Angela Baddeley

Presenter0:00

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

Presenter0:08

Are you a Londoner?

Presenter0:09

Yes?

Presenter0:10

You started in the theatre when you were very young indeed, didn't you? Whose idea was it?

Angela Baddeley0:13

Who's idea?

Angela Baddeley0:15

Actually it was somebody who was a friend of my mother's.

Angela Baddeley0:18

And uh he said to my mother one day, I think these girls are very talented.

Presenter0:23

You and your sister Hamala.

Angela Baddeley0:23

You are not.

Angela Baddeley0:24

Amane.

Angela Baddeley0:26

And um we went to Margaret Morris's.

Angela Baddeley0:29

school of dancing and she trained us.

Presenter0:31

Mm-hmm.

Angela Baddeley0:32

And that's how we start.

Presenter0:33

What was your very first job?

Angela Baddeley0:35

My very first job was

Angela Baddeley0:38

part of a little orphan girl in a perfectly frightful old melodrama.

Angela Baddeley0:43

at play at the Dalston Empire.

Angela Baddeley0:46

which was called the Dawn of Happiness.

Angela Baddeley0:49

Yeah.

Angela Baddeley0:51

It really was most

Angela Baddeley0:53

Terrible thing. It was supposed to come into London and go to Drury Lane, but

Angela Baddeley0:58

It was really so very bad that it only played for a week in the Dalston Empire.

Presenter1:03

Died at Dalston.

Angela Baddeley1:04

They died at Dalston.

Presenter1:06

How old were you then?

Presenter1:07

Yes. And after that?

Angela Baddeley1:10

Um then soon after that I went to the Vic.

Angela Baddeley1:14

and played uh

Angela Baddeley1:16

First of all I played the little Duke of York in Richard the Cern, and then I played Mammilius in The Winter's Tale. Uh And then I played Pease Blossom in Midsummer Night's Dream.

Presenter1:25

Well, that must have been great fun. And you toured with the Arch League of Service?

Angela Baddeley1:29

Yes, that's right.

Presenter1:30

You and Hamad. You were together in that.

Angela Baddeley1:32

Yes, yes, we were.

Presenter1:33

And that must have been very good experience because it was fit up, wasn't it?

Angela Baddeley1:37

Oh, yes. We went round in a funny little old car, and we used to have to dance and sing and act.

Angela Baddeley1:45

and help with the costumes and

Angela Baddeley1:47

It was all absolutely gorgeous. Of course, we loved it.

Presenter1:50

Your first grown up success, although I think you were only about fifteen, was in the Nigel Playfair production of The Beggars' Opera.

Angela Baddeley1:58

Yes, and I played Jenny Diver.

Angela Baddeley2:00

I think I was in it for nearly four years, nearly the whole run, yes.

Presenter2:03

Yeah, no

Angela Baddeley2:05

I wasn't in the very first few months.

Angela Baddeley2:08

'Cause um girl called Nonny Locke played it.

Angela Baddeley2:11

And then she had to go to America or she was ill or something, and they got me in and I just went on playing.

Presenter2:18

Yes. And Hermione had gone off in a rather different direction in the business.

Angela Baddeley2:22

Yes, she had. Well, she'd made this enormous success when she was sixteen in The Likes of Her at the Saint Martin's Theatre. And then f instead of going on with serious acting, which I think she should have done,

Angela Baddeley2:37

She went over to review.

Presenter2:39

Yeah.

Angela Baddeley2:39

And of course she's really sort of

Angela Baddeley2:41

Stuck with that almost.

Presenter2:43

Well, there you are, both of you established in the West End in your teens. I think we can count the lyric Hammersmith as the West End, don't you? Oh.

Angela Baddeley2:49

Oh, I think in those days very much so, yes.

Presenter2:51

In the Playfair days. What happened after your big and early success in Beggar's Opera?

Angela Baddeley2:58

Well, then I played Hedwig.

Angela Baddeley3:00

in a production of uh wild duck.

Angela Baddeley3:04

Which we

Angela Baddeley3:05

We did it at the Hampstead Theatre, and then it was such a success, we brought it into the St James's, and it really was, I thought of

Angela Baddeley3:12

You know, everybody said it was the most beautiful production.

Presenter3:15

Yes.

Angela Baddeley3:15

And I really did make a big success in that.

Presenter3:19

And there was a play called A Hundred Years Old.

Angela Baddeley3:22

Yes. Directed by Granville Barker, which was very thrilling. And I played a lovely part, Corita.

Presenter3:26

Yeah.

Angela Baddeley3:30

And um

Angela Baddeley3:32

A very tall, thin girl called Celia Johnson understudied me.

Angela Baddeley3:37

and another very, very pretty girl called Peggy Ashcroft.

Angela Baddeley3:43

played a smaller part tonight.

Angela Baddeley3:46

Now that was a pretty good Well it was quite good.

Presenter3:48

It was quite a good cast, yes. Then you went to Australia.

Angela Baddeley3:51

Yes.

Angela Baddeley3:52

I um first of all, I played Anne Boleyn with Sybil Thorndyke and Luz Cassin at the Empire.

Angela Baddeley3:59

And then after that I went to Australia.

Presenter4:03

You had a very long runner and a great success in a Scots play.

Angela Baddeley4:07

Well, you mean Marigold? You know, my part wasn't meant to be a Scots girl.

Presenter4:11

Wasn't it?

Angela Baddeley4:12

No. I mean, she's the daughter of an English colonel and a French mother.

Angela Baddeley4:17

So there's absolutely no reason for it to be Scots. But I found it rather

Angela Baddeley4:22

Um the dialogue rather sentimental and not very easy to speak, just in my ordinary sort of voice. And um Jean Cather was playing my aunt, and of course she was a tremendous Scot.

Presenter4:30

Yeah.

Angela Baddeley4:35

And I said to the director, Would you mind if I played this part with a Scottish accent if I can copy Gene? And he said, Yes, we'll try it.

Angela Baddeley4:44

And of course it absolutely stuck, and nobody who's ever played Marigold since has been allowed to be English. They're all

Angela Baddeley4:53

Goats.

Presenter4:54

Ah, leaping from highlight to highlight, I suppose your next big success was as Catherine Howard in The Rose Without a Thorn.

Angela Baddeley5:00

Oh yes, that was a lovely part, yes.

Presenter5:03

Opposite Frank Foster was awesome.

Angela Baddeley5:04

Brain possible, right, yes.

Presenter5:07

And then the Emilyn Williams play about the head and the hat box.

Angela Baddeley5:09

Ah, yes, nightmasfall.

Presenter5:09

Yeah.

Presenter5:11

You played that in New York as well.

Angela Baddeley5:13

Yes, I did, yes.

Presenter5:15

And Emlin afterwards wrote a play especially for you.

Angela Baddeley5:16

He wrote a lovely play for me called The Light of Heart.

Presenter5:21

Mm-hmm.

Angela Baddeley5:22

which was one of the most thrilling things that's ever happened to me in the theatre, I think.

Presenter5:26

And dear octopus, Daddy Smith, dear octopus, uh who's in that? Murray Tempest?

Angela Baddeley5:32

Um John Geogun.

Presenter5:33

Because

Angela Baddeley5:34

A Leo Quartermain?

Angela Baddeley5:36

Um Very Taylor.

Angela Baddeley5:39

Nan Monroe and Muriel Pavlo playing

Angela Baddeley5:43

I think it was almost her first part. She played scrap, and she was absolutely enchanting.

Presenter5:48

Yes. And then uh Terence Radikin's The Winslow boy.

Angela Baddeley5:52

Yes, that's right. The Our Octopus and The Winslow Boy, both directed by my husband.

Presenter5:58

Yes.

Presenter6:00

and then Stratford.

Presenter6:01

You took several straps of productions to Russia.

Angela Baddeley6:04

Hamlet and um

Angela Baddeley6:06

Romeo and Juliet.

Angela Baddeley6:08

I played the nurse in Romeo and Juliet.

Presenter6:10

Yeah.

Angela Baddeley6:12

We were the first English company to go there for forty years to Leningrad, and the excitement was absolutely unbelievable.

Angela Baddeley6:22

They used they queued up for hours to get tickets, and at the end of the performance they used to rush down to the orchestra and applaud and applaud and applaud. It was really absolutely fascinating, most exciting.

Presenter6:37

You haven't done a great many films, have you?

Angela Baddeley6:40

No, I don't think film producers like me very much.

Angela Baddeley6:44

Years and years ago I made a film of the Speckled Band, I remember.

Presenter6:48

Yes, Conan Doyle.

Angela Baddeley6:49

Yes, and then I think I've only made one since then, which was Arms and the Man.

Presenter6:55

Mm-hmm.

Presenter6:56

But you have done a great deal of television.

Angela Baddeley6:58

Oh yes, very early days up at Alexander Palace with about one camera.

Angela Baddeley7:03

And I did uh Canada.

Angela Baddeley7:06

and I did gaslight.

Presenter7:07

Yes. Very hard work then and rather nerve-wracking.

Angela Baddeley7:08

Pretty high.

Angela Baddeley7:10

Oh yes, it was indeed. No telerecording.

Presenter7:12

No telerecording.

Presenter7:14

And you did that very impressive BBC series, The Age of Kings.

Angela Baddeley7:19

Yes, indeed.

Angela Baddeley7:21

That I enjoyed very much indeed.

Presenter7:24

And there's a rather noteworthy series that you're in at the moment.

Angela Baddeley7:28

Upstairs, downstairs.

Presenter7:29

Perhaps the one I had in mind.

Presenter7:31

misses Bridges, the cook. Did you model her on anybody?

Angela Baddeley7:35

Well well, I think I sort of did s subconsciously I sort of thought about an old cook we had years ago.

Angela Baddeley7:42

called Cookie and she had her she used to do her hair in a sort of flat way. It was always to me like a flat gray cap.

Presenter7:46

Wait.

Angela Baddeley7:49

And uh I know that I wanted my wig like that, so I think I must have

Angela Baddeley7:55

Thinking about her.

Presenter7:55

Thank you.

Presenter7:56

Of course misses Bridges isn't all you.

Angela Baddeley7:59

You mean the figure?

Presenter8:00

I'm being a bigot.

Angela Baddeley8:00

No, the figure is not only, I'm happy to say. There's a great deal of padding.

Presenter8:05

By courtesy of makeup to doc.

Presenter8:08

Or wardrobe, which is it?

Angela Baddeley8:09

Lord.

Presenter8:09

Grab.

Presenter8:11

Now, a series has just finished. We're going to do some more.

Angela Baddeley8:13

Yes, we're just starting a new one now.

Presenter8:17

Not the thirty.

Angela Baddeley8:18

The last thirteen years.

Presenter8:20

At what period?

Angela Baddeley8:22

Uh nineteen twenties.

Presenter8:23

You carry on the story.

Angela Baddeley8:24

Yes.

Presenter8:26

What about your children, any of those, in the theatre?

Angela Baddeley8:28

Uh my eldest daughter's in television, yes, she's at the B B C.

Presenter8:32

What about the others?

Angela Baddeley8:33

No, the others are not in the theatre.

Presenter8:36

Hmm.

Angela Baddeley8:36

I only have a an another daughter and a son.

Presenter8:39

Yeah.

Angela Baddeley8:40

but six lovely grandchildren.

Presenter8:42

Congratulations.