Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Desert Island Discs
Presented by Roy Plomley
A writer for film, television and theatre, best known for co-creating The Likely Lads and Pottage with Iain La Frenais.
Eight records
When I was very young, I was 18, and I went to America on a scholarship and I had a year in Connecticut and New York. And one of the first things I enjoyed doing was listening to Count Basie, which I used to do in a club called Birdland...
I was brought up to really to like jazz when I was at school. Very eclectic. I mean I would have all sorts of records. But for a period through that period in the fifties, most of the music I listened to was jazz, and I would choose a Billie Holiday record. Also because it's just her artistry is quite timeless.
(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural WomanFavourite
Gerry Goffin, Carole King, Jerry Wexler
I don't hear as much of her now as I used to, but particularly in the sixties. I can remember being very moved by her because I thought she had a marvellous sense of emotion, and I would like to hear her singing Natural Woman.
I chose a track from one of my favorite albums. I love blues, especially blues guitarists. And it's a song called Born Under a Bad Sign, the words of which Dick and I both love, and it's by Albert King.
There was a a little collusion on this one in that Ian felt also, as I did, that we had to have a Beatles number, because the Beatles have loomed large in our lives, in the background of our lives anyway. So he left the choice of it to me, and I have picked a song which I think combines a... It's very happy and at the same time nostalgic...
I was trying to pick a record that really remind was reminiscent of the sixties, you know, which was an exciting period for us all. So I was thinking the Beatles we'd already chosen. I was thinking of Bob Dylan, and then I remember. That certainly the musician that used to excite me most, when I remember seeing him in a club was just knocked out, was Jimi Hendrix.
Royal Choral Society & Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
This is a complete contrast to everything else, but I like contrasts. And it's a piece of Mendelssohn's Elijah which I sang when I was at school actually and I rather like singing but it's it the nice thing is to be backed up by a lot of other people singing the same note and then you have a greater chance of being buried amongst them.
Don Felder, Don Henley, Glenn Frey
I was trying to choose one that maybe reminded me of the last few years, which is really is the move to America.
The keepsakes
No book or luxury recorded for this episode.
In conversation
Presenter asks
What did you do when you left school [Ian]?
My first job was with a billing company and then I was a tobacco salesman. … I never considered it a job. I mean, I always considered it was filling in time to do something else.
Presenter asks
What made you leave the north and come down south?
Newcastle, but it it is a place you leave. But I love Newcastle, I love it. But it was … something everyone did really. Just came to London. Literally with no idea of what I was going to do.
Presenter asks
Where and when did you meet Dick?
We met in … The Uxbridge Arms. The Uxbridge Arms in Notting Hill. Quite by chance. … Someone introduced us. And Dick was then at the BBC, studio manager. Yes. We decided to write together.
The recording
Timestamps play the recording from that turn
Dick Clement
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.
Presenter
On our desert island this week is a singularly successful pair of writers for film and television and the theatre.
Presenter
I only have to mention the likely lads and pottage. It's Dick Clement and Iain Lafrenie.
Speaker 4
Yeah.
Presenter
Right, gentlemen, the rules. Four records each, right? Yes. And, Dick, do you think your tastes differ to the extent that uh respective discs can only be played at opposite ends of the island, or do you agree fairly well musically?
Presenter
We have our differences, but I um I think we'll come to terms actually. I I I thought at one time that I might have to choose a record that would get rid of Ian if because I we might be tired of each other's company after a while, but but I've decided not to be mean and beastly and I think we can get records that will be very compatible. Ian, do you expect any trouble?
Dick Clement
Uh
Presenter
No, I've I've been uh
Dick Clement
No?
Presenter
Pleasantly surprised at Mr. Clement's of his choice.
Dick Clement
Goods of this kind.
Presenter
Dick, will you call? This is for who goes first. Who plays the disc first? Heads.
Presenter
Heads is right. So, your first disc.
Presenter
My first disc is uh by Count Basie.
Speaker 4
Mm-hmm.
Presenter
When I was very young, I was 18, and I went to America on a scholarship and I had a year in Connecticut and New York. And one of the first things I enjoyed doing was listening to Count Basie, which I used to do in a club called Birdland, the same Birdland which came from Lullaby of Birdland. And I used to go and listen to him, and he sat about as far away from me playing the piano as you are now. For if you nursed a drink all evening, you could actually sit and listen to this wonderful band for about a dollar fifty. You could hear a lot of bases. For one Moscow mule I used to drink, I think, actually. Longing for a second one, but I was broke, but I listened to this marvellous music. Ian, can you live with this one?
Presenter
Yes, the first record player I had.
Presenter
And and the first album that went with it was in fact a Campac album.
Presenter
The atomic Mr Basie, little darling. Ian, your turn. But, um, first a few facts. You're from the north, aren't you? Yes, I'm from near Newcastle. Le Freinais, of course, French? Yep.
Presenter
Huguenots they were, mhm, but but originally the Channel Islands.
Presenter
And you're from Whitley Bay?
Presenter
What did you do when you left school? What was your first job? My first job was with a billing company and then I was a tobacco salesman.
Presenter
I never considered it a job. I mean, I always considered it was filling in time to do something else. Did you know what you wanted to do? No. I my only ba ambition in life was to have an M G B.
Presenter
Did you get one? No. I bought a Jaguar, though, after the Liker lads. We haven't got there yet. You're you're jumping the gun.
Presenter
When did you decide that you wanted to write?
Presenter
Well, I'm not really sure, but in fact what the first time I actually started thinking about writing was r really after I met Dick.
Presenter
Yes. Because I was living with two friends who were writing. They were doing review material. Mhm. And Dick was doing something with them and I was sort of the odd one out. But this was in London. I mean London, yes. What made you leave the north and come down south?
Dick Clement
This is Ulanda.
Presenter
Have you been to North Shields? Newcastle, but it it is a place you leave. But I love Newcastle, I love it. But it was
Dick Clement
No Newcastle, but it it is
Presenter
It was something everyone did really. Just came to London. Literally with no idea of what I was going to do.
Dick Clement
Yeah. You would know
Presenter
Yes. And what did you do, in fact, when you got here? I worked in market research and in fact when I
Presenter
started writing. I I took my mother's advice, which was writing's something you do when you've got settled in a worthwhile job. And I continued to work in Mark Research
Presenter
through the first three series of The Likely Lads, and indeed a film. Yes, we keep jumping ahead to The Likely Lads. We're not there yet, Ian. Well you said that you decided to write when you met Dick. Where and when did you meet Dick?
Dick Clement
Well how you
Presenter
We met in
Presenter
What was the name of the pub? The Uxbridge Arms. The Uxbridge Arms in Notting Hill. Quite by chance. Do you tread on each other's foot or does somebody introduce yours? Someone introduced us. And uh Dick was then at the B B C, studio manager. Yes. We decided to write together. I used to go and visit him and he was in the African service. Yes. And he had
Dick Clement
Quite by chance we tread on each other's foot or did somebody introduce you?
Dick Clement
Yeah.
Dick Clement
Using the F
Presenter
A road map of Nigeria on the walls, which I was very impressed by. Let's have your first record. What's the first record when I was I suppose going back.
Dick Clement
Well my f
Presenter
Making
Presenter
The point of reminiscing.
Presenter
is that I was brought up to really to like jazz when I was at school. Very eclectic. I mean I would have all sorts of records.
Presenter
But for a period through that period in the fifties, most of the music I listened to was jazz, and I would choose a Billie Holiday record.
Presenter
Also because it's just her artistry is quite timeless.
Speaker 4
I'll be around.
Speaker 4
No matter how.
Speaker 4
You treat me now
Speaker 4
I'll be around
Dick Clement
Yeah.
Speaker 4
From now on.
Presenter
Billy Holiday. I'll be around. Dick, your turn again. You're a southerner. Yes, I'm from South End. And what happened to you when you left school?
Presenter
Well, I I had this year in America, which I referred to. I went over and had an extra year at school there, which was very valuable, because at the time it wasn't so easy to travel as it is now. Yes, you seem to spend it in Harlem at the at Birdland, but Well, not all the time. I spent sent some of it there, but I got around twenty different states. Was that under your own steam by Greyhound bus, or were you? Some of the time, yes. I remember being on a Greyhound bus once, getting on a bus from Tulsa to Philadelphia and thinking, now who shall I sit next to?'Cause this is going to be a long and arduous journey. And I immediately sussed out that there were no ladies on board that I could sit next to, because that was my first choice. And that it came down to three people. So I chose the man who had a tie on, because I thought he looked
Dick Clement
Good.
Presenter
the least likely to bore the pants off me for the rest of the journey and as we were driving out of Tulsa he turned to me and said, Are you saved, brother?
Presenter
And then you came back here and what?
Presenter
Well, I I um I did my national service where in the Air Force, mostly in Britain, mm, with a a weekend in Canada half way through. And then I I came straight out of that and joined the BBC.
Presenter
With a view to what?
Presenter
Well, it it it's it's actually provided an environment where there were a lot of other people trying the same thing. I mean there were lots of other people who were
Presenter
Fairly overqualified for the jobs they were actually doing, but there was a a great fecundity of talent around and people who were very nice to be with. And sooner or later you could try out different things, and I got attached to the African Service, where I started writing scripts. And that was where you met Ian, Ian says. What's your relation or your recollection of your first meeting with Ian? Is it the same as his?
Presenter
Well, I remember that that the aftermath of it was that in fact I was on night shifts a lot of the time, so I was free during the day. He and his two friends were temporarily out of work, so they were available to play cards, so the the the first weeks of our relationship were mostly playing hearts during the day. In Yuxbridge Arms or whatever it was. It wasn't actually it tended to be at their flat next door to an Indian restaurant, so the smell of curry was wafting through the window.
Dick Clement
And yax
Dick Clement
It was
Presenter
But um we've played Hearts Endlessly. A wonderful sense of sin playing cards in the middle of the day. I never do it now. Never have a chance. I'm glad to hear you've been saved. That talk on the Greyhound bus really did you a bit of good. Let's have record number three.
Presenter
Well, it's by Aretha Franklin. I don't hear as much of her now as I used to, but particularly in the sixties. I can remember uh being very moved by her because I thought she had a marvellous sense of emotion, and I would like to hear her singing Natural Woman.
Speaker 4
You make me feel.
Speaker 4
You might be free.
Speaker 3
We feel like an answer woman.
Speaker 3
Win my show
Speaker 3
Was in the lost and found?
Speaker 3
You came along.
Speaker 3
To claim it.
Presenter
Aretha Franklin, you make me feel like a natural woman. So you two have met. What happened next year?
Presenter
We started to write together.
Presenter
We just started to write a television play, mhm, and w and we sent it off and it we got a nice polite letter. But it was encouraging.
Presenter
And then really I suppose the next thing that happened was can I say the likely lads now?
Dick Clement
Yeah.
Presenter
Because Dick got an attachment to do a television training course.
Presenter
And at the end of the course they give you a tiny budget.
Presenter
in which to produce and make uh a twenty minute programme. And most people, I suppose, used to choose musicians, didn't they? Or?
Presenter
The Quartet
Presenter
And Dick thought would be a bit more ambitious. And so he and I wrote a piece of situation comedy.
Presenter
And I mean this is such a lucky break. It's still can't quite believe it when I tell it.
Presenter
But uh
Presenter
After he made this one day in the BBC, I think it was it Dennis Mayne Wilson, he s he was having a meeting with Marty Feldman, who was then successful writer of the BBC with Barry Too.
Presenter
And he said, Oh, I've got to go and see these test exercises and Marty went with him actually.
Presenter
And Marty said, I think that's very good. I think these people can write. We should keep them down. Keep them out of the way. And they came to us and then they gave Dick the gig as
Dick Clement
Yeah.
Speaker 4
Uh Uh
Presenter
as a trainee director. And then they actually said
Presenter
Do you think there's a series here? And we of course said yes. And
Presenter
They commissioned a series for B B C Two had just started.
Presenter
and Frank Muir told us subsequently that he had just taken the job then as head of comedy.
Presenter
And one of the remarks he heard when he was given the schedule of programmes was we also have a thing called the Lightly Lads. It'll do nothing, but it's cheap And under those sort of circumstances the programme is made and in fact because somebody died Dick actually also directed and produced them.
Presenter
So the two of us, having never done anything before, suddenly did a series. And I don't think anybody ever came down to see what we were doing. Dick, how did you bring this into budget with such a tiny budget? Because it doesn't work a very cheap series. I mean, you had to location shooting in the north, that sort of thing. Well, we never went north. We went to Harlsden, I think, actually. I mean, but a but a walk from the BBC Television Centre, but it still looks quite northern near the railway sidings. And um I think ignorance also helped a great deal um to get through on a on a tiny budget.
Dick Clement
Welcome.
Presenter
How many series of the likelihood adds did you make? Three.
Presenter
And then you went back to the subject later on in whatever happened to the Laika Lad? Yes. How long after afterwards was that? Nearly six years. And quite a lot had happened to it. Well, yes. We we we thought that th that was the best time to uh to go back, because in fact, as we'd left them as young men of about twenty three,
Presenter
What happens to you in a gap between 23 and 28 is very different from what happens between 33 and 38. So it gave us a whole new range of material to look at.
Presenter
It's your turn, Ian, your second record. What's it to be? Well, I chose uh a track from one of my favorite albums. I love blues, especially blues guitarists. And uh it's a song called Born Under a Bad Sign, the words of which Dick and I both love, and it's by Albert King.
Speaker 4
Oh, I'm on a bad sign.
Speaker 4
And down sent our chemicals
Speaker 4
If it wasn't for bad luck
Speaker 4
You know I won't have no luck at all
Presenter
Albert King, born under a bad sign. Now let's stay with your television career. After the likely lads, was it all plain sailing? I mean, you must have had a a flop or two on the way, Ian, did you?
Presenter
Yes, we were I mean we were rather nervous after the light clouds because we'd we'd won
Presenter
These awards
Presenter
And uh we still had to f do something else. But we did a film.
Presenter
in that period, which was a rather successful film called The Jokers with Michael Crawford and Oliver Reed.
Presenter
And then we was lured to I T V.
Presenter
and did a disastrous series and w where we we wrote, I think, fourteen shows. It was called Mr H with Harry H. Corbett. I forget that. Well, it's it's just as well. I mean I'd forgotten it till till your research file turned up the information that we did it.
Dick Clement
I'd forgotten it too.
Presenter
Thick as thieves, that was a good series. Oh, well, now you're you're racing ahead now.
Dick Clement
Yeah.
Presenter
We we did the Adv Further Adventures of Lucky Jem.
Presenter
After that we came back to the B B C and did a series
Presenter
With Kingsley Amos's blessing. He used to show up for supper after the show and get very jolly, didn't he? Certainly. With his very pretty daughter, I remember. And uh, we did. What was the series like?
Dick Clement
It doesn't
Presenter
It was quite good. It got very good reviews. It was with Keith Barron.
Presenter
We enjoyed doing that very much. May I mention Thicker's Thieves now? Certainly. Certainly. What was that like?
Dick Clement
Certainly.
Presenter
Excellent.
Presenter
Brilliant scripts.
Presenter
He said modestly. Now we're coming up to porridge, obviously. When did you first work with Ronnie Barco? Had you met him?
Presenter
Socially or had you done a a play with him or what was it?
Dick Clement
Yeah.
Speaker 4
Uh
Presenter
Ironical way. I don't know if Ronnie's ever known the story, but you may as well know now. It's very curious because people have said to us, Why are you so so obsessed with criminals and criminality? You know, you must have some murky skeletons in your cupboard. The truth was, we were asked to write two scripts for Ronnie Barker for a series called Seven of One. We wrote one, which was a Welsh piece.
Dick Clement
Where's
Dick Clement
Yeah.
Presenter
And then uh Ronnie said to he said, I'd like to do a series about prison.
Presenter
So we thought about this and uh started to write something.
Presenter
About somebody coming out of prison.
Presenter
Halfway through it we realized that we could not contain the amount of material we had in one episode. So we said, well, we can't give that to Ronnie, we'll have to write a series. And so we wrote Thick as Thieves about a man coming out of prison. However, we'd already told Ronnie that yes, we were writing something to do about coming out of prison or to do with prison in some way, as he'd requested. So we now looked at each other and said, we've now got to fulfil this obligation.
Presenter
So we then wrote a script about a man being taken to prison, and that was called Prisoner and Escort.
Presenter
And in fact, ironically enough, that was then liked very much by everybody and they then said, Oh, can we do a series? And we d we think um the this is better than the Welsh one, so we found ourselves writing porridge. And how many series of porridge? Three. Yeah, three. And then the adventures of Fletcher when he came out, which is where you started, really. Yes. Yes. That's right. Going straight. Going straight.
Dick Clement
Really?
Dick Clement
Yes. That's right. Going straight. Going straight.
Presenter
Any more Fletcher coming up?
Presenter
We have a movie which we've just finished of porridge. It's back right in into the quintessential porridge country with all the original
Dick Clement
With
Presenter
Members of the cast that we remember, Fulton Mackay as Prison Officer Mackay, and Brian Wilde and the others, and we've had enormous fun making it.
Presenter
Right, record number five. Um Dick, it's your turn again. Well, there was a a little collusion on this one in that uh Ian felt also, as I did, that we had to have a Beatles number, because the Beatles have loomed large in our lives, in the background of our lives anyway. So he left the choice of it to me, and I have picked a song which I think combines a
Presenter
It's very happy and at the same time nostalgic, which is an extraordinary quality, and that is Penny Lane.
Speaker 4
Connor is a banker with a motor car.
Speaker 4
The little children laugh at him behind his back.
Speaker 4
I can never wear the mine.
Speaker 4
It's a pouring rain
Speaker 4
Very strange, very lame is in my ears and in my eyes.
Presenter
The Beatles, Penny Lane. Now we did touch briefly on the subject of feature films. That was really you, Dick, moving from directing television to directing features. Yes. How did it happen? And what was the first? Well, Ottley was the first. We were first of all commissioned to do the script. And halfway through I began to enjoy the script.
Presenter
And I thought, well, I would love to direct this. And in fact, I wanted to continue doing what I had done in television, which was following through from the written page to the moment when you're actually standing on a floor with actors, working it out and seeing it happen on celluloid. So I managed to persuade the producer, who was fortunately young, and it was his first film as well. And he was as ignorant as I was, and so I got the job, which was wonderful, and I had a a marvellous time. Ian came up to me, actually, about
Presenter
three days into it and said to me, How are you doing? and I sort of looked round carefully before answering and said, I'm having the time of
Presenter
You've worked together on quite a lot of films now, and not all of them comedies. Dick, there are some of them quite, well, grim.
Presenter
Well Villain was the grimmest. That was the Richard Burton one, wasn't it? Yes, which was a a gangster picture.
Dick Clement
That was the right.
Dick Clement
Uh
Speaker 4
Yeah.
Presenter
But I mean we don't
Presenter
See ourselves just as being comedy writers. We would like to write lots of things. The trouble is, I suppose, that once you start writing comedy, it's a commodity that not everybody can produce. So you tend to get asked to do the same thing all the time. And the theatre. You have indeed, I think, written for the boards once at no less a venue than the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. What was that? Billy. Which ran two years?
Dick Clement
Why do we have it?
Presenter
Two and a half years. That was uh one of the most
Presenter
Exciting things we did working on a on a stage play. Can't wait to do it again. Uh we have written another musical, which hopefully will go on this year.
Presenter
Record number six, and it's your turn, yeah.
Presenter
Well, I was trying to pick a record that really remind was reminiscent of the sixties, you know, which was an exciting period for us all.
Presenter
So I was thinking the Beatles we'd already chosen. I was thinking of Bob Dylan, and then I remember.
Presenter
That certainly the musician that used to excite me most, uh when I remember seeing him in a club was just knocked out, was Jimi Hendrix. So I've chosen Jimi Hendrix, but a Bob Dylan song, which is all along the watchtower.
Speaker 4
No reason to get excited The baby Kylie's boy
Speaker 4
There are many here among us Who feel that life is but a joke?
Speaker 4
But you and I've been through that.
Speaker 4
And this is not our faith So let us go talk about
Presenter
All along the watchtower, Jimi Hendrix.
Presenter
You've more or less emigrated to Hollywood now. Well, the impression we get here is that Hollywood is more or less a ghost town. I is that not so true.
Presenter
Very, a very active town.
Presenter
And uh we moved to America because we wanted to be involved much more in uh motion pictures. The climate and the money.
Presenter
The climate and the money. The climate doesn't really worry us terribly much.
Presenter
We said
Presenter
And you both bought houses there now, so it sounds as if you've you're settled.
Presenter
Yes, we've lived there three years. We are we are resident there. Oh, for Dick, quite a major upheaval. You've got four children, haven't you, Dick? Yes, I have. Yes, I have. So new schools and uh a new deal. All that sort of thing, yes. Now you've done an American version of porridge.
Presenter
Did you have to find an American Ronnie Barker or did you change the whole way? We had to try and we actually failed. We didn't ever find one. So this forced us to make it more of a group show.
Dick Clement
We had it.
Presenter
Rather than relying on a central character, I mean this is not taking anything away from the supporting people in porridge, but I mean it's nevertheless very much a vehicle for Ronnie.
Speaker 4
Mm-hmm.
Presenter
And we weren't able to do that, so we had to have a very different approach. And uh it wasn't as successful, but nevertheless it did stun a whole season and if uh if they don't like them there they yank them off very fast.
Presenter
Ian, how do you work? Are you disciplined writers? I mean, do you sit down every morning at exactly five minutes to ten and
Presenter
Yes, we are disciplined. I don't we couldn't do the amount of work we do without being disciplined. I mean, we did write a lot of things last year. So.
Presenter
We treat it like going to work. We now have uh offices there, our own office well, our own production company now. Yes. Uh and it it's always nice to go to a neutral place. We we usually start quite early because we work best in the mornings.
Presenter
Who walks up and down and who's at the typewriter? Well, Dick sits down and writes in long hand, and I look for a corkscrew.
Presenter
And and I I I walk around a lot.
Presenter
We've got to record number seven and it's Dick's turn.
Presenter
Well, I this is a complete contrast to everything else, but um I like contrasts. And um it's a piece of Mendelssohn's Elijah which I sang when I was at school actually and I rather like singing but it's it the nice thing is to be backed up by a lot of other people singing the same note and then you have a greater chance of being buried amongst them. So I thought I would like to sing from time to time. So I chose in fact uh the closing chorus from the first part of Mendelson's Elijah which is Be Not Afraid.
Presenter
Be Not Afraid from Mendelssohn's Elijah, the Royal Choral Society and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent. Now one important thing, we got to apportion the duties on this island.
Presenter
Who's good at do it yourself?
Presenter
Oh, neither of us. No. I should think that we would be there f years without learning how to light a fire by rubbing two sticks together. Who's done some fishing?
Presenter
Either of you? No. I have. Yes, where? Cornwall. I worked as a crabber there one summer with Rodney Bewes. Mhm. It was a wonderful summer.
Presenter
While you live on Shellfish, there's some bound to be some on the island.
Presenter
A small boat, now th
Presenter
The crabbing industry in Cornwall, I mean, that should involve small bit.
Presenter
Yes, but I just went in them. I didn't help build them. No, anything to do with construction, w we we can't do it.
Dick Clement
Thank you.
Dick Clement
I'll do it.
Presenter
Very bad. I'm actually I like to think that I can do things that I can.
Dick Clement
You can't
Presenter
It's just silly to imagine you can. Well, I'm better than you. I mean he lived in a house once where one by one the lights went out.
Dick Clement
Yeah.
Presenter
And all you had to do was was put in a le the new electric light bulb. But I mean
Presenter
He he couldn't even do that.
Presenter
Right last record.
Presenter
Well, I was trying to choose one that maybe reminded me of the last few years, which is really is the move to America.
Presenter
So I've chosen
Presenter
Hotel California from the album of the same name by The Eagles.
Speaker 4
Passage back
Speaker 4
Place I want to go
Speaker 4
Like Second Nightmare, we are programmed to see it.
Speaker 4
You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave.
Presenter
Hotel California by The Eagles.
Presenter
Now, suppose you both lost three of your four records in the surf. You could just hang on to one each, Dick. Which would you hang on to? I'd choose the Aretha Franklin. Right. And Ian?
Presenter
Oh, I choose Albert King. And you're allowed one luxury each to take with you. What have you chosen, Dick?
Presenter
I think I want a pack of cards. Well, that's a modest luxury. I might be able to win um the royalties off some forthcoming programme that we would r inevitably be forced to write together out of sheer boredom.
Dick Clement
Yeah.
Presenter
I would like to learn to play a musical instrument. Yes, which I'd take a guitar. Acoustic. Yes. Good old fashioned one.
Dick Clement
That was
Presenter
Yes. And one book each apart from the Bible and Shakespeare which are both on the island and we don't allow multi-volume encyclopedias.
Presenter
Well I would take teach yourself the guitar.
Presenter
That's a good choice, is my book.
Presenter
Well, I would like a book that has stood me in good stead over the years, ever since I was a child. And it's made me laugh then. It still makes me laugh now. And I might want to be childish from time to time. And I would like the complete Winnie the Pooh. Winnie the Pooh. And thank you, Dick Clement and Ian Lafrenay, for letting us hear your desert island discs. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Goodbye, everyone.
Dick Clement
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's your recollection of your first meeting with Ian?
Well, I remember that that the aftermath of it was that in fact I was on night shifts a lot of the time, so I was free during the day. He and his two friends were temporarily out of work, so they were available to play cards, so the the the first weeks of our relationship were mostly playing hearts during the day.
Presenter asks
How did you bring [The Likely Lads] into budget with such a tiny budget?
Well, we never went north. We went to Harlsden, I think, actually. I mean, but a but a walk from the BBC Television Centre, but it still looks quite northern near the railway sidings. And um I think ignorance also helped a great deal um to get through on a on a tiny budget.
Presenter asks
How do you work? Are you disciplined writers?
Yes, we are disciplined. I don't we couldn't do the amount of work we do without being disciplined. I mean, we did write a lot of things last year. So. We treat it like going to work. We now have offices there, our own office well, our own production company now. … We usually start quite early because we work best in the mornings.