Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Desert Island Discs
Presented by Roy Plomley
Principal comedian with the Doily Cart Opera Company.
Eight records
Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18Favourite
Vladimir Ashkenazy with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra
The closing passage of the Rachmaninoff Second Piano Concerto
Traditional / Friedrich von Flotow (arr.)
Ada Althorpe The Last Rose of Summer
Philadelphia Orchestra Strings, Eugene Ormandy
Samuel Barber's a Dachio for strings, played by the strings of the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormondy
Charles Mackerras, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
The opening of the Pineapple Pal Ballet Suite, Charles McKeires conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Little Cloud (from La Vie Parisienne)
Cynthia Moray and Eric Schilling with the Sadler's Wells Opera Company
Cynthia Moray and Eric Schilling in the song from Offenbach's La Pie Parisienne
David Rose and his orchestra the stripper
The Impossible Dream (The Quest)
Richard Kiley and Irving Jacobson
Richard Kiley and Irving Jacobson in the New York production of Man of La Mancha
Stelios Zafiru and his Bouzoukia
Come Dance the Sertake played by Stelios Zafiru and his Buzukia
The keepsakes
The book
a large book on do-it-yourself
(do-it-yourself manual)
I don't think I read very many books twice. I would get bored. I think I would like a large book on do it yourself.
The luxury
Canvases, oil paints, and brushes
Lots and lots of canvases and lots and lots of oil paints and loads of brushes. I go through those very fast.
In conversation
Presenter asks
John, how well do you think you could endure loneliness?
I could endure it. I I wouldn't like it, I don't think.
Presenter asks
What was your ambition as a child? What did you want to do?
The only sort of thing I could do well, I think, was paint or anything on the artistic side. I wanted to be a a commercial artist. I remember my mother taking me down and they said, Yes, they would take us, all right, you see, but uh of course when I came out there wouldn't be any work there, so that was squashed.
Presenter asks
And when did the theatre come into your life?
The theatre didn't come into my life until after the war, or or or the tail end of the war actually. And that happened because um [when] I got home as a a girlfriend I knew … She was going along to a play reading, and I went along as a sort of a spectator, and they asked me to read in for this part. From that, I got the lead in this sort of semi-professional company. And I played the part, and from then on, it went.
The recording
Timestamps play the recording from that turn
John Reed
BBC Sounds, Music, Radio Podcasts. Hello, I'm Lauren Laverne and this is the Desert Island Discs podcast. For rights reasons, the music is shorter than on the original broadcast. The presenter is Roy Plomley. I hope you enjoy listening.
Presenter
This week, our castaway is the principal comedian with the Doily Cart Opera Company, John Reed.
Presenter
John, how well do you think you could endure loneliness?
Presenter
I could endure it. I I wouldn't like it, I don't think.
Presenter
What would you be happiest you got away from?
Presenter
I think maybe the turmoil maybe the
Presenter
The reading of the newspapers have so much sort of discontent in the world. I don't mind the bustle of a city or anything. I don't mind the noise. I love I lap all that up.
Presenter
I don't like the fighting, I don't like the that side of it, I think. What would you want music to do for you on the island?
Presenter
remind you of the past.
Presenter
Oh, but definitely.
Presenter
I've got so much to
Presenter
Remember, you know, at my age.
Presenter
Adure it.
John Reed
At your
Presenter
Um we know you as a singer and comedian. Are you also a musician? I mean, have you had musical training? Do you play an instrument? Oh yes, I had I had my a certain amount of singing lessons and uh piano. I play the piano but just for my own amusement. What's the first record you've chosen? Uh Ratman Enough. Why?
Presenter
And what?
Presenter
Well, it's the um second piano concerto and and just simply because I love it.
Presenter
The closing passage of the Rachmaninoff Second Piano Concerto.
Presenter
Vladimir Askenazi with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra. What's your second disc? My second disc is Ada Ostop, soprano. Yes, singer. It came from my hometown, of course. I knew her very well.
Presenter
She's passed away now. I loved her very dearly. I like to hear her singing The Last Rose of Summer, I think.
Presenter
If you want to know why, it's because it's Darlington, it's my home.
Presenter
It's the north.
Speaker 3
He is the lost.
Speaker 3
Yeah.
Presenter
Ada Althorpe The Last Rose of Summer.
Presenter
So you're from Darlington, John. Any theatre background?
Presenter
No.
Presenter
Not really.
Presenter
Um
Presenter
My mother was a singer.
Presenter
Uh my sister is to me a brilliant musician. She's the clever one of the family, I always think. That's my middle sister. I have three actually.
John Reed
Pair three.
Presenter
When I say I came from Darlington, it's not quite true. I was born at Close House near Bishop Auckland. I moved to Darlington when I was about eleven. Yes. What was your ambition as as a child? What did you want to do? The only sort of thing I could do well, I think, was
Presenter
paint or anything on the artistic side. I wanted to be a a commercial artist. I remember my mother taking me down and they said, Yes, they would take us, all right, you see, but uh of course when I came out there wouldn't be any work there, so that was squashed. Yes. What did you do?
Presenter
Well, I then went into a builder's office.
Presenter
Did the pay slips and everything. I remember my first job was to walk along a plank.
Presenter
You know, about two stories up and get the time sheets from the Masons and the Tyler's Mountain. I nearly died. Yes. What do you think? And from there I went into a
Presenter
Insurance office, Pearl Insurance. And then the war came and I was
Presenter
Tool fitter instrument maker. Yes. It worked used to work the two tenths of a thow. I couldn't do it now, but I
John Reed
Yeah.
Presenter
Did it then? And when did the theatre come into your life? The theatre didn't come into my life until after.
Presenter
the war, or or or the tail end of the war actually. And that happened because um
Presenter
When I got home as a a girlfriend I knew
Presenter
She was going along to a play reading, and I went along as a sort of a spectator, and they asked me to read in for this part.
Presenter
From that, I got the lead in this sort of semi-professional company. And I played the part, and from then on, it went. The next thing after that was that.
Presenter
Suddenly someone knocked at my door and said, Would I play the the juvenile leads in this rapporteur company, which was Keith James Enterprises? I think it was Saltburn I played first.
Presenter
And I said, Well, how do you know what I can do? He said, Well, I've seen you walk on a stage and make an exit and it's good enough for me. And it started from there. And after that, my father was there and I came to look after the business.
Presenter
And I was met in the street by somebody who'd been in the Doilerka Double Company and said, how do you feel about going back on the stage? And I said, of course, I'm always interested.
Presenter
And he said to me, Well, um
Presenter
I'll arrange an audition for you. They're looking for an understudy for Peter Pratt, who was playing the principal roles in those days.
Presenter
And I learnt the Nightmare song and went up to Glasgow for my first audition.
Presenter
And they said, thank you very much. We'll let you know. I thought, well, that's that. It was only an experiment anyway.
Presenter
A week later they asked me to go again, and when I'd done the whole lot.
Presenter
And dialogue and everything else, you see. There was a deathly hush in the theater, and they said, Damn.
Presenter
Thank you very much. Mr. Reid, we'll let you know. And I thought, well, I've gone too far this time, you see. And then when I got into the wings, Mr. Frederick Lloyd, who was the general manager, said, We want you, Mr. Reed. How soon can you come? Yes. So you joined as understudy to Peter Pratt. I did. Were you a Gilbert and Sullivan enthusiast already? I didn't know anything about Gilbert and Sullivan. You'd never played it, never seen it? Never, never. I think I'd seen it once, but I mean, that is very vague. I think I saw Martin Green.
Presenter
But it is very vague. Yes. I mean, I I did mention this actually to Mr Lloyd when I came off and I said, I don't know Gilbert and Sullivan. He said, Well, we prefer that. He said we can we can sort of start you off the way we mean you to go. You've mentioned Martin Greene and Peter Pratt. What was the line of succession of the principal comedian? The first was George Grill Smith.
John Reed
To go
John Reed
The first was
Presenter
Then came Sir Henry Lytton.
Presenter
And Martin Greene, Peter Pratt, and I'm the fifth in line of succession, I think. Yes. Now you're successor to a long tradition in Gilbert Sullivan. How much originality can you bring to it?
Presenter
I think quite a lot actually. I think you do it rather slyly, but I think I think you can do it quite a lot. I think uh one slips things in here and there, you know, and then suddenly it it's it's accepted as tradition. How long were you under study before you started playing? I think about seven years actually.
Presenter
How long have you been with the company altogether? Twenty-one years. Oh, well, you should know something about Gilbert and Salton. Well, there's still a lot to learn, I fear. Let's have another record, John. What next?
John Reed
Mm
Presenter
The Dashio of Strings, I think.
Presenter
This is my
Presenter
Mood music. This is what I would.
Presenter
Sit a long time and think about and remember by.
Presenter
Samuel Barber's a Dachio for strings, played by the strings of the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormondy. The Doily Cart Company.
Presenter
Only plays Gilbert and Salvador, never anything else. No, nothing else. Oh, well, of course, there is the one up from
Presenter
Cox and Box.
Presenter
And that was written by Sullivan and Bernard.
John Reed
The water seed in there.
Presenter
The Toiley Cart Company has no permanent home.
Presenter
Not really. I suppose it's the Savoy, if anything. But you often come in to London to another theater to the city. Well, of course, but it's in the Festival Hall.
John Reed
Well of course, but also I mean uh
Presenter
Sure. I think I mean, there's probably a a play or whatever going on at the Savoy and it's successful. You can't turn them out to put us back there anyway. Yes. So you've been on tour for twenty one years? Twenty one years.
John Reed
Same.
Presenter
There's a London season most years, isn't there? Or every year. Yes, we have another one this year. I love it, of course, because I can live at home. I'm no longer on tour.
John Reed
Yeah.
Presenter
Must be very difficult touring now. Your hotels are terribly expensive. Digs are practically non-existent. How do you manage it?
Presenter
While it
Presenter
Of course, the old days, you know, there were wonderful old days with the old landladies. I mean, I could write a book about that. There were the wonderful days, I think, you know.
Presenter
I think the landladies, they were such characters, you know.
Presenter
Well, they've I think perhaps three of them I have left and I go
Presenter
I would just go there rather than anywhere else. For instance, now I I do have a caravan. There are about twelve of us in the company have caravans, as a matter of fact, simply because this is the easier way. It's like taking a little bit of your home with you and so forth. That's a very good solution.
Presenter
The company goes quite frequently to the United States and Canada. Yes.
Presenter
Where else does the company go? The last tour we did one week in uh Copenhagen. How did that go? Extremely well.
Presenter
They were delightful.
Presenter
I I was so glad that I was warned about this because um
Presenter
On the first night they give you a slow hand clap, you know.
Presenter
And of course in England you would think you were getting the bird or something. But you've got to expect this of course. And flowers are handed up to me as well as everybody else you see. And of course this would never happen in England. And you get all the chorus boys sniggering. But believe me, by the third night comes, if you don't get that slow hand clap and you don't get that bouquet of flowers, you think, what's happened?
John Reed
Business.
John Reed
Partly
Presenter
Let's have another record. What's number four on the list? Well, I've chosen Pineapple Paul. And I should think you would know why, really. I mean,.
Presenter
To pick something from the operas would be terribly difficult to me. There's been so many people that have come and gone that I've loved very dearly.
Presenter
I thought Panapal Paul has just that touch of everything. Yes, this is Charles McKeiris's sort of musical switch of all the sounds of the world. Absolutely. Even I have difficulty of picking some of them out sometimes.
John Reed
Absolutely.
Presenter
The opening of the Pineapple Pal Ballet Suite, Charles McKeires conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
Presenter
Is the Doily Cart Company subsidized? No, we're not subsidized.
Presenter
At all.
Presenter
As well as the stage productions, of course, there are discs and one or two films.
Presenter
I've only made the one film, McCardell.
Presenter
And we did the backing for a cartoon on Radical. I enjoyed that.
Presenter
I enjoyed making the film.
Presenter
I didn't like it when I saw it. It was terrible watching itself on the film, so dreadful. There was great anxiety in nineteen sixty one because the Gilbert and Sullivan copyrights were going to run out. What difference did it make to the Doily Cart Company?
Presenter
Well, as far as I know, it made no difference. Right now, I think they're as popular as ever I remember them being. There were competitive productions set up. Actually, we were when the copyright came off, we were at the Savoy. And I think the Saddler's Worlds were performing
Presenter
Maybe I learned in the card or I don't know quite.
Presenter
Sir Tyron Guthrie was playing uh
Presenter
Either HMS Pinafor or Pirates, but it made no difference to us whatsoever. Yes, in spite of hot mikados and cool mikados and I mean, I would play in the hot mikado, if anybody asked me, I would love it, you know. I would go back.
Speaker 3
Absolutely.
Presenter
To what I'm doing because that would be a little fun thing that would pop in here and there, but that is where I want to be. Without interfering with the mainstream. Yes.
John Reed
That was my
Presenter
What are your personal plans, John? Are you going to stay with the GNS?
Presenter
Oh yes, I'm going to stay with them, I think. I've been
Presenter
Very, very happy with them for twenty-one years now. You don't get a feeling somehow that you're you're buried and and you're forgotten by large sections of the theatre.
John Reed
No
Presenter
Oh, I think large sections of the theatre don't know anything about me at all. I'm quite sure of that. I think I'm only known to my Gilbert and Sullivan fan.
Presenter
That happy life with the company and Gilbert and Sullivan is what you want. I mean, no matter what anybody says. Oh, sure.
John Reed
Yeah.
Speaker 3
Is what you
Presenter
In the company, you cannot go around on tour without little differences here and there. Of course they are there.
Presenter
But no matter what anybody says, they are a family.
Presenter
And by the end of the tour, you might hate them. You think, I don't want to see her or him again. But when the holiday is over, you fall on one another's necks and say, Where did he go? What did he do? It's just like a family. Let's have a record number five. What have you got next?
Presenter
Record number five would be um from La Vie Préziene, I think. Offenbach. Offenbach. That's because there's a similarity with Gilbert and Sullivan, as you well know. And I want um Cynthia Moray and Eric Schilling singing Little Cloud, because Cynthia was my very first friend in this company. She was playing the parts of Yam Yum.
Presenter
Etc., when I joined.
Presenter
She's my dearest friend. I even live in the same street now.
Presenter
And um I love the way she sings this particular piece with Ari Schilling.
Presenter
I'm a great fan of his, I shouldn't be.
Presenter
He plays my parts, of course, with the Settler's Wells Opera Company.
Presenter
I think is extremely good. And I think the pair together
Presenter
That's super
Speaker 3
Go with all the roundabouts.
Speaker 2
And take us to with you, with you, with you, with you, with you.
Speaker 3
That's two
Speaker 2
Up to that land so sweet
Speaker 3
Yeah.
Speaker 2
Yeah.
Speaker 3
Uh
Speaker 2
Blue
John Reed
Don't many times.
Speaker 2
Command with lines.
John Reed
We've got a ballet!
Speaker 2
How we love it.
John Reed
If we could reach.
Speaker 2
If we could read
John Reed
That promised friends!
Speaker 2
That form is planned.
John Reed
Oh blows there.
Speaker 2
Oh blow us there.
John Reed
Uh
Speaker 3
Welcome, Dave and Happy. Happy Bruce!
Speaker 2
Welcome to
Speaker 2
Happy breath
Speaker 2
BIN BIT
Presenter
Cynthia Moray and Eric Schilling in the song from Offenbach's La Pie Parisienne.
Presenter
By the Saddlers Wells Opera Company.
Presenter
Let's have record number six straight away.
Presenter
Record number six.
Presenter
Uh is this tripper?
Presenter
A stripper, why? Well.
Presenter
The striper to me is statically American.
Presenter
And I would want to be reminded of all those American tours, and I think this is about.
Presenter
The only record that would bring everything back. It is so sort of.
Presenter
That's just American, isn't it? I mean, if you've heard it, I don't know. I have indeed. The rush, the bustle, the the burlesques, everything.
Presenter
David Rose and his orchestra the stripper.
Presenter
John, what are your hobbies?
Presenter
I've got so many hobbies.
Presenter
I would keep you here till midnight, I think, if I started. I um the principal ones. The principal one I think always remains is oil painting. This is because I think I never
Presenter
I never will perfect it and I go on trying to get better and better. I mean, a hobby with me is that if I want to make a basket worker or I want to make a lampshade or I want to make a pair of trousers, I do it. Once I do it, I can do it. I'm finished. You can make a pair of trousers. Oh, sure. I've done this sort of thing. I've made shirts and things. It all started off as a bet, as a matter of fact. Somebody bet me I couldn't and I did. I made everything I wore, my sports jacket, my shirt, and my trousers. But once I could do it, it was finished.
Presenter
But painting
Presenter
I will never.
Presenter
Ever perfect.
Presenter
Could you run up a handy, waterproof little shelter on a desert island? Oh, you bet I could. I would build. Sure I would build. Are you a good cook? Yes, I think I'm a good cook. I I like to think I am. I'm very, very interested in it. Can you collect some food together? Can you fish? Can you cultivate?
Presenter
Sure, I'm very adaptable. I would fish all right. Would you try to escape?
Presenter
I don't think I would try to escape. I I wouldn't go right out into the
Presenter
The dark, dark ocean there, night time on the ocean looks dreadful to me. No, I wouldn't try to escape. Right. I'll wait to be picked up. Somebody will come along, won't they? I hope so.
Presenter
Record number seven.
Presenter
Record number seven is um Richard Kiley.
Presenter
Singing the theme song.
Presenter
From The Man of Lamenta.
Speaker 3
Hear me now, thou bleak and unbearable world. Thou art base and debauched as can be.
Speaker 3
And the Knight, with his banners all bravely unfurled, Now hurls down his gauntlet to the
Speaker 3
I am my Don Quixote the
Presenter
Richard Kiley and Irving Jacobson in the New York production of Man of La Mancha.
Presenter
Now we come to your last record, what's that to be?
Presenter
My last record is.
Presenter
Would have to be some Greek music, I think.
Speaker 2
Huh?
Presenter
I love my holidays in Greece. I love the sound of the Greek music. It's just holiday music.
Presenter
Come Dance the Sertake played by Stelios Zafiru and his Buzukia.
Presenter
Now we've come to
Presenter
The time when you have to decide which one disc you'd take with you if you only had one. Well, I think it'd have to be ragman enough. Right. And one luxury to take with you?
Presenter
Oh definitely.
Presenter
Lots and lots of canvases and lots and lots of oil paints and loads of brushes. I go through those very fast. And one book apart from the Bible and Shakespeare.
Presenter
Well, I thought a lot about this because I think that I.
Presenter
I don't think I read very many books twice. I would get bored. I think I would like a large book on.
Presenter
Do it yourself.
Presenter
All right. And thank you, John Reed, for letting us hear your Desert Island Dish. And thank you very much for having me.
Presenter
Goodbye everyone.
Presenter asks
You're successor to a long tradition in Gilbert and Sullivan. How much originality can you bring to it?
I think quite a lot actually. I think you do it rather slyly, but I think I think you can do it quite a lot. I think uh one slips things in here and there, you know, and then suddenly it it's it's accepted as tradition.
Presenter asks
Hotels are terribly expensive and digs are practically non-existent. How do you manage touring now?
While it [is difficult] … Of course, the old days, you know, there were wonderful old days with the old landladies. I mean, I could write a book about that. … they were such characters, you know. … now I I do have a caravan. There are about twelve of us in the company have caravans, as a matter of fact, simply because this is the easier way. It's like taking a little bit of your home with you.
Presenter asks
What are your personal plans? Are you going to stay with the D'Oyly Carte?
Oh yes, I'm going to stay with them, I think. I've been very, very happy with them for twenty-one years now. You don't get a feeling somehow that you're you're buried and and you're forgotten by large sections of the theatre. … Oh, I think large sections of the theatre don't know anything about me at all. I'm quite sure of that. I think I'm only known to my Gilbert and Sullivan fan.
“Oh, but definitely. I've got so much to remember, you know, at my age.”
“I'll arrange an audition for you. They're looking for an understudy for Peter Pratt, who was playing the principal roles in those days. And I learnt the Nightmare song and went up to Glasgow for my first audition. And they said, thank you very much. We'll let you know. I thought, well, that's that. It was only an experiment anyway.”
“I don't know Gilbert and Sullivan. He said, Well, we prefer that. He said we can we can sort of start you off the way we mean you to go.”
“This is my mood music. This is what I would sit a long time and think about and remember by.”
“But painting I will never ever perfect.”