Wendy Craig

Presenter0:00

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

Presenter0:08

What part of England do you come from, Wendy?

Wendy Craig0:09

I come from the north east, from Durham, and the north riding of Yorkshire.

Presenter0:13

Any theatrical president in the family.

Wendy Craig0:15

No, not at all.

Presenter0:16

Did you see a lot of theatre as a child?

Wendy Craig0:18

I was taken to see pantomimes and musicals and um local shows, yes, about twice a year. It was a great event.

Presenter0:26

Yeah.

Wendy Craig0:27

But I think I was acting in my pram long before I ever went to the theatre.

Presenter0:31

And at school in school plays?

Wendy Craig0:32

Oh yes, always in school plays. I was a very precocious child, and and in f drama festivals, local drama festivals, getting up and saying poems and things.

Presenter0:41

Where did you study John?

Wendy Craig0:42

At the Central School of Speech and Drama at the Albert Hall.

Presenter0:46

Well, that meant coming to London to live alone. At what age?

Wendy Craig0:49

What age? Seventeen. Yes. The other students said,'Cause I was brought up on a farm, did I keep my sheep in Hyde Park?

Presenter0:56

Yeah.

Wendy Craig0:57

By the Albert Memorial.

Presenter0:58

But coming all that way to London at seventeen on your own, were your parents cooperative about that?

Wendy Craig1:04

They were very good. They were indeed co operative. I think they thought well, she's going to do it anyway,'cause I was grimly determined to. I would have done it, whether they wanted me to or not, so they thought, Well, we better keep in with her,'cause we love her, so they were co operative.

Presenter1:16

When you left the Central School, what was your first job?

Wendy Craig1:20

I went into rep at Ip Switch and played all sorts of parts there for about a year.

Presenter1:24

Yes. What were the best things you did in Rep, Looking Back?

Wendy Craig1:27

I don't think any of them were very good, really. The first part I ever played was, I thought, a very, very old lady, sixty, and I put on a white wig and drew lines all over my face, and came in all sort of humpty back and hunched up. I must have looked at least a hundred and twelve.

Presenter1:47

And after Ipswich?

Wendy Craig1:49

After Ipswich I came to London and tried my hand in the West End well, the West End. I auditioned for um a tiny revue in a little theatre. It must have held about fifty, I think, called the Irving, which was uh under an Indian restaurant.

Presenter2:03

Which results?

Wendy Craig2:06

Uh we once played with nobody in the audience at all.

Presenter2:09

But you kept going.

Wendy Craig2:10

But we kept going, yes, and uh I had to just sing and dance, and I remember I did a monologue called I Freeze Peas.

Presenter2:11

Yeah.

Wendy Craig2:18

which was very well received. And um because of I Freeze Peas I was asked to audition for a JB Priestley play called mister Kettle and misses Moon, which was a lovely comedy role, and I I got that and played that.

Presenter2:18

Which was very well received and

Presenter2:26

Which is a

Presenter2:30

Yes. And your West End debut coincided in that same month with some other happy things.

Wendy Craig2:35

Yes, I was twenty one that year, and I also married Jack Bentley, my old man.

Presenter2:42

Now write, Wendy, back to the early days of your career, a success in the West End and a play by a very distinguished playwright. Then what?

Wendy Craig2:50

Then I did a farce at the Aldwych Theatre, called Man Alive with Robertson Hare.

Presenter2:54

Fine.

Wendy Craig2:55

And after that a season

Wendy Craig2:58

At the Royal Court we did three plays. We did a play by John Osborne called George Dillon, and a lovely, scatty, way out, wacky play called Um A Resounding Tinkle.

Presenter3:10

Oh yes.

Wendy Craig3:11

And then uh the other player was the sport of my mad mother, and I think I'm still playing that now.

Presenter3:16

Yeah.

Presenter3:18

Were you transferred with the John Osborne play to the West End?

Wendy Craig3:21

Yes, we went to the comedy theatre, and then we went to New York with it.

Presenter3:25

In fact, you went to New York with it twice.

Wendy Craig3:27

Yes. We opened at the Golden Theatre. I had a contract just for two months'cause I had a three-month-old baby then and I didn't want to be away from him for too long. So I came home and the play closed in New York and they decided to reopen it, so they sent for me again. And I opened for the second time in it, and after about three weeks came home back to the baby and someone else took over.

Presenter3:49

Yes. And back in the London Theatre, what happened?

Wendy Craig3:53

Well, after that I did uh The Gingerman that was with Richard Harris and then I did The Wrong Side of the Park.

Wendy Craig4:02

which starred Margaret Leighton and was written by John Mortimer.

Wendy Craig4:06

And um

Wendy Craig4:07

Three short plays at the Criterion, called aptly three with Emily Williams.

Presenter4:12

Yeah.

Wendy Craig4:14

Ah, what did I do after?

Presenter4:16

I'll tell you, I looked it up. I love you, misses Patterson.

Wendy Craig4:18

Oh yes, I love you, Mrs Patterson. It's very difficult to remember everything in a long list that you've done. You know, things happen and they just sort of go by. Oh yes, I love you, Mrs Patterson. That was a lovely play written by John Bowen.

Presenter4:25

Yeah.

Wendy Craig4:30

And then I think I did ride a cock horse with Peter O'Toole.

Presenter4:35

Yeah. Were there many complications at that time in running an acting career and bringing up two sons and looking after a husband?

Wendy Craig4:42

It is complicated, there's no doubt about it. It's complicated and it's hard work. What one has to do is divide oneself completely in half, and you have one half which devotes itself to work and work only, and the other half devotes itself to family and family only, and never the twain shall meet. And what you mustn't do is bring home to the theatre, or theatre too much to home.

Presenter5:02

I'll see ya.

Presenter5:05

And, of course, it does mean sacrifices. I know you had to turn down a Stratford on Avon season.

Wendy Craig5:10

I couldn't be away from home too long, you see, so anything that would have taken me away from home for more than a week or two without seeing them at all would have been hopeless. They'd never have managed. I if I could get home, say, on a tour, to organise things again and get the house in order and set them off with their um lists of what to eat and drink and all that, that was all right. But you can't stay away for too long.

Presenter5:29

That was all right.

Presenter5:32

Yeah, give him a gentle push occasionally.

Wendy Craig5:33

Yes, yes. They need ma'am to give them a push.

Presenter5:35

One job that must have gone down very well with your family was Peter Pan.

Wendy Craig5:41

The children loved Peter Pan more than anything else I ever did. It seemed to be a magic era for them, because they keep recalling it, and they keep saying, Will you do it again? and their their eyes light up if they hear me talking about it, or if they see photos of Miss Peter Pan. You see, they they loved the play so much, and also they loved it because they were allowed to come backstage because it was their Christmas hauls, and I didn't know what on earth to do with them. So they used to come backstage sometimes for matinees, and they were allowed occasionally to fly between shows, and they also saw the crocodile, and they played with the lost boys and the pirates, and they loved the costumes and the music. It was a magical era for them, there's no doubt about it.

Presenter6:21

What was the first film you did?

Wendy Craig6:25

The first film I did was called The Secret Place, and uh it was a detective story.

Wendy Craig6:32

Then I did a film called The Mind Benders with uh Dirk Bogard, and I walked on in a film called Room at the Top, which was uh quite famous in its time for being rather ootre.

Presenter6:35

Mm.

Presenter6:43

Rather oops.

Wendy Craig6:44

Um after that

Wendy Craig6:47

I did the servant.

Wendy Craig6:49

Joe Losi directed that. That was a a rather splendid film which won several awards.

Wendy Craig6:56

And then

Wendy Craig6:57

We did a

Wendy Craig6:59

The Nanny with Betty Davis

Presenter7:02

That was a horror film.

Wendy Craig7:03

That is a horror film, yes.

Wendy Craig7:06

Uh and I cried all the way through it.

Presenter7:08

Yeah.

Wendy Craig7:09

And after the nanny I did.

Wendy Craig7:12

I'll never forget what's his name, with Oliver Reed.

Wendy Craig7:16

And then I made a comedy film called Just Like a Woman.

Presenter7:17

Well

Wendy Craig7:20

And it was from there that I went into television comedy.

Presenter7:24

Yes. You had done some television before, some more serious television.

Wendy Craig7:27

Oh yes, I did a lot of s uh, serious television before that.

Wendy Craig7:31

I I did um

Wendy Craig7:32

Candida?

Wendy Craig7:34

and uh well, actually there was such a list of plays I couldn't possibly remember, but people seemed to like

Wendy Craig7:41

A little love story I did called The Floating Population with Ian Vannon, and it was the sort of a simple romantic story that you don't see very often now on television.

Presenter7:53

And the comedy series, of course, not in front of the children. How many episodes now?

Wendy Craig7:58

I think about thirty two. I haven't counted them.

Presenter8:01

and with uh a couple of different husbands.

Wendy Craig8:05

Yes. My first husband was Paul Dainemann.

Wendy Craig8:09

And then my second husband was Ronald Hines, and I even have a radio husband who's different, so in actual fact it was three.

Presenter8:15

Well, Not in Front of the Children won you an Actress of the Year award.

Presenter8:19

How much of you is there in misses Corner?

Wendy Craig8:23

Oh, a lot.

Wendy Craig8:24

It was written with me in mind.

Presenter8:26

How do you mean? Richard Waring came to dinner and watched you and said I'm I'm going to write a series about that. But I knew it.

Wendy Craig8:30

When I knew Richard Waring we were great friends, you see.

Wendy Craig8:34

I don't think he'd ever thought of writing anything for me until he saw this little comedy film Just Like a Woman, and he said, Would you like to do a comedy series? and I said, I can't think of anything I'd love more. So he said, Well, I'll set to let's think of some ideas. I'll set to work and write one for you. I'd love to. So he did, and that's how it was born.

Presenter8:52

So we wrote thirty-two of them.

Wendy Craig8:54

Yes.

Presenter8:55

You've been doing some writing lately, Wendy?

Wendy Craig8:57

I've taken to writing children's stories.

Presenter9:00

and recording them.

Wendy Craig9:01

and recording them.

Wendy Craig9:02

Um they wanted me to make a record for children, and I didn't want to do Cinderella and Jack and Beanstalk and those things,'cause they've all been done before and their mothers tell them them anyway. So I went to a library and I did a lot of research for several weeks on stories.

Wendy Craig9:18

from other lands that they hadn't heard before and I retold them in a way that would be suitable for English children to comprehend them easily and amuse them, and then I made a record of them.

Presenter9:21

Uh

Presenter9:29

And they're going to be a book.

Wendy Craig9:31

I hope they're going to be a book as well.