shout, Hey, gorgeous, where are you going? I'll take you anywhere you want to go but she was probably drunk. Um I didn't really experience sex symboleness.

Presenter5:31

But that's what you were cost. I mean, you were a kind of Lothario, weren't you? Si serial adulterer.

Bill Nighy5:33

Yeah.

Bill Nighy5:35

Yeah. I mean, I used to go up to the shops, and people had no, women had no trouble relaxing around me until I did the men's room, and then it was sort of as advertised on TV. It was a sort of.

Presenter5:36

Yeah.

Bill Nighy5:44

Halfway through a conversation with a woman you'd realize that she was at an advantage inasmuch as that she'd seen your bottom going up and down and uh you certainly hadn't seen hers. So it was uh it took a while to get used to. The weeks preceding the broadcast I thought I'll have to leave the country.

Presenter6:02

Let's go back to you and the legitimized loafing, because as I understand it, I mean, back in where are we? We're in Croydon in kind of the nineteen sixties, and you applied to the Guildford School, not Guildhall, School of Dance and Drama, in order to impress the girls, is that right?

Bill Nighy6:19

Well, I used to say it quickly in order that you might make that mistake and think that it was Guildhall. It was called then the Guildford School of Dance and Drama. We used to call it the Guildford School of Prance and Murmur for a laugh. I applied because I uh

Bill Nighy6:33

I met a girl who made a deep impression on me, and she was going to a drama college, and she suggested that perhaps I should go as well. They sent back a letter saying that they granted me an audition, half thinking that that meant that you'd gone in. And then they sent a further letter saying you had to do three minutes of Shakespeare and three minutes of something modern, whatever that meant. And my friend and I, I remember, went to the library and we stole the complete works of Shakespeare and the complete works of George Bernard Shaw for no good reason. We could have easily borrowed them like everybody else, but we were at the time developing a sort of criminal mentality, which seemed to be the house style for my generation. And we figured we'd be clever and we'd give the drama school one girl and one boy. So for my girl, I gave them Eliza Doolittle. Can you believe it?

Presenter7:16

So you could do your cockney.

Bill Nighy7:17

I, to show my range, and for my other I did this long speech from some play by Shakspere, which began with I Left No Ring with Her, which would suggest that it was a boy. In fact, it was Cesario, but we didn't know that Cesario was in fact Viola dressed up as a man.

Presenter7:35

Twelfth night and

Bill Nighy7:36

Twelfth night. So, in fact, I was doing two women, and it was only when I'd finished the second speech down there, and the bloke said.

Bill Nighy7:43

That's very interesting. Why did you choose to do two women's parts?

Presenter7:46

My nanny.

Bill Nighy7:47

Okay.

Presenter7:47

But they took you in.

Bill Nighy7:49

They said, please can you come back with more suitable materials? So I went back and I did all the whirls of stage and I did a speech from a Dennis Potter television play called Vote, Vote, Vote for Nigel Barton. So to be for today.

Presenter7:59

So to be serious for a moment, I mean you you obviously did fancy the act this acting like

Bill Nighy8:05

Well, I had an in I'd done a bit at school, but I'd never really th thought of it as a way of making a buck. And I wasn't very good on what to do, but I was quite good on what I absolutely passionately didn't want to do, which was basically to go to work. You know, and people used to say, when you talked of uh being an actor, it's not glamorous, you know. At which point you'd think, well, it may not have been for you, pal, you know, but it sure as hell is going to be for me. And then the other thing they would routinely say was

Bill Nighy8:32

You must understand there may be long periods of unemployment, at which point you'd I'd have to keep myself from sort of cheering. You know, this was exactly what I had in mind. Long periods of unemployment was right up my alley.

Presenter8:44

Tell me about the next record.

Bill Nighy8:47

The next record is a work of Rhythm and Blues art. It's perfect. There is nothing wrong with this record. There is an absence of wrongness. It's from the hardest working man in show business, mister James Brown, singing I Feel Good.

Speaker 49:04

I do that I wouldn't

Speaker 49:08

I feel good I knew that I would not

Speaker 49:15

Cocker?

Speaker 49:16

It's all good.

Speaker 49:18

I got a you

Speaker 49:20

Wow! I feel nothing.

Speaker 49:24

A sugar from spa

Speaker 49:28

Happy

Presenter9:29

James Brown and I feel good, and a lot of air guitaring going on here, as it did in your youth in Croydon, where your father ran a garage. Did you live over it, in it?

Bill Nighy9:38

We lived over it, under it, around it. If you opened our front door, there were the petrol pumps and we lived in the garage and the smell of swafiga still takes me right back.

Presenter9:49

Uh

Bill Nighy9:50

Yeah, that was my early life.

Presenter9:52

And you weren't the greatest brain in Croydon, but you managed to get into the local Catholic grammar by a a bit of a fluke.

Bill Nighy9:59

Yes, I had a headmistress called Miss Bold, and she took a shine to me, and she was extremely good to me, and she kind of squeezed me through, yeah. If you didn't sail through the 11 Plus, which I didn't, you were then given an interview. The unfortunate bit about that was that they asked you to bring things that you'd done from home. Well, you know, I did nothing if I could help it at home, so I had nothing to take. And I said to my father, I said, I've got a problem, and he said, Well, what about that painting by numbers set thing that you were given at Christmas? Can you imagine? Anyway, I had this really lonely moment where I had to walk up the classroom and say to Miss Balls, who was our form mistress, my father suggests that I give you this. And she looked at it and said, What on earth do you mean? Don't be ridiculous, you know, and told me to take it back home again. So it was very, very embarrassing.

Speaker 410:19

Well, yeah.

Bill Nighy10:51

Bunker two.

Presenter10:51

But you got in, you passed, you got to the bottom.

Bill Nighy10:53

I got in, yeah, and I went to the yeah, I went to the uh John Fisher Catholic Grammar School for Boys.

Presenter10:59

And for some reason while you were there you then decided you wanted to be Ernest Hemingway. Is this because you got into literature, you started to read, you

Bill Nighy11:06

I started to read, and I read kind of randomly and voraciously, I should imagine every word he ever wrote.

Presenter11:12

But did you write? Did you try to write?

Bill Nighy11:14

No, no. Don't be ridiculous. No, there was in my you know, like everybody else, or like, you know, half the world, I fancied myself as an author. I went to the youth employment when they finally asked me not to go back to school anymore. And the man said, What would you like to do? And I said, I I thought I'd be honest, I thought I'd be frank with him and I said, I want to be an author.

Presenter11:16

Ridiculous idea.

Bill Nighy11:36

The nearest he came up with

Bill Nighy11:37

It was Messenger Boy on the Field magazine, which was a huntin', shootin', and fishing magazine in Stratton Street.

Presenter11:44

Up west, it says

Bill Nighy11:44

Western. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which I took.

Presenter11:46

Yeah.

Presenter11:48

But this is how n great newspaper editors are born.

Bill Nighy11:50

Well, is it? Well, um I of course didn't do that. I did this other thing, which was I ran away from there to write the great English novel. I'd never written a word yet.

Bill Nighy12:01

And to be like my hero, and it's Hemiway and F. Scott Fitzgerald and all the other guys. Where did you run to? And I ran to Paris. Where else are you going to go if you want to be like, you know.

Presenter12:04

Where did you want to

Bill Nighy12:10

Ernest Hemiway joined the Toronto Star at seventeen, so I was doing okay, and I then had to go to Paris. I then he then went to war. I did apply for the Six Day War. I went to the Israeli Embassy and applied.

Presenter12:23

Your joke.

Bill Nighy12:23

No, no, no, I said I want to go and you know what they would do is you could go and run the kibbutz because all the young men were fighting.

Bill Nighy12:30

Then they said you could you know, you you had to go for, I don't know, three years or something. I didn't fancy the sound of that.

Presenter12:35

And were you writing anything at all? I mean, had you not even a book to write anything?

Bill Nighy12:38

No, no, no. No, I did go into a room once and I had a blank piece of paper and rather movingly I drew a margin and I wrote a title, which I'm not going to tell you.

Presenter12:51

Oh, go on.

Bill Nighy12:51

Oh, go on. All right, the golden calf, it was called, and that's as far as I got. And then I ran from the room at the earliest opportunity.

Presenter12:59

Yeah.

Bill Nighy12:59

Because I couldn't stand a sign.

Presenter13:00

I mean did you get out of Paris or did you

Bill Nighy13:02

I went home, yeah. I went home eventually, yeah.

Presenter13:04

With nothing.

Bill Nighy13:05

Oh, with nothing.

Presenter13:06

Having been offered nothing, yeah.

Bill Nighy13:07

Oh, no, no. Well, apart from a lot of money to go to Madame Cuckoo's, where if you made love to rich women you could have two hundred and fifty francs.

Presenter13:15

How old were you at the time?

Bill Nighy13:17

I was then, I think, sixteen or seventeen, sixteen probably. But I'd never made love to a woman, so I figured I couldn't do that,'cause th you know, I wouldn't know where to do it myself.

Presenter13:25

Oh, I see. No qualifications for the job.

Bill Nighy13:27

I was ab deeply unqualified.

Presenter13:29

Okay. Record number three.

Bill Nighy13:31

Ah, record number three is uh a big record in my life. It's by mister Bob Dylan. It's called Mysteriously Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues and it goes something like this.

Speaker 413:43

When you're lost in the rain and warriors, when it's Easter time too

Bill Nighy13:46

Alright

Speaker 413:53

And your gravity fails and negativity don't pull you through

Speaker 414:03

Don't put on any airs when you're down on Rue Marg Avenue

Presenter14:12

Bob Dylan, and just like Tom Thumb's Blues, this really is the soundtrack of your life, this, isn't it?

Bill Nighy14:16

Yeah, it is Ashley. These are this was the soundtrack to my youth.

Presenter14:21

Actually, we mentioned journalism. Another of your recent triumphs, of course, has been in State of Play, the BBC series about the sort of political intrigue and spin doctors and so on, in which you play the the national newspaper editor, Cameron Foster. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I remember you needed it for gold.

Bill Nighy14:35

Yeah.

Bill Nighy14:37

Yeah.

Presenter14:38

I gather that a lot of journalists kinda wanted to work for you, real journalists.

Bill Nighy14:42

I did get yeah, no, I got a couple of offers. A gentleman from The Guardian and a gentleman from The Times said, please, can we come and work for you? I said, certainly not.

Presenter14:51

Is there going to be more?

Bill Nighy14:52

Yeah, there are. Yeah, Paul Abbott is writing it as we speak.

Presenter14:55

And Cameron Foster's still there, and you'll get that.

Bill Nighy14:57

Yeah.

Presenter14:59

We hope. We hope. We're in negotiation now.

Bill Nighy15:00

We

Presenter15:03

Let's just go back to the beginning, to the Guildford School of Dance and Drama still. I mean, did you really expect to get work when you came out of there? Because the fact is you did.

Bill Nighy15:12

The fact is

Presenter15:14

And you were surprised.

Bill Nighy15:14

Yeah.

Bill Nighy15:16

Yeah, I had no expectations whatsoever. It was another way of not getting up in the morning. I mean, to be perfectly honest with you, and to please the young lady.

Presenter15:25

Yeah.

Bill Nighy15:25

And had she said astronaut, I'd have probably applied for that job too.

Presenter15:25

And how ch

Presenter15:28

But give me a give me an idea of what you looked like. What did sort of Nye the Young Thesp look like? This is we're what are we? Nineteen seventy by now, are we? Something like that. You're twenty

Bill Nighy15:32

Night.

Bill Nighy15:37

Well, I was there in 1968, which uh I think the Daily Mirror later dubbed the Summer of Love. And all I can say about that is I wish somebody had told me about it at the time.

Bill Nighy15:48

Um

Presenter15:48

So you didn't cut a a a romantic figure?

Bill Nighy15:51

I had difficult hair.

Bill Nighy15:52

I looked a lot like Art Garfunkel.

Presenter15:55

Mm.

Bill Nighy15:55

So if you want a quick picture somewhere between Spike Milligan and Art Garfunkel was how I looked.

Presenter16:00

Rose heart

Presenter16:01

But can you remember the first professional role you played? You know, the first one you got paid for?

Bill Nighy16:06

The first time I did it for money, I played Rudy, the bodyguard, in a play by Telency Williams called The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore at the Watermill Theatre in Newbury. It was directed by the distinguished Nicholas Kent, and it starred a woman called Marcella Markham. She came in looking like a million bucks, sat in her chair. I did the six lines that I had, which were all addressed to her. She turned to Nicholas and said, Where did you find him? The kid is fantastic. And it was a piece of absolute nonsense. I knew exactly how fantastic I was currently being, but she did it just because she saw this boy trembling in front of her. And from then on, I would have followed her anywhere. And indeed, I did.

Speaker 416:40

Mm.

Presenter16:56

Yeah.

Bill Nighy16:56

Echo number five. Uh

Bill Nighy16:58

Oh my word. This is The Who and this is uh one of the great records of all time in my view. It will also serve on my desert island to keep me in good shape for air guitaring, which is a big part of my life. And this is called Won't Get Fooled Again.

Speaker 417:30

Fighting him to be

Speaker 417:33

Without children that I need

Speaker 417:37

Tomorrow's today worship will be gone.

Presenter17:45

The Who and won't get fooled again. So, Bill Nylen, um, in we're into the seventies now, you fetched up at the Liverpool Everyman, where there are all sorts of big names or names that were to become big. Jonathan Price, Julie Walterson, there was Alan Bleasdale and Willie Russell writing. Um what did you do there?

Bill Nighy18:02

Um tried not to get caught, tried not to get discovered as somebody who couldn't do what he said he could do. But no, I did. I got very lucky. I walked into a very lively company. It was one of the best places I could have possibly topped up in in those days.

Presenter18:18

But what kinds of roles did they offer you?'Cause I can imagine being tall and good looking they thought you were a romantic lead guy.

Bill Nighy18:24

They didn't have much time for romantic leads up there. There wasn't much call for them. We didn't do those kind of plays. So we did kind of plays relevant to the community. And we were lucky because we had these writers who would just, they would write stuff hot off the press of whatever was happening around town and things of that kind or in the country. It was great training. Yeah, no, it was brilliant.

Presenter18:46

But you've never done, other than that audition you told us about, any Shakespeare, have you? and you don't want to do any Shakespeare. You you have minus interest in Shakespeare. You said why?

Bill Nighy18:56

I don't have minus interest in Shakespeare itself, just in my performing it. The truth is that I can't operate in those kind of trousers. I really can only operate in a decent lounge suit. This is a serious point. This is an absolutely serious point. Tights. Tights, I don't even like you saying the word. I don't even like hearing about it. I don't ever. I did once have to get into a pair of tights.

Presenter19:08

Is this a serious business?

Presenter19:11

Tights with

Bill Nighy19:20

And it's never, ever, ever going to happen again.

Presenter19:22

But are we saying that if Nicholas Heitner from the National turned up to her and said, Look, you'd make a great Shylock?

Bill Nighy19:28

No, I remember.

Presenter19:29

We would say really, really.

Bill Nighy19:30

Really, really not.

Presenter19:31

It's not because you're worried about all his lines you'd have to learn.

Bill Nighy19:34

No, I can learn the lines. I won't I'm worried about how to deliver them. I mean, the job, you know, to a large degree is to

Bill Nighy19:40

make it sound like it just occurred to you and like you're saying it for the first time. And I'm interested in the modern idioms really. Uh I'm fascinated by it. I think Rex Harrison said he something like I'll leave the Tudor verse to others, which you know is a rather camp way of putting it, but I'm with him.

Presenter19:57

Mix-based music.

Bill Nighy19:58

The next piece of music is by the um the wonderful Marvin Gay. It was very difficult to pick w just one Marvin Gaye record. This one I like particularly because it's a sweet groove and I imagine myself dancing on the beach and I'm also rather taken with the introduction, which always amuses me. This is called My Love Is Waiting.

Speaker 420:16

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. I sure hope you've enjoyed our new album here on CBS Records. We'd like to thank Mr. Harvey Fouqua, Mr. Gordon Banks, Mr. Mike Butcher, Mr. Larkin Arnold. Most of all, we want to thank our Heavenly Father, Jesus!

Speaker 420:38

Oh Lord, I'm coming straight to your love, infinite.

Presenter20:46

Marvin Gaye and My Love Is Waiting. You really sweated over this list, haven't you?

Speaker 420:50

Mm-hmm.

Bill Nighy20:51

I'm I'm sort of glad it's over. It's been a form it's like of being depressed.

Presenter20:56

But it's the moving. I mean, it's that everything that comes on, you know, you're gone.

Bill Nighy21:00

Yeah, no, I love it. I mean, you've got to dance and you've got to dance on a desert island probably more than other places.

Presenter21:01

I mean

Presenter21:07

Last bit of your career before we get right up to date, which is that first film I mentioned was was Joan Collins' The Bitch, wasn't it, in 1979? What did you do in it?

Bill Nighy21:16

I delivered flowers to a house somewhere in Chelsea, and I I had one line and would you like to hear it?

Presenter21:22

Mm.

Bill Nighy21:23

Flowers for misses Salmon

Bill Nighy21:25

And um

Bill Nighy21:26

Apparently they cut it.

Presenter21:27

I see.

Bill Nighy21:28

Yeah, I didn't make the cut.

Presenter21:29

Anyway, there was a lot of other serious stuff, and I mentioned it in the introduction. I mean, you did a lot at the National, you were in David Hare's Pravda, you were in Stoppard's Arcadia and Pinter's Betrayal and so on. I mean, despite the impression we've perhaps been giving here, there's a lot of serious work going on, but you seem never to have really taken the lead. Somehow you kind of

Presenter21:50

Almost designed it so that you stayed one step back from the front. Is that unfair?

Bill Nighy21:55

I don't think it's it was conscious, entirely conscious, on my behalf. I think it's in effect what happened to some degree.

Presenter22:02

But were you making it happen? I think what we do is we're shirking the challenge, really.

Bill Nighy22:04

I think what we do is we are doing

Bill Nighy22:07

It's yeah, I think I probably was, yeah. And I was given the opportunity. I've turned down things that would make your hair curl. And I used to have very fancy reasons for turning them down, but actually I turned them down. But why? But do you know now? Funk, yeah, pure solid funk.

Presenter22:16

But why? But do you know now?

Bill Nighy22:21

It was just that I thought they were out of my range and I avoided them.

Presenter22:26

He didn't want the responsibility.

Bill Nighy22:28

Yeah, I didn't want the public humiliation that I was, you know, that I was certain would result.

Presenter22:33

So you prefer to sort of tuck in behind somebody else and be able to do it.

Bill Nighy22:36

It wasn't quite like that. I mean, the things you describe are very tough roles. You know, Arcadia and Skylight I did with David Hare and I did play leading roles.

Presenter22:40

Who's you?

Presenter22:45

That's much later, though.

Bill Nighy22:46

That's later. But Map of the World, which I did with David Hare, was a leading role. So in the theatre I did play leading roles. And it was ju it was also just the things that I was offered, you know, I took what was offered.

Presenter22:57

But the funked I mean, tell me about the funk do you still feel scared?

Bill Nighy23:01

Uh yeah, no, I mean

Bill Nighy23:03

Yeah. No, no, no. And ask anyone, you know. It's not in any way peculiar to me. You ask lots of performers and people that you're very familiar with, great performers, and they will tell you that they vomit before walking on stage. You know, there are it's the the terrible thing is it doesn't get any better. You think

Presenter23:03

You're not just saying that.

Bill Nighy23:21

You know, vaguely, when you're young, you think that this will be okay in a while. In a few years' time, I won't feel like this anymore. What people don't tell you is that not only do you still feel that way, but it actually gets worse. Now that I am able to operate, and I've learnt a way, you know, to operate, however self-conscious you might be feeling. I mean, you have to because you can't, you know, some days you're self-conscious, some days you're not self-conscious. You still have to go to work. And I am able to some degree to handle that. And I love the what they call in inverted commas naturalism. I love the challenge of trying to make it sound really real.

Speaker 223:23

Can

Bill Nighy23:57

That's what I like.

Presenter23:58

Mechanical number six.

Bill Nighy23:59

This is a Van Morrison song called The Healing Game as delivered by John Lee Hooker and the man himself, Mr. Van Morrison.

Speaker 424:07

Back on the corner again.

Speaker 424:11

Back of the lawn

Speaker 424:15

Well, always been.

Speaker 424:19

It will take the same

Speaker 424:23

If you don't, that will change

Speaker 424:26

I'm back on the corner again.

Speaker 424:30

And the hill again, and the hill again

Speaker 424:34

Down those ancient streets.

Presenter24:38

Great stuff. John Lee Hooker and Van Morrison and the healing game. So Bill Nye, has the recent successes and you have moved much more center stage, as you acknowledge yourself, in the past couple of years or so. I'm just wondering w whether that whether it's changed you and your approach to what you do at all or is it just this is your just your lucky badge?

Bill Nighy25:00

What's happened lately is that I have had a degree of attention that I don't normally get. I don't think currently that that much has changed at all. And my interior landscape remains a bit

Presenter25:08

Well my interior landscape.

Presenter25:10

Altered the bank balance a bit.

Bill Nighy25:12

Well, we look forward to that as well. We'll believe that when we see it.

Presenter25:19

In negotiating for another series of State of Players we hear, you've got Shaun of the Dead, a film coming out, haven't you?

Bill Nighy25:24

I'm very, very pleased, very proud to be part of the birth of a genre. It's a rom-zom-com, which is a romantic zombie comedy. It's a sort of twenty-something sort your life-out movie that happens to take place during a zombie attack. It's a cracker. I haven't seen it yet, but the script is terrific, and we had a wonderful time making it, so I'm hoping that that's reflected.

Presenter25:27

What is it?

Presenter25:30

Which is

Presenter25:45

You sound I mean, I don't know'cause I've not spoken to you before, but you sound as if you're busier than ever. Is that is that the case?

Bill Nighy25:50

I've been pretty busy. I I've been very lucky and most of my life I've had a job. I have had some you know, a couple of periods which you know I mean, having gone into this game hoping for long periods of unemployment, I have been slightly disappointed.

Presenter26:05

But having gone into it not really because you were burning with the desire to be on the stage is amazing.

Bill Nighy26:10

No, I remember

Bill Nighy26:12

Well, I remember two things that used to put the wind up me. One was that Rod Steiger was quoted in a newspaper as saying that you had to burn to act, and my big secret was that I absolutely didn't. And Lawrence Olivier saying that you could only be an actor if you had 100% confidence. I had no confidence whatsoever, which was my other big secret. So, you know, I figured I was, you know, in with no chance. But, you know, I've been lucky. I've been extremely lucky. There's no I know everybody says that and it's all you know, but it's absolutely true. It is the case. I've been extremely lucky and I've worked with some of the greatest people currently working in my lifetime. You know, it's been an extraordinarily lucky time.

Presenter26:53

Next record, number seven.

Bill Nighy26:56

Right. Now this is a record by a band you may not have heard of called Freaky Realistic, and the song is called Coochie Rider, Don't Ask Me Why, and i this choice is largely for my daughter because I'm hoping that should she be listening that it will make her laugh.

Speaker 427:18

Yeah.

Speaker 427:20

The one in chair I

Speaker 427:22

Everyone's dreaming about

Speaker 427:25

Yo Marja!

Speaker 427:27

Yeah.

Speaker 427:29

Don't wanna jail like

Speaker 427:32

Yeah.

Speaker 427:37

I got my mold on it.

Speaker 427:41

You got hold of me.

Presenter27:44

Cootie Rider by Freaky Realistic. That'll get you hopping up and down on the island. Uh how are you going to do there? Are you at all practical or methodical or are you hopeless?

Bill Nighy27:54

Well, I could lie, but I'm not what they call practical in any way.

Presenter27:58

But y hunger would drive you to to fish or to hunt, wouldn't it?

Bill Nighy28:01

Yeah, uh I fancy myself as a bit of a fisherman. I've always it's been one of those things that I'm always about to take up.

Bill Nighy28:08

So I could perhaps pull that off. I don't know about building anything or anything like that. I might be in trouble.

Presenter28:16

What about spiritually as a good Catholic grammar school boy? I mean, is that going to stand you in good stead?

Bill Nighy28:21

Well, God help me. I don't know. I'm in a you know, it remains a mystery for me. I don't have any signposts in that area. I don't know.

Presenter28:31

And what would be the part, as you sit there, you know, on the beach at night, thinking back across it all, that you would think was the most brilliant role for an actor? Is there something

Presenter28:43

Burning inside Bill 9. No, there's no burning inside.

Bill Nighy28:46

No, that's another one of my secrets. You know, people always just say on which parts would you like to play none if possible, actually. Thank you. Can you can I just have the money? Um I don't have any burning ambitions to play anything.

Presenter28:57

But we don't believe that after listening to everything you say.

Bill Nighy29:00

Well it's true. I did discover when I took the job that I apparently, without my getting to hear about it, had quite passionately wanted to play Tregorin in The Seagull by Anton Chekhov. And I only really discovered how badly I wanted to play it after they'd given me the job. I was enormously fortunate to play opposite Dame Judy Dench in that particular production, John Caird's production for the National Theatre. And they arranged at one point for me to be lying on my back centre stage in the Olivier Theatre with Dame Judy Dench crawling all over me and begging me not to go to Moscow. And I used to lie there every night and I know I should have been attempting to inhabit my role, but actually what I used to do was lie there and think, what did I do to deserve this? And she used to make me laugh. She's profoundly funny and it was a wonderful experience. But other than that, I don't have any parts that really drive me nuts.

Presenter30:00

That one will do. Last record. What is it?

Bill Nighy30:04

My last record is by

Presenter30:07

Guess who?

Bill Nighy30:08

Guess who, ladies and gentlemen, the Rolling Stones, the uh

Bill Nighy30:11

Sometimes described greatest rough and roll band in the world. And this is a song which I love because it's so kind of English. There's a large part of The Rolling Stones appeal for me as something to do with Englishness, which I've never quite understood. And this sort of takes me home, as they used to say in the old days. It's called Winter.

Speaker 430:49

And it's sure

Speaker 430:51

Cold winner

Speaker 430:55

And the wind that ain't been flow

Presenter30:58

From the sound

Presenter31:01

Winter by the Rolling Stones. Now if you could only take one of those eight records, Bill, which one?

Bill Nighy31:05

It would be the last one it would be Winter by the Rolling Stones, not least because it contains one of my favourite lines in all music The Restoration plays have all gone round, which I've never understood, but always makes me feel good all over.

Presenter31:22

And your book, as well as the Bible and the complete works of Shakespeare. Not stolen.

Bill Nighy31:26

Not stolen. Right. Okay. Um I'd prefer to have stolen it, but no, in this case I will have a first edition, please, of the first forty-nine short stories of Ernest Hemingway.

Presenter31:40

And your luxury.

Bill Nighy31:40

And you'll

Bill Nighy31:41

I'd like to take, if I may, a boxed set of every key of the Blues Harmonica.

Bill Nighy31:49

and an instruction book.

Presenter31:51

How many in this set then we

Bill Nighy31:52

I'm not sure. I know so little about music, but I think there's about, you know, they come as a set. This is I knew this would be tricky.

Presenter31:52

Um

Speaker 231:58

Uh Mm-hmm.

Bill Nighy32:00

They come as a set and you get them in a box and harmonica players have you know, they carry them around. And they're sort of you know, they are a single item.

Presenter32:10

Okay, Bill and I, thank you very much indeed for letting us hear your desert island discs. You're very kind.

Speaker 232:22

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