Jill Balcon

Presenter0:00

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.

Presenter0:08

The programme was originally broadcast in two thousand and seven.

Presenter0:27

My castaway this week is the actress Jill Balkan. She has spent her life immersed in the arts. As a child she always knew she wanted to act, and for more than sixty years she's appeared in radio, theatre, television, and film.

Presenter0:41

I suspect, however, that the parts she holds dearest are the key supporting roles she's played. She is the daughter of Sir Michael Balkan, head of Ealing Studios in its heyday, and a noted filmmaker. When she was in her twenties, she married one of Britain's most respected poets, C. Day Lewis, and she's the mother of the Oscar winning actor Daniel and the acclaimed cookery writer Tamsin Day Lewis. Jill, your life then, as I say, has been, it appears to me, immersed in the arts. Not just your work, but you you're very passionate about music. You have been passionate about the eight discs that you've chosen to day, and of course you were heavily involved in Cecil's writing. Has have the arts very much been your bread and butter?

Jill Balcon1:17

Hmm.

Presenter1:21

Absolutely, yes, of course. I listen to five hours of music every day not consecutively, naturally,'cause I've got a lot of other things to do. So it is with words the music and words are my lifeline.

Presenter1:35

And what about the I mean, I presumed to say there, the supporting role was one that I imagine you took seriously, reading about you and and knowing about you. How do you feel about that when you are

Presenter1:46

I guess you must all the way through your life have been referred to as first of all daughter of, then wife of, then mother of. Is that fine or that's absolutely true. I'm very proud to have been all those things.

Jill Balcon1:54

Only

Presenter1:59

Very proud.

Presenter2:01

And I didn't feel like second fiddle even if I was fourth fiddle. I didn't feel like that. But at the same time, I had to make my own way.

Presenter2:10

And that is quite difficult to try and make a start on one's own. Do you feel in any way it might have compromised people's appreciation of your own achievements as an actress? Oh, I think so. And I think although perhaps people were willing to see me when I was looking for work, they thought I was a little rich girl and I had to try to prove I had some talent. It was hard. Much to talk about, and we will. But first of all, tell me about your first piece of music today.

Jill Balcon2:33

And it will

Presenter2:36

My first piece of music, I would like to wake up to on my island because I think it would put me in a good frame of mind, and it would be.

Presenter2:45

Two people who I love very dearly are Graham Johnson and Felicity Lott, who are.

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Great friends, and Graham has he's well, Schubert is a passion, I must say, first of all, my early passion from the age of eight, but Graham has recorded all the Schubert Lieder

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So I would like him in a little boat with Flot.

Presenter3:09

waking me up to a new day and I wouldn't be depressed on my island if I heard them first thing.

Speaker 23:23

Yeah.

Speaker 23:26

Uh

Speaker 23:38

Freud and that's cheerful.

Speaker 23:42

It could be how I hear that call.

Presenter4:14

Felicity Lott singing Schubert's Auf Dam Wasser Zuzingen, to sing upon the water, accompanied by Graham Johnson, as you say, two people that you hold very dear. And you also say you've been unswervingly faithful to Schubert since you were a child. That's an intriguing phrase. From the age of eight, I've never looked, I won't say I've never looked at anyone else, but I fell in love with Schubert when I I was a child pianist and um.

Speaker 24:28

Since you were a child.

Presenter4:40

I couldn't live without him. And you were, again, another interesting phrase I noticed reading about you: you were put to the piano when you were five. Now that has.

Jill Balcon4:42

I

Jill Balcon4:48

Yeah.

Presenter4:50

A rather terrifying ring to it. I mean, you were you were instructed to take it seriously? Oh, I didn't have to be instructed. I loved it. I had my first lesson when I was five, and I went on playing until I was sixteen, when I reached a rather low peak, if you learn.

Presenter5:06

But it was an instant relationship. Oh, absolutely, yes. And what sort of child were you?

Jill Balcon5:08

Oh.

Presenter5:11

A serious child?

Presenter5:13

Yes.

Presenter5:15

Serious in that I loved work.

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I think I was

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Precocious, but very early on, because I loved Shakespeare. It sounds makes me sound such a prig, but my mother bought me a little.

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tiny revolving bookcase with the complete works of Shakespeare in rose pink suede, which I used to read with a torch under the bed covers. Aged, aged well, round and about the eight years. And I remember

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Always being called on when there was a crisis at the school concert, and I remember being hauled on in a ridiculous pink Georgette party frock to say once more unto the breach, dear friends

Presenter5:57

And you could faultlessly deliver that from a publication.

Jill Balcon5:59

I could.

Presenter6:01

I just had a great.

Presenter6:04

love of words from my mother, rather surprisingly in those far off days, used to allow me into her bathroom into a s when she was having a steamy bath, and she would recite to me, and that enthralled me. And I think that had a lot to do with

Presenter6:20

The early influence of poetry and words. She'd been a child actress herself.

Presenter6:25

Now you were growing up at this time in in London. Presumably some of your earliest memories then must also have been of of the depression and and what lay outside the doors. Absolutely. Yes. And I

Jill Balcon6:27

Mm-hmm.

Jill Balcon6:33

Absolutely.

Presenter6:36

I was very aware.

Presenter6:38

At the Hunger Marches.

Presenter6:40

And I was very aware as a child of being

Presenter6:44

If you like, in the shadow of the first war, men without legs selling sweets with rows of medals, and I was perfectly aware of that.

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and I felt at a very early age I felt guilty about privilege.

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And your school had this programme of of inviting very illustrious figures from the arts down to to address and give out prizes. And there was a certain C. Day Lewis. I could never forget him.

Speaker 27:07

I could never fill it.

Presenter7:10

I could never forget it. I was fuming at the back of the very large hall because I was only twelve and was not allowed to enter for the competition. It was a poetry reading competition. It was. What did you think of him when you saw him? I thought he was the most beautiful man I'd ever seen in my life.

Jill Balcon7:18

It was a public

Jill Balcon7:19

Competition.

Jill Balcon7:21

I thought he was the

Presenter7:26

And he remained that.

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Tell me about your second piece of music.

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My second piece of music is uh

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Part of the piano concerto in B-flat, K five nine five of Mozart, played by Clifford Carlson.

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A really exquisite performance.

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He came to my school.

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And I got to know him later. I was very fortunate. He became my friend, our friend.

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I've heard so many wonderful performances of this.

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But the wit

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And the elevation, if you like, I mean, would just raise my spirits. I'd be simply off the ground with delight listening to him.

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Clifford Curzon playing the opening of the third movement of Mozart's piano concerto in B-flat with the English Chamber Orchestra conducted by Benjamin Britton.

Presenter9:12

You would have been in your teens then, Jill, when Michael Bolk and your father took over uh the studios, the Ealing studios. He was working, of course, with the big names of the day, Alfred Hitchcock, Diana Dawes, Petula Flark. I mean, did did you meet any of these people? Oh, yes. I mean, Hitch had been Hitchcock had been with him in Gaumont British before, long before Ealing, so they they'd been colleagues years beforehand. Yes, they we we met them all. I mean, they came to the house, we went to theirs. What did you make of that? I mean, uh, you call him Hitch, as wonderful. I mean, what did you make of Hitch? What was he like? I was rather frightened of him, uh and he wasn't uh uh a beauty, shall we say.

Jill Balcon9:24

Yeah.

Jill Balcon9:26

Oh

Jill Balcon9:38

No water

Speaker 49:40

Uh

Jill Balcon9:40

Yeah.

Jill Balcon9:42

Where's he like?

Presenter9:51

And was it being around these people, along with your own clear talent at being able to retain verse and stand up in front of an audience, which you displayed as you describe it, at quite an early age? Was it being around these people that that fired

Jill Balcon9:56

Yeah.

Speaker 29:56

Enabled

Jill Balcon9:56

Uh

Jill Balcon9:58

Yeah.

Speaker 29:58

In front of the

Jill Balcon9:58

Uh

Presenter10:04

Your ambitions of acting.

Presenter10:07

I don't think so. I think it was I think it was probably genetic in some way, you know, through my mother.

Presenter10:14

But I don't think it was because of them. I just always wanted to do it.

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And I suppose I was a show-off in my little school. I soon learnt not to be later, but um.

Presenter10:25

That's how it was. What sort of man was your father? You've hinted a little earlier in our discussion that he was he was a a big character and a strong character. Very strong, very powerful.

Jill Balcon10:29

Hinted

Jill Balcon10:30

Hmm.

Jill Balcon10:35

Uh

Presenter10:37

Wanted to control, and he wouldn't have been the man he was at Ealing or anywhere else if he hadn't been a remarkable producer.

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But sometimes one has to get out from underneath, as I said to you before, I think, and make one's own

Presenter10:53

Did you feel that you that when you were making your own way you were able to take in great lungfuls of freedom? I mean, did it did it seem like an escape from the chief escape Ghastly as it was was the war, because I had to get out, then I was called up.

Presenter11:11

He f he he did let me go to drama school. He didn't stop me. He just didn't want me to do it. And I he never actually said one word of praise ever.

Presenter11:21

And I've often thought about this, and I sometimes think that.

Presenter11:26

Being a performer is really asking for parental approval.

Presenter11:32

Especially when you think you might not be about to get it. Yes. You appeared in in Nicholas Nickleby, which was made, of course, at Ealing. What did you make of of that experience?

Jill Balcon11:38

Would s

Jill Balcon11:40

Yeah.

Presenter11:43

Well, at first I didn't want to do it because he was in charge of Ealing, but Cavil Canti, who directed it, insisted, and he was such a wonderful director. And it was a way back after the war when I was released to do the job I'd begun by doing. What did your father make of your performance then?

Jill Balcon12:02

You said

Presenter12:04

Do you know if he watched it? Oh, he ha he would have watched it. He watched every s every single thing that ever came out of the studios he watched. But he never said anything. And it's not the same if somebody else says, Oh, your father liked that or he no no, he wasn't able to do that.

Presenter12:20

Tell me about your next piece of music, then.

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This is the romanza from Vaughan Williams's Fifth Symphony.

Presenter12:27

It was a great revelation to me, this. I was in the lower depths of the B B C, having been bombed, bombed, bombed all the way along the war and machine gun and the whole lot.

Presenter12:40

And um someone put on this symphony.

Presenter12:43

And at the time the V1s were falling all round here.

Presenter12:49

And I just felt everything was going to be all right.

Presenter13:52

part of the third movement romanza of Vaughan Williams Symphony number five in D major. And as you described the importance of that, as we were going into that piece of music there, Jill Balken, you were saying that you were working in this very building that we're sitting in today, much changed now, of course, but you were broadcasting house.

Jill Balcon14:07

Yeah.

Presenter14:08

During the war, you had left the Central School of Speech and Drama, and you were working here as an announcer and a newsreader.

Presenter14:16

Yes, and making out record programs and he did a lot of. Filling the airways. In fact, that was temporary. I'd I'd been.

Jill Balcon14:18

Really?

Jill Balcon14:19

Philip.

Speaker 414:20

Uh

Jill Balcon14:20

Yeah.

Presenter14:25

With Ensar endeavouring to entertain the troops, Noan.

Presenter14:30

caustically by most people now as every night something off.

Presenter14:35

And I got ill, and so I went in for a an audition just for the fun of it, and found myself in this place. So you uh had the bombs dropping all around you, and you were giving news of the Allies' progress. Yes. Was it frightening? I mean, I I heard I don't know if this can be true that in fact you you slept in the basement. Yes, I did. I slept oh, I can smell the army blankets now in those either in bunks with terrible army blankets which stank, and then in the end I was so sick of being a mole, literally living underground, that I slept in my office and thought, well, to hell, I'd rather have the glass fall in than be buried alive in the

Jill Balcon14:45

You and y

Jill Balcon14:47

PS

Jill Balcon14:51

Commit.

Jill Balcon14:53

Yes, I

Presenter15:16

Were you terrified or exhilarated or a little bit of burden? It was frightening. It was very frightening.

Presenter15:24

Yes. I mean, I was on duty on D-Day, for example, and um it was a very exciting time. Um

Presenter15:34

But, as you say, I mean, I'd been bombed so much by then, and I remember coming up for air from this place to get a it was a summer day and the V ones were around, and I went to lie on the grass in Regents Park, and one fell very near by.

Presenter15:48

And I used to cycle through the bombs. We all did. We just we went on living in some extraordinary way.

Presenter15:55

Tell me about your next piece of music. My next piece of music.

Presenter15:58

Well, this is part of the final movement of Beethoven's sonata number twenty-one in C major, the Waltstein, uh, performed by

Presenter16:08

Now I use this word

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Very, very seldom and it's

Presenter16:13

around one all the time. Have a great time, have a great day and all that.

Presenter16:18

Paul Lewis.

Presenter16:20

is a great pianist. I think he's already great and he's still quite young. And he has the same quality as Clifford Curzon in that he is the music speaks through him.

Presenter17:31

Part of the final movement of Beethoven's Sonata No. Twenty one in C major, performed by Paul Lewis. So, Jill, you had stacks of acting roles after the war, but one part of your work that brought together beautifully your love of poetry and your love of music was the Apollo Society. What was the Apollo Society?

Jill Balcon17:47

Is that what's

Presenter17:49

It was a society formed by the man who became my husband, C Day Lewis, Peggy Ashcroft, Stephen Spender, Natasha Litvin, as she was then, for doing readings of poetry and music.

Presenter18:04

I mean, it sounds old-hat now, but there wasn't a lot of it done. We felt like missionaries, and I'm not sure I approve of all that now. But we went out and about, all round England. And was there an appetite for it? Well, we tr we it sounds awful, this, but I think we began to create it. And what about nerves? Did you ever suffer from nerves in front of a live audience? God.

Presenter18:24

I'm paralyzed every time I think I mean, I go do a lot of this platform stuff, and every time I think, Why am I doing it? Still? Oh, heavens I mean, the the more you do it, the worse it becomes, because you're not a promising newcomer.

Presenter18:39

They have expectations. Now, it was on your I believe it was your twenty third birthday when you met the man you ended up marrying. Uh tell us how you met. Met in the studio.

Presenter18:51

The poetry programme was called Time for Verse and went out on Sunday nights at ten thirty eight on what was called the B B C Home service. I was booked to do Time for Verse with Cecil.

Presenter19:03

And you've described him as a man who possessed I love this phrase magical magnetism. Yes. Shine a little light on that.

Jill Balcon19:09

Yeah.

Presenter19:12

I once asked when I was speaking about him publicly, I asked for the word charm to be reinstated so that it wasn't something superficial, but magic, because that's what charm is. I mean enthrall one's enthralled.

Presenter19:26

I'd listened to him a lot on the air, and I didn't know it, but he'd listened to me a lot.

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He had many troubles in his life at the time.

Presenter19:35

And, um, well, that's how it began, and I did so want to impress him.

Presenter19:42

Remembering that twelve-year-old girl who couldn't speak at school, you know.

Jill Balcon19:43

Bill

Presenter19:47

And you say he was going through a tumultuous time in his personal life. He was in a marriage with children. And with a mistress, yes.

Jill Balcon19:49

Yeah.

Jill Balcon19:52

Yes, with children.

Presenter19:55

And so you were aware of this, but you didn't. I knew the whole story because we had a lot of mutual friends.

Jill Balcon19:57

Dangerous.

Presenter20:01

And I'd always hoped to meet him, and that was the first time. Did you know at that stage that you were in love with him?

Presenter20:07

I found him profoundly attractive, of course, but I mean it was it was it was more remote than you can imagine. There was no question of

Presenter20:17

I mean, the idea that one might marry him was

Presenter20:20

Light shears unim.

Presenter20:22

He wrote you a fan letter, though, didn't he? He did. Gosh, you do know a lot.

Presenter20:27

What did it say?

Presenter20:30

Can't quote it exactly. He listened to a broadcast, yes.

Presenter20:34

And so you did know that whilst you were thinking of him, even in a rather remote way, he too was thinking of you. Well, he listened. He listened a lot. We didn't have television, Kirstie, remember, so w those of us who had radios listened in a lot. But he he wasn't in the habit of writing fan letters. I mean this was the one and only that he

Jill Balcon20:48

So but he

Jill Balcon20:51

This is the one and only that he had

Presenter20:53

That is true. Yes, that is true. More to talk about then, but right now tell me about your fifth record.

Jill Balcon20:56

Right now

Presenter20:58

Well, I think I would I know I'd miss my friends very much, and I know that I would miss laughing.

Presenter21:05

Laughing by oneself isn't all that easy, as you know, but

Presenter21:09

I would like to have Peter Cook.

Presenter21:12

who made me laugh so much, and Cecil, when we went to Beyond the Fringe we went twice, I laughed so much.

Presenter21:20

That I threw my head back and hit the knees of whoever it was in the row behind. And then we bought.

Presenter21:27

The record that we're about to hear.

Jill Balcon21:30

They are very rigorous, the judge in examined. They are noted for their rigor.

Jill Balcon21:35

People come out of him saying, My God, what a rigorous heat that.

Jill Balcon21:40

And so I become a minor. Instead, I managed to get through the mining exams. They're not they're not very rigorous. There's no rigor involved really. It's complete lack of rigor.

Jill Balcon21:52

Involved in the mining exams. They only ask you one question, they say, Who are you?

Jill Balcon21:57

And I got seventy-five per cent on that.

Presenter22:01

Still recovering from the giggles they're listening to. Peter Cook and sitting on the bench, it would make you laugh. As you say, difficult to laugh alone, but it would make you laugh on the island.

Jill Balcon22:02

Yeah but

Jill Balcon22:07

It would make you laugh on the island.

Presenter22:12

But that would be a great tonic.

Presenter22:16

We were talking before about meeting this man and pretty quickly working out that you had very strong feelings for him and yet with him there was a complicated situation. Not only was he twenty years older than you, but Cecil also was in the middle of a very difficult marriage and was also having an affair. Yes. So, um the various complications that that carries with them, how did you overcome them?

Jill Balcon22:17

Uh

Speaker 422:17

Uh

Jill Balcon22:22

Command

Jill Balcon22:31

Mm-hmm.

Jill Balcon22:32

Yeah.

Presenter22:40

That's a very good question.

Presenter22:43

I'm not answering it directly because I can remember thinking, well, I have no expectations.

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But it uh

Presenter22:53

He

Presenter22:55

Chose me.

Presenter22:58

And that was very difficult for him, and, as you can imagine, very difficult for my father.

Presenter23:03

Yes, that of course was my next question. Yes, what what was your family's response?

Jill Balcon23:04

Next question.

Presenter23:07

Oh, terrible. You know, a divorced man, a poet with very little money, the whole thing.

Presenter23:15

And um never once did my father say, Oh, I'm so glad you're happy, but my mother, who, as I've said, was interested in um

Presenter23:24

Poetry in her youth, realized that I was, of course, interested, and had given me several of his books.

Presenter23:31

Um what more can I say? It happened. You were very young. Did did you have any qualms about getting involved with somebody who carried such complications with them? Not at all. I just thought if we can't be married we'll spend the rest of our lives together. And I loved him so much I would have

Presenter23:48

done anything in order to

Presenter23:50

Spend my life with him.

Jill Balcon23:53

Very good.

Presenter23:55

Well, obviously in a register office, no. Yes. Did your parents come?

Presenter24:01

My father didn't, eh?

Presenter24:03

That was a pity.

Presenter24:06

But it was, of course, it was a wonderful day and we were very fortunate that it happened. And those early days of married life, I mean, as you said yourself, a noted and well-regarded poet, but not a well-off man, who also, of course, was having to take care of a third of his income, of course, absolutely right. So what were those early days like?

Jill Balcon24:14

Yourself.

Jill Balcon24:21

Of course a third and a third of

Presenter24:27

Well, they were wonderful. I had a lot of work, and we shared all the expenses, and um we found somewhere to live until the first child came. And we worked together a lot, you see.

Presenter24:38

We did masses and masses of broadcasts and platform performances together. That was really exciting.

Presenter24:46

He was really wonderful company. And the circumstances under which he wrote and you rehearsed I mean, is it true you were in the bathroom with the door shut learning your lines? And he was at a tiny table writing his poetry. That was well, the studio we had uh had a gallery in which we slept, and the downstairs was a big studio.

Jill Balcon24:52

I mean

Jill Balcon24:55

He's at a tiny table writing his poetry.

Presenter25:05

But when I was in the theatre a lot then I had to go into the bathroom because the gallery was open to the studio, so I would yes, you're quite right. Let me ask you for your sixth piece of music. Well, this has to be French.

Presenter25:20

This is Charles Tronet.

Presenter25:22

Singing La Mer

Presenter25:25

The lot of my heart is in France, and always has been.

Presenter25:29

A country I love, a language I love, like my own.

Presenter25:34

I think I might cry while this is on because I miss France every day of my life, but anyhow let's have it.

Speaker 425:41

La Main

Speaker 425:44

On vadency?

Speaker 425:47

Le Long

Speaker 425:48

He golfer lay.

Speaker 425:50

Adi voicelais, d'avergent, la mai.

Speaker 425:57

The rough lesion.

Speaker 426:00

The blue

Speaker 426:08

Uh

Presenter26:09

Charles Renet and La Mer. So Cecil was made poet laureate in 1968? Yes. And all the attention that he got for that at the same time, would you have been working and pursuing your own career around about that time? Oh, very much so. And also looking after him, because he was not well, I mean, for the last eight years of his life. But.

Jill Balcon26:17

So at the same time.

Presenter26:28

I still had to make chocolate pudding because

Presenter26:31

I had to make seven puddings a week I had to make. For who? Who were all the puddings for?

Jill Balcon26:34

Shaloo

Presenter26:36

Cecil, he had an incurably sweet tooth. I said I've fallen in love with a man who needs seven puddings a week.

Presenter26:46

Castle puddings with r red jam running down the side, you know. He had wonderful schoolboy appetite for puddings. As you said, of course, he he he was ill and he died of cancer in nineteen seventy two. He was only sixty eight. He was. And you were just forty seven. Yes, that's right. And how young were your children?

Jill Balcon26:57

He did.

Jill Balcon27:00

And you were

Jill Balcon27:01

Yeah.

Presenter27:05

Daniel had just had his fifteenth birthday, just had it, and Tamsin was, I think, nineteen. He lived long enough to know she got a place at King's College, Cambridge, but never lived to see her go up. How did your children cope with that? Oh, it was terrible for them.

Presenter27:21

Really terrible. I mean, he'd been ill for so long.

Presenter27:25

And I don't think I think I was so stricken that I don't think I did all I could have done for them.

Presenter27:32

You had been married for twenty-two and a half years. Had your parents, your father in particular, ever become

Jill Balcon27:34

Yeah.

Presenter27:36

Reconciled with your marriage and happy for your marriage? I don't know that he was ever happy, but he realized how ill Cecil was and what and eventually what was going to happen though. It was not to be discussed at first. And he was wonderful to me and we were friends. So since Cecil's death, you've not just been bringing up your children and seeing them into adulthood and being a grandmother and maintaining your career, but also a major part of your life has been.

Presenter28:02

Maintaining his literary memory. That is true. That's a huge responsibility. I've tried to. I don't know that I've been very successful. I've edited.

Jill Balcon28:06

Uh

Speaker 428:06

Uh

Presenter28:12

the posthumous, the complete, and the selective

Presenter28:16

Whether it makes any difference, I don't know. Is there a comfort in that? Or is there a sense in which it's almost painful to constantly expose? You're absolutely right. I mean, it's a mixture. It's a comfort and it's very

Jill Balcon28:21

The sense of the

Jill Balcon28:23

It is exposed.

Presenter28:31

It's painful. I've just worked for three and a half years with Peter Stanford, who's written the biography.

Presenter28:37

I couldn't have been luckier with a biographer, but I've had to trawl through my past and

Presenter28:44

It is difficult.

Presenter28:46

The biographer begins by going round everywhere and tapping everywhere for information.

Presenter28:55

And in the end that biographer finds out things that the family don't know and which are extremely painful.

Presenter29:02

Did that happen to you during the writing of this biography? Then did you find you found out things you didn't know?

Jill Balcon29:05

Yeah.

Presenter29:08

Yes, because a lot of other people had kept letters, had archives.

Presenter29:15

said words which may not be true, but which hurt me very much. But

Presenter29:20

Yeah.

Presenter29:21

The affair?

Presenter29:23

all the affairs and um

Presenter29:25

Course I can't ask him.

Presenter29:27

He would have been very reassuring, I'm sure. He wouldn't have wanted to hurt. He never did.

Presenter29:33

But that's what happens. It's the case, of course, that he always.

Presenter29:38

However enduring on occasions the affairs were, he always chose, though, to be with you did he wasn't bored by me. I suppose I should be very grateful for that.

Jill Balcon29:41

The old

Presenter29:49

Was that enough for you to do it?

Presenter29:52

There were times when I felt am I just another in the chain? I just happened to be lucky in that I was married to him and had two wonderful children, but

Presenter30:02

It's very difficult being exposed and exposing him and trying to be truthful.

Presenter30:08

Um which I have tried to be.

Presenter30:11

Tell me about your next piece of music, then.

Presenter30:14

I went to see a movie in which my son played the lead in a film of the unbearable likeness of being.

Presenter30:23

And the score of the film was all Janacek, different works. And I was knocked sideways. I came out into Leicester Square, it was still daylight. I was absolutely knocked sideways. It was so exciting. And that's how it began. And I w it was a great experience.

Presenter31:42

Part of the final movement of Janicek's string quartet number two, Intimate Letters, performed by the Medici String Quartet. You were saying during that, Jill, that one of the you don't strike me as somebody who has many regrets, but something that you do regret is that your husband didn't see the the success of both of your children. That is so sad. I mind about it so much, and I know they do.

Jill Balcon31:49

A child

Presenter32:06

It's so sad. He never saw his grandchildren. There are six of them.

Presenter32:10

It is sad.

Presenter32:12

As I was saying in the introduction, Daniel Day Lewis, of course, the Oscar winning actress, Temiz and Day Lewis, are a very noted and successful food writer. When you look at these now grown up children making their own way, how much

Jill Balcon32:15

Of course the last

Jill Balcon32:17

Yeah.

Speaker 432:22

Hold on making

Presenter32:24

Of your husband do you see in them? Oh, a lot. Do you?

Presenter32:28

Style they're so stylish He was on very little money one of the most elegant people.

Presenter32:34

He was

Presenter32:36

Not just beautiful to look at, but stylish, and both of them, I mean, it can be a T-shirt or whatever it happens to be, they have such elegance.

Presenter32:45

And so so many gifts. They don't have their father, but they do have his poetry. Is his poetry part of their life?

Speaker 432:50

So if it's on

Jill Balcon32:50

Uh

Presenter32:53

I think so.

Presenter32:54

Yes, I think so. A bit probably quite a lot.

Presenter32:59

Tell me about your final piece of music.

Presenter33:01

Oh, my final piece of music is The Glorious, Glorious Ella FitzGerald and Cole Porter.

Jill Balcon33:05

But

Presenter33:07

I love her voice. And Cole Porter, Cecil always thought the same. I mean, he's such a poet. I mean, the words it's not just the music which I adore, which I do, and tune after tune after tune, how do they do it? And I wanted something that was fun.

Presenter33:25

Celia's Ella.

Speaker 233:27

Birds do it.

Speaker 233:31

Please do it.

Speaker 233:34

Even educated fleas do it.

Speaker 233:40

Let's do it.

Speaker 233:43

Let's fall in love.

Speaker 233:49

In Spain the best.

Speaker 233:53

Uppercuts

Presenter33:56

Ella Fitzgerald and Let's Do It something to dance to, maybe, on this island that we're going to cast you away onto I I give you, as you know, the Bible and the complete works of Shakespeare. You get to take one other book. What will it be?

Jill Balcon34:03

Yeah. It

Presenter34:08

I want the complete works of Thomas Hardy.

Presenter34:13

Which include, of course, the poems. Now, is that possible? That you may have. I've had a a lot of my life in Dorset and with with um love of Hardier as so thank you, Kirsty. And of course a luxury too, your luxury.

Jill Balcon34:18

I've

Jill Balcon34:26

Your nuts, Rippy.

Presenter34:29

The reason I'm laughing is that

Presenter34:31

On New Year's Day, a lot of us get together who are friends.

Presenter34:36

And one particular

Presenter34:38

person who comes who's called Terence Albright. We were playing the game round the table on New Year's Day about the luxury, and before I could speak

Presenter34:48

Terry said, Oh, I know what Jill's going to choose.

Presenter34:51

I couldn't even open my mouth. He said cent.

Presenter34:55

Well, I can't let him down, so what I'm going to ask for is a barrel.

Presenter35:00

of Guerlain's Gici. It would be my pleasure. Thank you very much. And if the waves were to crash to the shore and threaten to wash away these discs, which one would you run through the sand to save? Vaughan Williams. Because although I'm not

Presenter35:16

A practising Christian, it would be spiritual nourishment to have that.

Presenter35:23

Jill Balkan, thank you very much for letting us hear your Desert Island discs. Thank you, Gerstein. Thank you.

Presenter35:34

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