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Desert Island Discs
Presented by Roy Plomley
Actress and dancer, whose stage career progressed from Birmingham Rep to the West End in revues such as 'Sweet and Low'.
Eight records
Dance of the Hours (from La Gioconda)
Not explicitly stated in transcript — first disc not introduced. The transcript begins mid-discussion and discs are not enumerated. No disc choices appear in this extract.
The keepsakes
No book or luxury recorded for this episode.
In conversation
Presenter asks
Any precedent in the family for the theatre? How did it all start?
No, um nobody in the family. My father's always been very artistic, but there's no acting in the family. I think I fell in love with the theatre when I was about three, and I was taken to the Coliseum. and saw somebody uh dancing the jackdaw of rings and We were in the upper circle, and I can remember that cold brass rail on my forehead. And my behind up in the air and my mother holding on to my knickers because she thought I was going to take off.
Presenter asks
What was your first professional engagement?
Um I was a dancer in a pantomime.
Presenter asks
And after being a dancer in a pantomime?
Um Barry Jackson, Birmingham Rep.
Presenter asks
The recording
Timestamps play the recording from that turn
Brenda Bruce
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, Brenda?
Brenda Bruce
Well, I was born in Manchester.
Brenda Bruce
I think it was a mistake.
Brenda Bruce
Certainly my mother and father left when I think I was about three months old and I was then brought up in London.
Presenter
Any precedent in the family for the theatre? How did it all start?
Brenda Bruce
No, um nobody in the family. My father's always been very artistic, but there's no acting in the family.
Brenda Bruce
I think I fell in love with the theatre when I was about
Brenda Bruce
three, and I was taken to the Coliseum.
Brenda Bruce
and saw somebody
Brenda Bruce
uh dancing the jackdaw of rings and We were in the upper circle, and I can remember that cold brass rail on my forehead.
Brenda Bruce
And my behind up in the air and my mother holding on to my knickers because she thought I was going to take off.
Presenter
You wanted to be a dancer.
Brenda Bruce
From then on I went home and said, I am going to be a fairy.
Presenter
Yes. What was your first professional engagement?
Brenda Bruce
Um I was a dancer in a pantomime.
Presenter
Yes. You started very young, of course. Yes, I did.
Presenter
And after being a dancer in a pantomime?
Brenda Bruce
Um Barry Jackson, Birmingham Rep.
Presenter
Yes. A a straight acting, of course. Yes.
Brenda Bruce
Yes.
Presenter
In those days Birmingham rep also meant the Malbourne Festival, did it?
Brenda Bruce
Yes, I was there for the last Morgan Festival, I think it was.
Presenter
Yes. How long at Birmingham?
Brenda Bruce
Three years.
Presenter
And in that three years growing up from playing maids to
Presenter
Well no, I'm not
Brenda Bruce
Well, no, I mean, I I was terribly lucky in the beginning actually. Um
Brenda Bruce
I'm sure you haven't time to hear the whole story, but the first thing I played was Anne Bronte.
Presenter
You too.
Brenda Bruce
And I went on. Maids came later in my career, but I started off playing quite big parts.
Presenter
Sorry, but I started off playing quite
Presenter
Spend it.
Presenter
And then after Birmingham?
Brenda Bruce
Uh then I went to Liverpool for a season, and then back to Birmingham, but this time to the Alacrep.
Presenter
What was your first West End appearance?
Brenda Bruce
Uh in review.
Brenda Bruce
Sweet and low.
Presenter
Oh, sweet and lower, but the ambassadors there.
Presenter
Oh, it was you were seen in that, weren't you, and and given your first chart in the West End?
Presenter
Mm.
Presenter
And the play.
Brenda Bruce
While the sun shines
Presenter
That's right. I remember you played a a girl called Mabel Crumb. The Tarte with the Heart of Gold. And you played her for years and years.
Brenda Bruce
I played it for three years, yes.
Presenter
And then you played her in the film, of course.
Presenter
Now after your long run in wild sunshine,
Presenter
You played in a number of productions by some very distinguished authors, Aldous Huxley, Eric Linknater, Ann Luis, Shaw. You've played a lot of Shaw, haven't you?
Brenda Bruce
Yes, I have. I've played eighteen shows. Eighteen. Yes.
Presenter
Which is your favourite?
Brenda Bruce
Pygmalion.
Presenter
And of course you played Peter Pan. Yes. Did you enjoy the flying?
Brenda Bruce
Not terribly because I get vertigo.
Presenter
And they
Brenda Bruce
And they oh, yes.
Presenter
That must be very frightening the first time.
Brenda Bruce
It's quite frightening all the time, and sometimes uh well, for instance, once they flew me into the uh nursery at Streatham Hill and forgot to open the windows.
Speaker 2
Oh dear. Did you ever miss the mantelpiece?
Brenda Bruce
Yes. If by any chance you got onto the wrong wire you missed the mantelpiece. If you're on Michael's wire.
Brenda Bruce
You never got to the mantelpiece.
Presenter
Up to the mantelpiece. Oh, terrifying possibilities. A rewarding audience? Oh, marvellous. Yes, marvellous. And I remember your excellent performance in the play of Samuel Beckett's Happy Days. Virtually a monologue, and and you played the first act up to your waist in earth and and the second act up to your neck.
Brenda Bruce
Is that right?
Brenda Bruce
And people used to walk out in droves.
Presenter
You played that abroad, didn't you?
Brenda Bruce
Yes, I did. I toured South America with it, where for some unknown reason, in spite of the language, they really got it immediately.
Presenter
And for the last, what, six or seven years, you've been with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Brenda Bruce
Yes, that's right.
Presenter
So the last few years at the Royal Shakespeare Company,
Presenter
means a great deal of commuting between Stratford-on-Avon and the Aldwich in London, doesn't it?
Brenda Bruce
Yes, it does, indeed. It it um not all the time, but uh uh when I first joined the company I was playing at the Aldridge and Stratford.
Speaker 2
Yeah.
Presenter
Yeah.
Brenda Bruce
Now I tend to do Aldwych one season, Stratford.
Presenter
Yes. Shakespeare and modern plays. Which have been the most rewarding parts you played for the company?
Brenda Bruce
Yeah.
Brenda Bruce
Well, I loved playing.
Brenda Bruce
Elizabeth in Richard the Third
Brenda Bruce
because it was for once left in its entirety, and it's a really marvellous part, very underrated, I think. Paul Lina in Winter's Tale.
Brenda Bruce
Um
Brenda Bruce
Honestly.
Brenda Bruce
They've all been incredibly rewarding. There hasn't been a boring one.
Presenter
It's a very family atmosphere nowadays at Stratford, isn't it?
Brenda Bruce
Oh yes, it is indeed. I mean, we're children and we have a playgroup.
Brenda Bruce
And we have uh our own little swimming pool and tennis court.
Presenter
You've recently married a member of the company.
Brenda Bruce
Yes, I have. Um an actor that I've known actually since I was a Birmingham Rep.
Presenter
Ready?
Presenter
One mention him by name.
Brenda Bruce
I guess I will, Clement McCallan.
Presenter
Do you prefer working with a permanent company rather than with the greater fleshly rewards of the commercial theatre?
Brenda Bruce
Oh, yes.
Brenda Bruce
Oh, yes. It's quite a it's a way of life. It's not entirely the acting, it just is a way of life. I love living in the country.
Presenter
Yes. You've done the lot, haven't you? Everything from pantomime and review through to the classics.
Brenda Bruce
Yes.
Presenter
How big a part have films played in your career?
Brenda Bruce
Very little with my face.
Presenter
It's a very nice phase.
Brenda Bruce
Oh, well, it may be a nice face, but it uh doesn't blow up very well. It blows up very easily. But it no, it it I arrived, I think, in
Presenter
It blows up very easily.
Speaker 2
But it's
Brenda Bruce
Well, with things like While the Sun Shines as a very young actress, at an age when it was just on the end of people being extremely pretty.
Brenda Bruce
And it didn't fit.
Presenter
And television. You won the Television Actress of the Year award one year.
Brenda Bruce
Yes, I did.
Presenter
Um recently you've been playing in Collette Cherie.
Presenter
What else in television shall we talk about?
Brenda Bruce
Oh, I've just done an OMD with uh Nigel Stock, who's a very old chum, and I've just finished a checkoff.
Brenda Bruce
A short story, which we did on location outside Stratford. Wasn't that lucky? It wasn't that lucky.
Presenter
That way.
Presenter
What's left that you'd especially like to do, or any particular part in the theatre?
Brenda Bruce
Well, I like to play any part that comes along. I I can't think immediately of some great missed opportunity.
Brenda Bruce
There's one thing I would like to do I mean, never mind about the parts I what I would really like to do is to live for at least five hundred years.
Brenda Bruce
with all my faculties.
Presenter
Mm-hmm.
Presenter
Well, at the end of that time, there wouldn't half be a long list of parts you'd played and who was who in the theatre, wouldn't there?
Brenda Bruce
Uh
Brenda Bruce
Somebody tell it, leave the green room.
How long at Birmingham?
Three years.
Presenter asks
And in that three years growing up from playing maids to?
Well, no, I mean, I I was terribly lucky in the beginning actually. Um I'm sure you haven't time to hear the whole story, but the first thing I played was Anne Bronte. And I went on. Maids came later in my career, but I started off playing quite big parts.
Presenter asks
And then after Birmingham?
Uh then I went to Liverpool for a season, and then back to Birmingham, but this time to the Alacrep.
Presenter asks
What was your first West End appearance?
Uh in review. Sweet and low.
Presenter asks
Which is your favourite [Shaw play]?
Pygmalion.
Presenter asks
And of course you played Peter Pan. Yes. Did you enjoy the flying?
Not terribly because I get vertigo.
Presenter asks
A rewarding audience?
Oh, marvellous. Yes, marvellous.
Presenter asks
What's left that you'd especially like to do, or any part in the theatre?
Well, I like to play any part that comes along. I I can't think immediately of some great missed opportunity. There's one thing I would like to do I mean, never mind about the parts I what I would really like to do is to live for at least five hundred years. with all my faculties.
“I think I fell in love with the theatre when I was about three, and I was taken to the Coliseum. and saw somebody uh dancing the jackdaw of rings and We were in the upper circle, and I can remember that cold brass rail on my forehead. And my behind up in the air and my mother holding on to my knickers because she thought I was going to take off.”
“Well, I loved playing. Elizabeth in Richard the Third because it was for once left in its entirety, and it's a really marvellous part, very underrated, I think. Paul Lina in Winter's Tale.”
“Oh, yes. It's quite a it's a way of life. It's not entirely the acting, it just is a way of life. I love living in the country.”
“There's one thing I would like to do I mean, never mind about the parts I what I would really like to do is to live for at least five hundred years. with all my faculties.”