Martin Clunes

Presenter0:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young. Thank you for downloading this podcast of Desert Island Discs from BBC Radio 4. For rights reasons the music choices are shorter than in the radio broadcast.

Presenter0:10

For more information about the programme, please visit bbc.co.uk/slash radio four.

Presenter0:34

My castaway this week is Martin Clunes, actor and now also a documentary maker. We've witnessed his graduation from being one of the men behaving badly to a stint at the National Theatre and on to becoming an adventuring natural history presenter, enthusiastically exploring our islands, endangered elephants, and even the story of dogs. His own pedigree's nothing to sniff at either. His father was the acclaimed actor Alec Clunes, and his mother spent time as Orson Welles' secretary. Yet he claims to have fallen into his profession because it sounded good, thinking as a teenager

Presenter1:08

Hm, I'll go and do that then. And I did, and I sort of got on. Uh well, you sort of did, didn't you, Martin Greens?

Martin Clunes1:14

Yeah.

Presenter1:14

You're going to be 50 this year. Yes. Does that feel like a biggie? Yes, it does.

Martin Clunes1:18

Now? Yeah. When I was forty-nine, I thought, well, what's fifty? It's just another gun. But now I

Martin Clunes1:23

I am about to be fifty. I keep thinking, should I be here or should I be where? I don't know. I've come on this programme. It's sort of quite a reflective time, I guess. Is it? Yeah.

Presenter1:32

Is it?

Martin Clunes1:34

Ah, we're having a party at home, is all I know.

Presenter1:38

Ah.

Martin Clunes1:38

Yeah.

Presenter1:39

So an element of surprise. And and what are you reflecting on then in this

Martin Clunes1:43

I don't know, just to define myself'cause I'm

Martin Clunes1:46

desperately to be liked by everyone and always have been, hence what I do, probably. But I sort of sometimes find myself

Martin Clunes1:56

contorting myself to be liked by people. I think, hang on, I'm nearly fifteen, I don't have to do this. Um, I guess'cause I was the younger sibling, I always felt like

Martin Clunes2:07

the youngest, I never felt like the oldest. But now, of course, I'm older. And people are now just this year, a few people have come up and said, Oh, oh, I I've grown up watching you.

Presenter2:17

Yeah.

Martin Clunes2:18

And I slap them.

Presenter2:20

I didn't say in the introduction, but you have gathered quite a few awards along the way in your acting career. Yes. You haven't brought them with you today, but you picked up a BAFTA, you won a British Comedy Award for men behaving badly, and you were also in Shakespeare and Love. There was an award for that, which was a Screen Actors Guild Award. Is it important, that public acknowledgment of the success?

Martin Clunes2:25

Yeah.

Martin Clunes2:41

Um

Martin Clunes2:42

I didn't plan on it uh any success. It w I mean, I thought I'd just keep busy uh and sort of be in rep actually, you know. I thought that's probably I'd just look at character actor quite happily sort of working away. So

Martin Clunes2:58

Success has sort of come as a as a surprise. Actually, just, you know, keeping busy has come as a surprise, really. This is not sort of faux modesty either. I'm genuinely surprised by the success. So awards are, I mean, are great to get them, you know, really nice. You missed out the Comedy Award for Doc Martin as well.

Presenter3:16

Oh, I'm sorry about that. Not that they matter. Not that they matter.

Martin Clunes3:17

Yeah.

Speaker 43:17

Uh

Speaker 43:18

What will they matter?

Presenter3:21

Uh let's let's go to the discs then, Martin Clunes. Uh your first one to date. Tell me what it is and tell me why you've chosen it.

Martin Clunes3:27

It's Hot Love by T. Rex. It could have been anything by T. Rex. And it wasn't the first record I bought, but my sister liked David Bowie, so I couldn't like him. And and sort of Mark Butlen and T. Rex were the opposition. Uh I don't think he was up all night writing the lyrics.

Martin Clunes3:45

But it is really great stuff. And listening back to it all now, it's just rock and roll, isn't it? It's a sort of twelve bar blues kind of rock and roll. It was everything that was great and I aspired to and and when I was at school having those those Mark Boland songs and listening to that rock and roll was

Martin Clunes4:03

I don't know. I think does everybody want to be a rock and roll star when they're younger? Yeah, I did. I did desperately wanted to be a rock and roll star.

Speaker 44:10

She's my woman of gold, and she's not very old, uh-huh.

Speaker 44:17

But she's my woman of gold, and she's not the old

Speaker 44:25

I don't need to be bold about it, may I hold your hand?

Speaker 44:32

She ain't no witch and I love the witch twitcher

Presenter4:38

That was T-Rex and Hot Love. So, Martin Cleaz, you said just a moment ago: I'm desperate to be liked by everyone and always have been.

Martin Clunes4:45

Yeah.

Presenter4:46

Yeah. Well why?

Martin Clunes4:47

I don't know.

Presenter4:48

Yeah.

Martin Clunes4:48

Yeah.

Presenter4:49

I don't know. It's always it's always been a thing. Is that generally the actor's thing? Do you think that's the p

Martin Clunes4:54

I th probably. On a pretty grandiose scale, isn't it? I th I yes, I think most actors

Martin Clunes5:03

Want to be liked?

Martin Clunes5:04

I mean that's kind of what they do, isn't it?

Presenter5:06

Well, not always. I think some of their actors want to ply their trade and they, you know, they they don't really care if people like them, they just want to be involved in the art of it. I think wanting to be liked is a different thing. I listen to so much.

Martin Clunes5:12

Just want to be involved in

Martin Clunes5:15

Some things.

Martin Clunes5:17

I listen to some of my colleagues and the way they apply me. I don't do that. No, I.

Presenter5:21

What the people you mean who make it seem much more complicated than it should be?

Martin Clunes5:23

I mean there there is of course it takes some work and there is a skill and a craft to it and you get better at that or worse at it. But like I said, I I personally don't you know I we're all monkeys in the zoo. You know you can go and look at the Judy Dench monkey or you can look at the Martin Clunes monkey or the Ricky Gervais monkey if you want a bit of this or a bit of that. Oh that that one's crying, that's a good monkey there.

Martin Clunes5:49

You know, we're all monkeys in the zoo and people stroll past us and dwell or not.

Presenter5:54

But do you find it a bit ridiculous what you do? I mean, are you a little bit embarrassed somewhere about what you do?

Martin Clunes5:58

No, no. There was a turning point when I

Martin Clunes6:02

Was lucky enough to direct a play, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. I've got an award for that, too, actually.

Presenter6:10

What did you what did you get, just as a matter of interest?

Martin Clunes6:12

A Charrington London Fringe Award. I w I don't know where it is actually. Um, but there's nothing wrong with just entertaining people. I'm I I don't'cause it always it was a bit useless, just

Martin Clunes6:25

sort of entertaining people, but it isn't actually. I think it is quite useful, and I like to be entertained, and people like to be distracted, maybe.

Presenter6:33

Unusually you straddle these two very different areas of it. It is mostly television uh right now. You you do uh the acting, of course, which we've known you for for a long time, and in more recent years you've branched off into doing these

Speaker 16:40

Mm-hmm.

Presenter6:43

documentaries about the islands of Britain. You did a series on that.

Speaker 16:44

Yeah.

Presenter6:47

your relationship with dogs and how that's affected your life and how we all sort of so many of us have have that relationship with our pets. You you also did one about Clydesdale horses, one on elephants. And do you ever worry that that is who you're about to become and that people are going to forget that you're an actor or that it'll compromise your acting?

Martin Clunes7:05

Um that is precisely the worry.

Martin Clunes7:09

Yes. I worri and I worried when I first'cause Nina the Elephant was that came about through my involvement with the Bourne Free Foundation, but the other ones, the Islands and the Dogs and the Horses, it sort of just came out of personal

Martin Clunes7:23

Interests, and it's not a good time to turn down a job in television. But I did worry that that would decrease my currency.

Martin Clunes7:32

for what I consider my day job, which is the the acting.

Presenter7:36

You live on a small farm in in Dorset now. You you said that animals give you a great sense of belonging. Tell me more about that, because these documentaries, lots of them have been made about animals. What what do animals

Martin Clunes7:43

Yeah.

Presenter7:46

Feed new

Martin Clunes7:46

They feed lots of things. I think with the domestic animals, I just know my life is better because I share it with all these personalities. Um driving back to Cornwall on a Sunday night to go for the the week's Fermi, I go and cuddle Chester. He's our king, he's this great big, huge dinosaur-sized horse. I mean, I am a bunny hugger. I'm unashamed bunny hugger.

Presenter8:11

How many animals do you have?

Martin Clunes8:13

Oh

Martin Clunes8:14

Fourteen horses, three dogs, two cats.

Martin Clunes8:18

Flock of sheep. Ten chickens. We got three more four more last week. And there's some cattle on the way.

Presenter8:24

Do you give them all names?

Martin Clunes8:26

Uh, not the ones we eat.

Presenter8:27

Right. So you do eat them. That was what I was gonna ask,'cause bunny huggers don't always eat the bunny.

Martin Clunes8:32

Uh, I'm cool with that. You know, I've t I've taken some of our lambs to slaughter. Um, but I thought that was a a duty I had. But no, no, I'm I'm I'm I'm all right with that. I won't eat any of the horses or the dogs.

Presenter8:45

There will be many of our listeners will be happy to hear us. Right. Let's go to our second piece of music today. Tell me about this.

Martin Clunes8:46

I should be happy to hear that.

Martin Clunes8:52

Oh well, Bob Marley, yes. I mean I r I really do like all Bob Marleys. It just rings a bell with me. I don't know why. Keeps me in touch with my black roots. Um if I can't think what to put on the the iPod or record player or whatever, I'll put Bob Marley on.

Speaker 19:08

Get up, stand up.

Speaker 19:11

Stand up for your right

Speaker 19:14

Get up, stand up.

Speaker 19:18

Stand up for your right

Speaker 19:21

Get up, stand up.

Speaker 19:24

Stand up for your right

Speaker 19:27

Get up, stand up.

Speaker 19:30

Don't give up the fight

Presenter9:33

Bob Marley and the Whalers and Get Up, Stand Up. So, Martin Cloons, you you grew up in Wimbledon on a nice big house that sat on the side of the common. Yeah, yeah, great place.

Martin Clunes9:40

Yeah.

Presenter9:41

Uh

Martin Clunes9:41

To grow up.

Presenter9:42

Tell me about the early days.

Martin Clunes9:43

The early days, gosh uh just out on the common on bicycles, climbing trees, smoking cigarettes, um just uh yeah, it was a just a great place to grow up. Um

Presenter9:57

And you you mentioned your sister, that that was the David Bowie fan. Yeah, how much what age is she?

Martin Clunes10:00

Yes. What age is she? She was let's not go into my sister's age. I just mean that.

Presenter10:04

I just mean how you

Presenter10:06

Right, well that'll cover it.

Presenter10:08

And it was a family steeped in uh dramatic tradition. Your father was a well-known, accomplished actor.

Martin Clunes10:13

Yes, he was, and then his parents were music hall entertainers. The only picture I've seen is that they were part of a song and dance troupe called The Brownies. And that's as much as I know about them because my mother wasn't keen on my father's family, so we don't know much about them. So, were they alive, your grandparents? My maternal grandparents were. And Red Granny, that was my mother's family, and White Granny, my father's mother, she was alive. I remember White Granny.

Presenter10:39

Red granny white granny, explain that to me.

Martin Clunes10:41

Herckel

Presenter10:43

That's all. Okay.

Martin Clunes10:46

Simple as that, yeah.

Presenter10:47

And and your mother, d tell me about your mum, what sort of person was she?

Martin Clunes10:50

My mum, um, she was she was great, she was very uh witty, but also I think she had a very low self-esteem, which I'm and I sort of because my father died when I was eight, I kind of piece images of uh together of what life was like for my mother. And uh I didn't find out until I was uh eighteen or so that my father had actually left us before he fell ill and died, and and died really quite quickly. Uh he's he sort of left and went out to live in the island of Majorca and was sort of trying to restart at the age of fifty seven, go back and he used to put he ran the arts theatre in Great Newport Street and put plays on and uh stuff and was I think he was wanting to go back into production and then was was diagnosed with lung cancer and the the doctor in Spain gave him three weeks. Um but his doctor brought him home and he actually lived for three months. So I think as far as my mum was concerned that could have been a bad patch they might have resolved. I don't know. I believe he was quite d difficult to be married to.

Speaker 111:07

Yeah.

Presenter11:31

Right.

Presenter11:49

Result

Presenter11:54

And so when you found that out much later and you s your father had died, as you say, you were only eight. So that must have caused you to look back at the whole situation and think that wasn't

Martin Clunes11:56

PF

Presenter12:02

What I thought it was.

Martin Clunes12:03

Uh

Martin Clunes12:04

I don't know what I thought it was. It didn't actually. A lot of it seemed like it was my mother's business, not mine.

Martin Clunes12:10

In a way.

Martin Clunes12:12

'Cause when you're eight, there's a queue of people waiting to do horrid things to you, go to school and they hit you with sticks.

Speaker 412:18

Yeah.

Martin Clunes12:19

Um there's all sorts of things going on, and I was bundled off to um boarding school.

Martin Clunes12:27

about a year after my father died, because I I also found this out later, that my mother had been advised that if I uh stayed home and grew up with my mother and my sister I'd be gay.

Presenter12:40

Right. So boarding school was to make a manager.

Martin Clunes12:42

Yes, and I really hated it. And to soften the blow I was a weekly boarder, so I had this sort of weekly agony of uh crying in the car all the way

Martin Clunes12:52

And then mum would cry all the way back on on her own, I later found out. And I was a a massive bedwetter, so r really prized in my dormitory, you know.

Presenter13:02

More of that in just a moment. For now, Martin Queens, let's have some music.

Martin Clunes13:05

Next is Avalon by Roxy Music, which I sort of discovered when I I s was working at the Bristol Old Vic repertory company and I loved it. I did about nine plays there over five years. And I stayed with my friend John Patton, no longer with us, I'm sad to say, but his father had worked for the BBC and he had these huge reference monitors they were called and in this tiny flat these huge speakers and music was everything. And Avalon was ever present. It's just such a great ballad and I think I'll probably need that on my own on this island.

Speaker 413:44

Now the party's over.

Speaker 413:47

I'm so tired.

Speaker 413:51

And I see you come

Speaker 413:55

Outta no way

Speaker 413:58

Much communication.

Speaker 414:02

In emotion

Speaker 414:05

Without conversation

Speaker 414:09

Aranot

Presenter14:14

That was Roxy Music and Avalon. You made Martin Clinton, you made the the time you spent at boarding school you said bundled off to boarding school, so that doesn't make it sound like a whole lot of fun. You were f sort of forced to go.

Martin Clunes14:25

Yes, well another thing you have no choice in as a child, yeah.

Martin Clunes14:30

And I was behind. I hadn't learnt any French, I hadn't learnt any Latin, and I think I did stay down a year.

Martin Clunes14:37

Um and wetting the bed. There was an early device for bed wetters that just sort of let a huge kind of horn go. But always when it was too late, you had to get it really good and wet before it went off. So they put me in um matrons room, which was the sick bay, to sleep on my own. Um in the end I I we I went to see a child psychiatrist.

Martin Clunes15:02

Who sort of got me off it eventually? I mean in my early teens I stopped.

Presenter15:06

So you were known among your schoolmates as being a bed wetter. Was that it? Or did you make them laugh? Did you get on with them? I mean, your your sense of humor is close to the surface as an adult. Wa was it as a child? Did you have chums?

Martin Clunes15:16

Did you have chums? I d I love laughing. You know, if somebody makes me laugh, I can sort of, you know.

Martin Clunes15:23

Dreadful people can make me laugh, and I sort of quite like them if because they made me laugh. Um.

Speaker 415:28

Yeah.

Martin Clunes15:29

But I think that's probably you know, mum prized wit and she could be quite cutting, but also terribly shy and unconfident. But wit was prized and that that's sort of reflected in in a lot of my music choices actually. That's kind of I th I thought well that this is better than just music because there's wit in it and there isn't much wit in in music.

Presenter15:51

And that's interesting because in the in a household where that's the currency, there was was there a lot of natural banter in the house?

Martin Clunes15:58

It wasn't no, it was it was it was just that mum could sort of, you know, slip a little cutting remark out and and

Martin Clunes16:06

She enjoyed wet, and she was quite a good laugher.

Presenter16:09

Did you ever ask to come home? Did you say to her, Look, I'm you know, I'm coming home at weekends, and I'm spending these miserable weeks in this miserable place in Surrey?

Martin Clunes16:17

I don't think so. I think it was just another of those things that had to be got through. Because I cried when I left that school, you know, but they put me in charge of the

Martin Clunes16:26

The animals, because they they they gave me this responsibility of getting up early. There was a huge menagerie, there was the school sheep, um there were some turkeys and chickens, and uh I was given this responsibility, because I wasn't in the dormitory, of getting up a bit earlier and going out and letting all the animals out and also putting them away again at night. And I had that responsibility, and then I was toast monitor as well. I would come in after letting the animals out in the morning and do the toast for breakfast.

Presenter16:52

What are what are the duties of Toast Monitor?

Martin Clunes16:55

Yeah, you make the toast.

Martin Clunes16:58

And that's it. That's it. Or Toastmaker, maybe. I've been doing it. Oh, I think Toast Monitor is it. Toast Monitor, yes. My first award.

Presenter17:00

No, I think test monitor is.

Presenter17:05

Let's have some more music, Martin.

Martin Clunes17:07

Okay. Disc number four. Disc number four. Ah, Chuck Berry, really. In, I think it was 1972 when Chuck Berry had My Ding a Ling came on top of the pops. And Mum said, Well, it's act it's rude, what he's saying. It's it's not clever or funny, that's just, you know, he's just being rude and that I don't think he's a very nice man, blah de blah. But anyway, I bought this um.

Speaker 417:17

Yeah.

Martin Clunes17:30

cassette and discovered, you know, the body of his work, this rock and roll. But also I think there's a lot of wit. And I just absolutely love them. And that sort of kicked me off into

Martin Clunes17:43

Realizing that it was the rock and roll I liked from T-Rex, the sort of straightforward, old-fashioned rock and roll.

Speaker 417:50

I'm not we've been again, I think I won't.

Speaker 417:55

Sometimes I will and again I

Speaker 418:01

Sometimes I do, then again I think I don't.

Speaker 418:06

Well, I looked at my watch. It was 9.21. Without a rock and roll dance, having nothing but fun.

Presenter18:14

That was Chuck Berry and Wheeling and a Rockin'. You are Martin Kuhn's father yourself, dad to Emily, who's 11, and she is surrounded by all of these animals. Is there something.

Speaker 418:17

Like that.

Presenter18:22

Are you sort of recreating the happiest bits of your childhood, do you think, by making sure she has that connection?'Cause it it sounds when you're talking about your childhood as though that was almost one of the best bits.

Martin Clunes18:32

Well, the animals at school, that was nice. We had a little we had a little dog, Jemima, at home, who used to sleep on my bed. And once I was off school sick, and my mother was an antique dealer, and she'd go off buying every Monday and Wednesday, and I was off school and old enough to be left on my own. So I took Jemima to Harrod's.

Presenter18:51

Did they let her in?

Martin Clunes18:52

Well I had to carry her, which she wasn't that happy about. She was a kind of whippity terrier across. She was just a little big. It felt really great to have this little bonding moment with me and Jemima.

Presenter19:02

And you said that your your your mum had low self-esteem. When did you work that out?'Cause you probably wouldn't know that as a child, would you?

Martin Clunes19:08

No, that was that was sort of uh as an adult. Just

Martin Clunes19:13

She didn't have a lot of initiative, and I think that probably comes from a low self esteem. But she did, you know, she got it together to get this shop up and running, and and she said to me once, I see him in that chair sometimes, and I said, Well, look what I bloody did And she bloody did, too, you know, she got her shop going.

Presenter19:28

And what did she bloody think when her son decided to become an actor like his father?

Martin Clunes19:32

Over the moon. So stage struck. I mean, she was stage struck before she married my father. She worked for him at the Arts Theatre, and she'd been an art student, and she used to make props at the Royal Opera House, and she she was Orson Welles's secretary.

Presenter19:47

Hmm.

Martin Clunes19:47

For um what she described as the most miserable year of her life.

Presenter19:51

Yes, I want to ask about that. Did she tell you fantastical stories about

Martin Clunes19:54

He was really scary and he he could move silently for such a big man and suddenly he'd be behind her. Daphne. And he'd g sort of give her like a twenty pound note and say go out and see how few cigars you can buy for that. Weird. Or he'd check out of a hotel without telling her or paying the bill in Paris so she'd have to or packing. Um so she'd have to pack and go through his case, get any unused airline tickets, cash them in and pay the bill and then get back.

Presenter20:23

Quite intimidating.

Martin Clunes20:24

Was she quite a young woman when she was a woman?

Presenter20:26

And had she watched you? Were you in school plays? Had she come to see you in school?

Martin Clunes20:29

Yes, they did a few the next school I went to

Martin Clunes20:34

You know, again I was this a really annoying little show off, but I wasn't boarding, so my bedwetting was my own business when I started there. Yes, uh annoying child, put him in a play. When they say what do you want to be when you grow up, uh actor was the was the word that came readiest.

Presenter20:50

What made you an annoying child?

Martin Clunes20:52

showing off, trying to get people to like me or laugh at me.

Presenter20:56

What would you do?

Martin Clunes20:57

Anything anything, light a fart, sit in the dustbin, you know.

Martin Clunes21:05

It would stop them hitting you.

Martin Clunes21:07

Briefly. I mean, it it's quite corny, isn't it? People trying to make people laugh to stop them from being hit. But I got hit a bit, but everyone got a bit a bit of hitting.

Presenter21:16

Well, that's not not everyone does get a bit of fitting.

Martin Clunes21:18

Well, they they do. The teachers hit you with sticks. That I mean, that that was a running theme through both those schools. And I'm still slightly jumpy when I go to Emily's school, where most of the teachers are younger than me, but I still think there's a danger they might hit me off a stick.

Presenter21:22

Paul.

Speaker 121:23

Uh

Presenter21:33

So you're not of the It Never Did Me Any Harm school then?

Martin Clunes21:37

I don't know if it did ever do me any harm, but it didn't certainly didn't do me any good, and it's morally questionable whether adults should hit children systematically with sticks.

Presenter21:45

It sticks.

Martin Clunes21:47

Yeah.

Presenter21:49

Let's have some more music. Martin Clins, what's next?

Martin Clunes21:52

Uh next is well Frank Zappa, again witty. There's so much to Zappa, he is an orchestrator and it's so complex and he makes so many musicians work so hard and seeing him live was uh incredible. I mean, dare I say it, I wouldn't mind trading the complete works of Shakespeare for the complete works of Frank Zappa, because I think I might get more out of that.

Speaker 422:18

Yeah.

Speaker 422:20

Don't make me wait till tomorrow. Whoa, no. Please darling. Let me love you tonight. And it'll be alright. You can't make me say I don't want you. Whoa, no.

Presenter22:46

That was Frank Zappa and Doreen.

Martin Clunes22:48

I should stress that our Desert Island is the only place in the world I'll be allowed to play any Frank's ever because it's neither my wife or daughter will let me, or they just leave the room if I put it on.

Presenter22:59

Would you play it in the car a lot on your own? Yeah.

Martin Clunes23:00

Oh yeah.

Presenter23:02

Your mother's cousin was the actor Jeremy Brett. Lots of people will know him from being one of the most famous Sherlock Holmes actor.

Martin Clunes23:04

Lots of people.

Martin Clunes23:08

Jeremy Jr. He did. He just made you feel fantastic, Jeremy. He just had that knack, and I've heard that from countless other people. Jeremy was the glamour of it all and gave me such confidence and was just great.

Martin Clunes23:26

I miss him. I miss him a lot. I'm very close to his son David ni lives near us and his family. We see an awful lot of them.

Presenter23:33

Can we talk about your launching career? Because looking at your C V it seems to me that very quickly after leaving drama school you got work. Now, of course you are a very talented actor, but I'm wondering if the doors opened because of your connections, do you think?

Martin Clunes23:45

I don't know. I mean, Jeremy never got me a job, and my dad had been dead, you know, ten years.

Martin Clunes23:51

And I think actually

Martin Clunes23:54

The sticky out ears were more help.

Martin Clunes23:56

than the dead actor father.

Martin Clunes23:58

And Jeremy, Jeremy offered if I wanted, bless his heart, offered to have them pinned back for me if I wanted.

Speaker 123:58

Uh

Presenter23:58

Exactly.

Presenter24:04

Now a lot of people going into the acting profession would have done that. Why did you not?

Martin Clunes24:07

Yeah. Why did you not? I just didn't fancy it, really. I didn't think it was. I didn't you know, I didn't think maybe I hadn't noticed them.

Presenter24:10

The operation

Presenter24:17

Well, it clearly is because you're good, and one of the things you were best known for in the beginning was men behaving badly. It ran for six years, it was written by Simon and I. Was it fun to make?

Martin Clunes24:25

It was such good fun to make because the four of us adored each other and we adored Simon Scripps and we adored Martin Dennis the director. So it was just a bunch of show-offs making each other laugh all day long. And we were also technically very proficient and we'd hit our marks and we'd always know our lines. And we could knock one of those out in about an hour and a half. And those those some of the yeah, we were we had a mantra like we're in the bar by nine. We would hit we would try and do that, whereas, you know, quite often the show will go till ten and past ten.

Speaker 124:48

Yeah.

Presenter24:48

Really?

Presenter24:57

Uh let me just remind people, of course, you talk about the we, the we was Neil Morrissey, Caroline Quentin and Leslie Ashe.

Martin Clunes25:01

Yes.

Presenter25:02

And you were the flatmates, you and Neil Morrissey, and your girlfriend was Carolyn Quentin and Leslie Ash lived, I can't remember if it was upstairs or next door. And there was a lot of beer drunk.

Martin Clunes25:04

Yeah.

Martin Clunes25:09

Yes, shit upstairs.

Martin Clunes25:11

There was? Yes, those end scenes on the sofa, yes. That was a real beer. It was a it was always a good moment to sort of get there.

Presenter25:21

And in the bar by nine. Was there quite a lot of in the bar? Yes.

Martin Clunes25:26

Yes, yes, we worked up a good thirst.

Presenter25:30

Do you uh keep in I mean, life has moved on in all sorts of ways now, but do you keep in touch?

Martin Clunes25:35

Yeah, I haven't I haven't seen so much of Leslie. Neil I see on the phone or we text, and Caroline I see all the time that they live very near us, and they have an Emily, same age as my Emily, and the Emilis they're a you know, they're a sort of special outfit themselves, the the two Emilies.

Presenter25:46

Right.

Presenter25:51

It did catapult you at the time to to enormous fame. I mean front page sort of fame.

Martin Clunes25:54

I mean front page sort of thing.

Presenter25:56

Given that your mum, as you say, was was something of a groupie.

Martin Clunes26:01

Boom.

Presenter26:01

Did she must have lapped it after she?

Martin Clunes26:03

She did. I think she's found some of it rather regrettable. Some of the heroes.

Presenter26:08

Yeah.

Martin Clunes26:10

Yes, I yes. I think she was more interested in the success than the fame,'cause fame is sort of a by product.

Presenter26:17

And were you tearing up the town then? Were you living at large?

Martin Clunes26:20

Really no, no. The papers insisted that we were and and still sort of do to a certain degree, which is fine. Um but no, not really. We weren't sort of pubbing it. Well, with a bit of pubbing.

Martin Clunes26:33

Some pubbing.

Martin Clunes26:35

Oh, it was good fun, whatever it was.

Presenter26:38

Let's have some more music, Martin.

Martin Clunes26:39

Rod Stewart and say, for people of my age, it was the slow song in the school disco. And why that while those opening twang, twang, twangs are going on, you'd go up to whoever and say do you want to dance. And actually when Philip and I were married at St Bride's Church, the choir sang it. Then it's just a I think it's a it's a key song in my make up, but because it's about a key time in my development, such as it is.

Speaker 427:08

And so

Martin Clunes27:09

Uh Uh

Speaker 427:11

I am sailing.

Speaker 427:15

Oh my God.

Speaker 427:19

Across the sea.

Speaker 427:23

I am saving.

Speaker 427:26

Starmie Walden

Speaker 427:30

To beware you

Speaker 427:34

To get free.

Presenter27:37

That was Rod Stewart and Sailing. At Martin Clune's for actors to be good at what they do, and you are very good at what you do, they have to easily access their emotions for their job.

Speaker 427:47

Hmm.

Martin Clunes27:48

Uh

Presenter27:48

In real life, how does that affect you? I'm presuming your emotions must be relatively close to the surface then, eh?

Martin Clunes27:53

Yeah, they think well, I do blub a lot. Blubbed at the the finger knitting on Britain's got talent and I blub, you know, if Emily does any kind of performance, I so embarrass her by just crying and or wa anything we're watching on the television, anyone's endeavours, they they get me crying and Emily goes, Mummy's gone again.

Presenter28:15

And as you enter that period of your life where, by your admission, you begin to get a little more reflective, do you feel?

Presenter28:22

More connected to your father because you're an actor too? Does it make you maybe understand those more difficult periods in his life?

Martin Clunes28:26

Expand those

Martin Clunes28:29

No, and I don't think I'm the same person at all, from what I've heard. My memories are all the few that I have, are quite clear and fond, and

Martin Clunes28:40

warm, but w I I don't understand him

Martin Clunes28:44

Leaving his family, I don't understand that at all. To me that is the most important thing.

Presenter28:49

Hmm.

Martin Clunes28:50

And that struck you presumably

Presenter28:50

And that struck you presumably when you when you got married and you had Emily. Was that the

Martin Clunes28:54

Yes, yes. Yeah, when I met Philippa, really, that's sort of when my new life started, really. She's the most important.

Martin Clunes29:02

thing in my life uh that that everything came from that my sense of family my

Martin Clunes29:08

Sense of, I don't know, life, you know. I just wouldn't be where I am without her.

Presenter29:14

And what sort of woman is she?

Martin Clunes29:15

She's beautiful, bright, really, really funny, but she's just very good and practical. She doesn't big herself up or show off. You know, she runs our company. She does all the paperwork. I don't worry my pretty little head about stuff like that.

Martin Clunes29:30

Which is fantastic. Ask anyone.

Presenter29:33

Let's have some more music, Martin.

Martin Clunes29:35

Well ah well, this, yes. Talking of having your emotions to the fore, this is um my daughter Emily and her friend Daisy, accompanied by mister Fulton, singing Elton John's Your Song at School recorded on my telephone.

Speaker 429:50

Tell everybody.

Speaker 429:53

Is it a song It may be quite simple?

Speaker 430:00

Now that it's done.

Speaker 430:04

Wintermind by Hogamite

Martin Clunes30:19

Those girls'll never starve.

Presenter30:20

They never will. That was your daughter, Emily, and her friend Daisy.

Martin Clunes30:23

Mr. Fulton's left the school now, the pianist there. It's a bit like John Lennon leaving the Beatles, he's bust the band up.

Presenter30:29

They were of course singing Elton John's uh your song. And and you say that Emily gets very sort of says that Dad's off again. W were you off again during that performance?

Martin Clunes30:38

Ahub every time, yes.

Presenter30:40

Yeah. Um so the the highlight of your year now, Martin Clutons, isn't the BAFTAs. It is, I understand, the Buckham Fair.

Martin Clunes30:47

Yeah.

Presenter30:48

Tell me about the Buckingham Fair.

Martin Clunes30:49

We've just had our fourth. We do it for a different local charity each year. And the balance is raising money for charity, but we also make it a really great day. It's a dog and pony show and a fun fair. And we had a big wheel and a helter skelter and dodgeums this year and God knows how many dogs.

Presenter31:08

Who organises it all?

Martin Clunes31:09

We do, myself and Philip and four others of the committee.

Presenter31:12

Is Philippa going to be listening to you saying that and thinking, Martin, you barely did anything, I did all the organising.

Martin Clunes31:20

No, we uh you know, it's quite a lot of work and we all six with our weight, I don't have to think. It's a r really nice thing to give. And the children sort of make it their own. You see these little girls in their jobbers stamping around and it's it's it's their thing.

Presenter31:23

Yeah.

Speaker 131:24

Binky.

Presenter31:36

It sounds to me as though you have I'm I'm sure not necessarily deliberately but as though you've constructed a very idyllic environment for your daughter to grow up in.

Martin Clunes31:42

Yeah.

Martin Clunes31:44

Yes, we have. Yeah. She can ride her pony down the road to her friend's house and yeah, it is idyllic. My childhood wasn't idyllic, you know, there were there were bumps in it, but it was pretty good being out there on Wimbledon Common up trees. And yes, it's a it's a nice thing to give her, I think, yeah.

Presenter31:55

Yeah.

Presenter31:59

Let's go to our final piece of music, Martin Quinns. What are we going to hear?

Martin Clunes32:02

Ah well, this is the Fun Lovin' Criminals singing All the Time in the World, the song that um Louis Armstrong sung. But the band Dodgy played at our wedding and I had a secret plan that Philippa didn't know about that I would get up and sing this song All the Time in the World to her on our special day.

Speaker 432:25

Ta-da!

Speaker 432:27

And

Speaker 432:32

Time.

Speaker 432:34

To what f

Speaker 432:37

All the precious things, life has the stones.

Speaker 432:43

And we are all

Presenter32:52

That was a fun love in Criminals and We Have All the Time in the World. I'm wondering, as good as you at the wedding to Philippa, or not quite as good? How was that rendition?

Martin Clunes32:59

I was a lot better. Let's just leave it at that.

Presenter33:02

Okay. I'm going to give you the books now, the Bible and the complete works of Shakespeare.

Martin Clunes33:05

Thank you.

Presenter33:06

And you're going to take a book along too. What are you going to take?

Martin Clunes33:08

Yes, uh Puccoon, I think, for no good reason. It's I haven't read it in years. It's really funny. There's a population in it, isn't there, of this um this community, and I imagine I'm gonna have to sort of populate my island somehow. I'll have to have references, I think, to things on the island so I can say, There's old tree.

Martin Clunes33:34

Does it have a tree?

Presenter33:35

I think it probably does.

Martin Clunes33:36

Okay. Yeah.

Presenter33:36

Okay.

Presenter33:38

And a luxury as well. You're all allowed a luxury.

Martin Clunes33:38

And but

Martin Clunes33:40

Right. Well, can I have a Clydesdale?

Presenter33:43

No.

Presenter33:44

Yeah.

Martin Clunes33:44

Really?

Martin Clunes33:46

Then I'm not going.

Martin Clunes33:48

Uh

Presenter33:48

Too late now, mate.

Martin Clunes33:49

No, no, no. Okay, I'll take an electric guitar and I'll start by trying to work out how to play Chuckberry's music, and then I'll move up to the to the zapper.

Presenter33:51

Okay, I'll take

Presenter34:01

Uh

Martin Clunes34:01

'Cause I'm gonna sneak his complete works out anyway.

Presenter34:04

It's yours. And um i if you had to choose just one track from these eight today, which one would it be?

Martin Clunes34:10

Uh

Martin Clunes34:12

Tailing

Martin Clunes34:14

I was going to say Emily and Daisy, which I probably should say, but I think sailing be m the idea of sailing off by Desert Island is probably going to stand me in good stead and because of all the all the things that song has meant to me throughout my life.

Presenter34:28

Martin Clunes, thank you very much for letting us hear your desert island disc.

Martin Clunes34:31

Thank you very much for having me.

Presenter35:08

You've been listening to a download from the BBC. You'll find more information on the Radio 4 website: bbc.co.uk slash radio four.