Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Desert Island Discs
Presented by Roy Plomley
Actor best known for playing Mr. Penny on radio and Mole in Toad of Toad Hall, and for children's series like Rivers of England.
Eight records
CASTAWAY DISCUSSES, NOT PLAYED — no music identified in transcript
The keepsakes
No book or luxury recorded for this episode.
In conversation
Presenter asks
What do you remember about playing Polonius to Wolfit's Hamlet, and being transfixed behind the scenes?
Uh I lay unfortunately I died that night in view of the audience, so I had to stay and bleed for first only slightly, for for about uh ten minutes. I usually used to die out of sight and creep off, but that day one of my legs was sticking out, so I couldn't move. He I think he rammed the curtain and uh it sort of tore my ear.
Presenter asks
You made your first broadcast while you were still an undergraduate — what was that like?
It was right in the very early days, I can't remember, when it was on a boat race night. We were asked to break into this place at Svoy Hill and pretend we were all drunk. After the boat race, you see, and all that, and just interrupt the last uh five min ten minutes of the Savoy or Fien's band, was or one of those things that played at some hotel near the Savoyos there. And we broke in and gave this little impromptu concert. But we must our acting must have been very good, because um an old lady wrote in to the BBC afterwards and said she wished to sympathise with the BBC for the unmannerly interruption of the Oxford students, although they were Oxford students, could be no gentlemen.
Presenter asks
The recording
Timestamps play the recording from that turn
Richard Goolden
This download is the only extract the BBC has of this edition of Desert Island Discs. The presenter was Roy Plumley.
Presenter
I suppose my favorite part I've got
Presenter
The one I'm just finished playing now is Mole in Toad of Toad Hall, which I've played over so many times. And I'm very uh serious acting. I played The Fool in King Lear with Donald Wolfit. Yes. That I enjoyed greatly.
Richard Goolden
And you played uh Polonius to Wolfitz Hamlet, and I believe you were actually transfixed behind the scenes.
Presenter
Yeah.
Presenter
Uh I lay unfortunately I died that night in view of the audience, so I had to stay and bleed for first only slightly, for for about uh ten minutes. I usually used to die out of sight and creep off, but that day one of my legs was sticking out, so I couldn't move. He I think he rammed the curtain and uh it sort of tore my ear.
Richard Goolden
Okay.
Presenter
Mhm. And you played Shakespeare also at Stratford? Stratford, oh yes. Uh in the last year, the old theatre before it got burnt down. Mm-hmm. Uh and we used to play ten plays. We o no, eight plays. We opened cold with eight plays.
Richard Goolden
No way.
Presenter
It's terrible. We had a dress rehearsal every night for ter for
Richard Goolden
Get away.
Presenter
Uh freight night.
Presenter
And just for the one you opened, that was all right. By the time you got to the eighth play, you were sixteen days away from mid-dress rehearsal.
Presenter
But you could make up lines that scanned perfectly and meant nothing and you know, like and yet methinks perchance mayhap, who knows, that this I trout and, you know, didn't.
Richard Goolden
Do you have this
Richard Goolden
Yeah.
Presenter
Richard, I believe you made your first broadcast while you were still an undergraduate.
Presenter
Yes, yes.
Richard Goolden
Yes.
Presenter
It was right in the very early days, I can't remember, when it was on a boat race night. We were asked to break into this place at Svoy Hill and pretend we were all drunk.
Presenter
After the boat race, you see, and all that, and just interrupt the last uh five min ten minutes of the Savoy or Fien's band, was or one of those things that played at some hotel near the Savoyos there. And we broke in and gave this little impromptu concert. But we must our acting must have been very good, because um an old lady wrote in to the BBC afterwards and said she wished to sympathise with the BBC for the unmannerly interruption of the Oxford students, although they were Oxford students, could be no gentlemen.
Richard Goolden
And since then so many parts and so many plays. You made a great success before the war.
Presenter
Uh
Richard Goolden
Uh
Presenter
Yeah.
Richard Goolden
I remember in Goodbye, Mr. J.
Presenter
Chips. Goodbye, Mr. Chips. Yes, that was really the the first major thing I did. Yes. And a number of varieties here is Mr. Penny. Mr. Penny, yes, that was extraordinary. We sort of
Presenter
Uh, caught on like uh absolute wife. It wasn't written for me, I just got cast for it. Nobody took much notice the first two times.
Presenter
And uh it was in the Radio Times, and I don't think my name wa I didn't take in the Radio Times, I'm ashamed to say, at that time, and my name wasn't uh nobody's name was mentioned, it just said The Adventures of mister Penny.
Presenter
End.
Presenter
Suddenly, after three weeks, a newspaper rang me up and said, Is it true that you are Mr. Penny? As if they made a great discovery. My voice was quite well known then in the children's house. I said, yes. He said, well, why hadn't the BBC announced your name? I said, oh, hadn't they? I hadn't seen it on the radio time. The next day, to my horror, in large letters came out, Mr. Penny said he neither knew nor cared why the BBC had not advertised his name. I got a terrible state that the BBC would think I was being snorty with them.
Richard Goolden
And then you talk most of
Presenter
Penny on to the musical. Yes, oh yes, I topped the bill at the Birmingham Empire. Mr Penny and an over I was very uh horrified at over Lily Morris. Uh but she was sweet to me, kept uh watching my act and saying, Broaden it out, dear, broaden it out, and I didn't know anything about it at all.
Richard Goolden
And of course on radio you've done it.
Presenter
A a great deal for children. Roads of England. Rivers of England. Rivers of England. Castles of England. Oh, it was lovely that was.
Richard Goolden
Riversing rivers and colours.
Presenter
And now it's awful.
Presenter
Middle aged people do nothing but come up to me and say how much I delighted their youth. Quite quite distinguished people whose family rushed home from school to hear these things.
Richard Goolden
And many a times you've played Mr. Mole, aren't you?
Presenter
mister Ma'aul right is
Richard Goolden
As well as another thing.
Presenter
Yeah.
Richard Goolden
Yeah.
Presenter
On the yes, uh, Mr. Molden, they they they had The Wind in the Willows with uh
Presenter
M Mac and Mae Jenkin and all that lot and I and Frederick Bertwell, we always played um
Presenter
Uh
Richard Goolden
And together we were select members of the Howe Repertory Company for Stephen Potter and Joyce Grandfather. We were? That was a good idea.
Presenter
You and I, we both both the fer the first thing on the third programme.
Richard Goolden
First yes, the first half hour on the on the third project.
Presenter
First thing
You made a great success before the war with 'Goodbye, Mr. Chips' — how did that come about?
Goodbye, Mr. Chips. Yes, that was really the the first major thing I did.
Presenter asks
Tell me about the success of 'Mr. Penny' — how did that character catch on?
It wasn't written for me, I just got cast for it. Nobody took much notice the first two times. … Suddenly, after three weeks, a newspaper rang me up and said, Is it true that you are Mr. Penny? As if they made a great discovery. My voice was quite well known then in the children's house. I said, yes. He said, well, why hadn't the BBC announced your name? I said, oh, hadn't they? I hadn't seen it on the radio time. The next day, to my horror, in large letters came out, Mr. Penny said he neither knew nor cared why the BBC had not advertised his name. I got a terrible state that the BBC would think I was being snorty with them.
Presenter asks
What do you remember about children's programmes like 'Rivers of England' and 'Castles of England'?
Oh, it was lovely that was. … Middle aged people do nothing but come up to me and say how much I delighted their youth. Quite quite distinguished people whose family rushed home from school to hear these things.
“I lay unfortunately I died that night in view of the audience, so I had to stay and bleed for first only slightly, for for about uh ten minutes. I usually used to die out of sight and creep off, but that day one of my legs was sticking out, so I couldn't move. He I think he rammed the curtain and uh it sort of tore my ear.”
“We broke in and gave this little impromptu concert. But we must our acting must have been very good, because um an old lady wrote in to the BBC afterwards and said she wished to sympathise with the BBC for the unmannerly interruption of the Oxford students, although they were Oxford students, could be no gentlemen.”
“Suddenly, after three weeks, a newspaper rang me up and said, Is it true that you are Mr. Penny? As if they made a great discovery. … The next day, to my horror, in large letters came out, Mr. Penny said he neither knew nor cared why the BBC had not advertised his name. I got a terrible state that the BBC would think I was being snorty with them.”
“Middle aged people do nothing but come up to me and say how much I delighted their youth. Quite quite distinguished people whose family rushed home from school to hear these things.”