Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Desert Island Discs
Presented by Roy Plomley
Actress who was a ballet dancer and made her first stage appearance at a few days old.
Eight records
She is African, where I was born, and she's singing about the land that I love, which is Africa, and animals and and the earth.
Russian Metropolitan Church Choir
I had this record many uh years ago, and it disappeared because I traveled so much, but it's never gone out of my mind. … I think it's it's very powerful for me because I think it does remind one of The Almighty Power. And as I can't understand Russian, I can still get the feeling of what is being sung. But it has a marvellous, marvellous quality.
La Boutique Fantasque (excerpt)
London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ernest Ansermet
Gioachino Rossini (arr. Respighi)
which reminds me of my dancing days.
The Sun Whose Rays Are All Ablaze (from The Mikado)
I love Gilbert and Sullivan. And The Sun Whose Rays. I think it's one of the most beautiful things he They wrote.
Edith Piaf and Les Compagnons de la Chanson
who I adored. And still do?
I chose um this record because I think it's got a most marvellous beat. And I think I'd feel like doing my exercises and my modern dance all by myself there, and I think this would be a good one to do it too. I I think it might lift up the Heart if one was feeling a bit depressed.
I don't think I could go there without taking um my song Send in the Clowns. … it was written for me.
Finlandia (closing passage)Favourite
Halle Orchestra conducted by Sir John Barbirolli
This is where they come to rescue me, you see, and you can hear everything blasting out, and it's just one of my most favorite records in the world.
The keepsakes
The book
It's a tie, really. Between Science and Health by Betty Bakerty But as you have the Bible there, I feel that um I would take the I Ching.
The luxury
I don't think art is a luxury, you see. I think art is a necessity. But all right. Michelangelo's David.
In conversation
Presenter asks
How well could you endure loneliness on this island?
I think very well. Of course, until one actually is in that position, one wouldn't really know.
Presenter asks
Is music important in your life?
It's I would say essential for my health and happiness.
Presenter asks
Did you take it for granted that you were going into the theatre, apart from the fact that you were taught dancing?
I I was mainly concentrating on the dancing, that was my be all and end all, that combined with music. I didn't think really of being an actress.
The recording
Timestamps play the recording from that turn
Speaker 2
Hello, I'm Kirstie Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Disc's Archive. For rights' reasons we've had to shorten the music. The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen seventy six, and the presenter was Roy Plumley.
Presenter
This week, our castaway is the actress Glynis Johns.
Presenter
Dennis, how well could you endure loneliness on this island?
Glynis Johns
I think very well. Of course, until one actually is in that position, one wouldn't really know.
Presenter
Can you think of anything you'd be particularly happy to have got away from?
Glynis Johns
Yes, cities.
Presenter
Is music important in your life?
Glynis Johns
It's I would say essential for my health and happiness.
Presenter
Do you play an instrument?
Glynis Johns
My mother was a a very fine pianist and played other instruments, and her family were all musicians.
Glynis Johns
They were determined that I would
Glynis Johns
not have such a lonely
Glynis Johns
existence because in playing an instrument as well as they played
Glynis Johns
They were alone practising for hours on end, and they wanted me to be with other.
Glynis Johns
people, but still amongst music, and so I was a dancer. I was a ballet dancer, so they thought that combined the music.
Glynis Johns
with my um being with other
Glynis Johns
children and and older people as I grew older.
Presenter
Did you have any plan in choosing this meagre allowance of aid record?
Glynis Johns
I think that if I was alone, and I know that when I am alone, relatively speaking, here, I will choose something that will get me out of a mood I don't want to be in, or into a mood that I want to get into.
Presenter
What's the first record you have there?
Glynis Johns
Miriam McCaba.
Glynis Johns
She is African, where I was born, and she's singing about the land that I love, which is Africa, and animals and and the earth.
Speaker 4
When the white men first came here from over the sea.
Speaker 4
He looked and he said, This is God's own country.
Speaker 4
He was mighty well pleased with this land that he found.
Speaker 4
And he said I will make him my own piece of brown
Speaker 4
How many's the battle he still had to?
Presenter
Miriam McCabe singing
Presenter
A piece of ground.
Presenter
Let's go straight into your next record. What's that?
Glynis Johns
The Creed
Glynis Johns
I had this record many uh years ago, and it disappeared because I traveled so much, but it's never gone out of my mind.
Glynis Johns
It is sung by the Russian Metropolitan Church Choir.
Glynis Johns
I think it's it's very powerful for me because I think it does remind one of
Glynis Johns
The Almighty Power.
Glynis Johns
And as I can't understand Russian, I can still get the feeling of what is being sung. But it has a marvellous, marvellous quality.
Speaker 4
I'm not sure if I can do it.
Presenter
The Gretchaninov setting of the Creed
Presenter
Sung by the Russian Metropolitan Church Choir in Paris.
Presenter
Now, Guinness, I believe you made your first appearance on the stage when you were only a few days old.
Glynis Johns
Oh, I I was three weeks old.
Presenter
As old as they
Glynis Johns
Yes, and I was carried on by my grandmother.
Glynis Johns
She had a company that she'd inherited from her father, and everybody was a musician.
Presenter
You said you were born in Africa.
Glynis Johns
Yes, I was born in Africa because they were touring in Africa of the all the musicians, they were very famous there.
Presenter
Were you educated in Africa?
Glynis Johns
No, I was educated in England, at Bristol, and in London.
Presenter
Did you take it for granted that you were going into the theatre? I mean, apart from the fact that you were taught dancing?
Glynis Johns
I I was mainly concentrating on the dancing, that was my be all and end all, that combined with music. I didn't think really of being an actress.
Presenter
But the reference books say you were only twelve when you appeared at the Elvic.
Glynis Johns
Yes, I I got to the old Vic through being principal ballerina at the Garrick Theatre.
Glynis Johns
during the Christmas holidays.
Speaker 4
Mm-hmm.
Glynis Johns
They needed
Glynis Johns
A child to play Napoleon's daughter, and I did that for fun. It was just a wonderful experience.
Presenter
That was the play Saint Helena by Jeanne de Caswis from R. C. Sherry.
Glynis Johns
That's right.
Presenter
And in that same year you were in a play that was banned a play about a girls' school.
Glynis Johns
Oh yes, the children's hour. I remember my mother, who was a very strong member of the church, um
Glynis Johns
one of the other members ringing her up and saying, How can you allow your child to be in this play? And I heard mother saying, Oh, she doesn't understand what it's about.
Glynis Johns
And I remember calling out, Oh, yes, I do and of course I didn't. I thought it was about ordinary romance between a man and a woman. I didn't realise what it was.
Presenter
Yes. It was played at the Gate Theatre, one of the small clubs.
Glynis Johns
That is right, yes.
Presenter
What happened next? You became an adult actress?
Presenter
You played in Judgment Day. That was one of your early says.
Glynis Johns
When I was about fourteen, yes, and that of course was very dramatic, the Reichstag trial, and then I did it again when a war broke out.
Glynis Johns
I did it again uh during the the the Blitz at the Phoenix Theatre, where I am now.
Presenter
And you were in a very long running comedy, Quiet Wedding.
Glynis Johns
I was in Quiet Willing, and then I was in the sequel Quiet Week End, which ran even longer, a playing the same character.
Glynis Johns
I
Glynis Johns
played at her when she was
Glynis Johns
Fourteen, and then I played her when she was seventeen.
Presenter
You stayed with that character a long time.
Glynis Johns
Yes.
Presenter
And you played Peter Pan, of course.
Glynis Johns
Oh yes, I played Peter when I was nineteen.
Presenter
And that was during the war.
Glynis Johns
Yes. We did our matinees in the morning and our evening performances in the afternoon because of the blackout.
Presenter
Must have been a little disconcerting being flown around and strapped up in that harness, with the possibility of blitzes and one thing and another.
Glynis Johns
I was very deep into Christian science and and I had got rid of my fear of death uh and um
Glynis Johns
pain and things like that temporally anyway.
Presenter
And then you were in another light company, Fools Rush Inn. That was a long run, too.
Glynis Johns
I had a limited contract. By then I was I was under contract to Corder, um, Sir Alexander Corder from the age of twelve.
Glynis Johns
And uh so many of the plays that I did, I had um get out clauses. I only played for so many months.
Presenter
IS
Presenter
Let's have your third record. What's that to be?
Glynis Johns
This is a boutique fantasque, which reminds me of my dancing days.
Presenter
An excerpt from La Boutique Fontasque.
Presenter
Ernest Anseme conducting the London Symphony Orchestra.
Presenter
We started talking about your your film career. You were under contract as Alexander Corder from the age of about twelve.
Presenter
And I have a note that in nineteen fifty two the British Film Exhibitors declared you the top box office British actress, which was very nice indeed. Now what was that first film you made for Corner when you were twelve?
Glynis Johns
South Riding
Presenter
Oh yes.
Glynis Johns
And Ralph Richardson played my father.
Glynis Johns
Edna Best it was one of her last films.
Glynis Johns
And Ann Todd played my mother in flashback because she always swears she's going to knife me if I say she played my my mother and don't explain that it was done in flashback.
Speaker 4
Bye.
Presenter
I mother and derndy
Presenter
We were in very distinguished company.
Presenter
Which other of your early films do you remember with affection?
Glynis Johns
Well, I think that j my mermaid
Glynis Johns
Um two mermaid pictures.
Presenter
Yes, Miranda.
Glynis Johns
Miranda. Miranda. You see, Miranda has been a wonderful name for me because my character in a quiet wedding and in a quiet weekend.
Glynis Johns
I played Miranda.
Presenter
Was it sheer coincidence that the mermaid was called Miranda, or was it your idea?
Glynis Johns
No, it was sheer coincidence.
Presenter
Must have been very uncomfortable in that tale, for hours on end.
Glynis Johns
Uh yes, I had various tails uh uh shaped
Glynis Johns
One that I had a special one for swimming in.
Glynis Johns
which had um foam rubber inside.
Glynis Johns
And um
Glynis Johns
When I first had to uh swim under water w with it, they hadn't realized it was rubber.
Glynis Johns
and I uh couldn't surface because the fin went along the uh top of the surface of the water like a submarine.
Glynis Johns
and I couldn't um bring it down. I I I couldn't get to the top, so I nearly uh drowned.
Presenter
You couldn't get your head up.
Glynis Johns
No.
Glynis Johns
so that they had to send the two lifeguards in and get me up. From then on, whenever I swam in the tail.
Glynis Johns
I got to do it rather well. I swam rather better in the tail than I did without the
Presenter
Tale in the end. Were all the swimming sequences done in a studio tank or were you out in the sea?
Glynis Johns
I did some of them uh off Polpero in Cornwall.
Presenter
Mm-hmm.
Presenter
What was your first Hollywood picture?
Glynis Johns
They're the court jester.
Presenter
Danny can
Glynis Johns
Danny Kaye.
Presenter
For real?
Glynis Johns
Yes, I did my own stunts.
Presenter
And of course you were in that great American successor, Mary Poppins.
Glynis Johns
Yes, I'd loved Mary Poppins all the books since I was quite young.
Glynis Johns
and when they asked me to play misses Banks in it,
Glynis Johns
We were having lunch with the um composers.
Glynis Johns
I said I would if they would write me uh my own um number in it, because I didn't want everybody else to have uh uh a number and a musical number. And by th the time I drove home uh back to my hotel in Hollywood,
Glynis Johns
They rang me and I walked through the door and they'd written the suffragette number which I sang in the show.
Presenter
Mm-hmm. Well, that was service with a smile, wasn't it? Yes. Let's have record number four. What's that?
Glynis Johns
Yeah.
Glynis Johns
The Mikado, Gilbert and Sullivan. I love Gilbert and Sullivan. And The Sun Whose Rays.
Glynis Johns
I think it's one of the most beautiful things he
Glynis Johns
They wrote
Speaker 4
The sun whose rays are all the place with ever giving glory. Does not deny His Majesty He scorns to tell a story.
Speaker 4
We don't explain high flush machines for kindly dodgers.
Glynis Johns
We don't sleep, I must wash it.
Speaker 4
But pierced it burdened by the earthly glories all their face I feel to rule them
Speaker 4
As we the sky breath in the world. Listen more.
Speaker 4
We made a tornado
Presenter
Gene Hindmarsh's Yum Yum in The Mikado.
Presenter
Glynneth, you had a very, very useful American television series that went on for a long time, Situation Comedies.
Glynis Johns
Situation
Glynis Johns
Yes, it didn't go on a a a a very long time. It was it was played twice. That's why you think it went on for longer than it did. It it, um people liked it.
Glynis Johns
And um
Glynis Johns
we stop bec because of party politics, you know, that happens everywhere. And the the gentleman who was the head of CBS over there at that time
Glynis Johns
Just after he pulled us off.
Glynis Johns
Uh he was given the sack, so it was it was one of those unlucky things. But I I thoroughly enjoyed uh doing a television series.
Presenter
It was called Glynis.
Glynis Johns
Yes.
Presenter
Now, did you Americanize yourself, or did you play with that lovely molasses and honey English voice which you naturally have?
Glynis Johns
I don't think I have a typically English voice.
Glynis Johns
I've played quite a few American
Glynis Johns
Roles
Glynis Johns
In America
Glynis Johns
and j just softened the A's a little bit and I get away with it. And I f I find it very easy to um to s to do slight American.
Glynis Johns
Accents,'cause you must remember.
Glynis Johns
My father is Welsh.
Presenter
Yes. We haven't mentioned that your father is that very well-loved character actor, Mervyn Johns. That's right.
Presenter
You were here in England in in London in nineteen sixty six in a play as Anne of Cleves in in The King's Mare.
Glynis Johns
Yes, indeed I was. And I had um the reason I uh
Glynis Johns
played that role was it because I was so frightened.
Glynis Johns
of a speech. It was such a challenge I don't believe in being frightened.
Glynis Johns
And so any time I get a fear
Glynis Johns
I have to do something about it.
Glynis Johns
and there was a speech on heraldry which lasted for twenty minutes.
Glynis Johns
And um I turned the play down twice because of the speech on Heraldry, because I was scared of it.
Glynis Johns
And then I decided that I would do it.
Glynis Johns
Because I was scared of it. And funnily enough, it was the only section of the play that I didn't have stage fright.
Presenter
But the big theatre break for you came, of course, in New York just three years ago in a musical. A little night music. A little night music.
Glynis Johns
It doesn't even seem three years ago. Act was of course I played it for nearly two years.
Presenter
Now you were going to star in it in London.
Glynis Johns
Yes, that was all very sad. I came crashing over here quickly to begin it, and and it was during an election and people took their money away and uh we couldn't start. And so then I went back to California.
Glynis Johns
and got involved in another play.
Glynis Johns
And um
Glynis Johns
didn't do it in the end.
Presenter
Yeah.
Presenter
And you're here in London at the moment in an adaptation of a a phaedo, a French pharase, 13 words la mour.
Glynis Johns
Yes, with Louis Jordan.
Presenter
You enjoying this?
Glynis Johns
Very, very much. It's the first time I've played Fado.
Presenter
Another record, please.
Glynis Johns
Pois Cloche with Edith Piave.
Glynis Johns
who I adored.
Glynis Johns
And still do?
Presenter
Edit Pieff and the compagnon de la chancellor.
Speaker 4
Ultra song as long.
Speaker 4
Yeah.
Speaker 4
Er son de d'orabo
Speaker 4
But they don't say no no no no no
Presenter
And it piazza les trois cloches.
Presenter
Let's go straight into record number six.
Glynis Johns
Ah well, that's um Dusty Springfield, which is quite a different kettle of fish. I chose um this record because I think it's got a most marvellous beat.
Glynis Johns
And I think I'd feel like doing my exercises and my modern dance all by myself there, and I think this would be a good one to do it too. I I think it might lift up the
Glynis Johns
Heart if one was feeling a bit depressed.
Speaker 4
Billy Red was the breacher's son, And when his daddy would visit, he'd come along.
Speaker 4
When they gathered round and started talking, Cousin Billy would take me walking. Out through the backyard we go walking. Then he looked into my eyes. Lord knows the magic. The only one who could ever reach me was the son of a preacher man.
Glynis Johns
What's the son of a b
Speaker 4
The only boy who could ever teach me was the son of a preacher meant to see what
Glynis Johns
We know.
Presenter
Dusty Springfield singing Son of a Preacher Man.
Presenter
Glynners, are you a domesticated lady?
Presenter
How would you be at Desert Island Cookery?
Glynis Johns
I used to love cooking. I haven't done very much recently. But it was a a very big hobby of mine. I found it therapeutic.
Glynis Johns
and I used to read cookery books, um like novels.
Presenter
Could you build some kind of a shelter? Are you handy?
Glynis Johns
Well, I I think I never have had to build a a a shelter. I suppose if I if I had to I would.
Presenter
Would you try to escape?
Glynis Johns
If it's an island
Glynis Johns
The only thing I could do would be to wade into the sea
Glynis Johns
You mean would I try to commit suicide?
Presenter
No, would you try to construct a raft?
Glynis Johns
Oh, I see what you mean.
Glynis Johns
No.
Presenter
Right, let's have record number seven.
Glynis Johns
I don't think I could go there without taking um my song Send in the Clowns.
Presenter
From a little night.
Glynis Johns
From a little night music, it was written for me.
Glynis Johns
And you love a farce?
Glynis Johns
My fault, I fear.
Speaker 2
My f
Glynis Johns
I thought that you'd want what I want. Sorry, my dear.
Glynis Johns
But where are the clouds? Quick send in the clouds.
Glynis Johns
Don't bother.
Presenter
Send in the clowns
Presenter
And what's your last record?
Glynis Johns
This is where they come to rescue me, you see, and you can hear everything blasting out, and it's just one of my most favorite records in the world, Finlandia.
Presenter
Rescue by the Finnish name.
Glynis Johns
Absolutely.
Presenter
The closing passage of Finlandia, the Halley Orchestra conducted by Sir John Barbie Rowley.
Presenter
Glennis, if you could take just one disc out of the eight, which would it be?
Glynis Johns
Well, I think Finlandia. Right.
Presenter
Uh
Presenter
And one luxury to take with you.
Glynis Johns
You uh told me this included R.
Presenter
I'd
Glynis Johns
I I don't think art is a luxury, you see. I think art is a necessity.
Glynis Johns
But all right. Michelangelo's David.
Presenter
And one book apart from the Bible and Shakespeare and big encyclopedias.
Glynis Johns
Yes, well
Glynis Johns
It's a tie, really.
Glynis Johns
Between Science and Health by Betty Bakerty
Glynis Johns
But as you have the Bible there,
Glynis Johns
I
Glynis Johns
feel that um I would take the I Ching.
Presenter
The Ai Ching
Glynis Johns
Right.
Presenter
And thank you, Glynnis Johns, for letting us hear your Desert Island Discs.
Glynis Johns
Thank you, Rod. Byebye.
Presenter
Goodbye everyone.
Speaker 2
You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive. For more podcasts, please visit bbc.co.uk/slash radio four.
Presenter asks
What was that first film you made for Korda when you were twelve?
South Riding. And Ralph Richardson played my father. Edna Best it was one of her last films. And Ann Todd played my mother in flashback because she always swears she's going to knife me if I say she played my my mother and don't explain that it was done in flashback.
Presenter asks
Did you Americanize yourself, or did you play with that lovely molasses and honey English voice which you naturally have?
I don't think I have a typically English voice. I've played quite a few American Roles In America and j just softened the A's a little bit and I get away with it. And I f I find it very easy to um to s to do slight American. Accents,'cause you must remember. My father is Welsh.
“I think that if I was alone, and I know that when I am alone, relatively speaking, here, I will choose something that will get me out of a mood I don't want to be in, or into a mood that I want to get into.”
“I was very deep into Christian science and and I had got rid of my fear of death uh and um pain and things like that temporally anyway.”
“I turned the play down twice because of the speech on Heraldry, because I was scared of it. And then I decided that I would do it. Because I was scared of it. And funnily enough, it was the only section of the play that I didn't have stage fright.”
“I don't think art is a luxury, you see. I think art is a necessity.”