Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Desert Island Discs
Presented by Roy Plomley
Doctor and author, best known for the 'Doctor' series of books, films, and TV shows.
Eight records
The eight records for this collection haven’t been catalogued yet.
The keepsakes
The luxury
Not recorded.
In conversation
Presenter asks
Did you want to specialize?
Uh well, in fact, I became an anaesthetist. Um uh I'm afraid I wasn't a very good doctor, mainly because um I didn't like patients.
Presenter asks
This first book of yours, uh this was Doctor in the House, was it?
Yes, that's right.
Presenter asks
Had you great expectation of it when you wrote it?
Good Lord, no only a fool would write a book and expect it to make any money.
Presenter asks
Was Doctor in the House an immediate bestseller?
Well, it was, you see. Um I it was all very new to me. I mean, I didn't know anything about it at the time. I thought all books were immediate bestsellers. You see, it was quite spoiled.
The recording
Timestamps play the recording from that turn
Richard Gordon
This download is the only extract the BBC has of this edition of Desert Island Discs. The presenter was Roy Plumley.
Presenter
What part of the country do you come from? Oh, I'm a Londoner, born and bred. Yes. And you qualified as a doctor? At St. Bartholomew's Hospital. Yes. Did you want to specialize? Uh well, in fact, I became an anaesthetist. Um uh I'm afraid I wasn't a very good doctor, mainly because um I didn't like patients. That's rather like a man in the cavalry saying he doesn't like horses, isn't it?
Presenter
And I gradually backed away from patients. I became anesthetist in which all my patients were asleep.
Richard Gordon
Yeah.
Presenter
If I'd have gone any longer, I suppose I'd have been a pathologist.
Presenter
So you were an inathetist. What was the name?
Richard Gordon
Next step in your medical career.
Presenter
Well, then I got a job on the British Medical Journal. Extremely stayed and excellent publication. Doing what? Well, the editor, for reasons best known to himself, put me in charge of the obituary columns. This, of course, was invaluable practice. It taught me how to write convincing fiction. Well, all went well until one day, unfortunately, I killed a Doctor of Divinity by mistake. It's a terribly complicated story. And so shortly after that, I found myself going away to sea.
Presenter
As a ship's doctor? Of course, in great comfort. How many trips did you do as a ship's doctor? Well, I did about ooh, about half a dozen, I suppose, all over the world. Um one I particularly remember, we went to New Zealand, uh, this first one, and I it's edited my memory because we were involved in a dock strike there. I remember there was a grain ship which was in the middle of a dispute next to us, and by the time the strike was over, the grain had grown through the ship's hatches. And as far as I know, there were rabbits running about.
Richard Gordon
This first book of yours, uh this was Doctor in the House, was it?
Presenter
Yes, that's right.
Richard Gordon
about your own experiences as a student.
Presenter
Well, yes, the experiences of myself, and I hope, in view of some of the incidents, the experiences of my friends. Had you great expectation of it when you wrote it? Good Lord, no only a fool would write a book and expect it to make any money.
Presenter
Um
Presenter
Had you retired from the sea by the time the book appeared? I'd gone back to being an anaesthetist at the Nuffield Department of Anesthetics at Oxford. Yes. Uh working under Professor Sir Robert Mackintosh. Where you married another anaesthetist. Uh yes, yes. We had a sort of wild romance over the anesthetic trolley.
Presenter
Uh very cosy. Uh and I then um gave up.
Presenter
uh anaesthetics when I found I was doing rather better at writing and uh with a great stroke of prudence uh my wife uh applied for my job and I gave it to her. Was Doctor in the House an immediate bestseller? Well, it was, you see. Um I it was all very new to me. I mean, I didn't know anything about it at the time. I thought all books were immediate bestsellers. You see, it was quite spoiled.
Presenter
How many doctor books have there been? Well, there's been ten now, and um.
Presenter
There've been eight films made of them and I've been frightfully lucky with all this. I mean
Richard Gordon
Did you write the screenplays yourself?
Presenter
No, I'm no good at screenplayers. Um I believe in sticking to what uh one can do. There's a rumour that you've appeared in the films yourself. Do you mean to say you haven't noticed me? I'm terribly hurt.
Richard Gordon
Yeah, but
Presenter
Jeremy Hurt, I have a part in all my films.
Presenter
Uh the first one perhaps you may not have seen me because the director muffled me up in theatre gear to play the Anisthas.
Presenter
He had only got to show my eyes to the world. Uh he told me I had the most expressive eyes in the business, incidentally. But I didn't really do terribly well as an actor because in the Doctor film before last, I was reduced simply to being man walking down corridor.
Richard Gordon
Uh
Presenter
Uh Yeah.
Richard Gordon
Yeah.
Presenter
In the last Doctor film I was man walking down corridor seen through glass. This is not progress, is it? Well if I make another one I'll probably be man walking down corridor seen through frosted glass. I mean but that is show business I suppose? Yes. And there have been television series. Well yes, uh we are now on uh with um Doctor at Large um on IT V. Yes, and two or three stage versions. Yes, uh Ted Willis wrote two and I did one myself.
Presenter
Are you a systematic writer? Do you work so many hours a day? Yes, I work from about ten to four thirty, but n n not, of course, during the cricket season.
Presenter
Do you play cricket yourself? I am the world's worst cricketer. In fact, the last time I went in to cricket uh I played Last Man for Punch magazine, in which my um captain made me feel behind a tree. I think it's the absolute dignity of the whole thing. Was it a big tree?
Richard Gordon
Yeah.
Presenter
Uh yes, it was an enormous tree.
Presenter asks
Did you write the screenplays yourself?
No, I'm no good at screenplayers. Um I believe in sticking to what uh one can do.
Presenter asks
Are you a systematic writer? Do you work so many hours a day?
Yes, I work from about ten to four thirty, but n n not, of course, during the cricket season.
“Uh well, in fact, I became an anaesthetist. Um uh I'm afraid I wasn't a very good doctor, mainly because um I didn't like patients.”
“I gradually backed away from patients. I became anesthetist in which all my patients were asleep. If I'd have gone any longer, I suppose I'd have been a pathologist.”
“Well, then I got a job on the British Medical Journal. ... the editor, for reasons best known to himself, put me in charge of the obituary columns. This, of course, was invaluable practice. It taught me how to write convincing fiction.”
“I thought all books were immediate bestsellers. You see, it was quite spoiled.”
“I am the world's worst cricketer. In fact, the last time I went in to cricket uh I played Last Man for Punch magazine, in which my um captain made me feel behind a tree.”