Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Desert Island Discs
Presented by Kirsty Young
Actor best known for playing Norman Clegg in Last of the Summer Wine and voicing Wallace in the Oscar winning Wallace and Grommit animations.
Eight records
Iona Brown with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, conducted by Neville Marriner
Because I let me tell you that one day few years ago, outside Saddlers Wells Theatre, I saw the great man himself, Vaughan Williams, and he was surrounded by young ladies who wanted his uh autograph or possibly some other favour. And uh I just stared at him and thought this This oak tree has written the most beautiful piece of English. symphonic writing that there has ever been. The lark ascending is perfection.
I was very fortunate, long after I'd become an out and out fan of his, to actually meet Richard Rogers. We were doing A Shot in the Dark, a play that his company, Williamson's, managed. He came Richard Rogers came to see the opening production and uh he approached me Shorter than me only just, but shorter than me, but so dapper, so smartly turned out, a pale I can see it now, a pale grey three-piece suit. And uh I said, uh mister Rogers, I'm sorry to, you know, stop you, but I just want to say thank you for your music. It has meant so much to me.
Well, he was a great jazz pianist that's the first thing to be said. And secondly, of course, he was a natural born comic. I mean, the opening bars of this we're going to play now says it all.
Oh, well, really, it's because of Gary Miller. The first musical that I did was called She Loves Me. Gary Miller was first of all, he was just a lovely chap, and it was my first musical, which he quickly found out, you know. And so he sort of coached me through it and helped me to behave on the stage when I wasn't actually doing anything.
Guitar Concerto No. 1 in D major, Op. 99: II. Andantino alla romanza
Well, first of all, because I like the piece very much. But I have a sort of quirky reason for telling it, and of course it my reason makes no sense at all, and that is that I've never actually heard it on the radio. And so I in the wildly mistaken idea that perhaps it's never been played, I thought I'd like to have it here. But it is a it's a charming, charming piece.
String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat major, Op. 130: IV. Alla danza tedesca
Yes. Well, I read a book and it was called Beethoven: The Romantic. And that very title, of course, intrigued me. One of the chapters, or two or three of the chapters, were devoted to the string quartets. And it was then that I started to collect them. And this opus a hundred and thirty, the Aladansa Tadesca N movement, is quite comfortable going. Uh don't think uh you you know, you don't feel it's very, very serious.
During the war, when I was in the RAF, we used to be in huts and so on, and we had Americans on the camp as well. So we used to get the American Forces Network, and I remember hearing this song All I remember is you. It's haunted me all this time.
Symphony No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 82: III. Allegro moltoFavourite
Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Herbert von Karajan
Sibelius was introduced to me during the war by Flight Sergeant Davidson. He had practically everything that had been recorded of Sibelius on records, and so we started to play them. And of course I realized that this man was Ah, next to Beethoven. I have to put Beethoven first, but if I had to choose, he'd be the second. He just wrote stuff that was totally individual. Nobody has ever come near writing like Sibelius.
The keepsakes
The book
The Collected Works of P. G. Wodehouse
P. G. Wodehouse
I've choose the collected works of P G Woodhouse. The trouble is, of course, I can't read, so I don't know quite how I'd know. Perhaps there's a recorded version of it.
The luxury
When I was a boy the finite piece of mechano that you could buy was a number seven outfit. It came in a wooden cabinet, and I remember seeing it in Hamleys or one of those shops once. I can't remember how much it was when I was a boy, but it was be far beyond my father. But yeah, if I could take that with me to the desert island I'd be very happy.
In conversation
Presenter asks
Did you always think there was something about [Last of the Summer Wine]?
Well, I had done Roy Clark the Author, I had done his first two television plays, which had no connection at all with Last of the Summer Wine, and indeed one in one of them I played a homosexual transvestite. Uh so, of course, when he came to write Clegg in Last the Summer Wine, I suppose I was the obvious choice.
Presenter asks
What was the family home like? What can you remember of it?
Well, I know I was born in Twickenham, and my father was in the bank, Barclay's Bank, and I assume, I presume, that he was moved from the south of London to the north of London, because all my early days at school and all the rest of it were in North London, in the Palms Green Southgate area.
Presenter asks
The recording
Timestamps play the recording from that turn
Presenter
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 nine.
Presenter
My castaway this week is the actor Peter Sallas. He brings to life a sepia tinted Britain that we seem to yearn for a land of comfortable slippers and anti macassars where people with all their foibles and failings struggle to make a decent job of getting by.
Presenter
In his early days he trod the boards with the likes of Laurence Olivier and Ralph Richardson, but these days he's best known and best loved for the characters he's brought to the screen, the unassuming Norman Clegg in Last of the Summer Wine, and the equally mild mannered Wallace in the Oscar winning Wallace and Grommit animations.
Presenter
I've been lucky enough to keep going, he says. I've got highly dismissible looks, and I realize now, though it's taken me nearly one hundred years, that my voice is distinctive.
Presenter
I'm very lucky indeed. Incredibly, Peter Sellis, it was nineteen seventy three, I think, when Last of the Summer Wine first appeared on our screens. Interestingly, the first series wasn't particularly well received. Did you always think there was something about it?
Peter Sallis
Well, I had done Roy Clark the Author, I had done his first two television plays, which had no connection at all with Last of the Summer Wine, and indeed one in one of them I played a homosexual transvestite.
Peter Sallis
Uh so, of course, when he came to write Clegg in Last the Summer Wine, I suppose I was the obvious choice.
Presenter
But it's true, though, he did have you in mind when he wrote the part of Claire.
Peter Sallis
Yes, he did. He didn't tell me at the time, but it slipped out later in conversations, yes.
Presenter
Then in that first series when it wasn't well received, did you think, Well, that'll be that then? I mean, surely you didn't imagine that thirty-five years on you'd still be doing it.
Peter Sallis
I certainly wouldn't have put any money on thirty five years, and, to tell you the truth, it's such a long time ago that I can't really remember the ifs and buts that went
Peter Sallis
With it. Um I do know when we went up to Yorkshire to do this first one, we had Michael Bates, Bill Owen, and me as the three men, and Jimmy Gilbert was the director, and um we had supper the first night that we were there. It turned out during the soup course uh that Michael Bates was slightly to the right of Margaret Thatcher and Bill Owen was slightly to the left of Lennon.
Peter Sallis
And within minutes, literally within minutes, they were shouting at each other. And it was not only embarrassing, but of course it was to me quite incomprehensible, since I've never had a political thought in my life. But Jimmie Gilbert got up after a few minutes of this and took them outside.
Peter Sallis
And when he came back all was quiet. And later, much later, I mean days, weeks later, I said to him, What what actually happened then? and he said, Oh, well, I took them outside, and I said, This is r this has got to stop.
Peter Sallis
He said, If I'm going to have two of the cast going at it like you two have been going at it this evening, I'm going to pack up the whole thing and go back to London.
Peter Sallis
And that was all they needed, really, to shut up, and they never talked politics ever again.
Presenter
Let's go then, Peter Salis, to your first choice for today. You've chosen The Lark Ascending by Vaughan Williams. Tell tell us why you've chosen that.
Peter Sallis
Because I let me tell you that one day few years ago, outside Saddlers Wells Theatre, I saw the great man himself, Vaughan Williams, and he was surrounded by young ladies who wanted his uh autograph or possibly some other favour. And uh I just stared at him and thought this
Peter Sallis
This oak tree has written the most beautiful piece of English.
Peter Sallis
symphonic writing that there has ever been. The lark ascending is perfection.
Presenter
The Lark Ascending by Vaughan Williams, played by Iona Brown with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, led by Neville Mariner. It is, of course, a quintessentially English piece of music. And you play, Peter Salas, these quintessentially English characters. I I talked about them being a sort of living in a sepia-tinted world, Wallace from Wallace and Grommet and and Cleggie on Last of the Summer. Wine wall.
Presenter
If you could characterize Englishness, how would you characterize it?
Peter Sallis
Oh dear, I don't think I'm going to be able to answer that. I think the simplest way of saying it is, um, I might be quite a good example. You know, there's something about England that sort of
Peter Sallis
offers a form of security, I think. I'm making this up as I go along, but
Presenter
You're selling it to me, though, but but also a sort of sense of idiosyncrasy. You you seem like a bit of a one-off to me.
Peter Sallis
Yes, I suppose you get mad Englishmen as well as anything else. Yes, um probably I'm not certifiable, but I'm on the way.
Presenter
Let's talk now about your early years. You were born in 1921.
Presenter
Um, outskirts of London. What was the family home like? What can you remember of it?
Peter Sallis
Well, I know I was born in Twickenham, and my father was in the bank, Barclay's Bank, and I assume, I presume, that he was moved from the south of London to the north of London, because all my early days at school and all the rest of it
Peter Sallis
were in North London, in the Palms Green Southgate area.
Presenter
And what sort of character was your father?
Peter Sallis
Uh-uh.
Peter Sallis
That was his character. Her Dad, yes. I'm going to be an actor.
Peter Sallis
Huh.
Peter Sallis
That sums up my father.
Presenter
And for
Presenter
What sums up your mother?
Peter Sallis
Oh
Peter Sallis
Oh, yes.
Peter Sallis
Oh, she the idea of me becoming an actor, I mean, she she couldn't believe it. She was a pianist, not a
Peter Sallis
not a great pianist at all, but she could play the piano, and she used to accompany singers. So she must have been pretty good at it, or she wouldn't have been doing that. And uh she never said you must have lessons. She didn't
Peter Sallis
encourage me to do anything, but on the other hand she didn't discourage me.
Presenter
Tell me about your second piece of music today then. You've you've chosen um Rogers and Hart's Manhattan.
Peter Sallis
Yes. I was very fortunate, long after I'd become an out and out fan of his, to actually meet Richard Rogers. We were doing A Shot in the Dark, a play that his company, Williamson's, managed. He came Richard Rogers came to see the
Peter Sallis
opening production and uh he approached me
Peter Sallis
Shorter than me only just, but shorter than me, but so dapper, so smartly turned out, a pale I can see it now, a pale grey three-piece suit. And uh I said, uh mister Rogers, I'm sorry to, you know, stop you, but I just want to say thank you for your music. It has meant so much to me.
Presenter
Shall we take a little break and listen to Manhattan?
Peter Sallis
Uh
Presenter
Let's do that.
Presenter
The great big city's a wondrous toy.
Presenter
Just made for a girl and boy
Presenter
We'll turn Manhattan into a nile of joy.
Speaker 4
Yeah.
Presenter
Lee Wylie, singing Rogers and Harts, Manhattan. Let's talk then, Peter Sallas, a little more about you as a little boy. Is it true that you didn't actually want to leave school? You had to be persuaded to leave school?
Peter Sallis
Yes, the school was Minchendon, and it was named after the Minchendon Oak in Southgate, which is in the Domesday book, and presumably still is. And uh the staff were good, we they taught us well and we never had any canings well maybe the odd caning, but you know, that was just to keep his arm in. Um and I thought, why leave?
Peter Sallis
You know, why can't I just stay here? I could marry one of these lovely girls. Well, they weren't all lovely, but at least they were girls, and I thought, you know, I we could we could have a little home behind the bicycle shed, something like that. I knew enough about sex to know that we could even have a family, you know. But when it came to it, uh headmaster, Mr AG Gibbs, lovely man, said, um, Peter, yes, yes, sir. Well, you you don't seem to be doing anything. Uh no, that's quite right, sir, quite right. Well, I'm afraid
Peter Sallis
I'm afraid you'll have to leave.
Peter Sallis
And so I did.
Presenter
And so you followed your father into the bank, essentially?
Peter Sallis
Yes.
Presenter
Did you im I mean, y you clearly had an imagination. You'd imagined yourself behind the bike sheds making a life for you and whatever other uh fifth former you most fancied. But uh did you imagine a life for yourself at the bank that would have been interesting?
Peter Sallis
No, it was just that I had no alternative. I couldn't think of anything else to do, and that was when I started to earn money, of course, for the first time, and I was able to buy records. There was a lovely shop in Soho Square called EMG Handmade Grammophones. And those days, of course, they were vinyl discs, and you could let's say there were usually five discs to a symphony, say, but they allowed you to buy them a disc at a time. And that was how I collected one of my first recordings, which was the Pastoral Symphony, by buying it a disc at a time.
Presenter
And what about um working in the bank? I mean, were you it gave you the money to pursue your interest in in buying records, but you must have been bored to tears, were you not?
Peter Sallis
I wasn't bored, I was just mainly scared. I just it didn't seem to be able to get anything right, and I'm jumping ahead, if you forgive me, but I have to admit that a lot of harsh things have been said about uh Hitler, and of course I am fully in in agreement with them. But
Peter Sallis
In a roundabout sort of way he did me a good turn.
Presenter
Well because the war intervened. Yeah. And you left the bank.
Presenter
And you went into the RAF?
Peter Sallis
Yes, mm
Presenter
And what was your role there?
Peter Sallis
Well, I volunteered I just want to show off I volunteered for air crew.
Peter Sallis
Dim, of course, really Dim. I mean, the easiest way of getting killed in the war was probably to be a rear gunner of a Lancaster.
Peter Sallis
But I I didn't think about it like that. I just thought it would be a great thing. And I was turned down for aircrew because I had albumin in my water. To this day I don't really know what albumin is, but they explained to me that if I went above ten thousand feet I could black out. And so uh I failed aircrew and
Peter Sallis
went into the RAF as a wireless mechanic and it eventually led to me becoming an instructor and teaching radio.
Presenter
Let's hear some music for now. You've chosen as as track three The Fat Swaller.
Peter Sallis
Mm-hmm.
Presenter
Why have you chosen this?
Peter Sallis
Well, he was a great jazz pianist that's the first thing to be said. And secondly, of course, he was a natural born comic. I mean, the opening bars of this we're going to play now says it all.
Speaker 3
Say up in Harlem at a table for two.
Speaker 3
There were four of us. Me, your big feet, and you.
Speaker 3
From your ankle up, I'll say you sure are sweet.
Speaker 3
From that down there's there's too much feet. Yes, your feet
Speaker 3
Wait.
Speaker 3
No won't you cause your piece too big?
Speaker 3
Can't use you'cause your feet's too big.
Speaker 3
I really hate ya,'cause your feet's too big.
Speaker 3
Ah the Uda.
Speaker 3
My dad, where'd you get'em?
Speaker 3
Yeah, yeah, yeah, no.
Speaker 3
Your girl, she likes you. She thinks you're nice.
Speaker 3
God, what takes to be in paradise? She says she likes your face.
Speaker 3
She likes your rig.
Speaker 3
Man, old man, them things are too big. Oh, your feet's too big.
Presenter
That's Waller, and your feet's too big. It was whilst you were in the RAF then, Peter Salas, that uh you had your first taste of the stage. Can you tell me what happened?
Peter Sallis
Yes, I was teaching the theory of radio, and one day one of my class came to see me, and he said, Well, I'm going to put on a production of Hay Fever by Noel Cowd, and I'd like you to play the leading man. Will you do it? and I said, Yes.
Presenter
And how did you find it?
Peter Sallis
Great. I'd no idea. I mean, I had no idea
Peter Sallis
First of all, acting as a matter of instinct.
Peter Sallis
You've either got it or you haven't got it, and within seconds of going on the stage.
Peter Sallis
But of course we'd rehearsed it, so I had some in indication of what was going to happen.
Peter Sallis
But as soon as I was on the stage I just felt
Peter Sallis
So at home.
Peter Sallis
I wasn't sharing off or anything, it was just self-confidence. I just knew that this is what I could do better than anything else.
Presenter
You said that your father's reception to you saying that I want to be and I plan to be an actor was simply his uh huh that he was his response to most most things. What did your mother say?
Peter Sallis
Mm-hmm.
Peter Sallis
Oh, she thought it was great. When I went into the West End with my first real big play, The Three Sisters, with Ralph Richardson as Vershinin, and then
Peter Sallis
Ga
Presenter
Celia.
Peter Sallis
Celia Johnson, Maggie Leighton, Dinah Wynyard, oh and Rennie Asherson, did I say Rennie Asheson? No, you
Presenter
No, you didn't, you got them all then.
Peter Sallis
Well they're well they're yeah, those four ladies
Peter Sallis
Were the three sisters plus one?
Peter Sallis
And uh my mother not only came to see it, but she wrote to them.
Peter Sallis
and she wrote to them I don't know how often, but eventually Celia was kind enough to let slip, you know, the fact that
Peter Sallis
Got another one from your mother, Peter, and I said to her, I said, But what does she actually write about?
Peter Sallis
And Celia said, Oh, well, she just keeps on congratulating us four ladies that we've got you in the company.
Peter Sallis
That was my mother for you.
Presenter
And was your mother regularly coming to see you on stage or?
Peter Sallis
No, no, I d I d she couldn't travel very well. Um she had a certain nervous complaint which I never understood and don't even understand now. But she came up to see three sisters and I think she probably thought, Well, I've done it. I've seen him, you know.
Presenter
And did your father ever see you on stage?
Peter Sallis
Yes, he came to everything that I did, but I don't think it meant anything to him much that I was in the theatre.
Presenter
Do you think you've inherited your father's reserve when it comes to children, then, of feeling rather distanced from them?
Peter Sallis
Maybe. I don't know. I haven't thought about it, really. Um
Presenter
The reason I'm asking is once in an interview I read you say something that I mean plenty people feel, but not many people actually articulate, which is, I don't really understand children, and I don't really like them, and I thought, well, that's a terribly brave thing to say.
Peter Sallis
Yes. Fortunately we had my then wife, Elaine, and I had a son, Crispian. Um but it wasn't so much that I didn't like them as I had no idea how to cope with them. I had no idea
Peter Sallis
what to say to them, or how to amuse them, but no, I never really
Peter Sallis
Felt comfortable with children.
Presenter
Let's take a break for your fourth piece of music then. You've chosen the way you look tonight. What's the reason for picking this disc?
Peter Sallis
Oh, well, really, it's because of Gary Miller. The first musical that I did was called She Loves Me. Gary Miller was first of all, he was just a lovely chap, and it was my first musical, which he quickly found out, you know. And so he sort of
Peter Sallis
coached me through it and helped me to behave on the stage when I wasn't actually doing anything.
Peter Sallis
And of course the secret to that is don't try and do anything, just do nothing.
Speaker 3
Keep that breathless charm, won't you please arrange it?
Speaker 4
Cause I love you.
Peter Sallis
Uh
Speaker 4
Just the way you look
Speaker 4
Uh
Peter Sallis
Tonight
Peter Sallis
Just the way you look.
Peter Sallis
To love.
Presenter
Gary Miller and the way you look tonight and memories there of being on stage and of musicals. I hope you don't mind me saying this, uh, Peter Salas. You're eighty eight now, is that right? So I'm going to have to condense your years a bit just to fit everything in, and I want to talk about some of the extraordinary
Peter Sallis
Yeah.
Presenter
people that you've worked with. I I mentioned Laurence Olivier earlier and Ralph Richardson. Orson Wells too. You spent, I mean, quite a significant amount of time working with him and in his company. T tell me a little of that.
Peter Sallis
Spencer
Peter Sallis
Well, I'd just finished a play called Into Thin Air, and it was the first and only time that I'd actually played an out-and-out lead in the West End. We did it at the Globe Theatre. It opened on Thursday. The notice went up on Friday morning, and we finished with the last performance on the Saturday. So that was the extent of my career as a leading man in the West End. But Orson Welles was in town holding auditions. And oh, I can see him now. I went on to the stage for the audition, and he came down to the floats. This great hand reached out for mine, and he squeezed my hand, and he said, I'm Orson Wells. As if I had any doubt, you know.
Peter Sallis
And uh we hit it off immediately. I think we we spent about four years, something like that, in each other's company. We just uh hit it off. But the the great thing about Orson was, of course, that he needed an audience. He just wanted somebody to shut up and listen to him. And he never stopped talking. I wish to goodness, of course, that I'd
Peter Sallis
kept recorded or something what he talked about. He was lovely.
Presenter
And what about Laurence Olivia then, working with him? Or what are your memories of that?
Peter Sallis
Well, I first of all the mere f fact of actually working with him at all. The play was Rhinoceros by Ian Escoe. It was a play which on the first night Nell Coward came into the dressing room when it was all over and said, What a perfectly bloody play This is the author, and there he was, Ian Esco, who's about five foot three, you know. But anyway, we did Rhinoceros, it was a success, and I was acting with Olivier and there was
Peter Sallis
One scene where we actually had a row on one particular night.
Peter Sallis
When we were at the royal court he turned it on.
Peter Sallis
And he was really angry.
Peter Sallis
And in fact I still say I don't know whether it was the lighting man or whether it really was him, but his face actually did go green.
Peter Sallis
And I I backed off a bit. I thought he's not really going to go for me, but I was.
Peter Sallis
Really quite scared.
Peter Sallis
I can say this now'cause it is such a long time ago.
Peter Sallis
But I believe now that that day I think that Vivian Vivian Lee, his wife,
Peter Sallis
had phoned him from America to say that she was going to divorce him.
Peter Sallis
I wouldn't be saying this if it wasn't such a long time ago and it.
Peter Sallis
You know, it all doesn't matter now. But I think that's probably what it was, and in a sort of Stanislavski like way, he took his anger out on me.
Presenter
Let's take a break for some music. We're we're going to hear now um John Williams playing uh Mario Castelnuevo Tedesco.
Peter Sallis
Uh
Presenter
Yeah. Tell me why you've chosen this.
Peter Sallis
Well, first of all, because I like the piece very much. But I have a sort of quirky reason for telling it, and of course it my reason makes no sense at all, and that is that I've never actually heard it on the radio. And so I in the wildly mistaken idea that perhaps it's never been played, I thought I'd like to have it here. But it is a it's a charming, charming piece.
Presenter
John Williams playing the second movement of Mario Castel Nuevo Tedesco's Concerta No. One in D.
Presenter
Last of the summer wine, Peter Salas. We we've discussed a little bit about it, but I'm wondering if you can clear something up for me. Is it the longest running sitcom in the world?
Peter Sallis
I've been told that it is. It's run for thirty five years, and I'm proud to say that I'm the only person who's been in every episode just chance has worked out like that.
Peter Sallis
Two or three times I know that in the course of filming I've just gone away and found myself a little rocky plateau somewhere.
Peter Sallis
and sat down there and thought, You lucky sort
Peter Sallis
I've never really been very ambitious. I was just fortunate to be the right size mentally and physically to fit into the sort of parts that they gave me. Oh no, I mean, you can't really be modest and play Hamlet, if you know what I mean.
Presenter
And what about Wallace and Grommet then? You've been the voice of Wallace for tw twenty years now, but it was actually around about twenty five years ago that that you met Nick Park, the creator, the animator of Wallace and Grommet. How did you meet?
Peter Sallis
Hmm.
Peter Sallis
Well, in nineteen eighty three it was. He said, I my name's Nick Park and I'd like you to do the voice of a character in a cartoon thing I'm making and I said right and so I went to Beaconsfield Film School was where he was and there it was uh Wallace and Grummitt and it was a it was called A Grand Day Out and it's how they achieve a trip to the moon and back uh having built the the spaceship all in the course of one weekend. I think that basically is the plot. And um and so I I recorded it. That was nineteen eighty three. And in nineteen eighty nine he phoned me up and said, I've finished
Peter Sallis
That was the bit that got me
Presenter
In two thousand and six The Curse of the Ware Rabbit w won an Oscar. You you you went along, didn't you, to the Academy?
Peter Sallis
Yes, they were kind enough to I mean it was put up for for the Oscars and I you know when I knew that they'd been nominated I phoned up Nick and I said look I'm going. I said I don't have to go come to the show, but I want to go to the party afterwards. Well, bless his heart, of course, he already obviously planned it and so I went as a member of the team, really. And so but it was lovely, yes, and I I loved the Oscars and I didn't know anybody there, of course, and nobody knew me, but I did feel part of it, you know, by being there.
Presenter
Let's hear the next piece of music then. We're going to hear the Beethoven next, Peter. Can you tell us why you've you've particularly chosen this piece?
Peter Sallis
Yes. Well, I read a book and it was called Beethoven: The Romantic.
Peter Sallis
And that very title, of course, intrigued me. One of the chapters, or two or three of the chapters, were devoted to the string quartets.
Peter Sallis
And it was then that I started to collect them. And this opus a hundred and thirty, the Aladansa Tadesca N movement, is
Peter Sallis
quite comfortable going. Uh don't think uh you you know, you don't feel it's very, very serious.
Presenter
The FitzWilliam String Quartet playing the Aladanza Tedesca from Beethoven's String Quartet number thirteen in B flat major. Um let's talk about fifteen years ago y you were diagnosed with the condition macular degeneration. Oh, yes. Um and how has that affected you to do with your sight, obviously?
Peter Sallis
Oh, yes.
Peter Sallis
Well, I can't see to read. That's the simplest way of putting it. I just know, like sitting here now talking to you, I can't actually see you. If we if if uh you know, I if I were shown a picture of you tomorrow, I wouldn't know who you were. Do you see with me?
Presenter
I see exactly what you mean.
Peter Sallis
I'm sorry to put it like that, but it's a fairly simple way of explaining.
Presenter
That's quite alright.
Presenter
And you do, however, I mean, you you live a life alone. You live an an independent life.
Peter Sallis
Food.
Peter Sallis
I better not say it isn't,'cause to morrow it's all gonna change. But so far, no, I mean, I can g go out onto the street and
Presenter
Yeah.
Peter Sallis
I'm in one of the best places in London to get a taxi, because they're all coming empty from Paddington.
Presenter
And you seem to be somebody, along with having quite a a wry, dry sense of humour. You you have a bit of mischief about you still. You're quite a mischievous character, do you think?
Peter Sallis
Well, I don't think of myself as mischievous. I think of myself as trying all the time to be smart, which of course is fatal.
Presenter
Tell me more about that.
Peter Sallis
Well, I can only repeat it. I've uh I've
Peter Sallis
To put it rather crudely, I'm a smartass, or I try and be. I try and turn everything into a sort of a
Peter Sallis
A joke.
Peter Sallis
It's so embarrassing talking about it, but I know that it's roughly true.
Presenter
Tell me about your next piece of music then. You've chosen a Tommy Dorsey track for your seventh track. It's All I Remember Is You. Why have you chosen this one?
Peter Sallis
During the war, when I was in the RAF, we used to be in huts and so on, and we had Americans on the camp as well. So we used to get the American Forces Network, and I remember hearing this song
Peter Sallis
All I remember is you. It's haunted me all this time.
Peter Sallis
Was it summer, were stars aglow?
Peter Sallis
When we parted so long ago
Peter Sallis
I've forgotten it's true Poor
Presenter
Uh Member is
Presenter
Tommy Dorsey, and all I remember is you. We've spoken in some detail, Peter Salis, about Last of the Summer Wine, and I know that at the end of last year.
Presenter
There was quite a lot of conjecture and not a little rumpus about whether or not it was going to come back again. As as far as you know, will there be another?
Peter Sallis
I can't answer it. I really don't know. But I I hope that we can do some more.
Peter Sallis
Because it's uh it's wind in the willows, you know, it's a lovely pastoral.
Peter Sallis
Peace.
Presenter
And on this island that I'm going to cast you away to now here on Desert Island Iski, you will be all alone. How how would you handle the loneliness?
Peter Sallis
The human being
Peter Sallis
I should think very badly. I think I'd go
Peter Sallis
Screaming Abdabs eventually.
Speaker 4
Mm.
Peter Sallis
You know, I couldn't build a hut or do any of those I mean you wouldn't need a hammer and nails for a star. Where do I get those from, you know.
Presenter
And in terms of the loneliness, I I get the feeling that you're somebody you said that when you're filming you sometimes like to go off occasionally on your own. You can bear your own company.
Peter Sallis
Go.
Peter Sallis
Me on your own to eat.
Peter Sallis
Yes, hmm.
Presenter
As long as you know there's there's somebody else coming.
Peter Sallis
Yeah, yes, I think that's a fair way of putting it.
Presenter
Your final piece of music to day then is the Sibelius. Why have you chosen that?
Peter Sallis
Sibelius was introduced to me during the war by Flight Sergeant Davidson. He had practically everything that had been recorded of Sibelius on records, and so we started to play them. And of course I realized that this man
Peter Sallis
was
Peter Sallis
Ah, next to Beethoven. I have to put Beethoven first, but if I had to choose, he'd be the second. He just wrote stuff that was totally individual. Nobody has ever come near writing like Sibelius.
Peter Sallis
What about that?
Presenter
What about that? You you were very definite that you wanted the finale of that space.
Peter Sallis
Oh yes. I mean the the great thing about that is it's it's full of hope.
Peter Sallis
I'm looking for this ship.
Peter Sallis
But it ain't arrived yet. But that music
Peter Sallis
Makes me feel it's gonna arrive any minute.
Presenter
And you know, Peter Salis, I'll give you the Bible now, and the complete works of Shakespeare. What other book would you like to take?
Peter Sallis
Well, I've choose the collected works of P G Woodhouse.
Presenter
I'm sure they must exist somewhere bound in one volume, so that's the only thing that I've seen.
Peter Sallis
I doubt it'cause there are so many. It would be about four feet across, you know.
Presenter
Shall I bind one especially for you?
Peter Sallis
Please, yes. So PG Woodhouse The trouble is, of course, I can't read, so I don't know quite how I'd know. Perhaps there's a recorded version of it.
Presenter
Right.
Presenter
The audio version of the complete works of P. G. Woodhouse, we will endeavour to find that for you.
Peter Sallis
The old
Peter Sallis
So P G Woodhouse we will do
Peter Sallis
Find that for you.
Presenter
And uh a luxury too. You're allowed to take a luxury.
Peter Sallis
Oh yes, of course, yes. The number seven Meccano outfit.
Peter Sallis
When I was a boy the finite piece of mechano that you could buy was a number seven outfit. It came in a wooden cabinet, and I remember seeing it in Hamleys or one of those shops once. I can't remember how much it was when I was a boy, but it was be far beyond my father. But yeah, if I could take that with me to the desert island I'd be very happy.
Presenter
You certainly can. That's yours. And what would be the one of these eight disks that you would choose to take on to the island with you?
Peter Sallis
Oh, I think what we've just heard last, this this value, so it's so full of hope.
Presenter
Peter Salas, thank you very much for letting us hear your desert island discs.
Peter Sallis
Thank you for having me.
Presenter
You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. For more podcasts, please visit bbc.co.uk slash radio four.
Is it true that you didn't actually want to leave school?
Yes, the school was Minchendon, and it was named after the Minchendon Oak in Southgate, which is in the Domesday book, and presumably still is. And uh the staff were good, we they taught us well and we never had any canings well maybe the odd caning, but you know, that was just to keep his arm in. Um and I thought, why leave? You know, why can't I just stay here? ... But when it came to it, uh headmaster, Mr AG Gibbs, lovely man, said, um, Peter, yes, yes, sir. Well, you you don't seem to be doing anything. Uh no, that's quite right, sir, quite right. Well, I'm afraid I'm afraid you'll have to leave. And so I did.
Presenter asks
It was whilst you were in the RAF then, Peter Salas, that you had your first taste of the stage. Can you tell me what happened?
Yes, I was teaching the theory of radio, and one day one of my class came to see me, and he said, Well, I'm going to put on a production of Hay Fever by Noel Cowd, and I'd like you to play the leading man. Will you do it? and I said, Yes.
Presenter asks
How has [macular degeneration] affected you to do with your sight, obviously?
Well, I can't see to read. That's the simplest way of putting it. I just know, like sitting here now talking to you, I can't actually see you. If we if if uh you know, I if I were shown a picture of you tomorrow, I wouldn't know who you were. Do you see with me?
“As soon as I was on the stage I just felt So at home. I wasn't sharing off or anything, it was just self-confidence. I just knew that this is what I could do better than anything else.”
“I've never really been very ambitious. I was just fortunate to be the right size mentally and physically to fit into the sort of parts that they gave me. Oh no, I mean, you can't really be modest and play Hamlet, if you know what I mean.”
“I don't think of myself as mischievous. I think of myself as trying all the time to be smart, which of course is fatal. ... To put it rather crudely, I'm a smartass, or I try and be. I try and turn everything into a sort of a A joke.”