Anthony Quayle

Anthony Quayle0:00

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

On our desert island this week is the actor Anthony Quayle. You're a Lancashire man, Tony, aren't you? Yes, I was born in a little place called Ainsdale, between Liverpool and Southport. Any theatre background in the family? None at all, absolutely none. Father, who is a passionate amateur actor, but nothing professional at all. Did you see a lot of theatre as a child? Yes, my parents loved the theatre, and they used to take me from a very early age to anything that came to Southport.

Presenter0:56

Where we moved when I was very young, within a year or two. Did you hear a lot of music?

Presenter1:02

No, not really. It wasn't a musical family. My mother played the piano and she sang a bit. Uh I must say neither of them very well, bless her, but uh she did play and sing, and we had uh an old gramophone, uh a very early grammophone, you know, with a big horn and a handle that you wound. Oh, yes. What's the first record you've chosen?

Presenter1:20

The first one is uh uh The Long, Long Trail.

Presenter1:23

and I've chosen it because it's a reminder of that boyhood days which passed during the fourteen eighteen war and which I can remember very vividly.

Presenter1:36

And I think this song sums up a lot of the heartbreak of that time.

Speaker 41:40

There's a long, long night of waiting Until my dreams all come true Till the day when I'll be going down that long long trail with you

Anthony Quayle1:51

I

Presenter2:09

There's a long, long trail of winding sung by John McCormick.

Presenter2:14

Now, you went to rugby school. Any school played?

Presenter2:18

Yes, um we did one one school play there, and uh in which I thought I was very good, and this confirmed me in a belief that I wanted to be an actor. But long before that I'd been at a prep school, uh a place called Aberley Hall. Absolutely wonderful prep school. And there I'd done a l a lot of little boy acting and had got terribly bitten with the idea. Did you go to a drama school? Yes, I went to the R A D A, but though not for very long.

Presenter2:44

We had really no money at all and

Presenter2:47

uh or all sorts of family troubles had arisen and uh

Presenter2:51

I had to earn my money as quick as I could, and so I left the RADA after a year. What was your first engagement, your very first engagement of all? Well, in the vacations from the RADA, I used to go down and get various jobs at the Kew Theatre, which has been pulled down. It it's there no longer. And when you left the RADA? I did a play down at the Kew which Lee Ephraim, who is a a kind of American impresario, he came and saw. He had a foot both in America and here. He put on shows like

Presenter3:23

The Desert Song and Rosemarie

Presenter3:26

And he came and saw this play, and said, Well, young man, I have nothing really to offer you, except

Presenter3:31

I'm sending out a musical sketch with a

Presenter3:34

a comedian uh called Naylor Grimson, and I think you'd be fine for the young man, and you can be the straight man to this Jewish comic. How would you like to do it?

Presenter3:44

So I said sure. So that was the first time I ever really tasted money or the music halls. With a wonderful way to learn timing, I should think, working with music hall people. Wonderful, and also a very quick way to recognise when you're getting the bird. Yes, a glorious introduction to music. Absolutely wonderful. I was very young, very naïve and very innocent. I suppose I was seventeen or eighteen. But I look back on it with a kind of nostalgia.

Anthony Quayle3:59

Absolutely.

Presenter4:10

Let's have your second record. Well, to remind me of this time it's Flannagan and Allen singing underneath the arches, which they did every night, and I used to stand in the wings and listen to them.

Speaker 44:20

Underneath the archae we dream our dreams away

Presenter4:25

Really mad.

Speaker 44:29

Underneath the arch

Speaker 44:33

On top toast we lie back to back with the door Tired out of all the door Sorry when the daylight comes creepy.

Presenter4:52

Flanagan and Adam.

Presenter4:54

What happened next? What was the next production you were concerned with?

Presenter4:58

Oh well, I can't remember exactly the next production, but there were two people well, Gilgood was one of them, who were of enormous help to me.

Presenter5:07

And he and Taran Guthrie.

Presenter5:11

who in those early years gave me jobs and encouragement and well, what more encouragement can you give than a job?

Presenter5:20

So I seemed to move a lot in and out of John Gilgood's companies and Tony Guthrie's, who very soon afterwards took on the Old Vic and ran it. Yes. And you joined the Old Vic company. Yes, I did, but not permanently. I I I came and I went.

Presenter5:35

You did a lot of Shakespeare in the years before the war.

Presenter5:38

Yes, I did. Entirely at the Old Vic. You were one of the Old Vic company which played Hamlet at Elsinore Castle, weren't you? That's right. That was the first time that an English company went there. It was extraordinary. Remember, it poured with rain, and we'd be driven off the battlements and into the ballroom at the hotel. But it was extraordinary. That was with Olivier, Larry, and Vivian Lee playing Ophelia. Memorable.

Anthony Quayle5:53

First of all,

Presenter6:00

Let's have another record.

Presenter6:02

Well, the next record is the Nocturne from the Midsummer Night's Dream.

Anthony Quayle6:04

Greg.

Presenter6:08

There was a a wonderful production which Guthrie did at the Old Vic.

Presenter6:13

Um

Presenter6:14

Of the Midsummer Night's Dream, designed by Oliver Messel,

Presenter6:17

and uh a kind of Victorian production which suited the architecture of the theatre and with uh Ninette de Valois's ballet and and it reminds me of several friends who are connected with it who are now dead but it reminds me above all of somebody who thank God is very much alive which is which is my darling wife Dorothy Heyson Dorothy Heyson who was playing Titania in that production.

Presenter6:45

And uh I had known her for a long time before, but I think that that was while she was doing that. This was when some strange flash or thud or bang or explosion took place, and uh this is what started what has been now marriage of nearly thirty years.

Anthony Quayle6:53

We'll see.

Presenter8:00

The Nocturne from Mendelssohn's Incidental Music to a Midsummer Night's Dream, The Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Otto Klemperer. Well, then war broke out and you had a a long run of six years in the Royal Artillery. You had

Presenter8:14

An adventurous ward and Teutoni were in Gibraltar for a long time.

Presenter8:19

Yes, Gibraltar wasn't uh exactly adventurous. The early part I was uh just in charge of some guns, and it w all the worst enemy that we saw were bugs, which bit us rather a lot, bed bugs and things. But uh later when I got on the staff there, uh, I slept comfortably between sheets and grew really rather ashamed of myself. But uh it was fascinating because uh um it was at the time of the build-up for Torch, the landings in North Africa.

Presenter8:51

And Gibraltar had become a very important staging point in uh the Allies' world travel. Since we couldn't fly over Europe, you had to fly round Europe and and

Presenter9:03

Uh Gibraltar was a refueling and staging point. And afterwards you were parachuted into Albania to train guerrillas. Well, actually I wasn't parachuted. I did the parachut I did all my training to be parachuted inland.

Presenter9:15

and frightened myself to death jumping out of those beastly aeroplanes. But in the end I crept in across the Adriatic in a little fishing boat and landed by sea because uh they sent me not inland but to a coastal area. So I I did actually go by sea.

Presenter9:29

This was a very lonely job.

Presenter9:31

Here, damnably lonely. Uh some of the time one had very good friends, there were three or four of us living in a cave, uh and uh we had a certain amount of traffic passing through the cave. We had uh

Presenter9:46

strange bodies who were being infiltrated into the country or brought out of it, both from Greece and Albania itself. So you know what loneliness means. I'm getting back now to the desert island situation. Yes, I do. Yes.

Presenter10:00

Oh yes.

Presenter10:01

Let's have another record.

Presenter10:03

The next record is Mozart. He is one of the composers whom I couldn't bear to be.

Presenter10:10

On a desert island and not to be reminded of. And um I've chosen the Fortieth Symphony.

Presenter11:16

The opening of Mozart Symphony No. forty, Karl Bohm conducting the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.

Presenter11:22

When the war was over and you were back in the London Theatre, you started doing quite a lot of direction, which was a new departure for you. John Gilgood and Edith Evans in Crime and Punishment. Very successful revival of Banborough's The Relapse. That ran for a long time. Yes, it did. It was a huge success.

Anthony Quayle11:32

That is a

Anthony Quayle11:36

Yeah.

Presenter11:39

And then they invited you to act and direct at Stratford.

Presenter11:42

Well, that led to a very important part of your career. They invited you, after the first season, to take over and be the boss.

Presenter11:49

and you breathe straight in with a very successful policy.

Presenter11:53

Yes, I I I guess so, when it got a lot of pent up energy and enthusiasm after the war, and uh it seemed a wonderful chance to establish uh that theatre at Stratford as the foremost theatre in the English speaking world, and and I was determined to try and do it.

Presenter12:11

And

Presenter12:12

I started the very first year. I had a dear colleague who's now dead and Michael Benthall who's an enormous Together we planned really the first season.

Presenter12:21

And then after that uh I was alone there for

Presenter12:27

I can't remember, four years, I think. And then I was fortunate enough during my period there to be joined by Glen Byram Shaw, who was one of my dearest friends, and I couldn't have done the last four or five years without him. And uh and also I was I was extremely lucky, something to do with age, time, and place, that I had a a great number of friends in the theatre.

Presenter12:52

very eminent, the best actors and actresses in the country whom one could go to and say, Now, come on, you I'm here, don't leave me alone, you you've got to come and help So I could go to Gilgood and Richardson and

Anthony Quayle13:02

So

Presenter13:06

Peggy Ashcroft, with whom I'm lucky enough to be acting now, and Margaret Leighton, I mean they're endless. Michael Redgrave. The young Richard Burton. There's a very, very impressive list of your friends.

Anthony Quayle13:06

And he asked

Anthony Quayle13:13

Very, very impressive.

Presenter13:16

And even when you were playing Henry VIII, you had His Majesty King George VI to tell you how to wear the order of the garter. Yes, yes, it's true. We took him all round. It was really rather endearing. He came round and he looked and the thing which intrigued him in my memory most was going into a dressing room. I took him into mine because it had been tidied up for the occasion. But there he saw these clothes laid out for the matinee of Henry VIII. And

Anthony Quayle13:20

Tell you how to wear the order of the gut.

Presenter13:41

There was a garter.

Presenter13:42

the blue garter, and he said uh

Presenter13:45

I bet you dunno how to tie that.

Presenter13:47

So I said, well, maybe not. He said, all right, I'll show you. I'll show you how to do it.

Presenter13:53

And uh he was so human and ordinary and natural. It was remarkable. So he had made me pull up my trousers and tied the thing round. He showed me how to make the right knot. A very distinguished technical adviser. Very good dresser, yes, he was a remarkable technical adviser.

Speaker 414:03

A very good dresser, yes, it was a removal.

Presenter14:07

You did take a little time off from Stratford to direct the great Sid Field and Harvey. That must have been a very welcome diversion. Marvellous, absolutely marvellous. I loved the play and he was a remarkable actor. And what was odd was just lately, well last season, I got the chance to direct it again with Jimmy Stewart. And we did the play I couldn't believe that twenty-five years had gone by.

Anthony Quayle14:11

Copy.

Speaker 414:11

That was

Anthony Quayle14:11

Marvellous.

Anthony Quayle14:18

Coblact.

Presenter14:30

How many years were you at Strathclyde?

Presenter14:33

Oh, I think it was nine. Why did you leave?

Presenter14:36

I think partly I was getting stale with doing virtually nothing but Shakespeare. In the end it becomes almost a chore and you think, hello, I'm getting very stale at this. I want to get away and do other things, do films, do modern plays. This was one great feeling I had. In fact, you began to do a lot of films which you'd never really bothered about before. You did

Anthony Quayle14:50

One bid.

Presenter14:56

Well, from a whole long list I've got here, Ice Cold in Alex, the guns of Navarone, woman in a dressing gown, Laura's of Arabia, Anne of a Thousand Days this led to a great deal of travelling to overseas locations. Yes, which is marvellous.

Anthony Quayle15:01

Yes.

Presenter15:08

Been fortun very fortunate. Really, well I won't say all over the world, but Tarzan has taken me to Africa and various films have taken me to Israel and America, Greece, heavens. It uh w what between the films and and Her Majesty's government in time of war, I've done all my travelling. Let's have record number five.

Presenter15:35

Record number five.

Presenter15:37

is

Presenter15:39

Uff a fox singing A Sea Shanty

Presenter15:42

Australia, it's called. Why do you choose it?

Presenter15:45

When I left Stratford, I was for the first time I earned a bit of money making films. And I was able to afford a boat. And first I bought a catamaran and sailed that. And then we sold the cat and we built a forty-foot catch so that I could sail both winter and summer whenever the chance came. And this is a reminder of those days. And also because we had we had this record of offers. And uh we it reminds me of funny old w winter evenings singing these songs down in the cabin.

Presenter16:27

Your wife and your two daughters, the crew. And my son. And your son de Coon. Yes. Oh, yes.

Speaker 316:34

Mid rain and hail and wind and snow Heave away Heave away Heave away It's up aloft for Jack must go We're bound for Australia Heave away my body boys Heave away Heave away

Speaker 316:55

Behind the door to make a noise for we're bound for Australia

Presenter17:03

Arthur Fox singing Australia. And we talked about the films that you were doing.

Presenter17:09

When you left Stratford, a lot of stage plays as well in London, Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge, Chin Chin, the Right Honourable Gentleman, and Sleuth.

Presenter17:20

And in New York, Tambourlaine and Galileo. And now, after a gap of twenty years, you're back with what is now the Royal Shakespeare Company. And for the Royal Shakespeare Company, you're playing in a two-character Russian play, Old World, with Dame Peggy Ashcroft. You must have worked with her at the Old Vic way back. Well, it was my first season at the Old Vic, and I was playing small parts, and Peggy was the leading lady, and we did indeed have a few scenes. And the weird thing is that although I've known Peggy all these years, we've never actually played a scene together from that day to this.

Presenter17:52

And it's most odd to find myself on the stage. I've directed her in Lear, but never actually acted with her. Well, until now.

Anthony Quayle18:00

Until now.

Presenter18:01

Here we are. You've got plenty of acting to do with hers. Only two characters. Yes, I'd absolutely love it too. It's the most enormous fun to do. Tremendous fun.

Anthony Quayle18:04

The two candidates.

Presenter18:10

Record number six.

Presenter18:12

I needed something to remind me of America, to which I owe so much and which I care about so much.

Presenter18:18

And

Presenter18:19

I was in perplexity which to choose, but I've decided to plump for Ella FitzGerald singing the Rogers and Hart song Manhattan.

Speaker 418:28

And My Fair Lady is a terrific show, they say. We both may see it close someday. The city's glamour can never spoil the dreams of a boy and girl will turn Manhattan into an isle of joy.

Presenter18:59

Ella Fitzgerald.

Presenter19:01

Now, this desert island situation, the lone castaway, surely before embarking on your wartime exploits in Albania, you must have taken a pretty intensive course in how to live off the land.

Presenter19:13

You mean before I went into Albanian? No, none at all. Absolutely none. I was sent in virtually unprepared. I I couldn't speak a word of Albanian, and uh well I did have some maps, that's about all. No survival drill? Uh no, I had a p um pocketful of K rations, that was about all. No, it was a very harem scarum affair. Oh, I. Um no, I'd have a but I I I was a Boy Scout, for heaven's sake. Oh, that's good. Would you try to escape?

Anthony Quayle19:33

Uh

Anthony Quayle19:37

Oh, that's good.

Presenter19:40

Yes, I definitely would try to escape. There's far too much going on in the world which I find marvellous, and people I love, and I would emphatically resist being stuck on a perishing desert island.

Presenter19:52

Record number seven Let's have the voice of a whale.

Presenter19:57

Because various reasons. Partly I'd like to be reminded of whales, which are in danger of being wiped out.

Presenter20:07

And next, from a more practical reason,

Presenter20:10

I thought that I might be able to make friends with the whales.

Presenter20:14

And I'll need friends.

Presenter20:16

And if I had this record, I might learn some of their songs, and I might charm the whales into helping me.

Speaker 420:27

Yeah.

Speaker 420:28

No, no, no.

Speaker 420:49

What

Presenter20:53

Now, your last record. What's that to be?

Presenter20:56

The other composer that I I couldn't be without is Beethoven. It was a dreadful problem to know what to choose, but in the end I have decided for The Romance, No. Two, played by David Oustra.

Speaker 422:02

Um

Presenter22:10

David Oistracher as soloist in Beethoven's Second Romance.

Presenter22:16

If you could take only one disc, which would it be?

Presenter22:19

It would have to be the Mendelssohn.

Presenter22:21

and one luxury to take with you.

Presenter22:23

On this desert island I have no doubt that the currents and the winds are going to wash up all kinds of

Presenter22:31

Flotson.

Presenter22:32

And amongst them, I'm confident, will be some Sodden Admiralty charts. Sodden, I said, I mean damp.

Anthony Quayle22:37

I say I mean damp.

Presenter22:40

And uh

Presenter22:41

They will be washed up, and my old eyes now can no longer decipher the small print on Admiralty charts, so I must have a magnifying glass to to make my way on that singing whale. Mhm. A very, very sensible precaution. And one book, apart from the Bible and Shakespeare, and big encyclopedias. I would like, please, the complete works of Edward Leo.

Presenter23:01

Whom I admire as a poet and love as a man, and am.

Presenter23:06

It would be

Presenter23:07

A continual reminder not to lose my sense of humour in those circumstances. The complete works of Edward Lear. And thank you, Anthony Quayle, for letting us hear your Desert Island discs. Thank you. Goodbye, everyone.

Anthony Quayle23:29

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