Maggie Fitzgibbon

Presenter0:00

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

Presenter0:08

What part of Australia do you come from?

Maggie Fitzgibbon0:09

I was born and educated in Melbourne, Roy.

Presenter0:12

Any theater background?

Maggie Fitzgibbon0:13

Oh, yes, lots. My mother uh was a singer, and she had her own radio programme doing Sophie Tucker songs at the piano. My grandfather was also in the profession, but in a strange kind of capacity, because um he was a horse breaker.

Maggie Fitzgibbon0:26

And then he went into the theatre training and doing all the stunt writing in these enormous theatrical productions they had in the early nineteen hundreds, so it does go back a bit.

Presenter0:34

Great. So you took it for granted that you were going into business?

Maggie Fitzgibbon0:37

No, I didn't, strangely enough but my mother was quite sure I was going to have a voice, and she used to sit me on the piano and play and

Maggie Fitzgibbon0:44

Insist that I sang and everyone said no, dear, she'll never sing forget the whole thing.

Presenter0:49

How did it start, in fact?

Maggie Fitzgibbon0:51

My mother and I were staying with a friend and she also had some other guests, one man, an impresario, um, heard me singing under the shower, literally, and he said, Who's that? and she said, Oh, you'll meet Margaret and that's how I got into show business. What was the first break you had? A musical caucus, Mikate.

Maggie Fitzgibbon1:06

It was the first time for many, many years that an Australian a local girl had been cast in a leading role, and I played Bianca. So I did that, and it was highly successful, and I said, Oh, my dear, you made and I thought, Yes, well, that's the time to get out So I packed my bags and came to England.

Presenter1:21

You packed your bag and came over to England. Did you know anybody here, Maggie?

Maggie Fitzgibbon1:24

I had one girlfriend, yes, and we lived in a pseudo tudor cottage in Kensington with five other females. That was sheer hell, but we survived. And then Chesney Allen was the only other person. I had a letter of introduction to Ches. And he was an agent at the time, so he said, Yes, I know about you from our mutual friend. You must sing for me. I sang for him and he said, Okay, I'll be your agent and now we'll send you to Blackpool. He said, Because there's going to be a pantomime, so would you like to go and sing for the man there, just to prove you know that you're all right? So I said, Yes, I'll go to Blackpool. I thought it was about, you know, fifteen miles from London, so I got on a train at seven o'clock in the morning, I got there at one o'clock, I sang one swift chorus, and caught the two o'clock train back, and I got the job, may I tell you.

Presenter2:02

I tell you. What what were you doing in the panel?

Maggie Fitzgibbon2:05

I played Aladdin, Principal Boy.

Presenter2:07

Yes. And after Pantomime, what?

Maggie Fitzgibbon2:09

Um then Chesney said that we're sending out a show.

Maggie Fitzgibbon2:13

Uh, on the road and I thought good. Everyone said you you you're out of town for a few weeks before you come into the West End.

Maggie Fitzgibbon2:20

I went for forty-two weeks. I'd been somewhat misinformed, I think. So I went on tour with a crazy gang show and Monsieur Eddie Gray and Arthur English.

Presenter2:22

That means

Presenter2:29

Never a dull man

Maggie Fitzgibbon2:30

In an hour I had thirty two entrances a night. I followed myself on. I really mean that.

Presenter2:34

And you did some cabaret too.

Maggie Fitzgibbon2:37

Yes. After the forty-two weeks I decided that it was London and the bright lights or nothing else, so I came back and put a very ordinary cabaret act together and worked at the Astor Club. Then I went to the Begale, Talk of the Town. I worked with Danny LaRue for nine months at Winston's Club. So I've done, you know, quite a lot of people.

Presenter2:48

Okay.

Presenter2:52

What was your your first starring part in a West End musical?

Maggie Fitzgibbon2:55

It was in a musical, uh Leslie Bricoos' first musical, in fact, Lady at the Wheel. It was good, we ran for about six weeks, I think.

Presenter3:02

And then

Maggie Fitzgibbon3:03

Hmm.

Maggie Fitzgibbon3:04

Oh, then I did um Rosemaria. That had a limited season to begin with, so I I wasn't sort of carried away in the possibility of having a long run. I knew how long I was going to be there for. That was between Crazy Gang Shows and the Victoria Palace. And then I did uh Cookerborough.

Presenter3:20

An Australian church.

Maggie Fitzgibbon3:21

Yes. Wow, that was a big success. We managed five weeks with that.

Presenter3:24

Okay.

Maggie Fitzgibbon3:26

Oh, the topper, of course, the sad, sad one. Don't shoot we're English with Michael Mente.

Presenter3:33

It's the critic's shot, I remember.

Maggie Fitzgibbon3:34

Oh, they were so harsh. So we opened on the Thursday and the notice went up on Saturday. So I had ten days out of that one. But all the time I thought, well, at least I'm I'm working. No one's seeing me, but I'm working.

Presenter3:47

And you were doing all right. You were getting good notices, even if the shows were

Maggie Fitzgibbon3:49

Well, I was very fortunate, yes. Um so this is the thing I suppose that, you know, encouraged me to go on.

Presenter3:55

So let's press on. What was the next one?

Maggie Fitzgibbon3:58

Well after that it was slightly more successful. Do-Ray Me with Max Bygraves. We had three months out of that so that was pretty solid going. But that was great fun because I met Julie Stein and that's when Noel Coward came into my life. Yes. I met him and I went back to Australia. For the first time in ten years I went home in Sailor Way and Noel came out and for the final week of rehearsals and that was the most exciting thing I think of my career so far.

Presenter4:25

Yes. How long did you run an Australian?

Maggie Fitzgibbon4:25

How long

Maggie Fitzgibbon4:26

Six months, um and I fell in love with Australia all over again. You know, and I was young and I wanted to come to Europe, I couldn't wait to leave. And then when I got home I found that I found it s so beautiful and I liked the people.

Maggie Fitzgibbon4:40

Um but I realized that I had to get back to London within six months because any ground work I'd put in here would have been lost had I stayed there longer. So I was very happy to return.

Presenter4:48

So I will

Presenter4:49

And what was waiting for you here?

Maggie Fitzgibbon4:51

Drury Lane. I mean that was the magic name, wasn't it? That the hot telegram arrived in Australia. We want her for boys from Syracuse and I thought, Oh, at last they've found me, at last, you know, after thirteen solid years of plugging. And I came back and we ran for thirteen weeks and I was out of work for six months after that.

Presenter5:10

Oh dear. What happened next?

Maggie Fitzgibbon5:13

The phone rang one day and it was an offer to do a television uh series, uh six part serial, which I did playing an Italian woman, written by Colin Morris. And then one year later to the day, uh The Newcomers came into being when I got the call about the newcomers because the original six part serial was written by Colin Morris, who has written The Newcomers.

Presenter5:34

Yes.

Maggie Fitzgibbon5:34

And he had suggested me for the part of Vivian Cooper.

Presenter5:37

How long is it now that you've been in the newcomers?

Maggie Fitzgibbon5:39

Three years and four months, which I find extraordinary. It doesn't seem like that at all.

Presenter5:43

Mhm. Well, the great problem, of course, for anyone in a very successful series like the Newcomers is is how do you get out? I mean, you're there for life.

Maggie Fitzgibbon5:51

I'd hate to think that, of course, Roy as happy as I am at the moment. But Alan Browning, who played my husband in the serial, he played the part of Ellis um he made the decision and got out quite happily and successfully. I think it can be done. It's just having a perhaps a little courage.

Presenter6:08

Do you find you identify with Vivian Cooper?

Maggie Fitzgibbon6:11

Oh, she's a bit different to me, I like her.

Presenter6:11

Oh no, she's

Presenter6:15

Yeah.

Maggie Fitzgibbon6:15

But

Presenter6:15

Uh

Maggie Fitzgibbon6:15

No, she's calm. She has that nice British restraint which I feel I don't have, actually.

Presenter6:21

And what's for the future? What would you like to do next when when eventually would you decide to leave the newcomers?

Maggie Fitzgibbon6:27

I've given up planning, you know, really, about a career, and I don't have the same kind of ambition that I obviously had years ago. Perhaps I should just stay off the television screen for some six months. I think that would be the the clever thing to do. And I think I would like to sing again for a while, so perhaps back into cabaret. That's the only thought I have at the moment.