Eleanor Bron

Eleanor Bron0:00

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

Presenter0:08

Are you a Londoner?

Eleanor Bron0:09

Uh well I'm a suburban girl. I come from Edgeware.

Presenter0:13

Yeah.

Eleanor Bron0:13

Yeah.

Presenter0:15

Any theatre background on the family?

Eleanor Bron0:17

Not uh no, no, there isn't. My my mother and I believe even my grandmother might well have

Eleanor Bron0:23

done well on the stage, but um I'm the only one who's turned to it professionally.

Presenter0:28

As a schoolgirl, what did you want to be?

Eleanor Bron0:30

Well, I wanted to be an actress. I wanted to be in review and

Eleanor Bron0:35

I went for a little while to a a tiny drama school, but I was persuaded not to carry on with it. They said that uh an education is what a girl should have.

Eleanor Bron0:43

And uh all little girls want to be actually, as they said, you're just stage stuck.

Eleanor Bron0:47

And I, who believe what I'm told, believed it.

Eleanor Bron0:50

and was persuaded to go to university.

Presenter0:53

I didn't

Eleanor Bron0:53

And I don't really regret that.

Presenter0:55

So he went up to Cambridge to read what?

Eleanor Bron0:57

To read French and German, finally.

Presenter0:59

Yes. And did you get mixed up in any dramatic activities at the university?

Eleanor Bron1:03

Yes, I achieved a great ambition, um, which was to be in the footlights.

Eleanor Bron1:09

Um, that was one of my f I have few ambitions. One was to be in foot lights, but I was to be asked to do desert island discs, so there's not much left for

Speaker 11:14

So much left for me.

Eleanor Bron1:16

Um

Speaker 11:17

Who were the leading lights in footlights in your years?

Eleanor Bron1:19

Oh, John Bird directed it, And Peter Cook was in it.

Eleanor Bron1:24

Timothy Birdsaw.

Presenter1:25

Mm-hmm.

Eleanor Bron1:25

So died.

Presenter1:27

This was a a star-studded edition.

Eleanor Bron1:29

It was.

Presenter1:30

Did you write material?

Eleanor Bron1:32

I didn't let that time write no. I was too intimidated by the others.

Presenter1:35

And what did you do when you came down?

Eleanor Bron1:38

I hoped to be offered a grand and wonderful job, but in fact uh I was misled about having a university degree. I didn't think it's all that useful.

Eleanor Bron1:46

Um as far as finding a job is concerned. And

Eleanor Bron1:50

So I looked about in some despair, and didn't really find anything.

Eleanor Bron1:53

I had then had to go into hospital for a while and had a an operation on my spine.

Eleanor Bron1:57

which meant lying there for four months.

Eleanor Bron2:00

Which was quite interesting.

Eleanor Bron2:01

I didn't read Proust, which is what I thought I would do.

Speaker 12:04

Um

Eleanor Bron2:05

Um

Eleanor Bron2:07

Um, and then I came out and looked for a job and

Eleanor Bron2:10

I took a job that with a

Eleanor Bron2:12

A large, highly diversified group of companies in the personnel department.

Presenter2:17

Uh

Eleanor Bron2:17

Yeah.

Presenter2:17

Yes, do you use your language at all?

Eleanor Bron2:17

Yeah.

Eleanor Bron2:19

No, I use nothing at all except my fingers, but the typewriter and the filing system. I don't know what they wanted a person with a degree for. But, um

Eleanor Bron2:29

I I fortunately was just

Eleanor Bron2:32

raring to leave that job when uh the establishment needed a girl.

Presenter2:36

Yes. You went to the United States with the establishment group.

Eleanor Bron2:39

Yes, we went to we did an exchange with a group called The Second City in Chicago.

Eleanor Bron2:44

And uh that was my first glimpse of America.

Presenter2:47

How do you see your career shaping? Because obviously you are shaping it, it's not just happening.

Eleanor Bron2:52

Yes, well I suppose by dint of turning things down I I it becomes very depressing if you go on

Eleanor Bron2:57

turning things down. I begin to think perhaps I I shouldn't be doing this at all.

Eleanor Bron3:01

Because uh there's nothing I want to do, I should abandon it all.

Eleanor Bron3:05

But I do want to learn to act. I think that's the only

Eleanor Bron3:09

a reason to go on and also to write perhaps.

Presenter3:13

What place?

Eleanor Bron3:15

Um, yes, perhaps. I've just written a television show that I did with John Fortune, which we enjoyed writing very much, and we're going to try and do some some plays if we can.

Presenter3:24

What about directing?

Eleanor Bron3:26

I'd hate to direct, I think. I wouldn't know what to say to anyone. And uh

Eleanor Bron3:30

I want someone to tell me what to do.

Presenter3:32

What do you like to do outside the theatre and outside music?

Eleanor Bron3:36

Um well

Eleanor Bron3:38

I cook an awful lot, it seems. I must stop doing that.

Presenter3:42

What?

Eleanor Bron3:43

It's well, it's it's um

Eleanor Bron3:46

Because I tend to eat when I cook and that's not too good.

Presenter3:50

Do you have a religious faith that would sustain you?

Eleanor Bron3:52

No, not of that sort. I I think I'm in some sense as a religious person. In other words, I

Eleanor Bron3:58

I do think a lot about life and, uh

Eleanor Bron4:02

I seem to think there is some higher motive that should be going on in one's life, but as far as

Eleanor Bron4:08

Um, the existence of life after death, for instance. I there's a game, I don't know if you know the the f sort of Freudian game.

Eleanor Bron4:17

Um where you're asked

Eleanor Bron4:19

You you say you they say you you go into a ward.

Eleanor Bron4:22

And you have to say what kind of trees there are and you s you come to a house, what kind of house is it, and and so on it goes. And I was listening to two people playing this game and

Eleanor Bron4:31

The questioner put the last question, um, you've come to a wall, what's behind what's on the other side of the wall? And I interrupted rather rudely and said, Oh, don't be ridiculous, there's nothing on the other side of the wall.

Eleanor Bron4:41

And then my stomach turned over and I realized that this was my verdict on life and I didn't think there's anything on the other side.

Speaker 14:45

I don't think there's anything else.