Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Desert Island Discs
Presented by Roy Plomley
Film director best known for comedies like 'Chiltern Hundreds' and 'Trouble in Store'; also a novelist and painter.
Eight records
The keepsakes
No book or luxury recorded for this episode.
In conversation
Presenter asks
Which of these three careers of yours — writing, painting and film directing — came first? Was any one of them a very early ambition?
Well, I think one of my earliest recollections was writing and painting the scenery and producing and appearing in shows that we used to put on when I was at the age of four.
Presenter asks
Which ones [of your films] do you look back on with the most affection?
Well, certainly Chiltern Hundreds. I liked making that very much. And of course the first Norman Wisdom film, Trouble in Store. And a picture called Dancing with Crime, chiefly because it was a drama.
Presenter asks
How do you manage to carry [your three careers] all on at once?
A jolly good point, Roy Plumley. I don't. … Well, I mean that this is something that I'm glad to clear up because people always think I paint with one hand and write books with the other, tap down, so on. I never do more than one thing at a time. People can't, can they really, honestly.
The recording
Timestamps play the recording from that turn
Presenter
This download is the only extract the BBC has of this edition of Desert Island Discs. The presenter was Roy Plumley.
Presenter
Peddy John Petty Carstairs wasn't the name we were born with, was it?
John Paddy Carstairs
No. Uh I'm one of the bunch of keys. My father was the very, very famous uh
John Paddy Carstairs
review artist Nelson Keyes. Uh both he and my my mother were on the stage and when I s went into the film business I thought it would be unfair to take his name. I thought I ought to get on on my own and uh so I
John Paddy Carstairs
I I thought it would be a good idea not to use keys.
Presenter
Mm-hmm.
John Paddy Carstairs
Uh
Presenter
Now which of these three careers of yours, writing, painting and film directing came first? Was any one of them a very early ambition?
John Paddy Carstairs
Well, I think one of my earliest recollections was writing and painting the scenery and producing and appearing in
John Paddy Carstairs
shows that we used to put on when I was at the age of four, so
Presenter
A whi which came first professionally?
John Paddy Carstairs
Well, films, and it happened this way. I was I made a film at Repton.
John Paddy Carstairs
uh a satire really uh of public school life uh which was uh for full length uh now twenty um on sixty millimetre stock and the headmaster repton in my day was the the the now uh archbishop of Canterbury, the then Doctor Fisher. Doctor Fisher was very enthusiastic about strange enough about this film, which was a bit of a take off of school life. And I think because he did so much f to get us publicity and get get the picture seen that I received an offer to go into films from
John Paddy Carstairs
A film company. I don't think they wanted me, I think they wanted the the subsequent publicers. What was the job? Uh assistant cameraman. I I I did that.
John Paddy Carstairs
Sometime.
Presenter
Yes.
John Paddy Carstairs
Then I went into the cutting rooms and then I became an assistant director and a scenario writer and
Presenter
You had experience of all branches of film production.
John Paddy Carstairs
Yes, I think that's very necessary, so much so that uh some some while ago I went and took uh tap dancing lessons at a school for for uh tap dancing.
John Paddy Carstairs
Should I need it for any uh
John Paddy Carstairs
Musical film, if it if if it came up. When did you direct?
Presenter
Your first phone.
John Paddy Carstairs
Oh, just before the war, I think it was.
Presenter
And since then how many?
Presenter
Direction? Yeah. Between thirty and forty films, I'd say. Which ones do you look back on with the most affection?
John Paddy Carstairs
Well, certainly Chiltern Hundreds. I I liked it making that very much.
John Paddy Carstairs
And of course the the first Norman wisdom film, Troub uh Trouble in Store.
Presenter
Mm.
John Paddy Carstairs
And a picture called Dancing with Crime, chiefly because it was a drama.
Presenter
Yes, you have concentrated mostly on comedy.
John Paddy Carstairs
Well, that's been the snag. I used to make dramas all the time, but after Chiltern Hundreds I only get comedies now.
Presenter
Now we've been talking about your film career. Which of your other two careers came next, novels or painting?
John Paddy Carstairs
Novels came next, for the reason that I found myself teamed with
John Paddy Carstairs
Famous novelists who were engaged by the film companies to write the scripts of various productions, and I was teamed up with them as a sort of stooge who kept them.
John Paddy Carstairs
on the rails uh film wise, as I knew the new camera angles and so on. Um it seemed to me that uh they were getting the best part of this, because they were obviously getting all the all the uh accolades and the gravy, and uh I felt I could do this.
John Paddy Carstairs
And so I started to write novels.
Presenter
Mm-hmm.
John Paddy Carstairs
How many uh books do you have written now? Um I think about thirty. All p all novels?
Presenter
Awesome.
John Paddy Carstairs
Uh
Presenter
Mostly novels. And one very charming children's book that was a great favourite with my small daughter a few years ago.
John Paddy Carstairs
Oh, thank you. Yes, lot lollipop wood. There's a there is a I think an amusing story about that. I wrote it originally. I dedicated it to my two nieces who live in Dublin.
John Paddy Carstairs
And uh their names were in the front, but um in the days when it was first published of course there was a great paper shortage.
John Paddy Carstairs
And uh the publishers kept pushing uh pushing it back, delaying publication. When finally it appeared, of course my uh little nieces were grown up young ladies and were reading James Hadley Chase and were horrified to find their name on on the front of Lollipop Wood.
Presenter
And what about paintings?
John Paddy Carstairs
Um painting I've always painted uh ever since I can remember, but nobody liked what I did very much. And then uh after the war, uh as soon as Paris was liberated, I hustled across there and uh fell in love with the French moderns of the Impressionistic School and came back home and changed my style and people started to to to like what I was doing and
John Paddy Carstairs
I talked to the cell rather well.
Presenter
Mm-hmm.
Presenter
And since then you've given quite a number of one-man exhibitions and you've been hung, as they say, in the Royal Academy for quite a few years now.
John Paddy Carstairs
Yes, if not quoted.
Presenter
Yeah.
Presenter
Now we've been talking about these three careers of yours. Well now comes the point, how do you manage to carry them all on at once?
John Paddy Carstairs
A jolly good point, Roy Dummy.
Presenter
Yeah. I don't.
John Paddy Carstairs
To factory.
Presenter
Thank you.
John Paddy Carstairs
Well, I mean that this is something that I'm glad to clear up because people always think I paint with one hand and write books with the other, tap down, so on.
John Paddy Carstairs
I never do more than one thing at a time. People can't, can they really, honestly.
Presenter
You mean you you finish up a film and go off and paint some pictures and then you write a book? Precisely.
Presenter
How disciplined are you as a writer, and and as a painter, come to that? Do do you work regular hours?
John Paddy Carstairs
Uh
Presenter
Well, I don't believe in
John Paddy Carstairs
About this business about waiting for inspiration. I mean, I think it's a business, and you've jolly well gotta gotta accept that, and therefore, you must.
John Paddy Carstairs
You must I certainly must discipline.
John Paddy Carstairs
myself, and uh therefore if I'm writing a book I get up at five thirty and I write from six till eight thirty every morning and think about it during the day. Uh I think it's absolutely vital to get anything done.
Presenter asks
How disciplined are you as a writer and as a painter, come to that? Do you work regular hours?
Well, I don't believe in this business about waiting for inspiration. I mean, I think it's a business, and you've jolly well gotta accept that, and therefore, you must … myself, and uh therefore if I'm writing a book I get up at five thirty and I write from six till eight thirty every morning and think about it during the day. Uh I think it's absolutely vital to get anything done.
“I'm one of the bunch of keys. My father was the very, very famous … review artist Nelson Keyes. … [W]hen I went into the film business I thought it would be unfair to take his name. I thought I ought to get on on my own.”
“I used to make dramas all the time, but after Chiltern Hundreds I only get comedies now.”
“[T]here is a … amusing story about [Lollipop Wood]. I wrote it originally. I dedicated it to my two nieces who live in Dublin. … [W]hen finally it appeared, of course my … little nieces were grown up young ladies and were reading James Hadley Chase and were horrified to find their name on the front of Lollipop Wood.”
“[A]fter the war, … as soon as Paris was liberated, I hustled across there and … fell in love with the French moderns of the Impressionistic School and came back home and changed my style and people started to like what I was doing.”