Susan Hampshire

Presenter0:00

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

Susan Hampshire0:08

I had a sort of social conscience from a very early age, and I really wanted to be a nurse.

Susan Hampshire0:13

But at um fifteen I couldn't get my GC in Latin. I went to see a a sister at a hospital and they said unless you have Latin you can't come and be in a you know, you can't start your training as probation.

Susan Hampshire0:25

Who's it? I've I've gotten anywhere, whatever it's called. So, um

Susan Hampshire0:30

I sort of drifted towards being a ballet dancer, which I enjoyed very much. My mother wanted me to be a dancer'cause she was a dancer. And by fifteen I was too tall.

Susan Hampshire0:41

So it's sort of as I hadn't a very academic

Susan Hampshire0:46

brain, it really left me with um something using either my hands or my feet, but nothing to do with writing or reading or anything. So I wanted to design jewelry and I did a four months of that.

Susan Hampshire1:01

when I was at still at school and realized the nine to five hours were just not what I wanted and I really wanted to be in the theatre.

Susan Hampshire1:10

And so I wrote to every repertory company in England, and the the peer at Bognery just wrote back and said, Yes, we will have you as an ASM for six pounds ten a week, and off I went.

Presenter1:19

Bravo, making tea, and playing all sorts of unsuitable parts.

Susan Hampshire1:22

playing hundreds of unsupportable parts, including leads and boys,'cause there weren't wasn't enough in people in the car. Sometimes I used to say the last line of the play, rush off, pull the curtain closed.

Susan Hampshire1:31

Uh turn on the lights for the people to leave the theatre and put on God Save the Queen. So

Presenter1:36

What was the very first part you played?

Susan Hampshire1:40

O door o' night must fall.

Presenter1:42

The maid.

Susan Hampshire1:43

Yes.

Presenter1:44

How long did you stay at Wagner?

Susan Hampshire1:45

Six months.

Presenter1:47

Then

Susan Hampshire1:47

Then I moved on to the Oxford Playhouse.

Presenter1:49

This was a great change of pace.

Susan Hampshire1:50

This was a great

Susan Hampshire1:51

Yes, more distinguished. And I was a student ASM there, and I'd earned twenty five shillings a week.

Susan Hampshire1:57

And I think I

Susan Hampshire1:59

worked, um, less hard, but was just as happy. And in those days I believed that

Susan Hampshire2:04

Oh, the world was at my feet. I was full of hope and

Susan Hampshire2:08

I was really happy.

Presenter2:09

But I'm sure you'll still up.

Presenter2:11

Then what was the next thing to happen?

Susan Hampshire2:14

Um

Susan Hampshire2:16

Oh, then I came to the Arts Theatre and started making tea again and was just sort of general ASM and Dog's Body and whilst I was there Wolf Mankowitz and Oscar Lewinstein had a play on there and um they saw me making the tea and said something like You're a nice girl, we're putting on a musical, Do you want to come and audition?

Susan Hampshire2:34

So for weeks I rehearsed this number that I was going to do at the audition, which was My Heart Belongs to Daddy, which I sang, meaning every word of it, not knowing what it really meant, because I was very naive. And I starched my petticoats and ironed a white blouse.

Presenter2:44

Sure.

Susan Hampshire2:48

and did my nut for about ten minutes.

Susan Hampshire2:52

And at the end of it they said, Yes, that's very, very nice. We'd like to have you just to make the tea and underside of the girls. I was a bit disappointed.

Susan Hampshire3:00

Rather expecting to have the lead in this musical. However, I got um a nice cameo part because one of the parts wasn't cast.

Susan Hampshire3:08

of a sort of silly debutante, and she only had about eight lines in it.

Susan Hampshire3:13

But they were quite the best state lines I've ever been given, I think.

Presenter3:16

Mm-hmm, you've stopped the show in Espresso Bonga.

Susan Hampshire3:18

Yes, about six times on the opening night, which was left smashing.

Presenter3:21

Smashing. Now Susan, last year you married Pierre Gragnier Roffer, who has a busy career in France as a film director, and you have a a very busy career in London as an actress. Um how does this work? Can you ever be together?

Susan Hampshire3:34

We are usually together for weekends, and we're never apart longer than ten days.

Susan Hampshire3:39

But it isn't satisfactory.

Susan Hampshire3:42

At all. We own it wouldn't have arisen except for when I married him I knew that I had commitments for almost a year to come.

Presenter3:49

Mm-hmm.

Susan Hampshire3:49

and he had commitments in France.

Presenter3:51

Is there going to be any chance of you working together soon?

Susan Hampshire3:53

Uh yes. In the summer he goes to Canada to make a film for four months and I shall go with him. I don't do much in the film, just play sort of a small cameo part of a nymphomaniac, but

Susan Hampshire4:03

Really, um we sooner or later we've just got to decide to live in one country or the other because it's not the best way to conduct it.

Presenter4:09

We're rather in mid-channel at the moment.

Presenter4:13

You were telling us you flew off to visit Dr. Schweitzer at his hospital. You have a very active social conscience.

Susan Hampshire4:20

Yes. The reason that I went to visit the doctor was I'd read an article in Life magazine and which spoke of his reverence for life not I didn't have any affinity naturally with his great works or anything like that.

Susan Hampshire4:32

And

Susan Hampshire4:33

When I got there, um

Susan Hampshire4:38

I didn't go to because I wanted to become a nurse, I just wanted to, in fact, meet him, which is an awful thing to do, isn't it? Uh to be a sort of

Presenter4:44

Doesn't it?

Susan Hampshire4:47

to looking on life like that. I just wanted to meet him and that's in fact what I did.

Presenter4:52

Yes. And you do in fact help with some African children's education.

Susan Hampshire4:56

Yes, as a result of it, whilst I was there, um a boy that was half Negro and half Greek um said that the only thing that made his life worth while was the cinema and having worried about earning money and not in fact doing anything more constructive than acting.

Susan Hampshire5:12

Um, I felt uh

Susan Hampshire5:16

that I, you know, ought to be a teacher or something. But, um, unless you're happy doing it, you don't make the other people happy. And this boy said that the cinema was the great thing in his life. So I thought I could easily go back with a safe conscience and give

Susan Hampshire5:29

one third of what I earn away either to schools, actually to it, I do give it to schools because I think it's education's the most important thing of one's life and in continue doing the job that I like doing, which is acting.