Barry Humphries

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. The programme was originally broadcast in two thousand nine.

Presenter0:27

My castaway this week is Barry Humphreys. He has in essence lived two lives in one. Dame Edna Everidge is of course the supercharged suburban housewife, her sharp tongue lashing T V and stage audiences into side splitting submission for thirty odd years. Yet this vivid creation somewhat pales when compared to the richly hued reality of its creator.

Presenter0:50

Antiquarian book collector, accomplished painter, aesthete, reformed drinker, Barry Humphrey's Life Beyond the Wigantites has far more colour than one of Edna's frocks. He says I had a rather privileged, spoiled childhood, but at the time it seemed deadly dull, and now, of course, dullness rather appeals. My life is far too exciting. I crave dullness.

Presenter1:13

Barry Humphreys, among the more dramatic moments of your life you um you nearly killed yourself, accidentally, I should say, in Cornwall in nineteen sixty one. What what happened?

Barry Humphries1:22

Well, I went down to Cornwall a most wonderful place not England at all. I went out walking with my wife on a February morning across some frozen fields, stepping across a very cold little brook,

Barry Humphries1:38

I slipped on a stone, and I found myself almost laughing as I slid down this icy stream, which unfortunately flowed over a cliff.

Barry Humphries1:49

I found myself seconds later sitting on a ledge.

Barry Humphries1:53

With a dislocated shoulder and a broken arm.

Barry Humphries1:56

I stayed there for half a day until I was rescued by what seemed to be the entire cast of the pirates of Penzance.

Barry Humphries2:04

Having my daughter.

Barry Humphries2:06

So I've had the Grim Reaper very close to me.

Barry Humphries2:10

Which is important to remember when I'm feeling too pleased with myself.

Presenter2:16

I'm feeling a little worried, because I read that you once said um the point of interviews is to throw obscurity where light shone before. Are you are you going to give me a load of old flannel here today?

Barry Humphries2:28

So far so

Presenter2:28

Good, don't you think? Yes, I do. I'm very optimistic on the basis of what I'm doing.

Barry Humphries2:32

Yeah.

Presenter2:34

Um, you are an accomplished landscape painter. You collect rare books. You have a collection of around about eighteen thousand. You are a very well regarded uh writer. These are traits not common to people who occupy prime time telly spots like yourself. Strange combination.

Barry Humphries2:53

Well, an accomplished painter. If I remember rightly, I added that epithet accomplished to my own autobiography.

Barry Humphries3:01

But I look at my own works with tremendous

Barry Humphries3:05

Profound, unashamed admiration.

Barry Humphries3:09

And people buy them.

Presenter3:11

But significantly you would not buy one of them. Uh you wouldn't have to do it.

Barry Humphries3:13

No, no, no. If I were offered one of my own paintings by an art dealer, I'd never speak to him again.

Barry Humphries3:19

Um buttons

Barry Humphries3:21

Good for me. It's good therapy for me. My book collection since you last counted it has gone up by about five thousand.

Presenter3:29

Goodness me, you're in the twenties, are you?

Barry Humphries3:30

I really am a compulsive bibliomaniac.

Barry Humphries3:36

And it really represents my desire for ballast you know, have something that will finally be so heavy I'll have to stay in one place.

Presenter3:47

Tell me about the first piece of music you've chosen today then.

Barry Humphries3:49

My first piece of music is an extract

Barry Humphries3:53

From the most wonderful opera, Der Rosen Cavalier of Richard Strauss.

Speaker 13:56

Yeah.

Barry Humphries3:59

It's my favorite opera, one of my very favorite pieces of music, and two great friends of mine, Kiri Takanova and Rene Fleming, have both sung.

Barry Humphries4:11

the major role of the Countess.

Barry Humphries4:14

And it's a spine tingling moment in the opera, the presentation of the rose.

Barry Humphries4:20

And no, I very rarely cry.

Barry Humphries4:22

But whenever this happens and I'm at a performance of this opera

Barry Humphries4:27

I for some reason burst into tears.

Barry Humphries4:30

I can't explain it. It's just an emotional overload.

Speaker 44:46

As we feel, give over and hear from the heart in the brightness of faith that is common, listen to the shift of God.

Speaker 15:02

Wait, there's no

Speaker 45:21

Uh

Presenter5:34

The presentation of the rose from the second act of De Rose and Capitol. You enjoyed that by Richard Strauss, of course. You you say it's one of the very few pieces of music that can actually spontaneously uh make you cry. Are you not an emotional person?

Speaker 45:37

Tablai

Barry Humphries5:45

Make you cross.

Barry Humphries5:47

Oh, I think I am, probably.

Barry Humphries5:49

I wouldn't have the funny job that I've got if I didn't have strong emotions of one kind or another.

Barry Humphries5:56

I really love art of all forms.

Barry Humphries6:01

I think this is the great expression of the human spirit.

Presenter6:04

What do you think the function is of of an artist?

Barry Humphries6:08

Well, my kind of art

Barry Humphries6:11

if you could call it that, is cheering people up.

Barry Humphries6:15

To be in the cheering up business is very gratifying.

Barry Humphries6:20

I always loved the work of comedians in particular. I was first exposed to them.

Barry Humphries6:25

As a child in Melbourne, because during the Second World War we had programmes on the radio.

Barry Humphries6:30

We're comedians old British comedians, generally speaking.

Barry Humphries6:36

did their acts, and they were played in far off Melbourne, and listened to avidly by little Barry, crouching beside his parents' radio.

Presenter6:45

Little sunny sound

Barry Humphries6:46

Little sonny Sam, as I was called by my parents, because of my perpetually irritatingly

Barry Humphries6:52

Sunny disposition.

Presenter6:54

So you were always in the cheering up business then?

Barry Humphries6:56

I was in the chair-up business. Well, that came to me. I didn't really seek to please people. People were absolutely delighted.

Presenter7:01

Right.

Barry Humphries7:03

By my existence. I must have radiated something.

Barry Humphries7:08

In fact, I was very nervous as a performer, as a child performer. I was very rarely in plays or shows because I was too nervous. And even to day I am

Barry Humphries7:21

Excessively nervous before I go onstage.

Barry Humphries7:24

Um it's an inexplicable life. It's one I didn't choose. It chose me. I'd stumbled into my theatrical life.

Barry Humphries7:33

And I suppose I wouldn't have it any other way. But I do

Barry Humphries7:37

enjoy, you know, the other things that I do privately.

Presenter7:41

Can you remember the first time you you say as a little boy you were so shy that you didn't often take part in school plays and so on. Can you p remember what was first you know, your first official performance when you when you did have an audience?

Barry Humphries7:45

You didn't

Barry Humphries7:47

Yeah.

Barry Humphries7:53

I mm must say that I usually had an audience of aunts, I had a lot of aunties, and I suppose inventing a character like Day Madner.

Barry Humphries8:03

was instigated by these all these women who began by peering into my cot, and ended up clapping and applauding when I sang at a little family gathering.

Barry Humphries8:15

But I did say to my mother, I'll sing if I can hide behind the curtains.

Barry Humphries8:21

So I would stand behind the drawing room curtains,

Barry Humphries8:24

And, to use my own phrase, pretend to be the wireless.

Barry Humphries8:29

That was my initial

Barry Humphries8:32

Performance.

Presenter8:33

Tell me about the second track and why you've chosen this disc.

Barry Humphries8:37

I consider Fred Stair to be one of the great artists of the twentieth century.

Barry Humphries8:44

Fred Astaire was not just a great dancer, but he was also a splendid singer.

Barry Humphries8:50

And he interpreted the songs of Gershwin.

Barry Humphries8:53

One of my very favorite composers, perfectly.

Barry Humphries8:57

Things Are Looking Up lyric by Ira Gershwin recorded in nineteen thirty seven

Barry Humphries9:05

a year in which the clouds of war were already gathering.

Speaker 49:09

If I should suddenly start to sing, Or stand on my head or anything, Don't think that I've lost my senses, It's just that my happiness finally commences.

Speaker 49:24

The long, long ages of dull despair Are turning into thin air.

Speaker 49:30

And it seems that suddenly I

Speaker 49:33

Become the happiest man of life.

Presenter9:37

Fred Astaire and things are looking up. Were you dancing in your head to that before?

Barry Humphries9:43

Yes, and that marvellous optimism which was not really to be rewarded.

Presenter9:50

Tell me about a little bit more about your childhood then. You have described yourself as an only child with three siblings, which is a wonderful description. You you were indulged?

Barry Humphries9:55

Switches up.

Barry Humphries9:58

Spoiled? Very spoilt.

Barry Humphries10:01

I just had to look at something and my parents would buy it for me.

Presenter10:04

Mm.

Barry Humphries10:05

I don't think it was good for me that my every request was granted.

Barry Humphries10:09

It made me seek, in later life, instant gratification.

Barry Humphries10:14

And that did me no good at all.

Presenter10:18

And what was it, I wonder, that was propelling you to perform? Because if you found it agonizing, the thought of going onstage.

Presenter10:25

What on earth was it that was propelling you forward to do it?

Barry Humphries10:27

I think it was some kind of primitive compulsion to express myself in some way.

Barry Humphries10:33

To find a voice for myself. I didn't have one.

Barry Humphries10:36

In spite of my cleverness, I was

Barry Humphries10:40

Very apprehensive about growing up, about living in the world of adults.

Presenter10:46

You have said my relationship with my mother left me feeling very cautious and circumspect over any relationship with a woman. Why was that?

Barry Humphries10:54

Well, my mother was a strong personality. She was an intelligent woman, wasted really, because she lived in this Melbourne suburb, in a big house, with plenty of domestic help.

Barry Humphries11:06

and yet unfulfilled.

Barry Humphries11:09

So her sense of humour

Barry Humphries11:11

Uh was rather a

Barry Humphries11:13

A cynical one.

Barry Humphries11:16

She was also extremely shy, I think.

Barry Humphries11:20

and attempted to conceal this. And I feel that she had a sad and unfulfilled life.

Barry Humphries11:27

though of course she had four children.

Barry Humphries11:30

With whom she didn't properly connect.

Presenter11:33

What did she want for you, do you think?

Barry Humphries11:36

Well

Barry Humphries11:37

There was the word disappointment was used a lot. We're disappointed in you, your father is very disappointed in you.

Barry Humphries11:44

You've disappointed us.

Barry Humphries11:47

She was very good too with theatrical reviews.

Barry Humphries11:51

For example, if I'd done a show which got very good notices, she would find the negative one.

Barry Humphries11:59

she would be chastening. I look back on it now and laugh, but at the time I realized that she was impossible to please. And so for some time, and every now and then, I would project this onto the women in my life.

Barry Humphries12:17

And feel, you know, this is one of those, another one of those unpleasable beings.

Presenter12:25

Tell me about your third piece of music, then, Barry. Hold up, listen.

Barry Humphries12:27

My third piece of music is a most beautiful tune. It's nothing subtle.

Barry Humphries12:33

But it's a beautiful

Barry Humphries12:35

Tune called Love Song

Barry Humphries12:38

And it's by Joseph Suk.

Barry Humphries12:40

a Czechoslovakian composer, and who happened also to be the son in law of Dvork.

Barry Humphries12:47

So I suppose this was composed in the early years of the twentieth century.

Barry Humphries12:51

And we'd hear it now.

Barry Humphries12:53

In all its beauty.

Presenter13:49

Hyaza Sukh's love song performed by Rogero Ricci with Noriko Shiyazaki.

Presenter13:54

There is something I don't know if the right word is dandy, Barry Humphreys, but you take great joy in the clothes you wear, it seems to me. You're wearing a

Presenter14:02

Extraordinary, I imagine that's a handmade suit, is this a herring-bone suit? Yes, I do.

Barry Humphries14:05

Yes, I don't know quite the hands that made it. But it is scarlet lines.

Presenter14:14

You cut a rakish figure. Was that did you did you develop that as a young s?

Barry Humphries14:15

Was that

Barry Humphries14:18

No, I think if I do cut a rakish figure, Kirsty.

Barry Humphries14:21

It's because I am a bit rakish.

Barry Humphries14:25

The more I struggle to be respectable, the more disreputable I seem to look.

Barry Humphries14:30

I've always had quite long hair lank, fine hair. Luckily it's only going grey in bits.

Barry Humphries14:37

I have about five grey hairs on my left nipple and only three on the right. A woman said to me the other day,

Barry Humphries14:47

that she found a man with grey hair in his nostrils, rather distinguished.

Barry Humphries14:53

I wrote it down immediately, and I just put it in a book.

Presenter14:57

Um you married young for the first time. You were twenty one when you married for the first time. Was that was that just another thing for your parents to disapprove of?

Barry Humphries15:01

Yeah.

Barry Humphries15:05

I think it was. There was very

Barry Humphries15:08

Very stern disapproval of that step that I took, which I think.

Barry Humphries15:15

was totally stupid.

Barry Humphries15:18

But it seemed to be the only way I can get out of living at home.

Barry Humphries15:22

So I had a young wife,

Barry Humphries15:24

The Beginnings of a Career in Comedy.

Barry Humphries15:27

and I was living in the big, wicked city of Sydney, when I first became slightly rakish.

Presenter15:33

And tell me about the sort of things you were doing. Was this the point at which you were doing perf I mean, can I call it performance arts? Can I call it it?

Barry Humphries15:39

I think you could call it performance art because I felt I had to somehow influence people's lives.

Barry Humphries15:48

as as art should.

Barry Humphries15:51

Or at least give them another view of life. And so I used to do stunts.

Barry Humphries15:57

These usually took place on trains.

Barry Humphries16:00

I realize that this is a captive audience if they're sitting in the compartment, and there's a strange man in the corner eating breakfast.

Barry Humphries16:09

Then the train would stop at the next station.

Barry Humphries16:11

The window would open.

Barry Humphries16:13

and an accomplice of mine would hand in the grapefruit, at the next station the toast, then the eggs, finally the coffee, before we got into town. There would be no explanation for this, but people were stunned at the sight of this little

Barry Humphries16:29

Gesture of mine.

Barry Humphries16:31

It was attention seeking, but it was also, of course, uh very private. It was a private joke between me and my accomplice.

Presenter16:41

Let's take a break for some music then. Uh tell me about your fourth disc.

Barry Humphries16:46

When I first came to London

Barry Humphries16:48

The first theatre I went to was the Metropolitan Theatre in the Edgware Road.

Barry Humphries16:52

There on the bill were many of the artists that I'd listened to as a child on old records.

Barry Humphries17:00

still doing their acts, but in at a great age. The audience were ancient, mostly women. Many of them had taken things with them to do, like knitting.

Barry Humphries17:11

One woman next to me was shelling peas into a colander.

Barry Humphries17:16

I joined this crowd, and the act that impressed me most was an old guy called Randolph Sutton.

Barry Humphries17:22

who'd been in the music hall for many, many years, and when he sang his great hit number, Mother Kelly's Doorstep,

Barry Humphries17:32

The whole audience joined in. It was like a prayer.

Speaker 417:41

One mother careless

Speaker 417:47

Down paradise road I sit along a nearly She sit along a Joe

Presenter18:01

RANDOLPH SUTTON and on Mother Kelly's doorstep. Tell me about travelling to I don't know, you you weren't getting away from Australia, you were getting to Europe, I suppose.

Barry Humphries18:12

Well, there was a hankering, of course, for England, the old country, or home, as it was often called.

Barry Humphries18:18

Because I had grandparents who were English. My paternal grandfather came from Lancashire.

Barry Humphries18:24

He went back for the coronation he and my grandmother sailed back to England for the coronation.

Barry Humphries18:30

And um I just wanted contact with the antiquity, with something that was old.

Barry Humphries18:36

You see, to have been brought up in Melbourne in those years.

Barry Humphries18:40

Well, it was just all so nice. It was all so spotlessly clean.

Barry Humphries18:45

Orderly and proper.

Barry Humphries18:49

I wanted to forsake, if possible, respectability.

Barry Humphries18:53

And cleanliness and all those mod cons that I've been brought up to believe were so important. And did you?

Barry Humphries19:02

In my heart.

Barry Humphries19:04

Never quite.

Barry Humphries19:06

And you know, I still feel a nostalgia for those days which I found so oppressively dull.

Barry Humphries19:14

back in my home town.'Cause Melbourne pretended to be part of the ho the home counties.

Barry Humphries19:21

We had pictures of Winston Churchill behind the kitchen door on the calendar.

Barry Humphries19:25

There wasn't a single Australian tree.

Barry Humphries19:29

In our suburb.

Barry Humphries19:31

They were all silver birches, elms, oak trees even.

Barry Humphries19:35

So everything good came from England.

Presenter19:38

When you came to London then you you fell in with um well an interesting crowd, the likes of uh Spike Milligan and so on Peter Cook at the the Establishment Club. You you performed at the establishment.

Barry Humphries19:45

Yeah, yeah.

Barry Humphries19:48

I I was very lucky to meet the people I did.

Barry Humphries19:51

particularly Peter Cook. We became friends. Peter and I saw more of each other, and he invited me to appear in his new club. Cutting edge, it was. It was called the Establishment, and it was the most outrageous, fashionable place to be.

Barry Humphries20:08

I was a terrible failure at the establishment.

Barry Humphries20:12

Because I did my Australian act.

Barry Humphries20:15

I even did a bit of Edna. She wasn't Dame Edna then.

Barry Humphries20:19

And it didn't go down very well.

Barry Humphries20:22

So I thought, that's it That's my London career over and then Joan Littlewood, who was then a very famous theatre director, invited me to Stratford East.

Barry Humphries20:31

to her little theatre, and Spike asked me to join his company.

Barry Humphries20:36

So I was established.

Barry Humphries20:38

And I had two young children.

Barry Humphries20:41

and a new lovely wife.

Barry Humphries20:44

and all looked very rosy.

Presenter20:47

Let's take a little break for some music. Tell me about your next piece of music.

Barry Humphries20:51

My next choice is rather dark, very dark and bleak.

Barry Humphries20:56

I am a war child in a way, because I remember vividly the Second World War, and in devastated Berlin.

Barry Humphries21:05

Right at the end of the war.

Barry Humphries21:07

With Russian tanks entering the centre of the city.

Barry Humphries21:11

Recording studios, or at least one of them, were still operating.

Barry Humphries21:16

Peter Anders

Barry Humphries21:18

A great tenor

Barry Humphries21:19

Recorded

Barry Humphries21:21

Schubert's song cycle, The Vinteriser.

Barry Humphries21:25

The Winter Journey

Barry Humphries21:27

The last song in this cycle.

Barry Humphries21:30

The Organ Grinder is perhaps the most tragic of all Schubert's songs.

Barry Humphries21:36

And it reminds me of that other side of the German temperament.

Barry Humphries21:41

The other side from the br brutality, from the

Barry Humphries21:46

insanity of war was a profundity which this song exhibits, I think.

Speaker 421:54

Triben hintom door fest i layaman.

Speaker 422:06

Und mitah and Fing and Red Er Faserkan

Speaker 422:18

Parfus of the world.

Speaker 422:30

Won't saik lina tell a plighty me a lair?

Speaker 422:42

Old Cycline in Malayale.

Presenter22:52

Peter Anders singing Der Leiermann the Organ Grinder from Schubert's Winter Eiser song cycle.

Barry Humphries22:57

Oblique.

Barry Humphries22:58

A bleak landscape recorded in nineteen forty five in an even bleaker landscape of devastated Berlin.

Presenter23:06

Can we talk a little, Barry Humphreys? And and you have written about it in detail, about uh your bleak years, the the drinking years

Barry Humphries23:13

Yes, I I was addicted to alcohol for about uh

Barry Humphries23:18

Fifteen years of my life.

Barry Humphries23:20

And uh everyone seemed to be doing it, you know.

Barry Humphries23:24

But I persisted uh giving alcohol a second chance in my life so many times. I sometimes think alcoholism, you know, is a is a disorder of the memory.

Barry Humphries23:34

You wake up in the morning groaning and you say never again and by lunch time you're on to your second Beaujolais or whisky and soda, or not even soda.

Presenter23:44

Rather remarkably, you were what I'm sure they call something like a high functioning addict. I mean you had a good going career. You you kept the work going through through nearly all of this.

Barry Humphries23:52

And I look back on it, some of the things that I did during my drinking years.

Barry Humphries23:58

With fatuous self satisfaction.

Barry Humphries24:02

But to other things I avert the memory.

Barry Humphries24:06

Luckily, of course, if you drink to excess, you have what's called a occasional blackout, where you don't remember anything. probably just as well, nature's way of protecting you from the full horror and consequences of your actions. So it you know part of one's life. I don't ever think I would want to change my own history. Luckily I survived it. So many don't.

Barry Humphries24:32

But remember, in the nineteen sixties, as I said, everyone seemed to be indulging in something or other, so one's behaviour, one thought, was not conspicuous.

Presenter24:42

When when did you realize it? Properly realize it? Because as you say, you sort of kidded yourself on for quite a while.

Barry Humphries24:46

Well, I probably realized it, I think, at the end of that decade of the sixties.

Barry Humphries24:51

And I just realized there was no future in it for me. You know, it was sort of I'd done all you could do with alcohol except die.

Barry Humphries25:00

And um thereafter, you know, I I things really took off in a wonderful way. It was as though I'd been driving

Barry Humphries25:09

in a car with a handbrake on for years.

Presenter25:12

We're on disc number six, what have you chosen and why?

Barry Humphries25:15

One of my favorite composers is Francis Poulanc.

Barry Humphries25:19

He is the spirit of France and of joy.

Barry Humphries25:24

Poolang

Barry Humphries25:26

has also in his beautiful music.

Barry Humphries25:30

A whiff of melancholy, which I like very much in art.

Barry Humphries25:35

And you hear it, I think.

Barry Humphries25:38

to perfection.

Barry Humphries25:40

In this second movement of Poulan's sonata for flute and piano.

Presenter26:38

The second movement of Poulanc's flute sonata. Let's talk about her then. This lady, this dame now, indeed. She she starts.

Speaker 126:45

In cheap.

Presenter26:47

We can't really leave her out.

Presenter26:49

This is of course Day Medna we're talking about. To entertain the rather shrill.

Barry Humphries26:51

Entertainment

Barry Humphries26:54

Yeah.

Presenter26:54

Uh

Barry Humphries26:54

Uh

Presenter26:54

Uh

Barry Humphries26:54

and dowdy woman.

Barry Humphries26:57

But we all know, don't we, that frumps can sometimes triumph.

Barry Humphries27:03

Yeah.

Presenter27:03

Interesting that when you you triumphed on Broadway with Day Medler in 1999, but

Presenter27:11

They they didn't like you in the late seventies. I mean, you after a few weeks you had to stop the show. Wh when you triumphed, had they changed, or had you why did they suddenly fall in love with you?

Barry Humphries27:20

I think I had a bit, but they too.

Barry Humphries27:24

had grown more receptive to what is called

Barry Humphries27:28

Strangely enough, British humour.

Barry Humphries27:31

So I had a failure there, but it reminded me of my failure at the Establishment Club years before.

Barry Humphries27:38

But it didn't I didn't take it to heart.

Barry Humphries27:41

I just thought I'll never perform in America again.

Speaker 127:43

Yeah.

Barry Humphries27:45

Ever

Barry Humphries27:47

And um, do you know, I waited nearly twenty-five years before I went back there. And then I booked a theatre in San Francisco for two weeks.

Barry Humphries27:56

The season went for four months. I went to Broadway, I won the Tony Award, and now I have this strange.

Barry Humphries28:04

Experience of being popular in America. I can fill theatres. I don't have to go anywhere else. I can just tour the United States.

Presenter28:12

Is popularity important to you?

Barry Humphries28:15

Well, it is when you're earning a living, you know, from the sale of tickets.

Barry Humphries28:20

That's what popularity means to me.

Presenter28:22

But I mean a theater

Barry Humphries28:23

I guess we have to, as I did in the old days, look through a hole, a moth hole in the curtain and see if there are enough people sitting there to start the show. Let's hear some music. What's next?

Barry Humphries28:33

Well, I lived in a flat sometime in the early seventies in Mount Street, Mayfair.

Barry Humphries28:40

And as I walked down Mount Street I passed a bell in a door, and it said Spolianski.

Barry Humphries28:48

And I knew that Michael Spolianski was a famous composer of popular songs and shows in Berlin in those very creative years before Hitler.

Barry Humphries28:59

I pressed the door bell.

Barry Humphries29:01

And indeed it was the flat belonging to Mysius Poliansky and his wife.

Barry Humphries29:07

A wonderful guy.

Barry Humphries29:10

And I said I'd like to commission you, Misha, to write a song for Edna.

Barry Humphries29:15

So that'd be a very nice bookend, wouldn't it, to your career? You wrote for Marlina Dietrich, and then late in your career you wrote a song for Dei Medna, the Marlena Dietrich, after all, of the seventies.

Barry Humphries29:28

So he said, What kind of song? and so I sang him a song and he said, Look, that'll do, you don't need me. So that was that, unfortunately.

Barry Humphries29:35

But this is the composer at the piano.

Barry Humphries29:39

Playing his perhaps most famous song, Alf Viedersing.

Speaker 129:43

How free does it?

Speaker 129:48

How free does it?

Speaker 129:52

How free does it?

Speaker 129:56

Errogant

Speaker 129:59

Lovely.

Presenter30:11

Our Piedersen, composed and performed by the man who was to become your friend, Mises Spolyansky. For the past twenty years then, Barry Humphreys, you've been with your fourth wife, Lizzie Spender, very happily married. She is, of course, the daughter of the poet Sir Stephen Spender, and part of this rather magnificent, highly artistic family. You you have found a family then that doesn't find you quite so curious, have you? That welcomes you in with open arms.

Speaker 130:22

Mm-hmm.

Barry Humphries30:35

You win this.

Barry Humphries30:38

I hope so. Yes. Of course my mother in law has been on this programme. Indeed.

Barry Humphries30:43

So I'm following in her formidable footsteps.

Presenter30:47

I would tend to think that somebody who's been married four times must be a very optimistic soul.

Barry Humphries30:53

Yeah.

Barry Humphries30:54

Well they do say

Barry Humphries30:56

It's a sign of insanity if you do the same thing and expect different results. Well, of course I am slightly insane, but I'm uh very, very happy with my present uh situation.

Presenter31:07

I want you to imagine, of course, uh you're being cast away at at the end of this, after uh the last disc. Um as you look back at what you have achieved, will you will you be satisfied with that?

Barry Humphries31:12

Um

Barry Humphries31:18

No.

Barry Humphries31:19

No.

Barry Humphries31:21

Suddenly about fifteen years have passed too quickly.

Barry Humphries31:25

And I've not done certain things.

Barry Humphries31:28

But I hope that I'll write a few more books.

Barry Humphries31:32

And I hope

Barry Humphries31:34

that they're not too nasty in the telegraph when they write by obituary.

Barry Humphries31:41

I really would like an opportunity to write it myself.

Presenter31:45

What would you say?

Barry Humphries31:46

Well, it would be pretty well a catalogue of excessive compliments. It would just say what a very nice person I am.

Barry Humphries31:55

And what a generous hearted person a sentimental person I am.

Barry Humphries32:00

And it wouldn't make any reference to Edna at all.

Presenter32:05

Tell me about your final piece of music, then.

Barry Humphries32:09

Sitting there in Melbourne before I ever came to Britain.

Barry Humphries32:13

I would listen on my wonderful grammar phone, and I would play very often the music of Frederick Delius.

Barry Humphries32:21

who seemed to me the most English of composers.

Barry Humphries32:24

And what he did, I discovered, was to set to music.

Barry Humphries32:29

In a song cycle, the poems of Ernest Dawson.

Barry Humphries32:33

One of my favorite poets. And the last song, a very brief one, they are not long.

Barry Humphries32:40

The weeping and the laughter, love and desire, and hate.

Barry Humphries32:44

I think they have no portion in us after we pass the gate.

Barry Humphries32:49

They are not long the days of wine and roses.

Barry Humphries32:53

Out of a misty dream our path emerges for a while.

Barry Humphries32:57

Then closes.

Barry Humphries32:59

Within a dream.

Barry Humphries33:01

This is Delius's setting of that verse.

Presenter34:04

The final part of Songs of Sunset They Are Not Long The Weeping and the Laughter by Delias. So we come to the point, Barry Humphreys, then, where I am going to give you a copy of the Bible and the complete works of Shakespeare, and you're allowed to take a book of your own.

Barry Humphries34:19

Well, I was amused to learn that when James Joyce was in Trieste.

Barry Humphries34:26

He took with him only one book, and that was the Street Directory of Dublin. So I will take the Melbourne Street Directory.

Barry Humphries34:35

And each page will have a memory for me an old girlfriend, a school chum.

Barry Humphries34:41

A bicycle ride

Barry Humphries34:44

That will be my companion and since I'm unlikely ever to find my way back to Melbourne from that desert island,

Barry Humphries34:53

That will be my spiritual companion.

Presenter34:56

It's yours, and a luxury too, we allow you.

Barry Humphries34:58

Ah the luxury has to be my paints

Barry Humphries35:02

Because there'll be some very good subjects on the island.

Barry Humphries35:06

And it's the thing I enjoy doing most.

Presenter35:08

They are yours, and if you had to choose just one of these eight discs today, which one disc would you choose?

Barry Humphries35:16

Probably the last one that we've played.

Barry Humphries35:19

The Delius.

Barry Humphries35:21

It's very beautiful.

Barry Humphries35:23

And it's a

Barry Humphries35:26

Well, it's kind of

Barry Humphries35:27

Obituary

Presenter35:29

Barry Humphreys, thank you very much for letting us hear your Desert Island discs.

Barry Humphries35:33

Thank you.

Presenter35:33

Yeah.

Presenter35:41

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