Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Desert Island Discs
Presented by Roy Plomley
British actor known for his roles in Hammer Horror films and for his collaborations with director Ken Russell.
Eight records
The keepsakes
No book or luxury recorded for this episode.
In conversation
Presenter asks
What did you want to be as a youngster?
I wanted to be an ice hockey player. I remember um there was an ice hockey player called Chick Zamic that played for Nottingham Panthers. I wanted to be called Chick Zamic and I wanted to be an ice hockey player. Um other than that I think I wanted to be a sailor and then I wanted to be a doctor because I fell in love with nurses.
Presenter asks
Why show business?
I wanted uh why show business? I can't spell, I can't add up. Uh a lot of people said that I should go into theatre. Um I didn't really want to go into theatre because the idea of theatre at that time bored me, simply because I didn't want to say the same thing every night to the same people, maybe for a run of six months. I wanted to go into movies because I believed that movies um represented the the fairyland of life and I wanted to involve myself in the fairyland because I love fairyland, I believe in it very strongly. I I therefore went into the media that that that perpetrated that feeling, which was movies. I started as a film extra.
Presenter asks
In your days as a film extra you were typed as Smart Crowd or Rough Crowd. Which were you?
The recording
Timestamps play the recording from that turn
Oliver Reed
This download is the only extract the BBC has of this edition of Desert Island Discs. The presenter was Roy Plumley.
Presenter
Oliver, you're a Londoner, aren't you? Uh yes, I am. And there's theatre and film in your family background?
Presenter
Uh there are there is, yes. Your uncle, Sir Carol Reed?
Oliver Reed
Yeah.
Presenter
Yeah.
Presenter
And uh
Presenter
Birbohm tree, I believe, was one of your ancestors.
Oliver Reed
So it's rumoured, yes.
Presenter
As a youngster, what did you want to be?
Oliver Reed
I wanted to be an ice hockey player. I remember um there was an ice hockey player called Chick Zamic that played for Nottingham Panthers. I wanted to be called Chick Zamic and I wanted to be an ice hockey player. Um other than that I think I wanted to be a sailor and then I wanted to be a doctor because I fell in love with nurses.
Presenter
When you left home, you did a lot of jobs, all sorts of odd jobs.
Oliver Reed
Pops.
Presenter
Uh
Oliver Reed
Yes, I did. I worked in a seed factory, I worked as a mini cab driver, I worked as a fairground booth fighter, I worked in the army.
Presenter
Yes. You spent a couple of years in the Army. Yeah, national service. Mm-hmm.
Presenter
And when you came up.
Oliver Reed
Why show business?
Oliver Reed
I wanted uh why show business? I can't spell, I can't add up. Uh a lot of people said that I should go into theatre. Um I didn't really want to go into theatre because the idea of theatre at that time bored me, simply because I didn't want to say the same thing every night to the same people, maybe for a run of six months. I wanted to go into movies because I believed that movies um represented the the fairyland of life and I wanted to involve myself in the fairyland because I love fairyland, I believe in it very strongly.
Oliver Reed
I I therefore went into the media that that that perpetrated that feeling, which was movies. I started as a film extra. The only way that I was ever uh allowed to get into a film studio.
Presenter
Yeah.
Presenter
Yes. In my days as a film extra you were typed as Smart Crowd or Rough Crowd. Which were you?
Presenter
Yeah.
Presenter
I was rough crowd.
Oliver Reed
Which crowd assignments do you remember in particular?
Presenter
Yeah. Yeah.
Oliver Reed
I was a photographer, which wasn't really rough, and it was Sonia Heaney in London with Michael Wilding, and I was sent on a job from a studio, a little studio, just outside London. And I went to London Airport, and I had to pretend to take photographs of Michael Wilding while he wore his shoes out, climbing off the plane. I didn't learn much from that, but I learned a great deal about the camera. I realised, of course, that one had to grin at the right place at the right time.
Presenter
Yeah. You did quite a run of the Hammer Horror film.
Oliver Reed
Yes, I made uh I think I made seven. At least they they taught me how to sustain uh a performance over a period of seven or eight weeks out of continuity because uh performances in films aren't given in continuity. You don't start in the beginning and finish at the end. You uh sometimes, as in life, you start at the end, you start dead and finish up a very live old man.
Presenter
It was very useful experience, as you say, because the the films were made pretty quickly too. Uh five or six weeks, yes, I as my math sells me.
Presenter
What was the first film that you really care to talk about that gave you a chance to show what you could do?
Oliver Reed
Uh
Oliver Reed
Well, my bank manager believes that it was the system the first film that I uh which I made for Michael Winnow. Um
Oliver Reed
In terms of my artistic life, I believe that my association, um, contrary to popular belief with Ken Russell, i i does run smoothly. I think that the with Debussy
Oliver Reed
was was a moment in my life when I when I broke through
Oliver Reed
as something else other than the man that wore the teeth.
Presenter
Yes.
Presenter
So your first proper film, as it were, for Michael Winner, The System, and the Ken Russell films.
Presenter
De Busie you also played uh Dante Gabriel Rossetti for him, didn't you?
Oliver Reed
Yeah.
Oliver Reed
Yes, I did. Uh and uh I read the poetry for uh
Oliver Reed
Only Russo.
Oliver Reed
And after reading that poetry there's the first real breakthrough in terms of people listening to my voice. I was always playing Teddy Boys and I had to put on another voice. And on the big screen for Kieran Russell
Presenter
Looted Women in Love, The Devils
Presenter
Marlowe
Presenter
And
Oliver Reed
Uh
Presenter
You're doing Tommy, or have you f
Oliver Reed
Finish Tommy? No, we finished Tommy. Uh Tommy with the Who. That's a that's a real breakaway because I made uh a film called Oliver and I played Bill Sykes and uh Bill Sykes uh on the stage had one song, My Name, uh I think which was his opening number and and my uncle Carol directed it.
Oliver Reed
And quite rightly John Wolfe and Carroll determined that uh they thought that I wasn't uh sufficient of a singer to be able to sing the song, and quite rightly Ken Russell has other ideas and he always pushes me in at the deep end and wants to see me sink.
Oliver Reed
In actual fact, on Tommy, he pushed me into the deep end and I think I sunk. But we'll see that in the spring. I think the film's going to open.
Presenter
Yeah.
Oliver Reed
I think that Pete Townsend and The Who will um probably save me.
Presenter
Yes. Another film you did quite recently, The Three Musketeers for Richard Lester, was that fun to make?
Oliver Reed
It was great fun, yeah.
Oliver Reed
And I'm very pleased to see that for once films are being made for family entertainment.
Presenter
Oliver, through all the crises, all the terrible messes that the film business has been through, you've kept working.
Oliver Reed
Yes, I have. Um simply because I go where the money is. I'm a professional actor. Um I believe uh contrary to popular belief and contrary to some
Oliver Reed
critics that the the the film industry in this country is in a bit of trouble.
Oliver Reed
I go where the money is because I'm a professional. I've always said this, I've said this in the press before, nobody ever says to Jackie Stewart or anybody says to Fitapoldi, you don't drive a motor car in Germany and Spain and South America and Rome and Germany and the Nuremberg ring simply because you're driving too many cars. I go where the money is. I will keep on working simply because I have a sense of responsibility and I know that one day the sun is going to set.
Oliver Reed
Plus the fact that I enjoy it.
Presenter
You work as a family concern. Your your two brothers work as your your publicist and your manager.
Oliver Reed
Yes, I have an illiterate younger brother called Simon who works as my publicity agent. He would be in a home if I didn't help him. My elder brother works looking after my business concerns. I think the only reason I use my brothers on my concern is because I know where to find them. I mean I find my young brother in at home being fed porridge and my elder brother wherever there's a banker.
Presenter
Whatever does
Oliver Reed
What's in the pipeline? What's the next film we're going to see? Tommy, we've talked about that. Yes, my next film. I make another film for Dick Lester called Royal Flash, which is a story of Flashman.
Presenter
Yeah.
Oliver Reed
And Lester loves uh pulling down the fatted calf. And the Flashman, the the all-consuming British hero, is going to be inevitably destroyed by Lester. And I'm going to play Bismarck. One of the main reasons that I accepted this part is because I'm going to have to fight Henry Cooper in the film and my
Oliver Reed
My greatest admiration for boxes.
Oliver Reed
is for Henry Cooper. I hope Henry listens to this and he doesn't give me his famous hammer.
I was rough crowd.
Presenter asks
What was the first film that really gave you a chance to show what you could do?
Well, my bank manager believes that it was The System first film which I made for Michael Winner. In terms of my artistic life, I believe that my association with Ken Russell does run smoothly. I think that with Debussy was a moment in my life when I broke through as something else other than the man that wore the teeth.
Presenter asks
Another film you did quite recently, The Three Musketeers for Richard Lester, was that fun to make?
It was great fun, yeah. And I'm very pleased to see that for once films are being made for family entertainment.
Presenter asks
Through all the crises the film business has been through, you've kept working. How?
Yes, I have. Um simply because I go where the money is. I'm a professional actor. Um I believe contrary to popular belief and contrary to some critics that the film industry in this country is in a bit of trouble. I go where the money is because I'm a professional. I've always said this, I've said this in the press before, nobody ever says to Jackie Stewart or anybody says to Fitapoldi, you don't drive a motor car in Germany and Spain and South America and Rome and Germany and the Nuremberg ring simply because you're driving too many cars. I go where the money is. I will keep on working simply because I have a sense of responsibility and I know that one day the sun is going to set. Plus the fact that I enjoy it.
“I wanted to go into movies because I believed that movies represented the fairyland of life and I wanted to involve myself in the fairyland because I love fairyland, I believe in it very strongly.”
“I go where the money is because I'm a professional. I've always said this, I've said this in the press before, nobody ever says to Jackie Stewart or anybody says to Fitapoldi, you don't drive a motor car in Germany and Spain and South America and Rome and Germany and the Nuremberg ring simply because you're driving too many cars. I go where the money is. I will keep on working simply because I have a sense of responsibility and I know that one day the sun is going to set.”
“I have an illiterate younger brother called Simon who works as my publicity agent. He would be in a home if I didn't help him. My elder brother works looking after my business concerns. I think the only reason I use my brothers on my concern is because I know where to find them.”