Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Desert Island Discs
Presented by Lauren Laverne
Triple Oscar-winning costume designer known for period dramas such as The King's Speech and the post-apocalyptic steampunk of Mad Max Fury Road.
Eight records
Aria from St Matthew PassionFavourite
It's from the St Matthew Passion, which is probably the piece of music I first took in and really listened to because both my parents were classical musicians and it was very badly paid in the 50s. So when they were both in something, I was often taken along to rehearsal. And I have this incredible memory of I think it must have been a rehearsal room in somewhere like the Royal College of Music because it's a big Victorian room. I'm sitting on a bentwood chair. My feet don't touch the ground. And they've rehearsed and I've heard it. And then they're putting their instruments away. And my mother's wrapping her viola in a scarf. And my father has a rather nice yellow duster which goes round his cello neck. And I just can see it as if it was yesterday. And the music's just crept into my soul at this point.
We had some really wonderful funny records like Planters and Swan and this fabulous Nilkart and we used to listen to them in the evenings with a cup of tea.
Disc number three is the flower song from Carmen, which I designed for Covent Garden at a ridiculously early age, doing a sort of rescue mission due to people not being available.
I remember sitting in the cinema for the Cast and Cruise screening and absolutely being blown away by the choice of this music which I had no idea was going to be on the film.
It's having my daughter with me, probably the most important person in my life.
This makes me laugh and has made me laugh from the minute I saw it.
I have actually sung along to the record at moments of my life and I just think it'd be brilliant.
It's the sort of music I go to when I need uplifting, I need some kind of spiritual moment which I find music is very good for.
The keepsakes
The book
Collected Works of Jane Austen
Jane Austen
I'm afraid it's going to be the complete works of Jane Austen, if I'm allowed, because I find her so re-readable and I needed something that I can re-read and re-read and re-read. And she's always got something terribly pertinent to say.
The luxury
I've thought about this deeply and from, you know, endless mosquito repellent, I think a cello. Because it's the instrument I did learn when I was younger and I would obviously need some music and I would have a real go at it and try and do it properly.
In conversation
Presenter asks
What do you remember about losing your mother when you were fourteen?
I'm funny about death. I don't know. I've always had an just an inevitability about it, so it's sad, but it's not anything that isn't in a funny way normal.
Presenter asks
How did you get the gig designing sets and costumes for Carmen at the Royal Opera House at just twenty-one?
I'd been sent to the Welsh Theatre Company as an Arts Council trainee assistant designer, which was a fantastic scheme that ran then, and you would be put in a theatre. And that at that time was run by Michael Jelliott, who also ran Welsh National Opera. And he'd been asked to do Carmen at Covent Garden and had actually asked my head of department when I was at Central School of Art and Design, Ralph Coltai, to do the sets. And Ralph was very modern in his design style. He did really extremely beautiful sculptural sets. But the conductor, Sir George Schulte, who was coming back for his first sort of gig after he'd left the opera house and was coming back as a guest conductor, didn't want a modern interpretation. So suddenly, you know, Ralph decided it wasn't right for him, and they were left without a designer. And Michael turned to me, I'd done two incredibly small shows for him at the Welsh Theatre Company, which is an 80-seater and splot. Said, what did I think of Carmen? And I said, well, you know, of course I know a bit of it, but I've never really. So he said, well, listen to it and see what you come up with that one. Now, as I was an arts council trainee assistant, I thought, oh, well, that's just him, you know, asking me to do something. So I designed a set for Act One, which is the Piazza. And he took a look at it and he said, We're going on a plane tomorrow. Have you got a passport? I said, Yes, we're going to Frankfurt. We're going to see Sergeio Kascholti. I want you to show this to him to do Carmen. So I packed up the model and off we went to Frankfurt and Scholzey said, I'd just like to see what you'd do for Act Two. So I came back and designed Act Two and he liked it. So that's how I got the gig. And then happily in the house, this is a house in Putney. My friend David Fielding was living there. He'd just, we were at college together and he'd come back. So I got him involved. So we actually ended up doing it together. And then he sort of took on the props and then because I was suddenly then asked to do the costumes. How did that come about? So at first it was just the sets and then what happened? Well nobody wanted to do costumes for a 21 year old designer's sets. So it was like you will do it, you know. So how many are we talking? About 400.
The recording
Timestamps play the recording from that turn
Presenter
BBC Sounds, Music, Radio Podcasts. Hello, I'm Lauren Laverne, and this is the Desert Island Discs Podcast. Every week, I ask my guests to choose the eight tracks, book, and luxury they'd want to take with them if they were cast away to a desert island. And, for rights reasons, the music is shorter than the original broadcast. I hope you enjoy listening.
Presenter
My castaway this week is Jenny Bevan. She's a triple Oscar-winning costume designer and has spent 40 years building characters and weaving narratives for the big screen through clothes. Her eye for detail and knack for authenticity are the stuff of legend in the film industry, and they serve her well whichever world she steps into. The exquisite period costumes of The King's Speech, Ghostford Park, and Sentence Sensibility feel absolutely true to their settings, but then so do the post-apocalyptic steampunk of Mad Max Fury Road and the 70s fashion banquet of Disney's Cruella. She grew up in a creative household and dreamed of becoming a set designer until a lucky break set her on an altogether different path. She describes her job as storytelling through clothes. So what story do her own choices reveal? Perhaps that she's someone who likes to push the boundaries and mix things up? After all, she did make headlines around the world when she rocked up to collect her second Oscar in an MS leather jacket. She says, I love dressing others and I know how to make them look beautiful on screen, but I've never been interested in that kind of look for myself. Jenny Bevan, welcome to Desert Island Discs. Thank you, Lauren. It's a real honour to be here. Oh, we're delighted to have you. So, Jenny, you must have the most wonderful imagination to keep being able to visualise so many different worlds and characters over all of the decades that you've been working. I wonder what the starting point is for you once you've got a new commission.
Presenter
The script and the director's vision. So, normally I'm sent the script, and if I like it, then there's a meeting with the director arranged, unless, of course, it's someone I've worked with before. From that moment, I sort of live in that world, and that's what I really love: becoming part of the world of whatever story it is. So, as you're reading it, is it coming to life so you can visualize it quite early on? It normally does on the first reading. I do haven't.
Jenny Beavan
So as you're reading
Presenter
a huge imagination, which served me slightly worryingly when I was very small because I used to have terrible nightmares and, you know, imagine all sorts of horrors under the bed and you know, whatever. I wonder what qualities you most enjoy in the actors that you work with? What are you hoping for when you set out to start your fittings? I think the thing I'm looking for
Presenter
And when it happens, it just makes it sheerly joyous. Is when the actor turns and says, Now I know who I am.
Presenter
Jenny, of course you're sharing your tracks with us today, the music that matters to you. How important is music to you when you're working? Do you use it to help you create an atmosphere when you're fitting or working with an actor or to create a world? I do it at home. I don't use music in the fitting room. But in my own life, music is probably the most important of all the arts. I was brought up in a family of classical musicians and that was absolutely what we heard. and lived with all the time and it's still in fact in my next life I will share this with you I'm going to be a conductor and I'm going to practice which I didn't do this time around so yeah good to know what your future plans are and well before we get there let's get to your music this first disc today what's it going to be Jenny
Speaker 2
Uh
Jenny Beavan
Oh, yeah.
Jenny Beavan
Good to know what your future plan.
Presenter
It's from the St Matthew Passion, which is probably the piece of music I first took in and really listened to because both my parents were classical musicians and it was very badly paid in the 50s. So when they were both in something, I was often taken along to rehearsal. And I have this incredible memory of I think it must have been a rehearsal room in somewhere like the Royal College of Music because it's a big Victorian room. I'm sitting on a bentwood chair. My feet don't touch the ground. And they've rehearsed and I've heard it. And then they're putting their instruments away. And my mother's wrapping her viola in a scarf. And my father has a rather nice yellow duster which goes round his cello neck. And I just can see it as if it was yesterday. And the music's just crept into my soul at this point. I must have been about six, seven. I love that they were dressing their instruments. Yes, I love to put them away, yes. And also, when you use rosin on a bow, it gets powdery, and so you need something to just gently dust it off.
Jenny Beavan
Just gently dust it off.
Speaker 2
Uh
Speaker 2
Let me fight a little
Presenter
Giddelt from Bach's Saint Matthew Passion, performed by Hans Peter Blochwitz, and the Chappelle Royal Orchestra, conducted by Phillip Peravega. So let's go back to the beginning then, Jenny. Um you chose that piece, as you said, to remind you of your parents, your dad, Peter in particular, playing the cello. Tell me a little bit more about him.
Presenter
He was a remarkable man, I think, and I think a cellist from a very young age, and came up to London at age 16 to go to the Royal Academy of Music and met my mother, who was actually from the Royal College of Music on a Boyd Neal orchestral tour later on. But he always had projects. Letterpress printing, he was extremely good at. He was always making things, DIY. That wasn't always quite so successful. And then we got this whole hi-fi thing going. And I think it was pretty medium-phi, actually, but he bought all the separate components and put them together. Oh, and photography, that was another thing. I do remember standing next to him in the dark of this little almost cupboard at the back of our flat in Kensington and watching the photograph come up in the bath of Hypo, I think it was called. Yes, you know, he used to take beautiful photographs and then develop them and print them. So I was just brought up in a very creative sort of
Speaker 2
Oh yes, the
Jenny Beavan
Budget costs under
Presenter
Way, I think. It does sound like it was 24/7 creativity in your house. What about your mum, Molly? She was a viola player, right? She was a fantastic viola player and a wonderful mother, but she stopped playing to look after us. And I always think that was a mistake. I mean, she should have kept playing more. I always thought she was so good, she should have kept going more and not worried about us. We'd have, you know.
Jenny Beavan
Uh
Jenny Beavan
She was a cont
Presenter
We'd have been fine. But she sh in the room downstairs in the flat, she left a wall so that we could draw on it. I never forget that. It was such a brilliant thing to do, you know, just let them go free on the wall. It sounds like a very joyful household, the way that you described it, this this kind of active, interested, expressive household. It was, and she also um sent us to a furbel school rather than um
Jenny Beavan
And fast.
Jenny Beavan
Did y expressive have
Presenter
A regular primary because she loved that German system of play and through the play you learn actually an enormous amount, which I absolutely loved. So they must have been very progressive because this would have been the fifties. Yeah. So with both of your parents being professional players, Jenny, did did you and Hilary follow in their footsteps and take music lessons? Did you do it informally, just as part of family life? We absolutely did take lessons and Hill was much better than me, as she is at most things, and played the piano. I played the cello, which I did enjoy, but I just was hopeless at practising. And, you know, I just wanted to be able to do it. I did learn it up until I was about fifteen or sixteen and
Presenter
Can still just about do it. And we have this terrible family quartet. It's called the plughole quartet. I've heard about this. Now, the plug-hole quartet, talk me through the repertoire. What have you got? No, not a lot.
Speaker 2
We go.
Presenter
So we formed because I had a huge bathroom project at my house and to celebrate the finishing of the building works we played a piece written by my friend Julian Marshall which was called The Bathroom Suite and I'd said to him expressly has to be in four four time in C major but oh no no we're in three sharps and all over the place. Anyway we got through it wearing of course bath hats and bathrobes. Speaking of music, time for your second disc. What are we going to hear next? We're going to hear the Stately Homes of England performed by Nell Coward which
Presenter
I mean we didn't just stick to classical music at home and we had some really wonderful funny records like Planters and Swan and this fabulous Nilkart and we used to listen to them in the evenings with a cup of tea. This is the days of this hi-fi, marvellous hi-fi thing that my dad made. We lived in Putney in a very normal Edwardian house, not huge and my mother, I think she died by this moment, she died very young, and this fabulous aunt came to look after us and it would be whoever was around. Plus there was normally at least three or four people sort of tucked into corners, you know, waves and strays and cousins and what have yous. We'd put on an LP and listen to it and I just have these wonderful memories.
Jenny Beavan
The stately homes of England we proudly represent. We only keep them up for Americans to rent. Though the pipes that supply the bathroom burst in the lavatory makes you fear the worst, it was used by Charles I quite informally and later by George IV. On the journey north, the state departments keep their historical renown. It's wiser not to sleep there in case they tumble down. But still if they ever catch on fire, which with any luck they might, we'll fight for the stately homes of England.
Presenter
The Stately Homes of England, written and performed by Noel Coward. So Jenny, when you were young in this rather bohemian home, were you always making things, putting on plays, that kind of thing? It was more dolls' houses in those early days. And then I had this wonderful grandfather who used to give us sixpence if we could tell him where a quote from Shakespeare came from. And he decided he wanted to take me to see my first Shakespeare. And he took me to see Dorothy Tootin in Twelfth Night. I must have been 10 or 11, I think. And I'd never seen anything like it. What kind of production was it? It was probably quite a straightforward production, but I was just entranced with the acting, the look of it, the storytelling, and knew at that point I needed to be some part of it. I don't think I ever wanted to act, but I knew there was something about being part of that world that really...
Presenter
really was going to be important. Now, as you mentioned, Jenny, you lost your mum when you were very young. You were just fourteen when she died. Wh what how clear are your memories of that time? What do you remember about it? She was ill for quite a long time. It was cancer and possibly these days would have been cured.
Presenter
And um
Presenter
I'm funny about death. I don't know. I've always had an just an inevitability about it, so it's sad, but it's not.
Presenter
Anything that isn't in a funny way normal. And then this fabulous aunt Pole, who is a distant relation, not I think fourth cousin or something, said she, if we wanted her to, if the girls wanted me, I will come and look up. And she brought her two children, Rod and Claire. So we actually expanded as a family. And we're still incredibly fond of each other. But you had that emotional support from extra family and absolutely. I know that your sister said you stepped in to help with the practicalities and support her and look after her. Tried really hard, I must say. Although, you know, the washing, oh dear.
Jenny Beavan
Hmm.
Jenny Beavan
Tremendous, yes, absolutely.
Presenter
I can remember one of the very early things I bought after that experience when I first earned a bit of money. It was an automatic washing machine.
Presenter
That's true Lucas. So what was it, Twin Tub before then? Oh, it's Twin Tub, yes, absolutely. And a lot of hauling of stuff, you know, between the two.
Jenny Beavan
Yeah.
Jenny Beavan
Oh, it's twin tarps.
Jenny Beavan
stuff but
Presenter
No, absolutely. But that's that must have been quite a a lot of responsibility to take on t as a teenager.
Jenny Beavan
Yeah.
Presenter
Yeah, I think it was. It's time to go to the music. Disc number three. What are we going to hear? Disc number three is the flower song from Carmen, which I designed for Covent Garden at a ridiculously early age, doing a sort of rescue mission due to people not being available.
Speaker 2
Of what the dream of deal.
Speaker 2
Scott, Scott
Presenter
La fleur que te ma veil jet.
Presenter
The Flower You Threw at Me, sung by Placido Domingo, with the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir George Schulte.
Presenter
So, Jenny, you're going to have to talk me through this. You ended up designing not only the sets, but also the costumes for Carmen at the Royal Opera House. You were just twenty one. You described it as a rescue mission. Quite the debut. How did you get the gig?
Presenter
I'd been sent to the Welsh Theatre Company as an Arts Council trainee assistant designer, which was a fantastic scheme that ran then, and you would be put in a theatre. And that at that time was run by Michael Jelliott, who also ran Welsh National Opera. And he'd been asked to do Carmen at Covent Garden and had actually asked my head of department when I was at Central School of Art and Design, Ralph Coltai, to do the sets. And Ralph was very modern in his design style. He did really extremely beautiful sculptural sets. But the conductor, Sir George Schulte, who was coming back for his first sort of gig after he'd left the opera house and was coming back as a guest conductor.
Presenter
didn't want a modern interpretation. So suddenly, you know, Ralph decided it wasn't right for him, and they were left without a designer. And Michael turned to me, I'd done two incredibly small shows for him at the Welsh Theatre Company, which is an 80-seater and splot. Said, what did I think of Carmen? And I said, well, you know, of course I know a bit of it, but I've never really. So he said, well, listen to it and see what you come up with that one. Now, as I was an arts council trainee assistant, I thought, oh, well, that's just him, you know, asking me to do something. So I designed a set for Act One, which is the Piazza. And he took a look at it and he said, We're going on a plane tomorrow. Have you got a passport? I said, Yes, we're going to Frankfurt. We're going to see Sergeio Kascholti. I want you to show this to him to do Carmen.
Presenter
So I packed up the model and off we went to Frankfurt and Scholzey said, I'd just like to see what you'd do for Act Two. So I came back and designed Act Two and he liked it. So that's how I got the gig. And then happily in the house, this is a house in Putney. My friend David Fielding was living there. He'd just, we were at college together and he'd come back. So I got him involved. So we actually ended up doing it together. And then he sort of took on the props and then because I was suddenly then asked to do the costumes. How did that come about? So at first it was just the sets and then what happened? Well nobody wanted to do costumes for a 21 year old designer's sets. So it was like you will do it, you know. So how many are we talking? About 400.
Presenter
But at the opera house, everybody was incredibly helpful to me. I think they realised if they weren't, it could all go horribly pear-shaped. And the more help I got, the more likely we were to end up with a good production. It was never going to be earth-shattering or fabulously modern, but it was a good, solid rendition of Carmen with nice sets. I was proud of the sets, actually. So it went well, and after a few years working in theatre, you helped an old family friend out. They'd asked you to work on Dame Peggy Ashcroft's costumes, and that took you into designing for Merchant Ivory. So Nick rings me and says, Could I just go and help her get together a wardrobe of clothes for this eccentric English art dealer who's going to be traveling overland with her female companion and then no money involved? So I looked through my wardrobe and I had some quite odd pieces and I went over and we had a wonderful day and then I went back and she said to me
Presenter
She said, My dear, we're getting on quite well. Now, I've never been to India before. This is pre-Jewel in the Crown or Passage to India. She said, I'm a little concerned about going.
Speaker 2
Yeah.
Presenter
And she said they offered me a first-class air ticket. If I change it for two economies, will you come with me? So I end up at this palace in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. And I just get involved with everything. I do crowd collecting, I do props, I do costumes, I help with continuity. I, you know, basically just and after that, I was simply part of the Merchant Ivory family. And they saw me as a costume designer. Didn't you go traveling together? After the film, which was in Rajasthan, we went down to Goa and we had an incredible time. I remember we were both on a Lambretta scooter, you know, and it was a lovely end to what was really my first film. It's time for some more music, Jenny Bevan. What's your fourth piece today and why are you taking it with you to the island?
Presenter
It's Omil Bambino Caro from A Room with a View. It was the film I did with Merchant Ivory and John Bright and I was so surprised because obviously when we make a film you have no idea what the music's going to be. You're making the pieces of the jigsaw which are then slotted together by someone else and then varnished over and all that. And so I remember sitting in the cinema for the Cast and Cruise screening and absolutely being blown away by the choice of this music which I had no idea was going to be on the film.
Speaker 4
Yeah.
Presenter
Yeah.
Speaker 4
I hold the song.
Speaker 2
Ako Melana Si Si Choyand
Presenter
O Mio Babino Carol by Piccini, sung by Kiri Tecanawa with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, from the soundtrack to A Room with a View
Presenter
Jenny, it's not just about getting the visual look of a film right. It's also about understanding its social context, isn't it? I know that when you worked on the film The King's Speech, you made sure Geoffrey Rush's character didn't have too many clothes. Yeah. Well, we didn't then. They're obviously a bit earlier, but only a little bit. But I remember having very few clothes in the early 50s, and you mended them and you polished your shoes, and you only had three pairs, your indoor, your outdoor, and your daps, possibly a pair of Wellingtons. But absolutely, nobody did, and they wore them round and round, as indeed in Jane Austen's day. They didn't necessarily have many clothes, but they had a lot of accessories that sort of gave things a really different look. And that's one of the fun things. And if you're on a small budget, that really saves you. You'd enjoyed so much success, Jenny, with some incredible period costumes. But then in 2015, there was a complete change of gear. You were asked to work on something totally different. Mad Max Fury Road. So how did you go about imagining costumes for this post-apocalyptic world? I mean, it's a graphic novel to start with, so I guess you've got the comics to help you, the visual references. But what sort of design criteria did you have?
Presenter
It's exactly the same as if you're doing Jane Austen or Modern or King's Speech. It's a story of these characters and what their backgrounds are and where they've come from. And in this, it happens in the post-apocalyptic world. They're surviving with very little. They're in a world without much water. And it's a whole different set of rules, rules of survival. And a lot of them are... only kept alive by the curious contraptions they wear like the mask on the Immorton Joe and the breathing thing on his back or Rictus Suractus with his breathing thing and his you know and that because like the war boys have nowhere to put anything pockets would be really handy so you know they would keep whatever they owned in pockets and that gave them a much sort of more solid look but a real teamwork thing actually well as it should be
Jenny Beavan
Thank you.
Presenter
It's time for your fifth choice, Jenny. What have you got for us? My fifth choice is my daughter Caitlin singing Scream. So she did toy with the idea of being a musician. She
Presenter
went to a wonderful school and they had a great drama department and they did the Fall of the House of Usher as their A level set piece. And she wrote this song Scream when she was thinking of music and with Jim Bell.
Presenter
And I just think it's really clever. She did a whole C D and
Presenter
It's having my daughter with me, probably the most important person in my life.
Presenter
Through the silence you hear it beating.
Presenter
And you know you're coming with me, my dear.
Presenter
Is this your fear? Can you hear me?
Presenter
You always hear me scream
Speaker 4
Uh
Presenter
Scream by Caitlin Albury Bevan. So, Jenny Bevan, your costumes for Mad Max Fury Roads were hugely successful. You won both an Oscar and a BAFTA for your work on that film. Now, when you went to collect your BAFTA, the host for the awards ceremony, Stephen Fry, did joke only one of the greats of cinematic costume design would come to an award ceremony dressed as a bag lady. And it created a few newspaper headlines at the time. What's your recollection of events?
Presenter
Well, I didn't hear it because I was already backstage. And I love Stephen, and I love the fact he said that. Of course, I did. I had my shirt tiles hanging out. I mean.
Presenter
It it was just a I thought it was just an absolutely fine thing to say and um
Presenter
I didn't think it did me anything but good, really. But obviously this kind of hubbub around it, how long did it take to die down? And did that kind of creep into your real life at all? Were there people outside the house and things like that? Yeah, we did we had a bit of that. But what was interesting was actually understanding what film stars go through. Just having a moment of learning what it feels like to be recognised under the street and all that. Died down very quickly. It was all fine.
Jenny Beavan
Yeah.
Presenter
There was a tabloid journalist in your hedge though. There was indeed. Yes, who leapt out, but my neighbour across the road. It was funny because he said, come over and have a drink. And literally, I mean, we're talking over the road. When I got ready to come back to my house, he said, I'm going to walk you across. I said, Stuart, don't be ridiculous. It's over the road. I'm walking you back. And there he was when this woman literally jumped out of the hedge. So I was very glad he had.
Speaker 2
So let's work
Jenny Beavan
Uh
Presenter
So you you won another Oscar for your work on Cruella, the twenty twenty one film with Emma Stone and Dame Emma Thompson. Now anyone who's seen it, as I have numerous times, will understand why. It is an absolute tour de force banquet of seventies fashion, both stars wearing a stunning parade of outfits. And one of Emma Stone's involves a white cape that actually literally burns off to reveal a red dress, so she sets it on fire. There are multiple fashion shows, there are balls, there are punk rock performances. I mean, you know, there are a lot of extras and everybody's costume matters in this film. I'm imagining that must have been really rewarding, but a challenging film to work on. How long did you have to prepare?
Presenter
It was very quick, another sort of rescue mission, really. We actually had 10 weeks. It's not like theatre where you have to have it all ready for the first night. You're going in schedule order always. But even so, it was massive because the schedule was all over the place with stuff coming up front. But Emma Stone, bless her, slipped at a, I think, a Spice Girls concert and broke her collarbone, for which she was so mortified. And I just said, so long as you're not in too much pain, we are so grateful because it actually gave us another six weeks. And we've been going at such a speed that we just kept the thing up and really, really helped, I think, put a lot of the detail in that would have been a bit tricky otherwise. But I also had the most phenomenal team on that.
Jenny Beavan
The first night.
Jenny Beavan
More web
Jenny Beavan
She gave us another six
Jenny Beavan
But how
Speaker 2
Uh
Jenny Beavan
Yeah.
Presenter
Jenny, it's time for some more music. Your sixth piece today. What is it? Well, this isn't music. This is Joe Lysett doing the parking fine. And Jo is a tremendous friend. And I'm not sure I'm going to like this island. I'll be very, very honest. I like my home comforts. I'm not going to like being bitten by bugs and not having a proper mattress and various things. And this makes me laugh and has made me laugh from the minute I saw it. And Jo, in a funny way, is sort of the epitome of the house I live in in London now, which is also full of
Presenter
People and artists and musicians, sort of part-time, whatever. And I do really love that kind of life, which I've sort of had through my life, is just really fun people living at the house. So Joe came to lodge with you. He's a friend of your daughter, Kately. Yes, they met at Manchester University, and his dad bought a flat. And Joe said, you know, if you want to leave your stuff up over the summer break, do. And I thought, oh, that's brilliant. I don't have to drive all the way up to Manchester and back. And I said, well, it's really kind. You know, Joe needs a room. Do tell him he's welcome. Twelve years ago?
Presenter
I mean, he's got his own house. He doesn't, you know, he lives in Birmingham and is a proud Brummy. But, um,.
Speaker 2
Yeah.
Presenter
Yeah, he's around.
Speaker 2
I feel like we should talk about parking finance.
Jenny Beavan
Some recognition in the room. This is a bit of helpful advice. I know we're in London and parking's a nightmare here. There's a thing called a subject access request. It's part of the Data Protection Act 1998. You can request any and all information that a company or an institution has on you and it's such a fabulous waste of their time. They don't want any extra admin. If you give them some, they hate it. They normally go away. This is an ongoing one, which isn't a parking fine, actually.
Presenter
This is um this I was driving in the wrong lane and they gave me a fine for that and a bloody square Joe Lysett on the perils of parking and driving in London
Jenny Beavan
Joel
Presenter
So, Jenny, you've just been nominated for another Oscar for your work on Mrs Harris Goes to Paris. In a nutshell, Mrs Harris, played by Leslie Manville, is a cleaner. In the late nineteen fifties she sets her heart on owning a Dior dress. Was there much collaboration between yourself and Dior?
Presenter
I understood when I took on the job that Dior would be doing the Dior part. I hadn't really thought it through, to be honest, because obviously that is not how an Haute Couture house works. But anyway, I went to the archives and had the most wonderful time. They were so helpful, so wonderful. I saw what they had from the 50s, which curiously is not a lot, because in those days they didn't see the need to keep pieces. They made their collection, they sold it, they moved on. And then I realised, of course, as we were looking at them with our white gloves on, there was no way that we would be using these frocks that still existed.
Presenter
And so I remember sitting round the table at the end of the day and thanked them so much for a fabulous time and how much I'd learnt and how wonderful it was we were going to be working together and four faces looked at me in horror from the other side and went non and I thought oh interesting. So I said well I do know people who can recreate Dior, certainly for a film but it will be very expensive and that's what we did. John Bright and Jane Law made the most beautiful Dior recreations which are worn in the film, which was obviously a lot more than I quite understood when I took it on. So these are haute couture dresses. I mean how on earth do you go about recreating something that takes so many hundreds of hours of you do it with a film costume house who are used to making things overnight if necessary but we didn't have to make it overnight. The real problem with COVID, we were in full-on COVID. This is one of the first films that was made and we went to Budapest because it was still relatively open. Obviously getting fabric was tricky and you need fabric with a real sculptural sense to it to make the dresses we were trying to make.
Jenny Beavan
You do it with a
Presenter
But it all had to be done to measurement. We couldn't bring people for fittings. I'm very, very thrilled with what we did manage to recreate. Jenny, you have said before, I think I'll stop designing when I stop being terrified, because that would be no good at all. It's just about knowing how to approach the problems and how to deal with them and how to solve them. It's one of the only things that gets better with age. What do you mean by being terrified and how does that fuel your creativity?
Jenny Beavan
Yeah.
Presenter
Oh, I think there's always a a point when you think, I don't know what they should look like. I mean, you've seen it in your head when you read it, but the truth is that you actually haven't a clue. And you slowly work your way in and bite sized chunks. And I sort of love that. And then I love the moment when you
Presenter
Stop being terrified because you've actually found it or your version of it and everyone seems happy. But yeah, I I am still like, I don't know what to do. I really don't know what this should look like. Which is happening. I've got a possible project for later this year. Very different again. I can't say what it is. But I already I'm happily terrified.
Presenter
All right. It's time for your seventh disc, Jenny. What are we going to hear next? I'm really sorry about this, Lauren. I don't think I'm going to like this island. I do love a home comfort. Any bug will bite me. So
Presenter
I would like Gloria Gona singing I Will Survive and I have actually sung along to the record at moments of my life and I just think it'd be brilliant. I will blast this out on this desert island and no one will hear me. So in moments of stress this is the song that you sing? This is one of the ones, yes, definitely.
Speaker 2
Then that's why
Speaker 2
Walk out the door!
Speaker 2
Just turn around now, cause you're not welcome anymore.
Speaker 2
Weren't you the one who tried to hurt me with goodbye just like I scrumble?
Speaker 2
You think I lay down and die?
Speaker 4
Yeah.
Speaker 4
I will survive.
Speaker 4
Yeah, as long as I know how to love, I know I still are
Speaker 4
I'm not all
Speaker 2
All my life to live, and I've got all my love to give, and I'll survive.
Speaker 2
I was the vibe.
Presenter
Gloria Gaynor, I will survive. Jenny, it's almost time to cast you away. What about the practicalities? Will you be able to fend for yourself on the island?
Presenter
I think I'll have to, won't I? That'll give in. So I mean I will have to. I don't know how that'll work out, but we'll see. My imagination, of course, goes to all the worst things, you know, the bugs and prickles and scratches and
Presenter
Let's accentuate the positive. What sort of island are you hoping for?
Presenter
Well, with little chalets and it could be deserted, but still got some rudiments of houses there and maybe cooking pots and some fresh water supply and maybe a little pool that would be nice. And what about your own costume if you had to design a costume for desert island survival? Probably be a full-on mosquito, you know, which we wore in Alaska, you know, really mosquito. Kind of peakeeper type scenario. Yes, I think that would be the way forward. Got it.
Jenny Beavan
Probably
Jenny Beavan
Beekeeper scenario.
Presenter
Well one more disc before you take the journey there. It's your final choice. What's it going to be? The final choice is actually was one of many. I had real trouble choosing this one and it's nothing to do with anything. It's the sort of music I go to when I need uplifting, I need some kind of spiritual moment which I find music is very good for and it hits those strings in you that just and when she starts singing I mean it's a bit like the bach at the beginning, that also does it, but it just hits a sort of chord and it's ombracara di mia sposa from Handel's Redemisto.
Speaker 2
Four smaller.
Speaker 2
Yeah.
Presenter
Ombracara de Mia Sposa, Beloved Shadow of My Bride, from Handel's opera Radamisto.
Presenter
We heard Emma K. Bourat singing with the Ensemble Artiserce, conducted by Philippe Zarovsky.
Presenter
So, Jenny, it's time. I'm going to send you away to the island. I will give you the Bible and the complete works of Shakespeare to read. You can also have another book of your selection. What would you like? I'm afraid it's going to be the complete works of Jane Austen, if I'm allowed, because I find her so re-readable and I needed something that I can re-read and re-read and re-read. And she's always got something terribly pertinent to say. I can absolutely give you the complete works, but do you have a favourite book of hers?
Presenter
Probably not actually. No, I just go round and round, really. You can also have a luxury item. What would you like? I've thought about this deeply and from, you know, endless mosquito repellent, I think a cello. Because it's the instrument I did learn when I was younger and I would obviously need some music and I would have a real go at it and try and do it properly. So when I get off the island, which I obviously will, I can actually join in the family quartet, the plughole quartet, you know, being a bit better. The plughole quartet are going to be seriously sharp by the time you get back. It's yours. And finally, which track of the eight that you've shared with us today would you rush to save from the waves? The most difficult question till last. You're wincing. I went backwards and forwards, but I think it has to be the St Matthew Passion.
Jenny Beavan
That is yours.
Presenter
The box it is. Jenny Bevan, thank you very much for letting us hear your desert island discs.
Presenter
It's been an absolute pleasure, if rather tortuous, choosing only eight, but thank you, Laura.
Presenter
Hello, it was lovely to chat to Jenny, and I do hope she's happy practicing her cello on the island. There are more than 2,000 programmes in our archive that you can listen to. We recently rediscovered some lost recordings, too, which include the time Noel Coward shared his music choices with Roy Plumley. You can hear part of his programme if you search through BBC Sounds or our own Desert Island Disc's website. The studio manager for today's programme was Donald MacDonald, and the producer was Sarah Taylor. Join me next time when my castaway is the artist Sonia Boyce.
Speaker 2
Introducing.
Speaker 2
Da.
Presenter
I think there's something peculiar about this house. A new drama from BBC Radio 4.
Speaker 4
Fireplace
Speaker 4
I wonder if Mummy might be trying to get in touch. Is the light playing tricks on? Ah Or is it just your mind?
Presenter
Or is it just
Speaker 4
What if we both sold this place and you got a job in one of those little colleges that would be pleased to have you? You don't really believe that, do you? I'm trying to be kind. Like you were with the dog.
Jenny Beavan
Do you want like
Speaker 4
How much do we really know about the person with
Speaker 2
Love.
Speaker 4
Is there something I should know about, Jack?
Speaker 4
No, I didn't put a foot wrong.
Speaker 2
And how much can we rely? Quite a bit younger than you appear to be on screen. On the kindness of strangers. And you look like you've been crying. Gaslov?
Speaker 2
You can't talk to me like that. I don't even know who you are. Off.
Presenter
Available on B B C Sounds.
Presenter asks
How did you go about imagining costumes for the post-apocalyptic world of Mad Max Fury Road?
It's exactly the same as if you're doing Jane Austen or Modern or King's Speech. It's a story of these characters and what their backgrounds are and where they've come from. And in this, it happens in the post-apocalyptic world. They're surviving with very little. They're in a world without much water. And it's a whole different set of rules, rules of survival. And a lot of them are... only kept alive by the curious contraptions they wear like the mask on the Immorton Joe and the breathing thing on his back or Rictus Suractus with his breathing thing and his you know and that because like the war boys have nowhere to put anything pockets would be really handy so you know they would keep whatever they owned in pockets and that gave them a much sort of more solid look but a real teamwork thing actually well as it should be
Presenter asks
What's your recollection of the headlines after you collected your BAFTA in an MS leather jacket?
Well, I didn't hear it because I was already backstage. And I love Stephen, and I love the fact he said that. Of course, I did. I had my shirt tiles hanging out. I mean. It it was just a I thought it was just an absolutely fine thing to say and um I didn't think it did me anything but good, really. But obviously this kind of hubbub around it, how long did it take to die down? And did that kind of creep into your real life at all? Were there people outside the house and things like that? Yeah, we did we had a bit of that. But what was interesting was actually understanding what film stars go through. Just having a moment of learning what it feels like to be recognised under the street and all that. Died down very quickly. It was all fine.
Presenter asks
Was there much collaboration between yourself and Dior for Mrs Harris Goes to Paris?
I understood when I took on the job that Dior would be doing the Dior part. I hadn't really thought it through, to be honest, because obviously that is not how an Haute Couture house works. But anyway, I went to the archives and had the most wonderful time. They were so helpful, so wonderful. I saw what they had from the 50s, which curiously is not a lot, because in those days they didn't see the need to keep pieces. They made their collection, they sold it, they moved on. And then I realised, of course, as we were looking at them with our white gloves on, there was no way that we would be using these frocks that still existed. And so I remember sitting round the table at the end of the day and thanked them so much for a fabulous time and how much I'd learnt and how wonderful it was we were going to be working together and four faces looked at me in horror from the other side and went non and I thought oh interesting. So I said well I do know people who can recreate Dior, certainly for a film but it will be very expensive and that's what we did. John Bright and Jane Law made the most beautiful Dior recreations which are worn in the film, which was obviously a lot more than I quite understood when I took it on.
Presenter asks
What do you mean by being terrified and how does that fuel your creativity?
Oh, I think there's always a a point when you think, I don't know what they should look like. I mean, you've seen it in your head when you read it, but the truth is that you actually haven't a clue. And you slowly work your way in and bite sized chunks. And I sort of love that. And then I love the moment when you stop being terrified because you've actually found it or your version of it and everyone seems happy. But yeah, I I am still like, I don't know what to do. I really don't know what this should look like. Which is happening. I've got a possible project for later this year. Very different again. I can't say what it is. But I already I'm happily terrified.
“I think the thing I'm looking for is when the actor turns and says, Now I know who I am.”
“I have this incredible memory of I think it must have been a rehearsal room in somewhere like the Royal College of Music because it's a big Victorian room. I'm sitting on a bentwood chair. My feet don't touch the ground. And they've rehearsed and I've heard it. And then they're putting their instruments away. And my mother's wrapping her viola in a scarf. And my father has a rather nice yellow duster which goes round his cello neck. And I just can see it as if it was yesterday. And the music's just crept into my soul at this point.”
“I'm funny about death. I don't know. I've always had an just an inevitability about it, so it's sad, but it's not anything that isn't in a funny way normal.”
“I think there's always a a point when you think, I don't know what they should look like. I mean, you've seen it in your head when you read it, but the truth is that you actually haven't a clue. And you slowly work your way in and bite sized chunks. And I sort of love that. And then I love the moment when you stop being terrified because you've actually found it or your version of it and everyone seems happy.”
“I would like Gloria Gona singing I Will Survive and I have actually sung along to the record at moments of my life and I just think it'd be brilliant. I will blast this out on this desert island and no one will hear me.”