Arthur Lowe

Speaker 10:00

Hello, I'm Kirstie Young, and this is a recording of Desert Island Discs as it was being broadcast, rather than the studio recording.

Speaker 10:07

and for that reason you may hear some interference, and some degradation in the sound quality.

Speaker 10:14

For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music. The programme was originally broadcast in 1970, and the presenter was Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:34

This week, our castaway is an actor. Currently, he's best known as the commanding officer of Dad's Army. It's Arthur Lowe.

Presenter0:42

Arthur, could you face up to a desert island existence?

Presenter0:46

Yes, I think I could.

Presenter0:48

Would music help?

Presenter0:49

Any land business?

Presenter0:51

Yes.

Presenter0:52

But rather more from a memory point of view, I think, than for the music itself. So yours is the nostalgic approach?

Presenter1:00

I think so, yes.

Presenter1:01

What's the first memory? What's the first record?

Presenter1:04

Well

Presenter1:05

The first record I've chosen is uh a ballad called Parted.

Presenter1:11

And the reason I've chosen this is because it takes me right back to my childhood before the days of wireless.

Presenter1:18

Uh

Presenter1:19

when we used to have musical evenings at home and and at friends. And my father had a rather good baritone voice and um we had a lot of friends coming and and we would go out to friends. And it always finished up, of course, with somebody sitting down to the piano and saying,

Presenter1:32

Sing a song for his artist if he he's called after two.

Presenter1:35

And uh at the drop of the hat he would sing parted, very well I may say, and and uh so whenever I hear it, which isn't often these days, it always takes me right back to those very happy days when we we made our own entertainment. Who would you like to stand in, as it were, for your father?

Presenter1:51

Peter Dawson, I think.

Arthur Lowe1:55

We love

Arthur Lowe1:57

How can I let you go? I let you look so well and dear.

Arthur Lowe2:11

Hey oh, that I worship soul

Arthur Lowe2:19

That I wore a shoe

Arthur Lowe2:25

Why that you love so

Arthur Lowe2:37

That I would

Presenter2:55

Peter Dawson singing Partied

Presenter2:57

A memory of your boyhood home. Where was your home, mother? In Manchester.

Presenter3:04

Well let's move on to your second record. What's that to be?

Presenter3:08

Well the second record is

Presenter3:10

Al Boley singing Love is the sweetest thing.

Presenter3:14

Why?

Presenter3:16

Well, because I think Al Burley.

Presenter3:19

stands for everything that that we remember of the thirties.

Presenter3:22

It was the time of the big band, Lou Stone, Roy Fox and all the great bands of the of the times. I remember being very happy in the thirties.

Presenter3:31

uh going to dances and listening to them the the late night

Presenter3:35

Wireless when there's a a different band on every night. Do you remember? Yes, indeed. Ambrose, Syndicites, and Lipton and all those ones. Jack Jackson.

Presenter3:44

Uh and I think Al Burley speaks for them all.

Arthur Lowe3:50

Ah, sweetest name.

Arthur Lowe3:53

What else on earth could ever bring Such happiness to everything?

Arthur Lowe4:03

I don't love those stories.

Arthur Lowe4:10

The strangest thing No song of birds upon the wing

Arthur Lowe4:17

Shall it our hearts more sweetly sing?

Arthur Lowe4:22

Land loves those stories.

Arthur Lowe4:27

Whatever our hearts may desire, whatever life may stand.

Arthur Lowe4:36

This is a tale that never will tire This is the song without end

Presenter4:48

The voice of Al Boley. Was there any theatrical precedent in the family? No, no, none at all. What did you do when you left school?

Presenter4:57

Well, I left school in 1931, which is the time of the Great Depression.

Presenter5:02

when work was very, very scarce indeed.

Presenter5:05

And um although

Presenter5:07

friends of my father's were going to find me.

Presenter5:10

work here and there when it came to the point of course the

Presenter5:13

They didn't.

Presenter5:15

Uh they couldn't, in fact, there wasn't any work about, there was mass unemployment.

Presenter5:19

So uh I

Presenter5:22

Said, oh, this won't do at all. I'm going to find a job myself. And I went out of the house one morning and said, I'm not coming back until I

Presenter5:29

Can I come back with a job?

Presenter5:32

And I did come back for the job.

Presenter5:35

You can call it a job. It was with a firm called Brown Brothers. They were motor accessory factors in Beansgate, Manchester.

Presenter5:43

And I got myself a job at the magnificent sum of ten shillings a week, pushing a hand-cart round the streets of Manchester.

Presenter5:50

Still, it was a job. It was a job. How long did you stay with Brown Brothers? About four years, I think.

Presenter5:57

And uh then I went to the Ferry Aviation Company.

Presenter6:00

Who just opened it?

Presenter6:02

And you works.

Presenter6:04

Just outside Stockport.

Presenter6:06

And uh I went to them and stayed with them uh up to the outbreak of the war. Yes, I was. I joined the Duke of Lancaster's own yeomanry in 1938.

Presenter6:18

Uh because I wanted to ride a horse.

Presenter6:20

And this was a cheap way of doing it, I thought, you know.

Presenter6:24

Yeah.

Presenter6:25

Ha ha ha.

Presenter6:26

I got plenty of writing.

Presenter6:28

More riding than I'd bargained for. Where did your wartime service take you?

Presenter6:33

Eventually to the Middle East.

Presenter6:35

in forty two, early forty two, just before Alamein.

Presenter6:38

Was there for oh nearly four years. Mm-hmm. When did the theatre first come into your life?

Presenter6:45

We came in quite accidentally really because I was stationed on the Gaza Strip in the Sinai Desert at a place called Rafa. There's a big ordnance depot there.

Presenter6:56

And there was absolutely nothing to do in the way of entertainment except an open-air cinema.

Presenter7:01

And the chaps were getting what we call sand happy.

Presenter7:05

Ham

Presenter7:06

And to make matters worse, uh we lost all our wireless sets. The Arabs came along one night and uh pinched all our wireless sets. We couldn't even hear the news.

Presenter7:17

So we decided we'd we'd make we'd start our own new service. So we built a a receiver in our Ordnance Radio shop and from a little office just outside the Naffi, we set up a studio and did a news bulletin.

Presenter7:32

at six o'clock every evening, which became very popular. But the chap said, well that's that's fine, we look forward to the six o'clock news bulletin, but uh it finishes so quickly, you see.

Presenter7:41

So I said, well, why don't we why don't we put a play on or something?

Presenter7:46

So I sent off to Cairo for some one-act plays and uh

Presenter7:51

We pinched a lot of timber from some of the other workshops and built a stage and some scenery and put on

Presenter7:57

The Marquis Paul, WWJ it was Marcus Paul, which was extremely successful.

Presenter8:03

I went on putting plays on wherever I happened to be until I was noticed by

Presenter8:10

A branch of Army Welfare, a live entertainment branch of Army Welfare, which was run by an actor called Torrin Thatcher.

Presenter8:18

I was now in America.

Presenter8:19

And I joined his forces and our job was to go out in small units to lonely outposts in the desert, you know, stations that had no entertainment of any kind and encourage the men to entertain themselves. And what we did was we would build scenery for them, we would produce a play for them, start a play reading group, start a band if they wanted one.

Presenter8:40

and generally looked after them till they were on their feet and then we moved on and did our missionary work elsewhere.

Presenter8:47

And so of course I got the taste for it and and uh

Presenter8:51

So when I was demobbed, I decided to go into the theatre professionally. Well, this was a momentous decision, and I think this is the point where we ought to break off for another record. What's that to be? Ah, well, my next record is uh Glenn Miller.

Presenter9:04

playing uh a number called At Last.

Presenter9:56

The Glen Mellow Orchestra at last.

Presenter9:59

You were back in Sevy Street, looking for your first professional job in the theatre. Was that hard to come by?

Presenter10:06

Um no, because I I I had help here uh from my father. Um my father was a a railway official. He worked for the London North Eastern Railway Company and his job was to move shows about. Um he moved pantomimes, he he moved Bertram Mill circus all over the country uh and um

Presenter10:25

In Manchester at that time was a company of Frank H. Fauldescues at the Hume Hippodrome.

Presenter10:31

And my father knew Eric Norman, Fortescue's general manager, very well. And but uh Eric Norman was also the producer at at Hume Hippodrome. So he introduced me to him and he said, Look, this chap wants to go on the stage. I I think he's mad, but um

Presenter10:47

Will you give him a go, you see, see if he's any good or not. So Eric did, as soon as there was anything a a little bit to to sort of try me out in. What was that? That little bit was a a a play called Bedtime Story.

Speaker 110:56

Yeah.

Arthur Lowe10:56

Uh

Presenter11:01

Don't know who wrote it.

Presenter11:02

And I played a butler in it. That was the beginning of it all.

Presenter11:06

How long did you stay with the Frank H. Fortescue Company?

Presenter11:10

Uh about a year.

Speaker 111:11

About a year.

Presenter11:12

Yes, till the end of forty-six.

Presenter11:16

Was there anybody else in the company whose name we would know?

Presenter11:19

Well, I met my wife in that company. Did you? Yes, june Cooper.

Presenter11:23

And um after Manchester we went to Hereford and we did a season in 1947 for Derek Solberg um at Hereford. Well this would have been once nightly. This was once nightly against against the twice nightly at Hume. Oh yes, my foot was already on the ladder.

Presenter11:40

And of course, in these rep comedies, you had to play everything there was. All sorts of players. Oh, everything, yes, everything. You know, you did 40 plays a year. And.

Presenter11:49

You played as cast after Hereford?

Presenter11:53

After Hereford we came to London and uh then it was it was odd jobs around of course a lot of theatres around London, you know, even then. Yes. An enormous number of theatres which have closed since and one could keep going pretty well on special weeks.

Presenter12:08

Um

Presenter12:09

Then we we we went on tour, we did quite a lot of touring.

Presenter12:12

Together.

Presenter12:17

Tours of that play went out.

Presenter12:19

Uh usually

Presenter12:21

One, two and three tours. We always plumped for the number twos if we could because they were the pleasantest. You did all the seaside resorts and the spa towns.

Presenter12:31

Let's have another record.

Presenter12:33

Uh yes, this is uh little s

Presenter12:37

Schetzo.

Presenter12:39

And I've chosen that because it it brings back the the the touring days, the happiness of of our touring days. We were out on tour with um the School for Scandal that Basildean produced.

Presenter12:50

And this was particularly exciting for me because it was the first time that I'd worked with anybody famous. Evelyn Lay was the famous person. And what a lovely person she is.

Presenter13:00

It was a lovely sunny summer that year and we were playing Bonne, the pavilion Bonne, and we went down to the theatre one morning to pick up our mail, as one does on tour, and we heard this.

Presenter13:12

Scats are being played.

Presenter13:14

in the pit. Then it was our pianist who was we'd take him with us to play the interval music.

Presenter13:20

uh Fred Lydian and he was playing this this sketch so

Presenter13:24

And

Presenter13:26

Ever since it's been symbolic of those happy days on tour at the seaside, you know, with such bubbling, happy music.

Presenter14:35

The Litov Scherzo played by Clifford Curzon with a London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir Adrian Bolt.

Presenter14:41

When did you make your first West End appearance?

Presenter14:44

I think it was 1949 in a play called Larger Than Life at the Duke of York's. I had a double excitement, of course, there, because not only was it my first West End job, but in the first week of it, I played to Queen Mary. You did a series of American musicals in the West End, too. Yes, I did.

Presenter15:04

Uh I did call me madam at the Coliseum, Pal Jerry at the Princess.

Presenter15:08

Which is now the sharp spectrum.

Presenter15:10

And back to the Coliseum with the with the pajama game.

Presenter15:13

Uh

Presenter15:14

A long spell. It took about five years altogether, those three big musicals. Did you feel you were getting...

Presenter15:20

Cast as a as a musical man. Yes, this was a danger and my wife was particularly worried about it and immediately after the pajama game I was offered another musical.

Speaker 115:22

Yeah.

Presenter15:30

Which I didn't get fortunately uh because at the same time tennants offered me a part in a play called A Dead Secret with Paul Schofield. Yes. Uh which because I leapt at because here was here was my chance to get back into straight acting again. Let's have another record.

Presenter15:47

Quatma

Presenter15:49

Well, uh I think I would like to uh recapitulate to

Presenter15:55

my first musical, which was Call Me Madam.

Presenter15:59

And I'd like to hear it's a lovely day today.

Arthur Lowe16:02

It's a lovely day today and whatever you've got to do

Arthur Lowe16:08

I'd be so happy to be doing it with you But if you've got something that must be done, And it can only be done by one

Arthur Lowe16:22

There is nothing mortal sad

Arthur Lowe16:27

Except it's a lovely day for saying it's a lovely day.

Speaker 216:38

It's a lovely day today, so whatever I've got to do, I've got a lovely day to do it in, that's true.

Speaker 216:51

But perhaps whatever I've got to do Is something that can be done by two. If it is, then you can stay. It's a love

Presenter17:07

It's a lovely day today, Shaney Wallace and Jeff Warren.

Presenter17:11

Now when did you start seriously in television? I suppose it was that long spell you had in Coronation Street.

Presenter17:17

Uh yes, yes, which is

Presenter17:20

Almost exactly ten years ago. As long ago as that. You had a good long run, didn't you?

Speaker 117:22

You had a good long run.

Presenter17:24

Oh yes. Uh I went up

Presenter17:26

about this time of the year, ten years ago, just to do the first few episodes of of Swinbly.

Presenter17:35

Uh and of course it developed into an association which

Presenter17:38

spread over about six and a half years. Yes. Because that character, Swindley, was taken out of the serial and given his own series. Yes, he was. He did a series called Pardon the Expression, of which we did thirty-nine episodes.

Presenter17:50

And then a further hourly series called Turn Out the Lights.

Presenter17:55

Now, all these years you'd been a reliable, supporting character actor, always working.

Presenter18:01

Now for the first time you had your name over the title. How did you view this change to stardom?

Presenter18:09

Well, um it was something that I'd never really sought.

Presenter18:14

It was something that I hadn't aspired to, stardom, and I think then it was only minor stardom.

Presenter18:22

It was still really very much first feature playing, but uh I found that um

Presenter18:28

As my career had taken a sort of steady progression,

Presenter18:32

It was the next step in promotion and I sort of had to look at it that way. You know, what had happened was that the red tabs had gone up.

Presenter18:41

And uh

Presenter18:43

Uh and with it the responsibility of court orders.

Presenter18:46

How do you feel about being recognized wherever you go?

Presenter18:49

This this depends usually on the state of my liver. But generally speaking, I'm very happy to be recognized everywhere. I mean, that's what one's in the business for, you know. Uh there are times, of course, when it when it i it can become irksome. You've never allowed television to swamp your career. You've continued to do stage work.

Presenter19:07

But you can.

Speaker 119:07

Well yeah.

Presenter19:08

Yes, almost continually. I've I've hardly missed a year in the last ten not returning to the stage in some form or another.

Presenter19:17

Let's have record number six.

Presenter19:19

Uh record number six is

Presenter19:22

Unbox.

Presenter19:24

Concerto in s in C minor.

Presenter19:27

Oh, for two pianos.

Speaker 119:28

But the

Presenter19:29

For two pianos, yes.

Presenter20:28

The Bach concerto in C minor for two pianos, the celloists Pol Badura Skoda and Jorg Demus.

Presenter20:36

How would you manage as a castaway, Arthur? Could you look after yourself?

Presenter20:40

Uh yes, I think I could.

Presenter20:42

A shelter, for example? Yes, I'm sure I could do that. Live off the land?

Presenter20:46

Yes. Would you try to escape? No.

Presenter20:49

No ideas for constructing a craft of any sort.

Presenter20:52

No, I don't think so. No, I think this would be very very foolhardy. I believe you have just acquired a boat.

Presenter20:58

Yes I have.

Presenter21:00

Uh

Presenter21:01

It's rather exciting actually because uh she was built in 1885.

Presenter21:05

And she's 104 feet long with a 15-foot beam. That's a lot of boat. It's a lot of boat, yes, it is indeed. In fact, it's a ship, it's a small ship.

Presenter21:13

She was steam driven, but those engines were taken out in 1937.

Presenter21:19

And we found her lying in Chiswick, where she'd lain for thirty years, being used as a houseboat. So we set about resurrecting her and and uh

Presenter21:27

And we've now almost finished.

Presenter21:30

When I say we, I mean the boatyards have, because it's far too big a job to do oneself, of course. So those boyhood dreams of going to sea will come true, and you'll be the master? No, I shall be the owner. They will come true, I shall be the owner. I certainly shan't be the master, or else we'll be shipwrecked every other day, I think. Oh, well, we'll see. Let's have record number seven.

Presenter21:51

Record number seven.

Presenter21:53

The booses

Presenter21:54

La Mer.

Presenter22:57

Pierre Boule is conducting the new Philharmonic Orchestra in Debussy's La Mer. And now we come to your last record. What's that to be?

Presenter23:05

My last record

Presenter23:07

is the signature tune for Dad's Army, Who Do You Think You're Kidding, Mr. Hitler, sung by Bud Flanagan.

Presenter23:13

That is a new, or comparatively new, song, isn't it? Oh yes, yes it is. I've been thinking all the time that I remembered it. It it's so right in the idiom, in the wartime idiom, and it suits classes so well. Lots of people say, Oh, I remember that one, and they don't at all, of course, because it was actually written for Dad's Army by Jimmy Perry.

Speaker 123:25

Yeah.

Presenter23:33

And um

Presenter23:34

Bud Flanagan recorded it specially for the series.

Presenter23:39

Uh his last work incidentally of course, which makes it rather valuable.

Presenter23:44

The reason I've chosen this is because

Presenter23:46

Mm.

Presenter23:47

I presume that they that the the shipwreck would be pretty immediate.

Presenter23:51

I mean it's happening it's happening now, isn't it? Yes, it's it's uh

Presenter23:55

And so the last

Presenter23:57

The most recent piece of music that would be in my mind, of course, is this signature tune.

Presenter24:02

Um

Presenter24:04

And with very very happy memories too, because it would be the end of a career.

Presenter24:08

If I were going to stay on the island, which I would be.

Presenter24:11

And one couldn't have, in my opinion, a happier end because

Presenter24:15

Dead's Army is a success. It isn't just successful as a television series for the audience. It's successful.

Presenter24:22

as a as a piece of work.

Presenter24:24

This is a successful team, a very happy team, one of the happiest engagements I've ever had.

Presenter24:29

And death.

Presenter24:30

I think it would be a very, very happy note to go out on.

Arthur Lowe24:34

Who do you think you are kidding, Mr. Hitler, if you think we're on the run?

Arthur Lowe24:44

We are the boys who will stop your little game We are the boys who will make you thing again Cause who do you think you are kidding, Mr Hitler, If you think old England's done

Arthur Lowe25:03

Mr Brown goes off to town on the A21 But he comes home each evening and he's ready with his gun So watch out Mr Hitler, you have met you're met in us If you think you can crush us, we're afraid you've missed the bus Cause who do you think you are kidding Mr Hitler? If you think old England

Presenter25:37

Rob Flanagan

Presenter25:39

If you could take just one of the eight records you played us, which would it be?

Presenter25:43

Uh I think I should stick to Le Maire. Right.

Presenter25:46

And one luxury to take with you to the island? A luxury.

Presenter25:50

Or a case of my best carrot. Only one case? Oh, no, I can have more, can I? Leave them have, yes. Can I? A dozen cases? A dozen cases, yes. Don't leave them lying about in the sun. And uh.

Presenter26:03

One book apart from the Bible and Shakespeare.

Presenter26:06

I think it might be wise to have a book on tropical

Presenter26:11

Plants, you know.

Presenter26:12

Tropical plants would I know what berries to eat and perhaps a little word about irrigation in the index.

Presenter26:19

Yes.

Presenter26:20

Very sensible choice. And thank you, Arthur Lowe, for letting us hear your desert island discs. Thank you very much indeed.

Presenter26:27

Goodbye, everyone.

Speaker 126:36

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