George Cole

George Cole0:00

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.

Presenter0:30

This week, our castaway is the actor, George Cole.

Presenter0:34

George, is music important in your life?

Presenter0:36

Not desperately important, but uh

Presenter0:39

Up to a point. How did you set about choosing these eight discs for a very long exile? Uh well I found it very difficult um when I started and then I decided that I would like pieces of music that would evoke very happy memories. Could you adjust yourself to loneliness?

Presenter0:57

I think so.

Presenter1:00

What would you be happiest to have got away from?

Presenter1:03

I think really the thing I'd like to get away from, just for a little while, is my children saying, What are you going to do now, Daddy? Well, what are you going to do now in the way of the first disc? Uh well, the first I'd like to have the um Goodbye song from White Horse Inn. That that was the very first show I was ever in.

Presenter1:22

And that will bring back my very first first night in the West End at the London Coliseum packed to the roof. And this particular song stopped the show. And it was a very, very emotional moment.

Presenter2:02

Goodbye from Whitehorse Inn, sung by Andy Cole and the chorus. What's your second disc?

Presenter2:08

It's uh a pop song from the group Rogue, uh We Could Use a Little Rain. This doesn't evoke any particular memory, but um

Presenter2:18

I think there are bound to be some seeds on this island, aren't there? Yeah, I would uh sow those, you'll see, and I would use this as my uh

George Cole2:21

Yeah.

Speaker 42:22

Yeah.

George Cole2:22

Uh

Presenter2:26

cry to the gods to help me get them going. I don't think the the song itself has uh haughty cultural sentiments, but uh that's what I use it for.

Presenter2:36

You're a very keen gardener, aren't you? Yes, yes. Um.

Presenter2:40

I'm I'm I'm not quite as keen as my wife.

Presenter2:44

But keen enough.

Speaker 22:45

Good morning, girls.

Speaker 22:50

I'm sorry but it looks like another dry day

Speaker 22:56

Are we ain't handle rain?

Speaker 23:01

It'll be six weeks on Friday.

Speaker 23:08

You say when it's hot

Speaker 23:10

You don't wanna be loved.

Presenter3:14

We could use a little wren by rogue.

Presenter3:17

George, you're a Londoner, aren't you? Yes, Tooting. Did you see a lot of theatre as a child?

Presenter3:22

Um

Presenter3:24

Quite a bit. I used to go to Wimbledon Theatre quite a bit.

Presenter3:27

Had you any ambitions? Not as uh not to be not to be a straight actor. I had ambition to be a comic singer.

Presenter3:33

Did you in fact sing comic songs? I sung rather nasty comic songs at British Legion concerts and places like that, yes.

George Cole3:35

I found it

Presenter3:41

And you told us your first show was White Horse Inn. Yes. How did that come about?

Presenter3:45

Uh well I used to sell newspapers around the streets in Morden where I lived then. Yes. And uh I left school on a Friday and I was supposed to go to butcher shop on Monday to take up a job as a messenger boy, which I didn't particularly want to do. And in one of the newspapers, I think was The Star, there was an advertisement of a boy wanted for a musical show.

Presenter4:06

And the following morning I came up to London, to Gerrard Street I think it was, and inquired about the job. I didn't get the actual job, but I got the understudy.

Presenter4:15

And uh that was in Whitehorse Inn and I was in about twelve or fifteen of the choruses. This was a revival of of the White Horse Inn. Yes, this was 1939. A very spectacular show, revolving stage, boat trips on the lake, all that sort of thing. And rain, lots of rain, and Cast of a Hundred. And a long run? Well, I was in it for about four or five months, I think. I toured f in it for twenty weeks before we came to London. Yes. And then the boy I was under studying went for an audition for a part in a play.

George Cole4:27

Yeah.

George Cole4:36

Tood.

Presenter4:45

I won't keep him company.

Presenter4:47

And uh I don't quite know what happened, but I got the part. Oh, was he pleased? Uh no, no, no, he wasn't not at all pleased. What was the part? Uh it was the little boy evacuee in uh Cottage Tollette. Yes. Who was in it? Alastair Simm, Leslie Banks.

Speaker 44:52

Yeah.

Presenter5:03

You were helped out a lot at the beginning of your career by Alastair Sim, weren't you? Yes, yes.

Presenter5:08

R really, by working with him that was really the the form the help took and uh I mean getting rid of my accent, I had a terrible cockney accent.

Presenter5:16

You never went to drama school. Do you regret that, if you ever found it a disadvantage? Not yet.

Presenter5:21

I get.

Presenter5:23

What next? I remember you in a J.B. Priestley play called Good Night Children. Goodnight Children, yes, about the BBC. Yes. Yes. A a short run. Very short. A very funny play. I thought it was very funny. I played in Effects Boy. Mm-hmm.

George Cole5:29

Yes, yes.

Presenter5:36

That was a lovely play. And after that?

Presenter5:38

Flairpath.

Presenter5:40

Terence Redigen.

Presenter5:42

So from Priestley to Ratican you were doing rather well as far as authors went. Uh yes, I was. You had a long run in Flarepath? Yes, I was in Flarepath for eighteen months.

Speaker 45:44

Yeah.

Presenter5:51

And then I came out of that, um,'cause I was due to go into the RAF.

Presenter5:54

And just before I went into the RAF I played in a Bridie player, Mr. Balfree, again with Alastair.

Presenter5:59

Yeah.

Presenter6:01

And then the RAF, that was the longest run of all. You did. Yes, four years.

Speaker 46:03

That's a process.

Presenter6:06

What did they put you to do?

Presenter6:08

Most of the time I spent shoveling coal. Were you good at that? I became quite good at it, yes. Yes, I suppose it made a man of me. And uh the other half of the time was spent running officers' mess bar here and there. So they were building you up and pulling you down at the same time.

Speaker 46:20

Uh

George Cole6:20

Yeah.

George Cole6:23

Uh

Speaker 46:23

Yeah, yes.

Presenter6:26

Let's have your third record. What's that to be? Uh Wagner, The Ride of the Valkyrie. This doesn't have any particular memories, apart from the fact that I did see Kirsten Flagstadt in an absolutely fantastic production of it. But I think I would like to play this on stormy nights.

Presenter7:39

The Ride of the Valkyrie is played by the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Deopol Stokovsky. Or back from the RAF, George, what jobs did you do?

Presenter7:48

The first thing I did was a play with Alastair, Sim, uh, a Bridey player again, Doctor Angelus.

Speaker 47:53

Mm-hmm.

Presenter7:53

And that was followed by another Brady play, The Anatomist.

Presenter7:58

And I think in between there I did two Christopher Fry plays, but then I did another Bridie, which was Mr Gilly.

Presenter8:05

Or with Alistair. Yes. You specialized in brighter plays? Um for a period, yes.

Presenter8:10

Now we'll talk about films presently, because I know you did a lot of films. You've had a long run on radio. Uh yes, in A Life of Bliss. You played the young bachelor, David Bliss? Yes, for fifteen years on radio. As long as that? Yes. And in fact, uh the opening line was

George Cole8:20

Yeah.

Presenter8:25

Always each week, twenty five and still a bachelor. And when I got to forty we decided we ought to cut that and have a new opening line. Then you afterwards played David on television? Yes, um um we did two lots, I think, two years, live.

George Cole8:31

You'll have

Presenter8:39

There was another television series you did that made a considerable impact. A Man of Our Times. Yes, this this was one of the most satisfying pieces of work I think I've ever done, because you had a natural time scale in that there were the series took three months. Actually...

Presenter8:56

The man in the series had three months in which to work out his problems. Yes. And it was beautifully written.

Presenter9:02

And everyone who came into it was, um

Presenter9:05

Curiously committed to it. It was a marvellous experience. Wonderful. And the last few years you've done

Presenter9:11

A lot of theatre again. You did Chekhov's The Three Sisters. And then you were in The Philanthropist.

Presenter9:17

Yes, uh apart from the RAF that was my longest run. That was two years at the Mayfair Theatre.

Presenter9:23

And a review.

Presenter9:25

A yes, Deja Revue last year. Mhm. Did you sing? I sang and I danced.

Presenter9:32

I had to make any comment, and I'm sure you did both excellently.

Speaker 49:34

I'm sure you did both excellently.

Presenter9:37

And now you're in the revival of Ben Travers Fast Banana Ridge with Robert Morley. Yes. Are you enjoying that? Oh, enormously. Enormously. Marvellous.

Presenter9:47

I must say that it it's a beautiful piece of of archaeology. The the first act in particular, it is exactly like a play pictorial illustration of the third.

Speaker 29:58

The fact is.

Presenter10:01

Every pleat in a pair of trousers is right. Beautifully done. And I think my suit is particularly good for the period. Yes. Marvellous. No, I think it lets it's uh it's a m marvellous show to be in and Robert Morley's wonderful to work with.

George Cole10:09

No, I

Presenter10:14

Mm-hmm.

Presenter10:15

And Ben Travers is

Presenter10:17

Really an amazing dramatist. Astonishing man. I'm in three hits in London now.

Presenter10:21

He's not yet 90.

Presenter10:24

Right, record number four. This is Schwanda the Bagpiper, and this was a piece of music that we had before the second half of Mr. Gilly, the Bridey play I did with Alistair. And.

Presenter10:38

We were like a couple of Pavlovian dogs with this piece of music, because at certain points in it we used to put our cups down that we'd been drinking tea from in the interval, and he would go to a particular chair and I would go to a particular thing. And uh for years after I can still get a very, very vivid picture of this.

Presenter11:52

The polka from Weinberger's Schwander.

Presenter11:55

played by the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormondy. George, you had a very successful career in films. You must have appeared in a vast number of them. What was the very first?

Presenter12:06

Uh College Delette, which is the the film of the play that I was in. Mm-hmm. Then of course you were a regular in all the Centrillions. Yeah, yes, the Centrillians films and um several Lauder and Gilead films, The Green Man, Lady Godiver Rides Again, and then several Mario Zampi films, Laughter in Paradise, Top Secret. What's your favorite film out of the whole lot?

Presenter12:28

I think probably

Presenter12:31

The Green Man

Presenter12:32

You've just been making a film in Russia. Yes, the the Blue Bird.

Presenter12:36

The MitreLink play. Yes, yes.

Presenter12:39

All through your career, George, you've been the featured player. You've taken second billing and not star billing. Has this been frustrating? No, not at all. Oh, I think it's through working with Alastair Sims so much. I know when I'm beaten. Let's have record number five. This is the theme from the television series Man of Our Times.

Presenter12:59

And um I mean I would this would bring back a very happy period dur during that series. Also I think uh I might have a dance on the island with this one,'cause it's the only bit of music I ever learned to dance to.

Presenter13:39

The theme for A Man of Our Times played by James Clarke and Sounds. Let's go straight on to your next disc.

Presenter13:47

Well, I suppose, um, whether I need it or not, I'm going to have to.

Presenter13:51

have a sort of once a month swim on this island. The water's quite warm. I think we can do it more frequently than that.

George Cole13:54

The water

George Cole13:57

Yeah.

Presenter13:59

But uh I'd like to make an occasion of it and uh

Presenter14:03

So I think I'd like to have Herb Alpert playing El Presidente every time I went in for a swim.

Presenter14:38

Music for a celebratory swim played by Herb Alpert, El Presidente.

Presenter14:43

How well could you look after yourself on the island? Uh I think very well. You could build a hut? Uh yes, yes. I I uh

Presenter14:51

Yes, I could build a house. Yes. And you've talked about the seeds you're going to plant. You could cultivate some food. Done any fishing?

Presenter14:57

No, I haven't.

Presenter14:58

But uh I I I think I could uh manage a bit of

Presenter15:02

Trout tickling. Oh, there'll be any trout, will there? No. There might be. Oh well I don't know. I'll make do with tickling sea trout.

George Cole15:04

Yeah.

Presenter15:08

Would you try to escape?

Presenter15:10

Uh not for time.

Presenter15:12

Eventually.

George Cole15:12

Yeah.

Speaker 215:12

An edge.

Presenter15:13

Do you know anything about sailing?

George Cole15:14

Yeah.

Speaker 215:14

No, nothing at all.

Presenter15:16

Yeah.

Presenter15:17

If you built a big raft, would you try? Uh y yes. In in time I think I would build uh a raft.

Presenter15:24

Good luck.

Presenter15:26

Record number seven. Well, this is part of the Sibelia Second Symphony. Why'd you choose it?

Presenter15:34

This I think is probably my favourite piece of music and my wife's favourite piece of music and we both discovered this when we first met. So this would be very happy for me to listen to.

Presenter16:41

Part of the Sibelia's Second Symphony, Sir John Barbirolli conducting Bahale Orchestra.

Presenter16:46

And that brings us to your last disk.

Presenter16:49

Well, this is uh another one from A Happy Memory in the Theatre. This was the playing out music of the philanthropist at the end of the play. This was the piece of music the audience went out to.

Presenter16:59

And I was in that for two years.

Presenter17:01

And at the end of those two years, the last time I heard the hallelujah chorus being played, it was sweet music to me. I think also I'd like this to be played on the island when I come out from having my swim.

Speaker 417:15

Yeah.

Speaker 417:19

People of Peter.

Presenter18:10

The Hallelujah chorus from Handel's Messiah

Presenter18:13

Played by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and chorus, conducted by Sir Thomas Beecher. If you could take just one disc, which would it be?

Presenter18:21

I think the Sabani is.

Presenter18:23

And one luxury to take with you.

Presenter18:25

Um, could I take a a box of cigars? Yes, good Havana cigars, three hundred and sixty-five of them.

Presenter18:33

You're obviously an optimist if you think you're going to get away within a year. I'm not playing this part longer than a year. If I haven't been rescued, I'll have made that raft by the end of the year.

George Cole18:36

Yeah.

George Cole18:39

Yeah.

Presenter18:43

All right. Three hundred and sixty five good Havana cigars. One book to take with you apart from the Bible, Shakespeare and Big Encyclopedias.

Presenter18:50

Well, as I'm going to be on my own and I'm not going to have to worry about people saying, my goodness, you don't read that sort of thing, do you? I'd like to take real hardcore fiction. I'd like to take the form book. And thank you, George Cole, for letting us hear your Desert Island discs. Thank you. Goodbye. Goodbye, everyone.

George Cole19:17

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive. For more podcasts, please visit bbc.co.uk slash radio four.