Wendy Hiller

Wendy Hiller0:00

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

Wendy Hiller0:08

I'm from Lancashire.

Wendy Hiller0:10

from a suburb of Manchester.

Presenter0:12

Yes. As a child, did you see a lot of theatre?

Wendy Hiller0:14

No, really very little.

Wendy Hiller0:17

But I always knew I wanted to go into the theatre. I came of an untheatrical family. I was sent away to boarding school in the South.

Presenter0:23

In the side.

Wendy Hiller0:24

And I had a voice training teacher there who was a remarkable woman, Miss Edith Clements.

Wendy Hiller0:31

who is still alive, a wonderful woman.

Wendy Hiller0:34

And I think she took it for granted, really, that I should go into the theatre.

Presenter0:39

Uh

Wendy Hiller0:39

Uh

Presenter0:39

Uh I think

Wendy Hiller0:39

Ghost

Presenter0:40

Uh

Wendy Hiller0:40

Yeah.

Wendy Hiller0:41

I went to the m what was known as the Rusham Rep, Repertory Theatre, which was a sort of inner suburb of Manchester.

Wendy Hiller0:50

And it

Wendy Hiller0:51

being paid thirty shillings a week,

Wendy Hiller0:53

I was a sort of assistant stage manager. I worked long hours, ten in the morning.

Presenter0:58

Uh

Wendy Hiller1:00

and oh long, long hours, which was wonderful.

Presenter1:02

Mm-hmm. What was the first appearance, the first time you you trod the board?

Wendy Hiller1:06

Well, I trod the boards. They used to turn butlers' parts into maids for me because, you see, I could ASM and play the butler, dressed as a maid.

Presenter1:17

Yes, good.

Wendy Hiller1:18

So that was quite easy. So I I I played a lot of maids with various accents. In fact, I grew out of the maid's frock there. There was only one. You had to go. Well, I grew.

Presenter1:27

There was only one.

Presenter1:29

You had to go.

Wendy Hiller1:32

And got rather plump.

Presenter1:33

Yeah.

Wendy Hiller1:33

And so that was, I think.

Wendy Hiller1:36

For somebody who d wasn't lucky enough to go to Rada or any training school.

Wendy Hiller1:41

A quite wonderful training because it was the practical way.

Presenter1:44

How long did you stay there?

Wendy Hiller1:45

I think I was there ooh, for over two years.

Wendy Hiller1:50

And then I went back to play Love on the Dole, which was the beginning of what is known as success.

Presenter1:55

Yes. That was your big chance, love on the other side.

Wendy Hiller1:57

That was what is known as my big chance, which I played.

Wendy Hiller2:01

Seven months on tour twice nightly, then in London and then in New York.

Presenter2:05

Yeah.

Wendy Hiller2:06

It was then that I met my husband Ronald Gow.

Wendy Hiller2:09

who had adapted Walter Greenwood's novel and put it onto the stage.

Presenter2:13

Yeah.

Presenter2:14

These were the days of the Depression, of course, and the story.

Presenter2:18

Love on the Dome made a really enormous impact everywhere it played.

Wendy Hiller2:20

It made an en enormous impact, and although we played the small towns of Lancashire and Yorkshire, and although the the audiences were seeing themselves in a way,

Wendy Hiller2:31

It was an incredible success.

Presenter2:33

Yeah.

Presenter2:34

It didn't do very much in New York, if I remember right.

Wendy Hiller2:38

I left it. I can't really remember. I think I was lucky enough to have a personal success. I came back from there.

Wendy Hiller2:47

To play Saint Joan at the Malvern Festival for GBS's eighty-first birthday.

Presenter2:49

Yeah.

Wendy Hiller2:52

I don't know quite how it worked out.

Wendy Hiller2:54

But I did get a telegram from Barry Jackson asking me if I'd like to play Elizabeth Doolittle.

Presenter3:01

Yeah.

Wendy Hiller3:01

which I always think was rather strange, rather quaint.

Wendy Hiller3:04

And St Joan.

Presenter3:07

Gorgeous double.

Wendy Hiller3:07

Yes. And I came back and did them both.

Wendy Hiller3:11

We were doing four plays and I was in those two rather large parts, and so I managed them both with six rehearsals and one dress rehearsal, which is something you do when you're very young and very brave.

Presenter3:24

I should think so. And Eliza Doolittle, of course, you also played in the film version.

Wendy Hiller3:28

Yes, which came just before.

Presenter3:31

The War. Yes, it's one of the most successful films ever made in a British studio, I should think. Who was in it with you, Leslie Howard?

Wendy Hiller3:37

That was Leslie Howard and all sorts of wonderful people. I was the only unknown one.

Presenter3:43

And then you did another show of film.

Wendy Hiller3:44

And then I did another short film, oh, but that was a couple of years later, and that took a long time, that was during the war, that was Major Barbara.

Presenter3:53

Now during the war I know you toured for Seymour.

Presenter3:56

Just after the war you made a very pleasant film set in Scotland. What was that?

Wendy Hiller4:01

Oh yes, it was the film we made in the Hebrides called I Know Where I'm Going.

Presenter4:09

and you were in a very successful play about the Prince Regent.

Wendy Hiller4:12

Oh, yes. Um Norman Ginsbury. Uh the first gentleman. The first gentleman with Robert Morley. Yes, that's it. Very jolly. Uh

Presenter4:18

Definitely.

Presenter4:19

Yeah.

Presenter4:22

Uh

Wendy Hiller4:22

Yes, royalty in the kitchen.

Wendy Hiller4:25

You know, the public always likes that sort of royalty with taking down its back hair. It was a charming play.

Presenter4:25

Yeah.

Presenter4:27

Yeah.

Presenter4:31

And then you had a long run at the Haymarket Theatre.

Wendy Hiller4:34

Oh yes, that was with Dame Sybil and Dame Edith. The w waters of the moon, you mean? Waters of the moon.

Presenter4:39

Waters of the Moon is a little bit more.

Wendy Hiller4:40

A delicious play by my friend Norman Hunter.

Presenter4:43

Mm-hmm.

Wendy Hiller4:43

Yes, a a much underrated playwright.

Presenter4:47

And then a season at the Old Vic. What did you play there?

Wendy Hiller4:50

Oh, now what did I play? Not very successfully.

Wendy Hiller4:54

Uh Hamani.

Wendy Hiller4:56

You know that old statue.

Wendy Hiller4:58

Winter Stay on

Presenter4:58

Winter's tale

Wendy Hiller5:00

Then I rather enjoyed Amelia.

Wendy Hiller5:03

Yes, I wore a black wig for Amelia and then came very happily to Tyron Guthrie's production of Troilus and Cressida. playing a rather surprising Helen of Troy.

Wendy Hiller5:14

Um

Wendy Hiller5:15

Rather like an old Claire de Beaux.

Presenter5:18

Yeah.

Wendy Hiller5:19

Yeah.

Presenter5:20

You had quite a long spell in the United States.

Wendy Hiller5:23

I used to go to America, having played in Love on the Doe there when I was very young.

Presenter5:29

Yes.

Wendy Hiller5:30

Uh then I played the heiress. I had several very happy visits there. It's a country I love to visit and have been very kind to me.

Presenter5:38

Yes. And you made some films. And you made separate tables for which you got an Academy Award.

Wendy Hiller5:43

Ah, that we made in Hollywood. But we all went over for that. We outnumbered the American.

Presenter5:49

72. There was a lovely story that you had a psychiatrist on the set. I mean, not for you personally, but.

Wendy Hiller5:54

No, but no, but we did. But for me personally, to explain to me why it was better for the play for Rita Hayworth.

Presenter5:56

Yes.

Wendy Hiller6:03

To play my best scene with Deborah Carr.

Presenter6:06

That must have needed a bit of explaining.

Wendy Hiller6:07

Well, it did.

Wendy Hiller6:10

It did really. I rather lost my sense of humour for about half an hour.

Presenter6:14

I can imagine. Still, you wrote that.

Wendy Hiller6:16

Yeah.

Presenter6:18

Beautiful rare.

Presenter6:20

and prestigious Academy Award.

Wendy Hiller6:22

Yes, well it was a it was a lovely film to do.

Wendy Hiller6:26

And um Terence Frantigan writes such beautiful stuff.

Presenter6:30

He is such a wonderful curseman radican.

Wendy Hiller6:32

Perfect craftsmanship and a perfect sense of the theatre.

Presenter6:37

You've been in three plays by your husband Ronald Garr.

Wendy Hiller6:40

Have I? Love all

Wendy Hiller6:43

And Veronica.

Wendy Hiller6:46

Yes, HD Wells Ann Veronica and Hardy's Tess of the Derbyvilles.

Presenter6:49

That's right. And you've been in three plays based on Henry James stories.

Wendy Hiller6:53

Um, The Air as Wings of a Dove, and then I played

Wendy Hiller6:58

Uh the Aspen Papers in New York.

Presenter7:00

Yes.

Wendy Hiller7:00

Yes, I I very much admire Henry James' writing.

Wendy Hiller7:05

And

Wendy Hiller7:07

I really do enjoy working my way through those long, slow

Wendy Hiller7:13

involved and convolvulated uh stories and sentences. Sometimes you have to read a sentence three or four times, but once you've got it you feel as it couldn't be put in any other way.

Presenter7:26

You've had some very good film poets recently.

Presenter7:29

A man for all seasons.

Wendy Hiller7:30

Oh, yes, that was a lovely film to do. It was a beautiful play and

Wendy Hiller7:37

transferred to the screen, I think, very beautifully. And of course Paul Schofield's

Wendy Hiller7:43

quite impeccable.

Wendy Hiller7:44

And memorable performance, which we all felt so desperately that we wanted to support to get it onto celluloid.

Presenter7:52

Hmm.

Wendy Hiller7:52

Yeah.

Presenter7:53

and David Copperfield.

Wendy Hiller7:54

Uh

Presenter7:54

misses McCaubberth.

Wendy Hiller7:55

misses McCaubber, what is known as a nice change.

Presenter7:58

Yeah.

Wendy Hiller7:58

Yeah.

Presenter7:59

What have you been doing just recently?

Wendy Hiller8:00

Now, what have I been doing? I've just finished touring Ghosts, misses Alving.

Presenter8:05

Yes.

Wendy Hiller8:06

And um

Presenter8:08

You've just done a television.

Wendy Hiller8:10

Well, it was last summer that I made a cloche melle in France, B B C Syria.

Presenter8:17

Oh, of course, yes.

Wendy Hiller8:18

which is I'd never been to France before, only to Paris.

Wendy Hiller8:23

It was it was a a delightful experience.

Wendy Hiller8:26

I was in France for for a month, working very hard. Lovely weather, lovely wine.

Wendy Hiller8:34

I met the Arthur Rubinstein.

Wendy Hiller8:37

Some years ago I was in New York

Wendy Hiller8:40

I was by myself. When I say by myself, my husband couldn't come with me.

Wendy Hiller8:45

and it was New Year's Eve, and I was invited to a party.

Wendy Hiller8:49

and I was feeling extremely homesick and very lonely.

Wendy Hiller8:54

And

Wendy Hiller8:55

I was introduced to um mister Rubinstein, which was a a a great joy to me.

Wendy Hiller9:02

And he w w was very cordial and suggested a toast, and I said, with tears in my eyes, I don't really feel very happy.

Wendy Hiller9:11

I feel so lonely without my husband and my family.

Wendy Hiller9:15

And he put his glass down, and he put both his arms round me, and said, I know, in that lovely accent, I know just how you feel.

Wendy Hiller9:24

because when I am away from my family I feel the same. I cannot bring your family to you, but I have here my wife, who I love so dearly. I am going to bring my wife to you.

Wendy Hiller9:37

Because I love her and I know you will appreciate our love.

Wendy Hiller9:42

on this New Year's Eve, and he brought his charming wife, and they both put their arms round me as though I were some foundling at this very smart New York party.