Brenda Blethyn

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 five, and the presenter was Sue Lawley.

Presenter0:30

My Castaway this week is an actress. Born in Ramsgate, the youngest of nine children, her father was a chauffeur and her mother was a parlour maid. Though she liked the dressing up box at infant school, thoughts of the stage were beyond her. She went to work in a bank and then as a secretary for British Rail, but by the early seventies she'd had enough, and she threw it all up to go to drama school. A few years later she was rising through the ranks at the National Theatre.

Presenter0:55

It was just under ten years ago that she got her big break, the star part in Mike Lee's Secrets and Lies, a role that won her Best Actress Award in Cannes, a BAFTA, a Golden Globe, and an Oscar nomination. Since then she's gone from strength to strength, another Oscar nomination for her role as the sexually voracious widow in Little Voice, and playing the lead to great acclaim in Peter Hall's West End production of Shaw's Mrs. Warren's Profession. This autumn she can be seen as the incorrigible Mrs. Bennett in a new film of Pride and Prejudice. It's a constant source of amazement to me that I ever got a job at all, she says. It's just happened by default. She is Brenda Blethyn. And now you're a national treasure, I think they're saying in Brenda. I mean I'm never quite sure whether that's a welcome compliment. No, I don't know either. Sounds like an old fossil. But it will. I don't know about old fossil. It means you're up there with Maggie Smith and Judy Dench and so on. It's right, isn't it? But I suppose there's

Brenda Blethyn1:37

Yeah.

Brenda Blethyn1:41

No, I don't know either.

Brenda Blethyn1:48

Yeah.

Presenter1:51

Part of you that will always just be Bren from Brownsgate, right? Yes, I'm always confused on the red carpet and things like that with people with people screaming, Brenda, Brenda over here. I don't get it really. So it hasn't happened to you by default, has it? It's just you just wanted to act and not as a child, no. I was uh doing amateur dramatics and um well I wasn't. Somebody had fallen out of an amateur dramatic production and I was asked to fill in.

Brenda Blethyn2:02

So it has to be a little bit more.

Brenda Blethyn2:06

Yeah.

Presenter2:17

You know what? I helped somebody out, and went in, and I can still remember my first line. It's a real dirty old night. Evans the post says the mist is right down to the paths. Quite thick, you said it was.

Presenter2:29

But you could obviously just do it. I mean, obviously, you could do the accent. I mean, accents come easily to you. But you could act, huh? Well, um they seemed quite pleased with me. However, the director said to me at the time, Why are you patting your skirt? I said, Well, she's been cleaning the grate. I thought she would dust the coal from her apron. She said, You're not wearing an apron, love, just stand still.

Presenter2:51

So you were putting it in the middle of the morning.

Brenda Blethyn2:52

But it's not

Presenter2:54

But y were you good at it at school? Well, I I had a one production at school, um, which was the School for Scandal.

Presenter3:02

And at one point one of the actresses came out of the cupboard instead of through the door, and the audience were in uproar laughing at this, and somehow I don't know how I managed to do it, but I managed to get the play back on track.

Presenter3:18

And when I came off the stage, mister McAllister said to me, Brenda, that was beautiful.

Presenter3:24

And I was so filled with pride. So that resonated, obviously, as well. Yes, I thought, well, I rather enjoyed

Brenda Blethyn3:29

Yeah, yeah.

Presenter3:31

So you improvised in that moment. Didn't you once improvise also on the stage of the National when uh when the the late Creighton

Presenter3:40

Often inebriated Robert Stevens, didn't it? Yes. Oh, the wonderful Robert Stevens. I loved him. Anyway, in the national production of the mystery plays, The Passion, he was Pontius Pilot. And I was misses Pontius's pilot, and we had a rather grand entrance on a balcony in front of the band, above the audience, and he would come on and have a great big speech, Lo, pilot am I, proved Prince of Great Pride, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then I had a speech, and this went on and on. Anyway, we got to the middle of the balcony, and he wasn't there.

Presenter4:13

I thought, ooh, what do I do? I thought, I'll do his speech first. So Lo Pilot lives here.

Presenter4:22

Proof print and I did his speech, and then I did my speech. But the scene continued with us kissing, and I thought, Well, I can't do that. So I looked at the audit and I said, I'm terribly sorry. I'm afraid my pilot's gone out.

Presenter4:35

They roared with laughter. There was a roaring with laughter. The Jack Shepherd, who was waiting to come on as Judas Iscariot, could hardly speak'cause he was laughing.

Presenter4:43

You've got to give in at some point.

Presenter4:47

Come on, tell me about your first record. Actually, this record is from The Mystery Plays. It's Lay Me Low, arranged and performed by John Tams, the Albion Band.

Speaker 45:07

No one see me.

Presenter5:26

Namie Lowe, sung and arranged by John Tams with the Albion Band. But the role Brenda Blethy in I mentioned that made the big difference to your career was that of Cynthia Rose Pearlie in Secrets and Lies back in'ninety six. It was only the third film you'd done, and once it was launched you mean the international market was at your feet, wasn't it?

Brenda Blethyn5:40

It was low.

Brenda Blethyn5:42

Tenasha.

Presenter5:44

Yes, I just love everything about that film. I didn't know what it was about until I went to see it myself in the cinema. But not until you actually saw it on the scene. Yes, that's right, because the scenes I'm not in, I had no knowledge of at all. And as we know, Mike Lee requires you to improvise. So you'd helped create the character, but you didn't really know how big she was within the story. No, no, I only knew what my involvement was. But then one day he'd say, Oh, Brenda, go on, you can have three weeks off now. Oh, no, paranoia set in straight away. Well, I'm not in it, I'm not in it. Or he could cut you out, I suppose. Absolutely, you know, because you just don't know what the other contributions are. We should give a thumbnail sketch, really, of Cynthia. I mean, will you discuss? Well, Cynthia had a child when she was just conceived when she was 15, her birth gave birth to me, and gave the child up for adoption. And she was so traumatised by this, she didn't see the child. She refused to look at the baby because she'd have been too upset. And some years later, 25 years later, the baby comes looking for her.

Brenda Blethyn5:51

But not until you

Brenda Blethyn5:52

Yes, that's

Brenda Blethyn5:57

requires you to improvise and so on.

Brenda Blethyn6:01

Yeah.

Brenda Blethyn6:03

No.

Brenda Blethyn6:13

Yeah.

Brenda Blethyn6:15

Yeah.

Brenda Blethyn6:20

We should give a thumb

Presenter6:44

And um

Presenter6:46

She goes to meet uh the daughter and discovered that she is indeed black and she had no knowledge of this. She always thought the father was somebody else. So as an actress you didn't know when you were to go through this scene. Yes. But of course the memorable scene is that meeting.

Brenda Blethyn6:59

Go through this scene.

Presenter7:04

And I can I can see it now in my mind's eye once seen Never Forgotten really. They they meet, don't they, in a little bare little cafe near the station and they talk. And I think the scene goes on for, what, more than ten minutes. Yes in one shot. But very, very moving, that exchange. And that's all

Brenda Blethyn7:04

And uh

Brenda Blethyn7:07

And so I won't.

Brenda Blethyn7:13

Yeah.

Speaker 47:18

Thing lunch

Brenda Blethyn7:18

Uh

Speaker 47:21

And that

Presenter7:23

They're all your lines, are they? That come up. Yeah, it's all improvised. And Cynthia.

Brenda Blethyn7:25

Yes, it's all improved.

Presenter7:29

Realizes halfway through the scene, because she says, You can't possibly be my daughter. I mean, look at me, you know, how can I possibly be your mother? And then realizes an incident that happened all those years ago that would suggest probably it is her daughter. She remembers going to bed with a black man. Yeah, and she says, Well, there's a turn-up.

Brenda Blethyn7:44

She remembers going.

Brenda Blethyn7:46

Yeah.

Presenter7:49

You know, and you think, Oh, your heart just goes out to the poor woman. We make it sound quite heavy, but it's also very funny, and I want to talk to you about the funny bits in a second. But let's pause for record number two.

Brenda Blethyn7:55

to talk to you about the funny bit

Presenter7:59

My second record is the is Cherry Ripe, sung by uh Jennifer Vivian here. But when my mum was a girl she would tell me um at dinner time Gran would tell my mum to go look for Dad, dinner was ready.

Presenter8:14

And he had a habit, rather a good habit actually, of singing cherry ripe from whichever pup he might happen to be in. She'd just go down the street and wait for the tones of cherry ripe coming from one or other of the taverns, and she'd know of course he'd get a free pint, wouldn't he? I mean, that's fine.

Speaker 48:22

Is there some

Brenda Blethyn8:22

Yeah.

Presenter8:32

They must have thought, Oh, look out, here he comes.

Speaker 48:38

Uh

Speaker 28:38

Cherry ripe, cherry ripe, ripe I cry, Follett fair ones come and buy Cherry ripe, cherry ripe, ripe my cry.

Speaker 48:41

Bye, By Crow!

Speaker 48:54

Yeah.

Speaker 28:54

Yeah.

Speaker 28:58

If so be, you ask me where?

Presenter9:04

Cherry Right, sung by Jennifer Vivian, accompanied by Ernest Lush. I doubt your granddad sounded like that.

Brenda Blethyn9:08

And it line.

Presenter9:12

Just staying with Cynthia for a minute or two longer. I mean, she does tread.

Presenter9:16

such a clever line, the character or the the playing of the character between kind of poignancy and humour. You don't know whether to laugh or cry sometimes. Yes, there's the scene where she's advising her daughter about contraception because she simply doesn't want her daughter to make the same mistakes that she had, and at one point

Brenda Blethyn9:22

Yeah.

Brenda Blethyn9:25

Yeah.

Presenter9:35

Um she says you should have a coil fitted. That was my mistake, so I got saddled with you. She said, Um I've got a Dutch cat floating around somewhere upstairs. You could use that, run it under the tap with a talcum.

Presenter9:49

That isn't.

Presenter9:51

And this is all you, you made this up.

Brenda Blethyn9:53

Yeah.

Presenter9:54

But it is a very fine line, as we say, between laughter and tears. And and actually that's a fault line that runs through several of the characters you play, like like Marie Half in Little Voice, you know, this as I say, this sexually voracious widow who's both appalling

Brenda Blethyn9:57

Between laughter and tears.

Brenda Blethyn10:03

Marie Hall

Brenda Blethyn10:04

Yeah.

Brenda Blethyn10:07

So we did it.

Presenter10:09

and tragic at the same time.

Brenda Blethyn10:10

Uh

Speaker 410:10

The same time.

Presenter10:12

Di did you always have that access as a child? I mean, that that combination of of tears and laughter? Were they always close in you?

Speaker 410:17

After they

Brenda Blethyn10:18

Uh

Presenter10:19

Uh I suppose that my mother had a wonderful, wonderful sense of humour, and so did my dad. But my parents, being the youngest of nine,

Brenda Blethyn10:20

Uh

Presenter10:27

were always the same age as other people's grandparents, and I was always fearful that they were going to die, even from a young age, and that would make me cry. I would be very, very sad about it, and tried not to dwell on it, but it would keep rearing its head.

Presenter10:44

And even when there was something really joyful happening and I was very happy, I thought, Well, please don't let this be snatched from me. How are they going to be taken from me? Because if my Dad were alive now, he'd be a hundred and eleven.

Presenter10:57

Oh I see. So he was born before 1900? He was born in in um 1894. Yes.

Brenda Blethyn10:58

Oh yes.

Presenter11:03

And my mum was only ten years younger, so she'd be a hundred and one were she alive now. But it was a very happy family. Sit round the table, play games. Laughter. Yeah, they were the funniest people. The funniest people. And there was no television. No. It couldn't afford anything like that. No. It was just after the war, and we were hard up. We didn't have much money at all. Sometimes we didn't have any. And you'd have to do the thing of running up the road, you know, to borrow a cup of sugar and all that. And can mummy have a loaf and she'll pay you next week? And all that went on. But w we really didn't have many material things. No television? No, Lord, no. And the wireless was cut off a couple of times because we hadn't paid the rediffusion, you know. So.

Brenda Blethyn11:12

Uh

Brenda Blethyn11:38

Never.

Presenter11:45

But your mother had a fear of debt, didn't she? She would n yeah, absolutely loath it. And I'm like that too. I won't buy anything unless I can afford it. Fear of brown envelopes coming through the door. And didn't you think when the uh envelope came offering you the OBE that it was a tax device?

Brenda Blethyn11:55

Soon the July

Brenda Blethyn12:02

Yeah.

Presenter12:03

Yes, I did.

Presenter12:07

That was great. Well, your mother would have been proud of you, wouldn't she? She didn't live to see your great success. No, she didn't, sadly, Dad, neither. But they I mean, my s success was at the National Theatre, and they certainly

Brenda Blethyn12:11

To see.

Presenter12:18

Came there. They thought that was the bee's knees.

Presenter12:22

I remember introducing her to Joan Hickson, who's terribly posh, and mum, because she's at the National Theatre, didn't want to let me down. And I said, Joan, this is my mum. She thought her name was Blathyne. She said, Hello, Mrs Blethy, and my mum said,

Presenter12:40

She didn't know what to say, but she knew she had to sound posh. She knew the sounds. Uh

Presenter12:46

Record number three.

Brenda Blethyn12:46

Big

Presenter12:48

Is Doris Day, The Deadwood Stage. And why do you want that? Oh, I love this film. I went to see it when I was about eleven, I think, a young girl. And I went in at lunchtime, and I was still in there about ten at night, and there was a torch shone in my face, and at the other end of the beam was a policeman looking for me, with my mother at his elbow, crooked her finger and says, Out, come on. And I was fearing a whip crack away at the end of the the line of seats, but I didn't get one. She took me again the following week'cause I loved it so much.

Speaker 413:26

We'll be home tonight by the light of the silvery moon.

Speaker 413:30

And my heart's a thumping like a mantle in a block and I do

Speaker 413:34

When I get home, I'm fixing to stay So whip crack away, whip crack away, whip crack away Whip crack away, whip crack away, whip crack away

Presenter13:50

Doris Day and the Deadwood Stage, or Whipcrack Away from Calamity Jane. You left school at fifteen, Brenda, and went to secretarial college, ended up eventually working for British Rail. But this was when you did this Amdram, amateur thing. And so it really got into your blood then? You kept doing it? Yes, they asked me to do another play, surprisingly. And then we'd do a couple a year and we'd enter the drama competitions at Manchester. And on a couple of occasions, myself and Yvonne Adams, another actress there, would win Best Actress. But you loved it. You loved all the actors. I loved it. And people would say to me, Oh, you should do this professionally. But I thought talking out of their hat, you know, it seemed an irresponsible thing to do, to give up my job. I didn't know any actors. I rarely went to the theatre. It just.

Speaker 413:56

Uh

Brenda Blethyn14:03

But you can ask.

Brenda Blethyn14:08

Yes.

Presenter14:40

was not a good idea. Not not something grown up people did. That's right. And you were grown up by then. And you were married by then. Yes, and I had a proper job and everything, and I liked my job. And um and then I moved to the Chichester Players.

Brenda Blethyn14:45

Then you were married, by the way.

Presenter14:53

And more and more people said, Brenda, you really should be

Presenter14:57

Professional. So you let the idea in at this time, did you? Yes. And I thought, well, and my marriage had broken up.

Brenda Blethyn14:58

So you let

Brenda Blethyn14:59

The design, did you?

Presenter15:05

And I thought, well, I'm going to try. But I didn't tell anybody, see, this was the clever thing. Um I applied to the drama school without telling anybody, so if they told me to clear off, you know, nobody was going to know.

Presenter15:18

How old were you then by this time? Twenty seven, I think. But you must have saved up some money if you were going to give up your job anyway. Yes, from we sold our house and from the proceeds from the sale of my house I was going to pay my way um through drama school. I want to hear some more about that story, but let's pause for record number four.

Brenda Blethyn15:23

Yeah, job in it.

Presenter15:34

Um Carol King, Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? Why, gone? Well, it's just one of those songs. It was at a time when there was a a romantic awakening in me. I was a young girl and just these feelings of like a swelling feeling of warmth and romance would come across me. And I just think it's a beautiful song and it still moves me today. I'd get goosebumps listening to it.

Speaker 416:03

Good night. You're mine.

Speaker 416:07

Come me.

Speaker 416:09

Really?

Speaker 216:15

You give your love.

Speaker 216:19

So sweetly

Presenter16:26

Uh Good night.

Presenter16:30

Carol King and Will You Love Me to my teenage memories for you, Brenda Blethyn. You'd been Brenda Bottle. It's a great name, actually.

Speaker 416:38

Great.

Presenter16:39

Um an agent persuaded me to change it back once actually, and I did for about two weeks and changed it back to Blethin. I suppose a bit of a handle. But Blethin you got from your husband obviously. He was a graphic designer. He married reasonably young, I think. Oh, far too young, really. Yes. And only just growing up now.

Brenda Blethyn16:46

Yeah, that's good.

Brenda Blethyn16:51

And he married.

Brenda Blethyn16:53

Oh

Brenda Blethyn16:54

Really? Yes.

Presenter16:57

It's not

Presenter16:58

But did it go more into your acting than into the marriage, maybe? I mean, you didn't. Yes, I did. When um we were in Chichester I um joined the Amateur Dramatic Society and I was out most of the time and um my husband fell in love with the lady opposite and um I wished them well. You fixed it up for them in the end, didn't you?

Brenda Blethyn16:58

But did you go more?

Brenda Blethyn17:03

Did I

Presenter17:18

Well, he's such a nice chap. Um but he didn't want me to be hurt in any way, so I went over and said to her, Um, if I wasn't around, would you two be together? and she said very emotionally, Yes, that they would. So I thought it was time for me to yes, I did. I think I was a bit selfish, really, because I would go off, do my amateur dramatics. I wasn't grown up enough to be a proper wife, you know. I had worked while Alan was um at uh college doing graphic design, and then he said it's my turn to do what I want to do. So he he knew that's what I wanted to do, and encouraged me to do that.

Brenda Blethyn17:41

Uh

Presenter17:59

And you got to. And thank him for encouragement, yes. And you got Guildford School of Acting. Was it immediately right for you? Were you a round pig in a round hole straight away? Oh, I just I loved it there. It was like being reborn.

Brenda Blethyn17:59

And I thank him for the same.

Brenda Blethyn18:02

Yeah.

Presenter18:13

I was happy I'd found my niche.

Presenter18:15

Record number five.

Presenter18:18

And uh it's Chet Baker and Let's Get Lost. Why? Um my partner now, Michael, uh just lives for music. I said to him one day, actually, Michael, what is there one thing that you could never live without in this world? and fluttered my eyelids. And he said music. I said

Presenter18:36

I lost that one, yes. But he played this for me and I said, gosh, who is that singing?

Brenda Blethyn18:37

And

Presenter18:44

His voice is so lovely, it's like a caress. It's so soft. And he's a trumpet player, Jack Baker. And then right in the middle of the the music comes this beautiful voice. And it's quite appropriate. Let's get lost if I'm going to be on a desert island

Presenter19:00

Uh

Speaker 419:00

Let's get lost, lost in each other's arms.

Speaker 419:08

Let's get lost, let them send out alarm.

Speaker 419:13

And though they'll think this rather rude

Speaker 419:19

Let's tell the world we're in that crazy mood.

Presenter19:27

Jet Baker and Let's Get Lost and that was recorded in 1955. So straight out of drama school, Brenda, and into a company called The Bubble Theatre who put plays on in tents. And this is where you performed your first showstopper. Come on. It ought to be television this really television. It comes back to haunt me. This one, we did a play, an improvised play, interestingly enough, called The London Pub Show. and um in it I had to balance a pint of beer on my head and lower myself to the floor, crawl along the floor, pick up a silk scarf with my teeth, and stand up again without spilling a drop.

Presenter20:03

And you did it? I did it um yes, every day, and dropped it only once when I was getting clever, and there was somebody laughing so hard in the audience I started laughing too, and it wobbled and tipped all over me. But of course what I had to do is start it all over again, crawl through a puddle of beer.

Presenter20:21

Then you got into the national. This is the mid seventies by then. You were apparently the first actor to go rise all the way through the ranks from understudy to the big room. Yes, I believe I was, yes. And who who did you I mean, Peter Hall was running it then, and you worked with Alan Aykebourne and Alan Bennett. So what about actors? Who did you work with? Oh, there were just so many wonderful, wonderful, wonderful actors. A lot of them have departed us, um, left us, unfortunately. John Geelgerd, Ralph Richardson.

Brenda Blethyn20:25

Yeah.

Brenda Blethyn20:29

Yeah, I think it's a very good idea.

Presenter20:49

Fabulous people. But just going back to that original quote I mentioned that it's all happened to you, it's all happened by default, as it were, and we're hearing that. It's also true, isn't it, in terms of your ambition. When you're at the National, you were just happy to be there. It wasn't that you wanted to be offered a television role or you wanted to be on the films. I'd arrived.

Brenda Blethyn20:51

Tip.

Brenda Blethyn21:10

I was

Presenter21:13

Playing and just walking in the building was wonderful to me. My daughter I thought I was successful as a secretary.

Presenter21:20

But anyway, here I am at the National Theatre, and and suddenly I start getting a bit bigger part and a bit bigger part, and then with The Tales of From the Vienna Woods, Kate Nelligan was playing the lead role.

Presenter21:33

And I had a tiny little part as a a cigarette selling girl in a nightclub, and she left and they had to recast, and Peter Hall wanted to get a name in to play the part. But Ken Mackintosh, who was the staff director, said, No, you really must um he was my champion. He said, You really must see Brenda play this part. He said, No, no, no, we've got to get a name in.

Presenter21:56

Eventually he did come to see me do a rehearsal, and he said, Yes, Brenda, we want you to take over this role. And so that was my big break at the National Theatre.

Presenter22:06

And your next record is all to do with that, isn't it? Yes, this just reminds me of that wonderful exhilaration I felt in being given this part against all the odds and making me, you know, the first person to come up through the ranks at the National Theatre to play leading parts. And I was really proud to be in it. This is Tales from the National Women's World.

Speaker 422:26

Test

Brenda Blethyn22:26

Well, that's it.

Presenter23:16

Part of Strauss's Tales from the Vienna Woods, played by the Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Eugene Ormondy. You first worked with Mike Lee, in fact, Brenda, on a television drama Grown-Ups, back in 1980. So you knew about his unorthodox methods. Yes, yes, I didn't know. At the time I was asked to go do it, my agent said to me, This is the best job you've ever been offered, Brenda. I said, Oh, really? Let's see the script. He said, Oh, Brenda, there's no script. Where have you been? Come in.

Brenda Blethyn23:30

Yes, yes, I didn't know.

Presenter23:43

Is that a

Presenter23:44

But I wonder if it's affected the way you approach other roles, since you did that with Mike and indeed did Secrets and Lies, which was such a good question. Absolutely no question about it. Prior to working with him then in nineteen eighty, I was a bit lazy. I didn't know I was lazy. I thought I was very diligent and doing all my homework. But no.

Brenda Blethyn23:50

With my hand

Brenda Blethyn23:52

Accident

Presenter24:03

It's taught me such a lot, so now I do quite a lot of work to see where the character's been before page one. And it um I don't have to share it with anyone, I just have to know. You can't just turn up a character's at fifty or something and start their lives from there. You've got to know where they've

Presenter24:20

Where they've grown from. What about Mrs. Bennett, then, in Pride and Prejudice, this new film? I mean, how on earth could she be? Mrs. Bennett, I love her.

Brenda Blethyn24:22

Uh

Brenda Blethyn24:26

Well

Presenter24:28

When I would tell people I'd got this part I was going to be playing Mrs. Bennett, nearly everybody said, Oh, such a wonderful cartoon and a figure of fun. I said, No, she's not. She has a serious problem and she's the only one taking it seriously, a real problem. When Mr Bennett dies, all the money goes down the mail line. And she's got five daughters. Five daughters unmarried. And they're all going to be destitute. Absolutely. She's not sorted. That's right. So it's no surprise to me that she's pushy and embarrassing. Record number seven. Is Neil Sadaka O'Carol? Go on. Why? When we were making Pride and Prejudice, the name Carol came up and spontaneously Sinead Matthews and I started singing O Carol and then we got some of the other girls involved and we worked out this wonderful dance to the tune of O'Carol. But we'd substitute the name of Carol to whoever we were singing it to. And so we worked out this delicious little routine and we'd go oh Donald, Donald Sutherland.

Brenda Blethyn24:52

And she's

Brenda Blethyn24:57

If it's not

Presenter25:39

I am but a fool Donald, we love you, though you treat me cruel.

Presenter25:45

You hurt me da da da da da, and you make me cry But if you leave me, I will surely die. Donald, there will never be another

Presenter25:58

What was he doing the while?

Speaker 426:00

Oh, he

Presenter26:05

Uh

Speaker 426:05

Oh, Carol.

Speaker 426:08

I am but a fool.

Speaker 426:12

Darling, I love you.

Speaker 426:15

Though you treat me cruel

Speaker 426:19

You hurt me.

Speaker 426:22

And you make me cry.

Speaker 426:26

But if you leave me

Speaker 426:28

Ah

Speaker 426:29

But I will surely die.

Speaker 426:32

Darling, there will never be another.

Presenter26:35

Neil Sadaka and O. Carroll. So it's a singing role you're after next, is it?

Presenter26:40

I love singing. If only I could. But I everything to me is a cue for a song. I'm always singing.

Presenter26:47

In the meantime, I read you're planning to uh go round the world in a camper van.

Presenter26:52

That was my plan, yes. I was planning to retire soon. I mean, it seemed like a good idea to do that with Michael. But then these lovely jobs keep turning up and they're like a holiday in themselves. So you're not going round the world in a camera, you're not after a singing role, you're not thinking about retirement. The other thing I read is you're thinking about marriage, is that right? Yes, we are actually thinking about marrying. Um but uh Las Vegas sounds uh tempting, but he won't dress up his health.

Presenter27:20

How long have you been together? Thirty years. So why marriage? Oh, I don't know. It's a good idea for a party.

Brenda Blethyn27:24

So why marriage?

Presenter27:29

It'd just be easier if one of us pops off, wouldn't it?

Presenter27:32

You know. I mean, that's to be uh morbid about it, but

Brenda Blethyn27:33

I mean that's the

Presenter27:36

He's such fun. I love him to bits. Ah. And has he proposed to you? Oh, he did a long time ago. And he said no I said no. And then I did, and he said no. We might have had the hump with each other.

Presenter27:49

On those occasions, but um he's the best, he's very, very good for me, he keeps me uh sane.

Presenter27:57

Last record. My last one is the Studz Bear Cats singing Chattanooga Ju Choo. One of the singers in the Stutts Bear Cat is my new best friend. We both have a holiday home in Broadstairs and he is the best company in the world. And I can't think of Tim Clark without smiling. I really can't. Laughing even.

Brenda Blethyn28:20

Pardon me boy, is that the Chadanoo Kachoo Choo?

Speaker 428:23

Yes, sir! Drop twenty-nine.

Speaker 428:27

Well you can give me a shot.

Speaker 428:32

Good forty four, I tried new to choo-choo

Speaker 428:37

I got a fancy

Speaker 428:39

And just a trifle to spare You leave the fans of late especially about a quarter to four

Presenter28:47

Of Stuttgart's bear cats and chattanooga chutu. It's going to be a very happy island this, Brenda, isn't it? Oh, I'll be singing and dancing all around the place.

Brenda Blethyn28:52

BAY

Presenter28:55

I mean, you know, people quite often choose quite miserable music somehow'cause they want to be reflective. I mean, not you. Well, some of them are reflective and beautiful. The Lay Me Low, the John Tams one is lovely and Let's Get Lost, but mostly they're rousing. Yeah, they're mostly. I need to be upbeat. Yes. I like being upbeat. You don't know how happy you are unless you know how sad you can be sometimes.

Brenda Blethyn28:55

Amazing.

Brenda Blethyn29:00

Very rare.

Brenda Blethyn29:01

Yeah.

Brenda Blethyn29:09

Yeah, they mostly need to be up.

Brenda Blethyn29:11

Yes, I like

Presenter29:17

Now, if you could only take one of those eight records and I hope that conversation hasn't influenced you, which one would you take?

Brenda Blethyn29:22

Which one would you take?

Presenter29:24

Which one would it be?

Presenter29:27

I think it would be John Tam's. Lay me low. I I think it's so beautiful.

Presenter29:33

And I spent all that time with Bill Bryden's company at the Cottesloe. It's really what I think set me up at the National Theatre as well. And so many things happened during that time. Sadly, my dad died during that time, and I had to come back from the funeral to perform at the Cottesloe, and there was a funeral scene, the death of Mary and the funeral of Mary, and we had to sing a Morris dance, and John Tams and the Albion band were playing along to it, and we were dancing behind the coffin, and I had just come from my own father's funeral, and at the end of the dance, Mary bursts joyfully from the coffin as she entered heaven. And for me, that was the most wonderful.

Brenda Blethyn30:09

From my

Presenter30:21

No, sorry. I'm gonna laugh now'cause I sound I'm sorry. I just got a bit emotional. Well, I understand. Okay, so it's John Tams and Lay Me Low. And um what about your book? We give you the Bible and Shakespeare, as you know.

Presenter30:35

Uh it would have to be a dictionary.

Presenter30:39

Why? I'm a crossword fanatic.

Presenter30:43

The harder the better. Beat the clock on the Internet on the Times or I can't help it. I race my brother, I race my sister.

Presenter30:53

And what about your luxury?

Presenter30:55

Well, um, would I be allowed a karaoke machine? I suppose I would. Why not? With a microphone. The microphone's the important bit. So I could sing like a cabaret star on the beach.

Brenda Blethyn31:00

Why not?

Brenda Blethyn31:04

So you could

Presenter31:07

If there are any predators on the island I could growl into it and it would frighten them off, wouldn't it, with this huge growl? Um might be helpful if a ship goes by to holler into it. But to sing I can't sing, and to teach myself to sing all those wonderful songs, so when I come back I can sing with Tim Clock.

Presenter31:28

Brenda Blessing, thank you very much indeed for letting us see your desert island discs. Oh, thank you, Sue.

Speaker 231:41

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