Alan Keith

Presenter0:00

This is the

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B B C

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Hello, I'm Kirsty Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music. The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen seventy one.

Speaker 20:16

Desert Island discs.

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As usual, the castaway is introduced by Roy Plumley.

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Our castaway this week is the broadcaster Alan Keith. Alan, with what degree of dread would you face a desert island existence?

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A great deal of dread.

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I um while I like to be alone sometimes, the idea of loneliness for an indefinite period, and probably for a very long time, fills me with dread. What would you be happiest to have got away from? Well, uh

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I think the state of the world today and everything that goes on is

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Something that I would want to escape from for a little while.

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Now you've presented a great deal of music on the air during the years, music of all kinds, especially in your hundred best tunes. Are you anything of a musician yourself?

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Well, I I'm not a trained musician.

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Uh I I I'd not studied music beyond the fact that I played the violin for a time.

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Um I struggled with that, scraped away.

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Um but

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I suppose what little knowledge I've acquired is through listening to music.

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How did you set about choosing your eight discs?

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Well, tunes that I've liked over the years, um there are one or two tunes that I've chosen that um have um

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Memories, you know, that they bring back good occasions or good times or periods of my life. What's the first one on that little pile, though? Well, it's a record by Jean Sablon. And that was I was never a great record collector, but I did collect records from time to time. And there was one particularly that I liked, uh by Sablon. On one side, which was the reason I bought it, there was um Sieur le Pont d'Avignon. But on the other side, there was Je Tire marérence, which I preferred when I got the record and played it over, and I played it over till it was worn out and

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Uh

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And it has always stayed in my mind

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Good.

Alan Keith2:44

Dear Marie Le Roches

Alan Keith2:47

Imoveduada.

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Molotov

Alan Keith2:50

Parlay Route de France.

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Layer.

Alan Keith2:53

More si du navas.

Alan Keith2:56

Mediterranean

Alan Keith2:59

La Blue Man, Jeu Jeanette.

Alan Keith3:02

D'Iteur vivous bourgeois formoi et voilà tour.

Alan Keith3:08

Jave Saprife.

Alan Keith3:11

Dr.

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Uh

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Jean Sable.

Alan Keith3:15

Uh

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What's your second record?

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Well, my second record is the Elgar Violin Concerto.

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And I think that the second movement, and I'm a great one for second movements, as perhaps you know.

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Um

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It touches me enormously and I I would love to have it and I think the whole big concerto is um

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is fine work.

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Young Yehudi Menouin as soloist in an excerpt from the Elgar Violin Concerto.

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with the composer conducting. Alan, are you a Londoner? Yes. I was born and bred within the sound of bow bells.

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Now, why did you become an actor? What inspired you?

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I don't know. Really, uh thinking back, and I've thought about it many times

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I I loved the theatre. I went I started going to theatre, I think, seriously, when I was about thirteen.

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I even went so far as to play truant from school to go to Matinees, and sit up in the gallery.

Alan Keith5:08

Yeah.

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And then

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Fire I used to read.

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anything I could lay my hands on about the theatre, reading plays and

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um anything and uh I I I read hundreds and hundreds of plays and things and

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One day I decided that I'd like to be

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I liked to go into the theatre, I'd like to be an actor. It was work fairly easy to come by.

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Um well, work in the theatre is never easy to come by.

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But it so happened um I had one more term at Letrada and uh Basildean offered me a job.

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and I went to him for two plays.

Alan Keith5:44

Yeah.

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There were only bits I understudied in the first one and was assistant stage manager and so on. Then I played a bit in the second play with him. Yeah. This in the West End? Yes. You started in the West End straight away? Yes, yes.

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What happened when you left the Basildean management?

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Well, I went into lots of other plays, you know.

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one took what one could get, you know, in in in in those days. You went to America quite early in your career then. Yes, yes. What was that with? I um I played in the Matriarch.

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With uh Constance Collier.

Alan Keith6:16

Yeah.

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And um it was a flop. We we we we did uh four weeks in Chicago and four weeks in Philadelphia and uh we did three and a half weeks in New York and uh What other plays do you remember from those early days?

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Well, there was dinner at eight. There was Magnolia Street. Yeah. I played the boxer in Magnolia Street.

Alan Keith6:36

You would have comm

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Median for a time, which

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Uh yes, I was a committee.

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Uh I prefer that and Magnolia Street.

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Magnolia Street was produced by Komizajevsky. Do you remember? Yes.

Speaker 16:51

You remember?

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Well, I did three weeks at the Windmill Theatre as a comedian.

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I did a single act.

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Which was which in it five shows a day, which in itself was was like being in prison, truthfully.

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Which was which in its

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But ten

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on my early in my three weeks there

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I walked out one night it was probably the second or third night.

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And I started into my peter, and there I saw Komizadjevsky sitting in about the fourth row with a rather funny look on his face, having left him not a couple of months before, you know.

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Let's break off at this point for your third record. What should we have now?

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Well

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Um I wanted something by Balios.

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whose music I admire very much.

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And thinking about it, uh

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I think that the um

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Symphony Fantastique.

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Uh

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would uh would fill the bill because

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Um

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In those five movements, there are so many changes of mood and atmosphere that one would get

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A great deal of food for thought.

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Which part shall we listen to now? Um something bright. Say s say uh the second movement, uh the ball.

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The waltz from the Belius Symphonie Fantastique.

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Colin Davis conducting the London Symphony Orchestra.

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Now, Alan, we talked about your early years in the theatre. When did you start broadcasting?

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Um

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About thirty thirty six or seven, I can't remember. About thirty seven. Yes. I believe you were chosen as as as the typical American for a very important B B C programme. Yes.

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That was when America entered the war, 1941.

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The BBC did a special programme, it was written by Louis McNeese.

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And uh

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It was a sort of cavalcade of American history leading to Pearl Harbor.

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It's amazing, you know, how

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Uh the radio was changed. In those days it was done live.

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Um in in this case it was it was an unnerving business. It was a long it was an hour long with the B B C Symphony Orchestra, Sir Adrian Bolt conducting.

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And when we arrived, the parts were allocated, you see, and they went right through. There was Jefferson and Washington and this one and this one and so on, right? The cavalcade of history, you see. And then finally, I was called last. Alan Keith, so on and so on. And that was the last part. It was the representative American, which was very strange, the representative American who was to speak for America. We will, you know, we will remember Pearl Harbor and so on and so forth. And It was a most unnerving, unnerving experience.

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No rehearsal, one read through, just for cues, that's all.

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and go on the air and um

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and this long emotional speech at the end, with the orchestra behind you, and you know, and climaxes and things. How I got through it I don't know, but I did.

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one of hundreds of radio plays and features. We worked quite a lot together at one time. Yes, indeed we did, yes. And you've done many record programmes. When did you start presenting records on the earth?

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And

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About the same time, you know, as um my sort of early radio. I started with jazz. Yeah. I did um

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I think if I remember rightly, the very first record programme I did was called When Harlem Goes Gay.

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And you worked as an interviewer, too? Oh, yes, yes. I uh I there were several programmes, apart from three or four years on In Time Tonight, where I scripted and interviewed, and there were other programmes too in which I

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Um, it was interviewer. You were mystery voice on twenty questions for a year. Ah, yes, that was a very temporary thing. Norman Hackforth was off for a period and I think I did about

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Ah yes that

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as far as I remember, six or nine months of it, but that was not a

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It was merely in his absence.

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Yes, well I started television.

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Like all actors, you do all kinds of things. You get what work you can, and where you can, and how you can.

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And um I started television in the old days before the war.

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Ah, at Alexander Palace, you know.

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Let's have record number four. What have you got for us next? Um well done.

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That's uh Rogers and Haverstone in Oklahoma.

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I remember the first night of Oklahoma. At Drury Lane. At Drury Lane.

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And the great excitement that this generated, this new musical.

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And uh it was an entirely new conception in musicals.

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It was a a wonderful, wonderful production, the whole idea. And I remember sitting there and

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The first ten minutes nothing was happening, nothing was happening, you know, not like the the old musicals, and the chorus came on, and so on and so forth. And then suddenly the whole thing exploded, and from then on

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Uh wonderful tune after wonderful tune.

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It was um it was a great theatrical memory.

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Which of the tunes shall we hear?

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Yeah, I think perhaps um

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The surrey with a fringe on top.

Alan Keith13:17

Chicks and ducks and geese better scurry, When not take yet out in the surrey, When not take yet out in the surrey, With a fringe on top!

Alan Keith13:29

Watch that fringe and see how it flutters When I drive them high steppin' strutters Nosy pokes'll peek through the shutters And their eyes'll pop

Alan Keith13:41

Blue wheels are yellow, the upholstery

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Gordon McRae in that song from Oklahoma. Now let's talk about your hundred birth tunes. How many of those programmes have you done now?

Presenter13:55

Well, I don't know exactly, but I would say approximately four hundred and fifty. Mhm. To to to guess. I I I I've not counted them. Yes. How long ago was it that you devised it?

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You mean when it actually started or devised it? When it started? Well, it's it's been all about um

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Uh just over eleven years. Yes. It sounded as if it took you rather a long time to get it on. Well, uh it was knocking about for a couple of years, I think. Yes. Now you started by playing your own hunting. Yes. Yes. And then it grew up from there. Yes. Did you ask for requests?

Presenter14:32

No, I d I don't think so. No, uh I started by playing what

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I thought might be a hundred best tunes. Of course, any selection of that kind is an arbitrary one. Nobody can say.

Presenter14:47

which are the hundred best tunes. But anyhow, I started, you see, and um with the first one I got so many letters from people saying, Well, I think you ought to include this one. I consider this one is worthy of being in the hundred best tunes, and I consider this a best tune, and so on.

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And that led to the idea of asking listeners to suggest their hundred best tunes, and and that was how we had our first poll, you see, and we gathered from that what listeners wanted to hear. Thousands of letters pouring in. Thousands and thousands, yes. Have you got any statistics as to which tunes are requested most often?

Presenter15:26

Uh no, I have no statistics. I can only go by the letters. And the one tune I think that gets the most comment

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And um

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The most correspondence is the Miserary by Allegri. Now that's very strange.

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Anne. From the moment I played it. I suppose the remarkable thing is that Allegri is a comparatively little known composer.

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Your critics say that you sound as if you take music rather seriously, that you're inclined to announce the items rather solemnly.

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Some people do say that. I don't think I am solemn. Perhaps I no, but but I mean

Alan Keith16:05

The heads are

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Perhaps I'm conscious of

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Uh my listeners now.

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I'm conscious of what they write to me.

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And um I'm conscious too of the

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Time of day and the day it is.

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Well, let's face it, between nine and ten o'clock on Sunday night this country is not exactly a swinging sort of uh place, is it?

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I think I'm influenced mostly by my listeners' letters.

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And they refer to the programme perhaps in more solemn terms than I sound. Do you know what I mean? Some refer to it as a benediction. I may sound pompous in even repeating what they say, or or immodest, but they do.

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They say it comes as a benediction and it's a it's it's an hour of repose and it's um

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They come from church, or they've settled down for the evening quietly by the fire. Some even write and say that they turn the lights out and sit there by the fire glow, and it's it's a wonderful hour of serenity, and so on.

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And um perhaps when I think of those things.

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They affect the way I sovereign. I don't think the sound solemn.

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Let's have your first record Alan Watney.

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My fifth record is.

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The one I started your hundred best tunes with. It was the very first record I played in the series.

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Jerusalem

Alan Keith18:13

God see.

Presenter18:38

Sir Malcolm Sargent conducting the Royal Choral Society and the Philharmonia Orchestra in Jerusalem. Let's go straight on to number six now.

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Well, one that would satisfy me.

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um completely would be Don Giovanni. Apart from the wonderful arias and so many of them, it has some beautiful instrumental music too.

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And

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Let's have Lachidarem Lamano.

Alan Keith19:33

We'll call Feli Temer Sar Maquour Miyagor.

Alan Keith19:52

To year the worthy lamp for

Speaker 119:54

Yeah.

Alan Keith20:01

Be a puncher of a sword.

Presenter20:07

The duet from Don Giovanni, Give Me Your Hand, sung by Jürgard Siefried and Dietrich Wischediska.

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Do you still live in London, Alan? Yes, with my family, wife, son, and daughter. They're going to be very interested indeed in what I say to you on this programme.

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Have you any skills that would be useful for a castaway? Could you build a hut? Um, I suppose I'd be forced to. I um I'm not much of a handyman. I do odd things about the house, but uh

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I'm a very willing learner, and with all the time in the world, I suppose I would.

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be able to achieve something else. What about food? Can you can you cultivate?

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I did a bit of gardening once, but uh I can't say that I'm uh fishing.

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No.

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Would you try to escape? Do you know anything about seamanship, navigation? No, but I would try to escape.

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I don't know how, but I would try to escape. I suppose the first thing I would do would be to

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set up some sort of um

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Signals, anything or anybody who might be passing, airplanes or anything like that.

Speaker 121:12

Yeah, plenty

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Yeah.

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You have no ideas of uh doing a contiki.

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No, no.

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I think you're right. Let's have record number seven.

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Um my next record would be the Beethoven Fifth Symphony.

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The opening of the Beethoven Fifth Symphony

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Herbert von Karian conducting the Berlin Philharmonic.

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Now we come to your last record. What's that to be?

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Well, that's the record we mentioned before, the Miserre by Allegri. The most requested one. The most requested one.

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When I think of the quiet nights perhaps on a desert island, perhaps the the gently lapping of the waves, and so on, and to hear this music that really does come from heaven,

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Uh

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is is the most perfect thing I can imagine.

Alan Keith23:51

We shall be pleased in the sacrifice of righteousness.

Alan Keith23:57

We are the fight.

Alan Keith24:01

Please love

Presenter24:05

The allegri setting of Miserary, the fifty first psalm, sung by the choir of King's College, Cambridge.

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If you could take just one disc of the Huplatus, which would it be?

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I think it would be the um

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Fifth Symphony of Beethoven.

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And one luxury to take to the island with you.

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Well, now, I would like to make something with my hands. I'd like to use timber. So I'd like a set of tools so I could indulge myself to that extent. You would like a set of tools? Yes. Not to escape. Oh, no, no, no. Not to make a boat. No, really, I wouldn't make a boat. Alan, I trust you implicitly. But would you mind if I modify that?

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This little luxury.

Speaker 224:47

Actually

Presenter24:48

Rather than give you a set of cabinet makers' tools with which you could perfectly well build a a boat, for example, suppose a set of very small tools for making very small furniture. Dolls' furniture, for example. I think you're cheating now. Well, I thought you were cheating as a man. I wasn't cheating, I was being serious. Right. A very small tool set for making very small furniture. And one book apart from the Bible and Shakespeare.

Speaker 125:02

I think

Speaker 125:05

I wasn't

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Well perhaps my book is predictable.

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Um

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I would choose the Oxford Book of English Verse, one of my vanities.

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is to read out loud to myself.

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And here is an opportunity to uh

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And I've always wanted to

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Um learn by heart so many of the things in this book.

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That line from Shakespeare.

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Sing them loud even at the dead of night.

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Without anybody telling you to belt up or pipe down, it'd be marvelous. And of course, that's a

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A book one would never tire of. And one could go on learning and learning these things and singing them to the birds, if you like. Right.

Presenter25:58

And thank you, Alan Keith, for letting us hear your Desert Island Discs. And thank you very much indeed for having me.

Presenter26:04

Goodbye, everyone.

Speaker 126:41

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