Ian Carmichael

Speaker 10:00

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 nine, and the presenter was Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:31

On our Desert Island this week is the actor Ian Carmichael.

Presenter0:36

Ian, we've dumped you on this island.

Presenter0:38

As a consolation, what would you be happiest to have got away from?

Ian Carmichael0:43

Civilization, I think. All of it? Well, w what is loosely known as civilization today. Um I think for the first few days I would sit back and relish the solitude. I think possibly after a week or so I'd be getting a little anxious. But initially I think I could relish getting away from it all, all the noise and the hustle and bustle and the pollution.

Presenter1:04

We often used to hear you sing in review. Does that mean you had a musical training?

Presenter1:10

Yeah.

Ian Carmichael1:10

Um uh only a a a a very small musical training, probably about as as as much as you had. I have none. You have none. Well, I have the next best thing. I did start to learn the piano once, but I found it too difficult to uh look at so many notes, you know, notes for eight fingers and two thumbs. Uh so I abandoned that in favour of the E-flat alto saxophone, where I only had to look at one note at a time.

Presenter1:15

I am

Ian Carmichael1:32

Do you play records a lot? Uh yes, always have done.

Ian Carmichael1:36

Did you have any plan in choosing your eight record?

Ian Carmichael1:41

Well, I find that my taste in music uh has altered considerably as I've got older. And my present feeling about it, whereas way back I used to like a lot of vocal stuff, uh now I find I like to listen to music and I find the voice an intrusion. Uh so largely, with only one exception, I I have chosen uh instruments or orchestral music uh and and not the human voice. Right, where do we start? What's the first one? Um I'd like to take the um second movement of Holtz Planet Suite, uh Venus, the Bringer of Peace, because of its gorgeous, restful, relaxing quality.

Presenter3:18

Venus from the Planets by Holst, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Herbert von Karian.

Presenter3:25

Now you're from Hull, aren't you? Yes.

Presenter3:28

You were very modest about your early musical training, but it it says here on on this note that I've got that you ran a dance band. Yes, I da.

Ian Carmichael3:37

Yes, I did. What did you call it? Uh it was called, uh which was the vogue in those days Ian Carmichael and his band. I remember my father once saying to me, Don't you think it'd be more modest, Ian, if you called it Ian Carmichael's band? And I said, Under no circumstances, you have Luce Stone in his band, Harry Roy in his band, so it's got to be Ian Carmichael in his band. I played the drums, actually. A sort of Buddy Rich? Uh y yes, yes, not quite as good, but uh a budding buddy rich. Yes. And you used to do car

Presenter4:06

Huntering tricks? Uh yes, indeed I did. Hm. And you directed your own feature film, What Happened at the Gables?

Ian Carmichael4:12

Oh yes, I did absolutely everything.

Presenter4:15

I presume all this meant that you had to be a performer.

Ian Carmichael4:18

Uh it that's I I suppose it spelt that out, yes.

Presenter4:21

Was there any tradition for anything of that sort in the family? None whatsoever. So how did you go about it?

Ian Carmichael4:27

Well, uh when my father accepted the fact that I wasn't um going to go into the family business and I wanted to um become an actor, uh we neither of us knew which way to turn. So he went to my housemaster at school and said, What do you suggest? And the housemaster said, I suggest he uh sees if he can get into the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and I did get in and I started that way.

Presenter4:46

I saw it.

Presenter4:47

What was your very first

Ian Carmichael4:48

Thus Professional Appearance.

Ian Carmichael4:51

Uh as a robot in a play called R-U-R, uh, Non-Speaking Role, at uh the People's Palace Myland Road in Stepney. Let's have your second record. Well, I like melody, Roy, very much. I love melody, and I've taken nothing on this island that's going to make me think a great deal. And I would like to take um Richard Rodney Bennett's theme for Murder on the Orient Express.

Presenter5:48

The Overture to the Film

Presenter5:50

Murder on the Orient Express from the soundtrack.

Presenter5:54

What was your first considerable?

Presenter5:57

Engagement.

Presenter5:59

Yeah.

Ian Carmichael5:59

Well, um

Ian Carmichael6:02

One that gave me a great kick was um

Ian Carmichael6:05

It was a six-month buffer period between the Rada closing down at the outbreak of war.

Ian Carmichael6:12

And my going to the army.

Ian Carmichael6:14

I'd always been a great admirer of Herbert Fargen's reviews, which he had at the Little Theatre in those days, a theatre which unhappily is no longer there. And there was a tour going out of he had the little review and then he had the nine sharp, and the tour went out with the best material from both, and we did a ten-week tour of the provinces. And the fact that I got this job was a terrific kick to me, because I'd always admired his work.

Ian Carmichael6:39

And I was ASM, assistant stage manager, and playing very, very small parts in the review.

Ian Carmichael6:45

Uh

Presenter6:45

Well then, of course, you you went into the army, where you had a very long run indeed. You were in the Royal Armoured Corps, Normandy landing, crossing of the Rhine. Any theatre work at all while you were in uniform?

Presenter6:56

Uh yes, we we

Ian Carmichael6:57

We spent two very long um years in a wood near Helmsley in Yorkshire, in a Nissan Hatted camp. And uh Nigel Patrick was um also one of the officers in the brigade. And um we gave a performance of Springtide for Henry. Um

Ian Carmichael7:17

in a a newly built garrison theatre there.

Ian Carmichael7:21

And Nigel was a brigade entertainment officer in the King's Royal Rifle Corps, which, because of the number of actors that entered it during the war, became known as the King's Royal Repertory Company. Anyway, he he got this play together and we got two actresses up from London and we did we did the Springtime for Henry.

Speaker 17:30

Anywhere here

Ian Carmichael7:37

There were other occasions later, at the very end of the war, when we had to settle down and entertain.

Presenter7:38

I love it.

Ian Carmichael7:42

troops in Germany. I worked uh on um General Sir Brown Horrocks's welfare staff.

Presenter7:48

And mobilized after about six years. Major Carl Michael, you were a married man by now. Did you find things very tough after the war getting back again?

Ian Carmichael7:56

Oh, yes, I had to start absolutely from scratch. I mean, what I had done before was a a truncated course at the Rada, uh about one job earning my own living. Herbert Farchan, who said to me uh as I went into the army, come back and see me after the war, I'll give you a job.

Ian Carmichael8:12

died tragically as a result of a domestic accident in his own home during the war, so I really had no connections at all. She wanted a cream front door which went to the Apollo. And you worked at the Players' Theatre from time to time? Yes, I did. I did a lot of that. They did a a bill for a fortnight. And if I looked like being out of work in about five weeks' time, I'd simply go up to Leonard Sachs and say, Can you pop me in the bill in three weeks' time, Leonard? or in five weeks' time and they always bent over backwards to do it for you.

Ian Carmichael8:50

and you turned into musicals.

Ian Carmichael8:52

Yes, I got into a thing called the Lilac Domino, and I did a very, very long tour of the Lilac Domino with a marvellous man called Leo Franklin, who's now dead, who really taught me everything I know about comedy.

Ian Carmichael9:04

Bill Franklin, William Franklin's father. Yes, yes, yes, he was an excellent comedian.

Presenter9:09

Yeah. You did some television direction, didn't you?

Ian Carmichael9:11

I did absolutely anything to earn a living, really. I I had a a a wife and one and one was on the way.

Presenter9:12

I did have a

Ian Carmichael9:19

And uh I just did anything to earn a living.

Ian Carmichael9:22

Yeah.

Presenter9:22

Ian, what was your break? What was the the big event that made things

Ian Carmichael9:25

I think the Lyric Review was the first thing that made it in 1951, Festival of Britain year. It was expected to run four weeks at Hammersmith on a shoestring. And we rang twenty weeks at Hammersmith and over a year in the West End. And it was followed by the Globe Review. And that, I think, was the big one. We'll talk about the reviews in a minute. Let's have your third record. Third record, right. Well, I think I'd I must take some Chopin.

Ian Carmichael9:49

Um I think I would like to take the C sharp minor waltz by Arthur Dopenstein.

Presenter10:56

Chopin's Waltz in C Sharp minor, played by Rubenstein, only the beginning of it, alas.

Presenter11:02

Right, now the lyric review, a a very funny show indeed. You you had that splendid number uh as the boy with the hoop. That must still pursue you. So many people remember that. The people that are old enough to remember

Ian Carmichael11:14

Written by a Frenchman and translated by dear Michael Flanders.

Presenter11:15

Naturally.

Presenter11:23

And then, as you said, after the lyric review came the globe review. I think the globe review was probably the

Ian Carmichael11:29

If I have anything done anything that was sort of memorable of that period, it came in the Globe Review, which was my undressing on the beach, little man under the Macintosh. Oh, yes. Uh, trying to keep propriety, um, taking his clothes off. I'm sure he did the beach.

Presenter11:43

So you did.

Ian Carmichael11:46

And then the other reviews were what? Oh, we then did one called uh oh, that sounds very American wee, doesn't it? I did another one, um, High Spirits.

Ian Carmichael11:55

Um then the first time I had my name over the title with Hermione Badlier and Dora Brown in a review called Going to Town.

Ian Carmichael12:03

Um, then what? You wanted a change of pace? You stopped review for a minute. Yes, I wanted to become um I wanted to play one part throughout the evening instead of eight, really. And I was running out of moustaches and ideas and it was a very wearing business review. Uh very wearing. It's exhausting when you're not on, you're doing quick changes and charging up and down stairs to your dressing room. And I asked Binky Beaumont to uh who was um the boss of HM Tenants at the time, the big Empressaria for whom I'd worked, to find me a play, and he said, All in good time, Ian, all in good time, and I thought I'd been fobbed off.

Presenter12:06

Yeah.

Ian Carmichael12:35

Um but indeed in five weeks' time he sent me the script of a play which I absolutely flipped over.

Ian Carmichael12:42

which was a play called Simon and Laura Alan Melville.

Ian Carmichael12:46

And you played a television director. Yes, I did.

Ian Carmichael12:49

Yes, they and of course everybody up there kept asking me, um, you know, did I base my performance on any particular gentleman? Um to which the answer I suppose was yes, I did, but I've never told anybody who it is. Will you tell us now? Well, there was a lot of Dennis May and Wilson in it, let's put it that way.

Presenter13:08

And of course you you played the same part in the film.

Ian Carmichael13:11

Yes, I did.

Presenter13:12

Another record. What next?

Ian Carmichael13:14

Well, yes. Um again, sticking on my kick of nice, peaceful everything, I'd like to have the adagio cachaturian, adagio from Spartacus.

Presenter14:25

The Adagio from Spartacus.

Presenter14:28

Cacciodian, the composer, conducting the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

Presenter14:32

Now we were talking about Simon and Laura.

Presenter14:35

As a result of that, you've got such a thing that doesn't nowadays exist, a long film contract.

Ian Carmichael14:41

Yeah. Hmm.

Presenter14:42

Yeah.

Ian Carmichael14:42

I thought I got it as a result of Simon and Laura. Another reason why I wanted to get into plays was because in those days casting directors and impresarios looked upon review performers in a pigeonhole of their own. They were review performers. That's all they did in their eyes. Although, in point of fact, they were all actors. They weren't music hall performers. So one never got offered films or plays or anything. Oh, no, no, Carmichael, he's a review performer. So I wanted to get into a play so I could be considered for films. And the moment I'd done Simon and Laura, along came the Bolting brothers.

Ian Carmichael15:13

and offered me two films, A Private's Progress and Brothers-in-Law.

Ian Carmichael15:18

And after I got to know them well, I said, uh you know, it is remarkable. And I told them the story I've just told you, and I said, And you see, as soon as I get into a play, I get this lovely job with you. And they said, Absolute nonsense, dear boy, absolute nonsense. You got the parts for your undressing on the beach in the Globe Review. And furthermore, when we came to look for you, we couldn't remember your damn name.

Presenter15:38

But

Ian Carmichael15:39

Yeah.

Presenter15:39

Oh, that's life, isn't it?

Presenter15:41

So

Presenter15:42

Private's Progress, Brothers-in-Law, those are two to remember. Um Lucky Jim, that was another

Ian Carmichael15:46

Lucky Jim was the third one that came up. Lucky Jim. I did a series of five for them. Then a remake of a of an oldie um called uh Happy as the Bride, which was a remake of a very successful play called Quiet Wedding.

Ian Carmichael16:00

And then finally, the sequel to Private's Progress: I'm All Right, Jack. Yes.

Presenter16:07

You've just made a film.

Ian Carmichael16:09

Yes, um uh we we've done a remake of of um The Lady Vanishes, the old Hitchcock uh thriller at the beginning of the war, in which um uh two splendid actors, Basil Radford and Norton Wayne, made a great success of playing two uh cricket-loving Englishmen abroad on the continent trying to get out just before the war. And um uh Arthur Lowe and I have just played these two characters. They're marvellous parts. I think we're on a hiding to nothing because uh Basil Radford and Norton Wayne are so extremely well remembered, but it was very nice for somebody to remember Arthur and I or suggest that we should do it. Record number five. Well now I and another thing I've always loved about music I've been very interested in scoring and in orchestration and harmonies.

Ian Carmichael16:54

And um this is the only record of nostalgia that I'm allowing myself because I I think that nostalgia would upset me on an island. Um I I think I'd be looking back to the past and it would upset me terribly. So this is the nearest I go to it. I would like a Tommy Dorsey record. I grew up in that era. And it's called On the Alamo.

Presenter17:45

On the Alamo, Tommy Dorsey and his orchestra.

Presenter17:48

Let's talk of some of the plays you've done since uh that epoch making Simon and Laura. Uh the Gazebo was was a success, wasn't it?

Ian Carmichael17:56

Yes, I i an astonishing thing happened to me. Um, after I'd done all those movies, or or or certainly after I'd established with with Private's Progress Brothers in Law, Lucky Jim, and Happy as a Bride, I'd sort of become known as the archetypal Englishman.

Ian Carmichael18:10

and when I returned to the theatre,

Ian Carmichael18:13

Again, the first thing I did straight off was three American plays: The Tunnel of Love, The Gazebo, and Critics' Choice. Yes, indeed.

Presenter18:23

Now just once you've you've swayed towards higher things in the theatre, you did um Bernard Shaw's Getting Married, um a an all star production for Peter Bridge.

Ian Carmichael18:32

Hm. You you you say that as if I've tried to avoid it. Uh it's just that nobody's offered me any higher things really. Um but Peter Bridge did indeed and and Frank Dunlop offered me um Syndrome Hotskus in uh Getting Married, which I thoroughly enjoyed with what is loosely known awful phrase in all-star cast, but it was fun.

Ian Carmichael18:53

Record number six. Well, um, I

Ian Carmichael18:57

A rather jolly little piece of music I'd like to take, with not many people I think will know, and they'll say, Why the heck's he taking that? I would like to take the um Neil Hefty's uh title music to the film Boeing Boeing.

Ian Carmichael19:09

For no other reason than it is a jolly little tune. I was connected with Boeing Boeing, in actual fact. I uh I had the distinction of closing it, the play, in New York, after uh three weeks, when it would run in Paris for about eleven or twelve, and for all I know is still running. Is it really? Yes, well. And five or six years in London. Well done, Ian. Ian and Gerald Harper put it to bed quickly within three weeks in New York. Anyway, Neil Hefty's music for the film.

Presenter19:26

Please

Speaker 119:26

Yeah.

Speaker 119:27

Yeah.

Presenter20:08

The title music to the film Boeing Boeing.

Presenter20:11

Now, you've portrayed two characters on television with enormous success: Woodhouse's Bertie Wooster, with Dennis Price as Jeeves, and then, more recently, the Dorothy L. Sayers character, Lord Peter Whimsey. That took a lot.

Ian Carmichael20:24

But

Presenter20:25

Long time to set up.

Ian Carmichael20:25

Yeah. Yes, it was I always wanted to do um The Whimsy. I I it was my own idea. I was very anxious to play. I loved the character. And I I r the story really is that I touted it round many, many television stations and nobody wanted to do it. And it took about five or six years before eventually the BBC said go.

Ian Carmichael20:46

on it.

Ian Carmichael20:48

To go into the ins and outs would take a very long time. You've done quite a bit of radio recently too, musical programmes. Yes, isn't it funny how things turn out? Until recently you could almost count my radio appearances over thirty years on the fingers of two hands. And then suddenly it all happens at once.

Presenter21:02

Extraordinary. And your other main occupation for the last year or two has has been a literary one?

Presenter21:08

Uh

Ian Carmichael21:08

Yes. Somebody asked me to write their own memoirs about um four years ago, and I said, Oh, yes, when I've got time, when I've got time. And when I went um up to Yorkshire to settle, um it was a beautiful summer.

Ian Carmichael21:23

and um looking down over the gorgeous Salmon River that's at the bottom of my garden.

Ian Carmichael21:29

I thought, well now we'll start and I started to pen it and um the publishers were very interested, they bought it and I completed it and it's um coming out

Ian Carmichael21:38

In a few days' time. Splendid.

Ian Carmichael21:41

Record number seven. Record number seven.

Ian Carmichael21:45

One of my favourite films ever was Michel Lagrand's Les Para Puis de Cherbourg, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.

Ian Carmichael21:53

Um it was um as practically everybody knows now, it was a modern opera, not a line of dialogue spoken. I've just read that they've they've adapted it for the stage very successfully in New York in an off-Broadway theatre. Um I've chosen a piece from that because I love it, and I've chosen uh one of the less well-known themes. It's simply a duet between Guy.

Ian Carmichael22:15

G. U. I. and Madeleine from Paraptoida Share Book.

Speaker 422:21

Le Noter no finise et pas

Speaker 422:25

Qu'e je sui passe à la station.

Speaker 422:28

Mountain toutes

Speaker 422:32

Auvoillise, Ila restored. Si baux coup de chauz aux contra tous que nous al enfaire.

Speaker 422:54

Si Madeleine tulsé mien.

Speaker 423:01

And the world is mad.

Presenter23:09

A scene from The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.

Presenter23:13

How would you manage on this island, Ian? Are you good at looking after yourself? You've talked about um your salmon river, so you you must be a fisherman.

Ian Carmichael23:21

Well, you know, um

Ian Carmichael23:23

Necessity is the mother in of invention, they say. I I believe I'm an average uh practical person. I I've I'm not totally hopeless, and I think if I've got to cope, I could cope. But I'm not a natural DIY man. And um as far as sort of um being practical enough to get off the Perishing Island is concerned, I'm terrified of water.

Presenter23:46

So you don't imagine drifting away on a raft.

Ian Carmichael23:49

Not really, no. I I'm hoping somebody will find me where I am. I'd be frightened stiff of drowning. I'm I'm very frightened of water.

Ian Carmichael23:58

Or leave it to your agent. Ha ha ha.

Presenter24:02

Right, John.

Ian Carmichael24:02

The last record.

Ian Carmichael24:04

I cannot go on this this island without taking a Basie record, a big band Bassie, and I would like to take one called Doin Basie's Thing, because I think it is very typical of his whole set up. We have um a long chorus of his piano playing to start with, and then we have this super big band coming in at the end.

Presenter24:51

Doing Baisy's thing.

Presenter24:53

Ian, if you could take only one disc out of the eight that you've played us.

Presenter24:56

Uh well, I would take the cataturium because it's a big orchestra. Spartacus. Hm, right. And you're allowed to take one luxury to the island, you know?

Presenter25:06

Yeah.

Ian Carmichael25:06

Um well, I think the most practical thing that one could take really would be something w with which to cut. I think that would be almost essential to survival. A luxury, right? Paper and pen.

Presenter25:16

Through a pencil, please. Right. Lots of them. Both. And one book, apart from the Bible and Shakespeare, which are already there, and we frown on big encyclopedias.

Presenter25:26

Yeah.

Ian Carmichael25:26

Uh oh, undoubtedly, War and Peace. I've been promising myself to read that for years and years and years. And uh now's my chance.

Presenter25:33

Right. War and peace. And thank you, Ian Carmichael, for letting us hear your Desert Island Disc. Thank you for asking me, Roy.

Presenter25:39

Goodbye everyone.

Speaker 125:48

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