Patricia Hayes

Patricia Hayes0:01

B B C Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.

Speaker 10:05

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.

Presenter0:27

This week, our castaway is the actress Patricia Hayes.

Presenter0:31

Patricia, do you think you could endure loneliness for a long time?

Patricia Hayes0:32

Uh

Patricia Hayes0:35

In one way, I wouldn't

Patricia Hayes0:38

be able to endure it. And that is if there was anything frightening.

Patricia Hayes0:42

Because

Patricia Hayes0:44

That's the part of it that I don't like the thought of, being alone and being in danger.

Presenter0:50

What are you frightened of most in a desert island situation?

Patricia Hayes0:54

Oh, I think, you know, torrents and thunder, lightning, great seas surging, things like that, physical things, not uh spiritual or, you know, not fairy tale imaginings. It's just the elements would frighten me.

Presenter1:08

Yes. The emotional side of it you think you could handle.

Patricia Hayes1:11

I think I could handle the emotional side of it, yes.

Presenter1:14

What would you be happiest you got away from?

Patricia Hayes1:16

I think I would be happiest to have got away from uh time pressure.

Presenter1:21

Mm-hmm.

Patricia Hayes1:22

I call it time pressure. Uh I'm very happy any day when I haven't got anything specific to do, such as even a meal at a certain time. My idea of a holiday is to drift through the days.

Presenter1:34

No fixed points.

Patricia Hayes1:35

No fixed points, yes.

Presenter1:36

Are you a musical person? Do you play an instrument?

Patricia Hayes1:38

No, I can't play any instrument and I wouldn't really call myself

Patricia Hayes1:43

Very musical. I think I'm

Patricia Hayes1:46

Political.

Patricia Hayes1:47

But uh not music.

Presenter1:49

What was your plan in choosing your aid record?

Patricia Hayes1:52

Well, I chose them as milestones along my life, really.

Presenter1:57

Nostergic.

Patricia Hayes1:57

No step

Patricia Hayes1:58

Yes, but though I'm not a really nostalgic person, I don't like looking back.

Patricia Hayes2:03

I don't think it's much good looking forward.

Patricia Hayes2:06

I'm a great one for living now. That's the one thing that life has taught me, is enjoy now, because this is the one thing you have got. The future's pretty uncertain.

Presenter2:17

What's the first disk on that little pile there?

Patricia Hayes2:19

Well, the first is Is My First Love.

Patricia Hayes2:22

And that was Gracie Field.

Patricia Hayes2:24

Singing My Blue Heaven

Presenter2:26

Yeah.

Patricia Hayes2:26

Yeah.

Presenter2:26

Yeah.

Patricia Hayes2:26

I played it and played it and played it when I was young, and I admired her more than I can say.

Presenter2:33

When we

Presenter2:37

Uh I'm hurrying to my boo-boo-boo heaven.

Presenter3:03

Gracie Fields.

Presenter3:04

What's your second list?

Patricia Hayes3:06

Well, my second is

Patricia Hayes3:07

Is uh Buddy Holly singing?

Patricia Hayes3:10

It don't matter anymore.

Speaker 23:17

There you go baby, here am I Well you left me here so I could sit and cry Well golly gee what have you done to me Well I guess it doesn't matter anymore

Speaker 23:34

Do you remember baby last September how you held me tight itching?

Presenter3:41

It Doesn't Matter Anymore by Buddy Holly.

Presenter3:45

Are you a Londoner?

Patricia Hayes3:46

Yes, yes, I was born in London. My parents were both Irish.

Presenter3:51

Do you come from a theatrical family?

Patricia Hayes3:52

No, though my mother was stage struck, she longed to be an actress, and because she wasn't allowed to have anything to do with it, she was determined that all her children there were three of us she wanted us all to go on the stage.

Patricia Hayes4:04

And uh I was the first.

Patricia Hayes4:06

And my brother, Brian, he eventually became an actor. My sister became an actress also, but she gave it up when she got married.

Presenter4:14

You started when you were very young.

Patricia Hayes4:15

I did. I started I had my first professional engagement when I was twelve years old.

Presenter4:19

What was that?

Patricia Hayes4:20

It was in a play at the Royal Court Theatre, a Christmas play, called The Great Big World.

Presenter4:25

What did it lead to?

Patricia Hayes4:26

It led to my mother being warned not to let me be a child actress and to get on with my lessons as much as possible and to wait until I was older before I really went in very seriously.

Presenter4:38

How old were you when you started?

Patricia Hayes4:40

Well, I w I won the gold medal at Rada when I was eighteen.

Patricia Hayes4:44

But let me be out of work for 18 months.

Patricia Hayes4:49

He is

Patricia Hayes4:50

Out of work for eighteen months.

Patricia Hayes4:52

Trailing round the agent.

Presenter4:53

Yes.

Patricia Hayes4:54

Knocking at doors, and they just take one look at me and say, Sorry, dear, no, oh no, dear, I'm sorry, you're not tall enough.

Patricia Hayes5:01

Awful things.

Presenter5:03

Yes, you always have looked astonishingly young.

Patricia Hayes5:05

Yes, I have. It's been my misfortune. But perhaps now that I am old and still look younger than I am, perhaps it's going to stand me in good stead at this end of my life.

Patricia Hayes5:16

It certainly didn't when I was young.

Presenter5:17

What was the first job that did come along?

Patricia Hayes5:20

Eventually I got into a rep, one of the Oxford rep.

Patricia Hayes5:24

And then Jeff and Brandon Thomas was starting up a kind of repertory, stock repertory thing.

Patricia Hayes5:31

And, you know, he was the son of the great Brendan Thomas, the Charlie's auntie, and he started his own company.

Presenter5:34

Yeah.

Patricia Hayes5:37

And they were all hand-picked people that he thought were good, and I was lucky enough to be one of them. And really, in his rep, I learnt the basic tools of the trade.

Presenter5:50

And then you went to Stratford.

Patricia Hayes5:51

Well, I auditioned, went along there and auditioned and got in. I played The Boy in Henry Five and I played Moth in Love's Labour's Lost.

Presenter6:00

And when did you first appear in London?

Patricia Hayes6:02

J.B. Priestley's When We Are Married, and I created the part of Ruby Bert.

Presenter6:05

My bike.

Presenter6:07

That was the maid, wasn't it?

Patricia Hayes6:08

That was the little maid, yes.

Presenter6:09

And you call it all the net.

Patricia Hayes6:11

Well, I did call her some notices.

Presenter6:14

Well there you are, you're in the West End. Let's have record number three.

Patricia Hayes6:17

Record number three is The Glums.

Patricia Hayes6:22

from that marvellous series, Take It From Here. I've always been a great admirer of June Whitfield and Dick Bentley in the these two characters that they created, Ron and F.

Patricia Hayes6:33

And uh I would love to

Patricia Hayes6:36

Be able to hear them playing the scene where they first met.

Patricia Hayes6:41

You know what?

Patricia Hayes6:43

I hope you don't mind my saying this.

Patricia Hayes6:47

I could only see you profile. I um I thought you were much darker skinned.

Presenter6:54

I'd been eating a chocke ice.

Patricia Hayes6:59

You eat a lot in the pictures, don't you? I could hear.

Presenter7:05

Only mixed nuts and a chock ice and my chewing gum and an apple during the advert.

Patricia Hayes7:12

I like eating in the pictures too.

Presenter7:15

So yeah.

Patricia Hayes7:16

Oh yes, except a bit Davis.

Presenter7:18

I've never tasted one of those.

Presenter7:21

What's your favourite flavour of the month?

Patricia Hayes7:24

Oh, Neil Opperton.

Presenter7:27

That's mine, too.

Patricia Hayes7:30

Well, isn't that strange?

Patricia Hayes7:34

This is me.

Patricia Hayes7:35

Happening to find your cap, and then it turns out we both like Neil Offerton ice cream.

Patricia Hayes7:43

Fins a shiver up your spine, doesn't it?

Presenter7:46

If you have enough of it.

Patricia Hayes7:49

By the way, I don't believe I mentioned it.

Patricia Hayes7:56

My name's E.

Speaker 27:59

Uh

Presenter7:59

And

Patricia Hayes8:00

How about yours?

Presenter8:02

Now mine isn't.

Patricia Hayes8:05

Let's see if I can guess what your name is.

Patricia Hayes8:09

Um

Patricia Hayes8:11

You look like a Charlie to me.

Presenter8:18

Ron and F.

Presenter8:20

You had your first West End success, Patricia. Did that change your lifestyle?

Patricia Hayes8:25

Well, it did really, because

Patricia Hayes8:28

I chucked it all away and got married and went to live abroad because in a curious way

Presenter8:32

Yeah.

Speaker 18:32

Yeah.

Patricia Hayes8:34

having reached that kind of peak of success.

Patricia Hayes8:38

I was not really satisfied by it. I didn't feel that I'd really achieved anything.

Patricia Hayes8:45

And so

Patricia Hayes8:46

When it was a question of

Patricia Hayes8:48

If we get married, you'll have to chuck the career for the time being and live abroad. I said, yes. And I went to live in Luxembourg, where my husband had a job.

Presenter9:00

Yeah.

Presenter9:01

And then you started raising a family, of course.

Patricia Hayes9:03

Yes, yes. We had two children before the war.

Patricia Hayes9:07

and one when he came back after the war.

Presenter9:11

But you did a lot of broadcasting at that time.

Patricia Hayes9:14

Yes, I did a great deal of broadcasting during the war. In fact, that was the only thing I did.

Patricia Hayes9:19

I used to be asked to go on ENSA tours, but I wouldn't go because I've got two very young children.

Presenter9:24

On radio I remember You used to play Small Boy.

Patricia Hayes9:26

Oh, I played an endless succession of

Presenter9:29

Small bunch.

Patricia Hayes9:29

Some of them were wonderful parts.

Presenter9:31

He would avoid detective.

Patricia Hayes9:32

I was Henry Bones, the boy detective, yes.

Presenter9:35

How long did that last?

Patricia Hayes9:36

That ran for sixteen years. That was in the late lamented children's hour. They used to say.

Presenter9:38

That was in Belgium.

Presenter9:41

And

Speaker 19:41

Yeah.

Patricia Hayes9:42

Boys may come and boys may go, but Pat goes on the rest of the.

Patricia Hayes9:46

Because their voices broke, you see, and mine didn't.

Presenter9:48

Yeah.

Presenter9:49

You did a lot of comedy shows on radio.

Patricia Hayes9:51

Yes, if

Presenter9:53

But

Patricia Hayes9:54

Eventually I managed to get away from the boys.

Patricia Hayes9:57

and into radio, in a big way, working with the comedians.

Presenter10:01

Comedian labourer. Yes.

Patricia Hayes10:03

And how marvellous they were to me, they really were.

Presenter10:06

Which series do you remember in particular?

Patricia Hayes10:08

Well, of course I remember raising laugh, because that

Patricia Hayes10:11

That kept me and my three children because then I'd got a broken marriage on my hands by then. And for five and a half years, I only had to be out of the house one half day a week doing razor laugh.

Presenter10:24

Yeah.

Patricia Hayes10:24

Uh

Presenter10:24

Yeah.

Patricia Hayes10:24

Yeah.

Presenter10:24

Yeah.

Patricia Hayes10:24

And because it had so many repeats and it was so popular,

Presenter10:28

Let's have record number four.

Patricia Hayes10:30

Record number four is the Beatles.

Patricia Hayes10:33

I think that they reached their peak with Eleanor Rigby, which is the one that I would like to hear.

Patricia Hayes10:39

I had to get used to listening to a lot of pop, you know, naturally with a young family growing up. And it took me quite a time.

Patricia Hayes10:48

to have any discretion about what was good and what wasn't until the Beatles came along. And then even to my really unpractised ear, I could tell at once that they were.

Patricia Hayes11:00

Something special.

Presenter11:01

You were introduced to the Beatles by your young family. They've all gone into the theatre too.

Patricia Hayes11:05

Yes, they have. My son, Richard, you know, he's quite an authority, I think, on modern pop music and jazz and things like that. But my older daughter, Teresa, she went to the opera centre. And she sings under the name of Sar rather fanciful name, I think it is, of Sara de Javelin.

Patricia Hayes11:24

But anyway, um I've had both sides of the musical world well and truly hurled at me through the loudspeakers of the gramophone.

Presenter11:33

Well, here's the Beatles side.

Speaker 211:35

Thank you.

Presenter11:35

Yeah.

Speaker 211:36

Helena Rigby picks up the rice in the church where her wedding is being.

Speaker 211:43

Lives in a dream, waits at the window, Wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door.

Speaker 211:52

Who is it for all the lovely memo?

Speaker 211:57

Where do my health come from?

Speaker 212:01

All the very few

Speaker 212:04

Or do

Presenter12:07

The Beatles

Presenter12:08

Of course, when the comedians that you had worked for in sound radio moved into television, you moved with them.

Patricia Hayes12:14

Yeah.

Patricia Hayes12:15

I did.

Patricia Hayes12:16

It was really very marvellous.

Patricia Hayes12:18

Um

Patricia Hayes12:19

Especially Benny Hill, he wrote a skit on the gnat.

Patricia Hayes12:23

And I played the girl in it, you see.

Patricia Hayes12:26

He played the bar. Well, you see.

Patricia Hayes12:29

I suppose in a way the fact that I was kind of rather mutton-dressed as lamb made it funnier.

Patricia Hayes12:35

You know. He he also used to write this marvellous character.

Patricia Hayes12:40

of the girl who was always chasing him and he was horrid to her. He was really beastly to her. And Ben is much too kind-hearted to have played that with a young girl.

Patricia Hayes12:50

But he thought, well, Pat won't mind when he says

Presenter12:53

Group searching.

Presenter12:55

And of course you've got

Patricia Hayes12:55

Speak to you.

Presenter12:57

You've done a lot of drama on television.

Patricia Hayes12:59

Yes, I have done quite a bit of drama, yes.

Presenter13:01

There was one show in particular, a feature, which gave you an extraordinary success, Edna the Inebriate Woman.

Patricia Hayes13:07

Yeah.

Presenter13:07

Jeremy Sanford wrote, That must have been rather a a grim show to do. Did you research it? Did you go to these hostels where these poor characters live?

Patricia Hayes13:16

We did. We went to the hospitals and we met quite a lot of down and outs. You know, they were.

Patricia Hayes13:23

around when we made the picture.

Presenter13:26

Yeah.

Patricia Hayes13:27

Um

Presenter13:28

Some of them worked in the picture, I believe.

Patricia Hayes13:30

Well, they were used in the background, you see. I think that Ted Kotchev, and I think he was right too, he felt that they should be among us. So even if they weren't being used, when we were filming in this derelict old house at Hackney,

Patricia Hayes13:46

in which we filmed a lot of it.

Patricia Hayes13:48

Some of them would say things like, Can I sit on your lap, pet? Give me a cuddle, pet, let me sit on your lap. Quite a big grown woman would want to sit on my lap or on somebody else's lap, and they would put their arm round your neck and suck their thumb.

Presenter14:04

Yes. This is because of the complete, absolute rejection that they felt.

Patricia Hayes14:05

That's just wonderful.

Patricia Hayes14:08

That's it. They are people who have been rejected in infancy, and that seems to leave a damage that can never be put right.

Patricia Hayes14:18

And in a curious way, Edna

Patricia Hayes14:21

Although, you know, she was an alcoholic and I don't drink. I don't care for the taste of the stuff, so I'm a non-drinker.

Patricia Hayes14:29

Yet in a way

Patricia Hayes14:31

I think almost any actress who's had large unsuccessful periods in her life knows what it is to be rejected.

Patricia Hayes14:39

You know, we've been round the agents and little office boys of Z, you know.

Patricia Hayes14:44

Not today.

Patricia Hayes14:46

And that's very much what Edna has all the time from everybody.

Presenter14:51

Well, you gave a very sympathetic.

Presenter14:53

performance and it got you the award of the best actress of the year.

Presenter14:58

How big a part have films played in your career?

Patricia Hayes15:00

Not very big. I have done some films, but I've never had what you really need in films. You need to be a a success in a success. I've had some rather good parts in films that weren't all that successful.

Presenter15:13

You've never lost touch with the stage, of course.

Patricia Hayes15:15

No, I haven't and I would never want to. I think that's where one's grassroots are, really.

Presenter15:22

And what's for the future? What's in the book?

Patricia Hayes15:24

Well, I've got some more television to do. I'm starting quite a big television assignation uh in uh at the end of May, which goes right through to August. And then I think I'm going to be asked back to be in um

Patricia Hayes15:37

you know, till death. I went into that quite recently.

Presenter15:40

Tilde was Dubai.

Patricia Hayes15:41

Mm.

Presenter15:42

What's record number five?

Patricia Hayes15:44

Record number five is this gorgeous.

Patricia Hayes15:48

Chopin, Nocturne, August 27, number 2.

Patricia Hayes15:52

Played by Dinu Lapati.

Presenter16:50

Dino Lopati playing Chopin's Nocturne Opus 27, number two.

Presenter16:55

Let's go straight into your next record.

Patricia Hayes16:58

Well my next record.

Patricia Hayes17:00

is

Patricia Hayes17:02

One of my favorite operatic arias. They call me Mimi from Berlin.

Speaker 217:40

I've got all this.

Presenter18:05

Victoria de Los Angeles singing Mi Misaria from the first act of La Boheme.

Presenter18:10

Tricia, are you a resourceful person? Could you look after yourself?

Patricia Hayes18:13

Yeah.

Patricia Hayes18:15

That's the part I would be good at. I'd enjoy that.

Presenter18:17

You could put up a hard

Patricia Hayes18:19

Oh yes, I mean if there was some wood I could put up a heart.

Presenter18:22

Yes. And you could get some food you could cultivate?

Patricia Hayes18:25

Yeah.

Presenter18:25

Position

Patricia Hayes18:27

Love to fish. I would be quite good at that side of

Presenter18:30

You sound as if you're looking forward to it.

Patricia Hayes18:33

Yes, in some ways, in some ways I am.

Presenter18:36

Did you try to escape?

Presenter18:37

When you got tired of it.

Patricia Hayes18:38

No, I don't think I would try to escape, because I would be much more frightened of the sea than the land.

Presenter18:45

Yeah.

Presenter18:46

Record number seven.

Patricia Hayes18:47

Record number seven is modern and up to date.

Patricia Hayes18:51

Yeah.

Patricia Hayes18:51

The swingle two.

Patricia Hayes18:53

playing and singing the entertainer.

Speaker 218:57

And through the old to tear Is someone murdering sweet night?

Speaker 219:03

Time to go now for Callboy Sings, With his straw hat and cases and the wings, To the swing of the ragtime ring.

Presenter19:07

With his straw hat and cane, he's in the way.

Speaker 219:14

The entertainer comes on to the stage.

Speaker 219:18

With the help of the band They're eating out of his hand We entertain of the best in the

Presenter19:25

Swingleto and the entertainer.

Presenter19:28

Now we come to your last record.

Patricia Hayes19:31

Well, my last record

Patricia Hayes19:33

I'm choosing because.

Patricia Hayes19:35

As I left the house to come here to day, my daughter

Patricia Hayes19:39

was playing this because she's going to sing it.

Patricia Hayes19:44

The quartet from Fidelio.

Patricia Hayes19:48

I'm strong.

Presenter19:50

This means

Speaker 219:57

Ah

Patricia Hayes20:14

Fire. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 220:35

Yeah.

Presenter20:46

The quartet near Istu Wunderbaar from Vidalio conducted by Otto Klempere.

Presenter20:53

If you could take just one disk of your eight, which?

Patricia Hayes20:56

I take the Chopin nocturnes.

Presenter20:59

Yeah.

Patricia Hayes21:00

Yeah.

Presenter21:00

was twenty seven number two.

Presenter21:01

and one luxury to choose from.

Patricia Hayes21:04

I would settle for

Patricia Hayes21:06

Four poster beds.

Patricia Hayes21:09

complete with drapes.

Patricia Hayes21:10

and a beautiful comfortable mattress.

Presenter21:13

And one book apart from the Bible, Shakespeare, and a big encyclopedia.

Patricia Hayes21:19

Kristen Lavransdetta by the great Norwegian writer Siegrid Undsett. I would reread this book and I would plan out a beautiful scenario and offer it to BBC television when I was rescued.

Presenter21:32

Right. I got the author's name, Siegrid Unset. Will you give us the title again?

Patricia Hayes21:37

Christine Leveron's daughter. It means Christine Levran's daughter.

Patricia Hayes21:43

It's a wonderful, exciting and moving, marvelous

Patricia Hayes21:48

panoramic novel about feudal times in Norway.

Presenter21:53

Right. And thank you, Patricia Hayes, for letting us hear your Desert Island disc.

Patricia Hayes21:57

Thank you, Roy. I've enjoyed every minute of it.

Presenter22:00

Goodbye everyone.