Sian Phillips

Speaker 20:00

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

This week, our castaway is the actress, Shawn Phillips.

Presenter0:35

Did I pronounce your Christian name right?

Sian Phillips0:37

You did, Roy, and you're about the only person who ever does.

Sian Phillips0:41

It's I don't know why it's so difficult, but if if I'd known it was going to cause problems all my life, I would have changed it many, many years ago. In fact, it's Welsh for Jane. It's as simple as that.

Presenter0:49

It's as simple as that.

Sian Phillips0:52

Many of my oldest friends in the theater call me by the unbecoming name of Stan, because the GPO on opening nights looks at these telegrams and they look S I A N No, that's impossible. That must read S T A N So the telegrams arrive Stan Phillips. I got a few last week.

Presenter1:07

Ha ha ha ha.

Presenter1:08

Now, you were born in Wales. Was Welsh your first language?

Sian Phillips1:11

Yes, it was.

Presenter1:12

Yeah.

Sian Phillips1:12

Uh Yes.

Sian Phillips1:13

I mean, I knew how to speak English through listening to the wireless, but nobody in my neighbourhood or at school spoke English.

Presenter1:20

Which was your neighborhood?

Sian Phillips1:21

It was West Glamorgan and Carmarthenshire, which is basically a rural district in spite of being near the Industrial South.

Presenter1:29

Yes, and of course you grew up with a musical background.

Sian Phillips1:32

Yes, I did. My father was very musical, and he was a trained singer. He also had a choir.

Sian Phillips1:40

So the house was always full of he used to play the piano all day and sing.

Sian Phillips1:45

So my humming music all my childhood were bass, barytone, arias, mainly from oratorio. Do you play an instrument?

Sian Phillips1:55

Well, I every Welsh child plays an instrument. I I learned to play the piano. But to my father's family's disappointment I was I was obviously never going to be any good, but it has given me enormous p I play very badly with great feeling.

Sian Phillips2:08

And it will be enormous pleasure.

Presenter2:09

But you enjoy it.

Presenter2:12

What's the first record you've chosen for your desert island?

Sian Phillips2:15

The first one I'd like is of uh one of my idols, Dame Edith Evans.

Sian Phillips2:22

And I'd like a bit out of that uh marvellous recording that she and John Gilgood and a wonderful cast made of the importance of being earnest. So I'd like to hear two of my favorite people.

Speaker 22:34

Now to minor matters. Are your parents living?

Presenter2:39

I have lost both my parents.

Speaker 22:42

To lose one parent, mister Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune.

Speaker 22:47

To lose both looks like carelessness.

Speaker 22:51

Who was your father?

Speaker 22:53

He was evidently a man of some wealth.

Presenter2:56

Sir John Guilgood as John Worthing, Dame Edith Evans as Lady Bracknell, in a scene from the first act of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest.

Presenter3:06

So, brought up in Wales, town girl or country girl? Country girl. You didn't get much chance then to go to the theatre.

Sian Phillips3:13

Oh, no. I can't think what gave me the idea that I must be an actress, because I didn't see a play until I was quite old. I read plays at home.

Presenter3:19

Hi R

Sian Phillips3:21

And I was a sickly child, so I spent most of my time on my own, at home, being taught by my mother largely. And your mother did teach drama? No, she was a a primary school teacher, but she was interested in drama as a sort of remedial thing, I think, and she taught me to recite and and to act a bit, uh, purely to train my memory.

Presenter3:40

I believe you won in your class at the Nationalised Edward when you were, what, only about ten?

Sian Phillips3:44

Oh, yes, but I'd been doing that since I was four years of age.

Presenter3:48

Was it that childhood success that led to your first broadcast?

Sian Phillips3:52

Yes, it was actually. But the first time I was lucky enough to win at the Nationalised Air Force, which was of course much grander than everything I'd been doing up until then.

Sian Phillips4:00

Someone from the BBC happened to be on the Isethvod field that day and took me back to the studio to repeat that uh dramatic recitation I had just given.

Presenter4:08

Right.

Sian Phillips4:10

And it went on from there, really?

Presenter4:12

Yes, you began to play child parts.

Sian Phillips4:13

Yes, yes.

Presenter4:15

At the age of about twelve, I believe, you used to do a one girl show.

Sian Phillips4:19

Yes, I knew miles of material by then, so I realized suddenly that I had enough, in fact, to to run for two hours. So I started booking myself out for Saturday nights and Sundays locally working men's clubs or chapels. One played a lot in chapels in those days.

Presenter4:38

Were you educated entirely in Wales?

Sian Phillips4:40

Yes, yes, totally.

Presenter4:42

Now, you were in Cardiff University. What did you read?

Sian Phillips4:45

I read English and uh philosophy.

Presenter4:47

and used to read the news for Radio Wales.

Sian Phillips4:49

Yes, I did. She I used to write all my essays. My tutors were very understanding'cause I was never there. So I used to write all my essays over at Broadcasting House.

Sian Phillips4:58

Because the back doors faced each other fortunately, so I shuttled to and fro.

Sian Phillips5:03

And I would write my continuity scripts or music programme scripts in lectures and write my essays over in the continuity suite at the BBC.

Presenter5:11

Did you have any intention of joining the B B C full time?

Sian Phillips5:15

Well, I did actually join the rap at that time, also, when I was an announcer.

Sian Phillips5:20

And uh I liked it very much indeed, and yes, I was very tempted. I liked the life and uh

Sian Phillips5:27

It could easily have happened that I would have joined the BBC and I think been very happy there, probably.

Presenter5:31

This was the English language rep, was it? Or did you

Sian Phillips5:34

No, it had to be bilingual.

Presenter5:36

Yes.

Sian Phillips5:36

Yes.

Presenter5:38

Let's have another record.

Sian Phillips5:39

We were talking about my father earlier, and he had a choir, but when he was a very young boy, he used to sing with the Lenetti male voice choir.

Sian Phillips5:45

and his brother stews things with them.

Sian Phillips5:48

Then

Sian Phillips5:49

I'm now their President, and very, very proud of them, so I I would please like to have them, the Tenettimo Voice Choir, singing a piece called A Veduen Ariane. I won't ask you to say that, Roy.

Presenter6:00

What does it mean?

Sian Phillips6:01

That's a song about a tree.

Speaker 16:29

Right here goes.

Speaker 16:39

We holy for love and glory.

Presenter6:57

But then Eftle Malevoisqua.

Sian Phillips6:59

Not bad, not wonderful. I once taught a budget organization, I think. Perfect.

Presenter7:03

No, so there's no excuse.

Presenter7:06

Flanethley male voice choir singing a song about a birch tree.

Presenter7:11

So you're down from Cardiff University. What next?

Sian Phillips7:14

Well, I stayed at the BBC for a bit and I worked for the arts council, um the theatre company Touring Wales.

Presenter7:19

Yes.

Sian Phillips7:20

and we were trying to form a Welsh national company.

Sian Phillips7:23

So I did that.

Presenter7:24

Oh, you've got you've got a story about uh one of your Welsh tours in a small town.

Sian Phillips7:28

Oh gosh. No, that was actually that was earlier even, and I shouldn't have been there in the first place. It was totally illicit and illegal. But I managed to get myself into a dreadful show.

Sian Phillips7:39

Well, we were so poor that they actually removed the seats from the auditorium before we could take the curtain up.

Presenter7:45

They seldom, you mean.

Sian Phillips7:46

The bailiffs came and took the seat.

Presenter7:48

So

Sian Phillips7:49

Yeah.

Presenter7:49

Yeah.

Presenter7:50

So you came to London to go to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art?

Sian Phillips7:53

Yes, I did. Yes.

Presenter7:54

You were one of the first students, I believe, to work your way through college, as it were. I mean, you you were allowed to work while you were still a student.

Sian Phillips8:01

Yes, it was ironical, really, that I was able to go back to work during the holidays in order to make enough money to support myself at the Academy.

Presenter8:10

You had some very considerable early successes. You played some distinguished roles.

Sian Phillips8:15

Yes, I was lucky. It was it was taking a bit of a chance, I suppose. I can't remember much about them now, because it is quite a long time ago. But it it must have been interesting to see

Sian Phillips8:25

A girl as young as she should be, I suppose, playing parts like Magda and

Sian Phillips8:31

Tedder, because one normally gets to play them when one is a good bit older.

Presenter8:35

Where did you play these parts?

Sian Phillips8:36

At the Vanbrugh Theatre, and then I toured Hedo when I left, and we played it.

Sian Phillips8:41

at the Duke of York's.

Sian Phillips8:43

and took it to Oslo as well.

Presenter8:45

And you began to play at the more prestigious regional theatres, Nottingham, Oxford.

Sian Phillips8:49

Yes.

Presenter8:50

Coming.

Sian Phillips8:50

Yes, yes, in repertory.

Presenter8:52

You you played the shoe at Oxford.

Sian Phillips8:54

Yes, I did, yes.

Presenter8:56

and you were in the very first London season of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Sian Phillips9:00

Yes, when we moved into the old rich it was it was wonderful, it was all wet paint.

Presenter9:06

Your third record.

Sian Phillips9:08

My third record is one of Stevie Wonder's songs, please. I don't know much about pop music, but I discovered this in that very hot summer we had in nineteen seventy five. Do you remember? There was a wonderful baking summer.

Speaker 19:18

It was a

Sian Phillips9:20

And this always reminds me of warm weather and London in the sunshine. And it's called You Are the Sunshine of My Life.

Speaker 29:28

You are the sunshine of my

Sian Phillips9:30

Uh

Speaker 29:30

Uh

Speaker 29:35

That's why I'll always be around.

Speaker 29:43

You are the emblem of my eye.

Speaker 19:50

Forever you'll stay in my heart.

Presenter9:57

Stevie Wonder. So you were in that first London season of the R S C. Have you tried to plan your career, Sean, by going from commercial theatre to subsidized theatre and

Sian Phillips10:08

No, I haven't. I've I've always found it very, very difficult. Every time I make an arrangement it falls to pieces, so I thought I'd just trundle along behind the fates, as it were. And it seems to work out that one dots from one thing to another fairly comfortably.

Presenter10:23

You've gone from Tennessee Williams to Shaw to Shakespeare. Recently to a rather odd thriller called Spine Chiller. Not a word against it, please. I said it was rather odd. I didn't know. Both polite.

Presenter10:37

What's been your longest run?

Sian Phillips10:39

Oh, now this is ironical, because I love long runs, and nearly all my friends loathe them, and I come in and out of plays so fast that very often I'm writing the thank you notes for the previous play when I'm rehearsing the next one.

Sian Phillips10:52

Which is unfortunate because the longest run

Sian Phillips10:55

I did was nine months in Man and Superman.

Presenter10:59

He asked me.

Sian Phillips10:59

which I adored.

Presenter11:00

On the whole, I I think we could cover your theatre career by saying it's been distinguished, but unlucky, because you never have settled down to a log run.

Sian Phillips11:08

No, I haven't, which is good in a way, because it does give you a lot of practice.

Presenter11:11

Yes, of course.

Sian Phillips11:12

And it toughens your character a bit, as and as Vanella Fielding says, it builds muscle, dear.

Presenter11:17

Yeah.

Presenter11:20

Now, do you still act in Welsh?

Sian Phillips11:22

Yes, I do.

Presenter11:23

You are in fact a governor of the National Theatre of Wales.

Sian Phillips11:26

Yes.

Presenter11:27

Tell us about the National Theatre of Wales because we don't hear very much about the Theatre.

Sian Phillips11:31

Well, no, I'm afraid not. E even I haven't heard very much about it recently. But I do hope that it does come into being one day.

Presenter11:39

You're also

Presenter11:40

An Honorary Druid for your services to Welsh drama.

Presenter11:44

Tell me about that.

Sian Phillips11:46

Will you wear a white sheet?

Sian Phillips11:48

And you turn up for the

Sian Phillips11:50

crowning and the chairing of the fards, which I've not been able to do for some years,'cause I've been working, unfortunately.

Presenter11:56

This is at the national ICT.

Sian Phillips11:57

It's at the national it it's got nothing to do with druids or oak trees or mistletoe. It's it's a purely um

Sian Phillips12:04

Cultural thing. There are there are white sheets and blue sheets and green sheets and you get them for being different things like a musician or an actor or a writer.

Presenter12:13

Another record.

Sian Phillips12:14

I told you that my childhood was spent humming baritone arias, and this was one of my favorite pop tunes. It's from Judas Maccabeus, and it's Arm, Arm, Ye Brave.

Speaker 112:27

Uh

Sian Phillips12:28

Peace on your nation, religion and lords. Your mighty devotee, strengthen your hands.

Presenter12:28

Yeah.

Speaker 212:38

Give friends for donation.

Speaker 212:44

And holds your mighty Jehovah is twenty twelve.

Speaker 212:58

No rightage hover this land.

Speaker 113:05

Ah.

Presenter13:25

Arm, Arm Ye Brave from Judas Maccabeus by Handel, John Shirley Quirk with the English Chamber Orchestra and Wandsworth School Choir conducted by Charles MacKerris.

Presenter13:36

Now film channel.

Presenter13:38

You've done quite a lot of films. Any exciting locations?

Sian Phillips13:42

Yes, some. But when you say quite a lot, Roy, I haven't in fact done a lot. I mean, many of the earlier films, if you added them all up, they'd make about four sevenths of one film. I used to dot in and out of them because

Speaker 113:51

Yeah, it's

Sian Phillips13:54

When the children were young I didn't

Sian Phillips13:56

really feel like should be dotting around the world. So I I really on the whole avoided filming.

Sian Phillips14:03

To a large extent.

Speaker 114:03

Yeah.

Sian Phillips14:04

But I suppose the the nicest location I ever went on was um

Sian Phillips14:09

Uh I went to South America, to the delta of the Orinoco, to make Murphy's War.

Presenter14:14

Ah, yes. That was with with Peter too.

Sian Phillips14:15

That was

Sian Phillips14:16

Yes, it was and uh Philippe Noire.

Presenter14:19

It was a very exciting film then.

Sian Phillips14:20

It wasn't bad at all. It was an adventure film and it w we went to a place where people don't go. I mean no white person goes down there. So it w it was really quite difficult and um we made a wonderful trip to the source of the Orinoco and stayed with some Indian tribes and had a very, very exciting time, to the consternation of the film company and the insurance company, needless to say.

Presenter14:42

Ha ha ha ha.

Sian Phillips14:43

who were furious about the whole thing. And that was really fascinating.

Sian Phillips14:48

And actually

Sian Phillips14:49

I was wondering about the book I was going to take, which we'll talk about later, and I did a very stupid thing on that. I took all of Proust with me because I thought, well, what am I going to do in the jungle for all these months? And Philip Noire turned up with all of Proust in French. He thought the same thing. He read his, and I didn't read a word of mine, I'm sorry to say.

Presenter15:07

Oh, we will save it for another film.

Presenter15:09

And what others? Becky? Goodbye, mister Chipps.

Presenter15:13

and rather predictably under milkwood.

Sian Phillips15:15

Ah, well, yes.

Presenter15:16

Yeah.

Presenter15:17

Now you've been making a film quite recently.

Sian Phillips15:20

Yes, called Clash of the Titans.

Presenter15:22

Clash of the Titans

Sian Phillips15:22

Yes, it won't be seen for a while, but there's a there's a process called dynamation.

Sian Phillips15:27

where this very clever man called Ray Harryhausen makes models, articulated models, and it takes about a year to to make them operate properly, and they are superimposed onto what we have filmed. So this is the story of Perseus and Andromeda, so there's Pegasus to make.

Speaker 215:39

Yeah.

Sian Phillips15:44

And the kraken?

Sian Phillips15:46

and all sorts of wonderful beasts and uh

Sian Phillips15:50

mythical things and um th it should look beautiful I would imagine.

Presenter15:56

Rather tricky to to do the acting without the monsters.

Sian Phillips16:00

Yes, it was but the very resourceful and tall first assistant would rush up and down with a very long pole with a white hanky tied to the top of it, saying things like

Sian Phillips16:12

I am now Pegasus coming to rescue Andromeda, at which at which point Burgess Meredith and I would become wreathed in smiles. And then he would say, But now I am falling into the ocean, and we would cower back in grief and dismay. And it was great fun to do, it really was.

Presenter16:28

It's a really uh an acting exercise.

Sian Phillips16:29

Yes, it was, but we kept running out of expression. Oops.

Presenter16:32

Yeah.

Presenter16:33

Yeah.

Presenter16:36

Let's have another record.

Sian Phillips16:37

I love big, brave performers, people who just stand up there and get on with it. And Ethel Merman is, to my mind, one of the best of these. She doesn't bother much with doing any acting or dancing, she just sings. And I would have given a great deal to have been in the audience on that night in nineteen thirty when the nineteen year old Ethel Merman came on stage and sang I Got Rhythm.

Speaker 117:03

Look at what I've got. I got rhythm. I got music.

Speaker 217:04

Uh

Speaker 117:12

I got my man who could ask for anything more. I got daisies in green pastures. I got my man who could ask for anything more. An old man's trouble, say I don't mind him. Cause you won't find him around the

Presenter17:32

Ethel Merman in Girl Crazy.

Presenter17:35

In recent years you you've had

Presenter17:37

Your greatest success is, I think, in television. In fact, you had star roles in three first-rate serials which have It had tremendous ratings.

Sian Phillips17:45

Yeah.

Presenter17:45

How green was my valley, I suppose?

Sian Phillips17:47

Are we

Presenter17:47

It was the first of the three.

Sian Phillips17:48

I adored that because it was just like being at home. We were all of us Welsh, except my youngest son.

Sian Phillips17:57

Who seemed very Welsh?

Sian Phillips17:58

And we just lived in this kitchen. They built a kitchen and we lived in it for six months and I did all the cooking.

Sian Phillips18:05

On the set, we ate ourselves to paradise. We all got very fat.

Sian Phillips18:09

And I just played an amalgam of great-aunts and grandmothers of mine, as it wasn't really like acting at all.

Presenter18:17

Were you back in Wales a lot for exterior?

Sian Phillips18:19

No, not very little. Only for about oh, a week, maybe. So we did everything in the studio. In uh London.

Sian Phillips18:27

And we we had a very, very happy time.

Presenter18:29

and then I, Claudius, as a singularly bloodthirsty empress.

Sian Phillips18:34

And that again was was great fun.

Sian Phillips18:37

Again we had too much. We never stopped eating, you see. There were banquets all the time.

Sian Phillips18:42

I sweet all the marshmallows.

Presenter18:43

Was it pretty hard to think yourself into that part?

Sian Phillips18:46

Initially it was Herbert Weiss and the author, Jack Pullman, were very helpful to me because they said you've just got to stop.

Sian Phillips18:54

Trying to be a a person you would recognize, you've got to.

Sian Phillips18:58

Think of something extraordinary among the most powerful, richest people in the world. I suppose the nearest thing nowadays would be the United States of America and even THEY.

Sian Phillips19:08

Nobody has that kind of power, that kind of wealth any more. So it was quite difficult to

Sian Phillips19:14

It's quite difficult to be rude to servants for a start. We have such a habit of nodding at

Sian Phillips19:20

Servants or people who hand you a drink are saying thank you, and of course one just sent a barge through every room.

Sian Phillips19:25

As though these people didn't exist.

Presenter19:27

Well, you did it very convincingly. That part brought you two awards as Best Television Actress of the Year.

Presenter19:33

And Bird is here.

Presenter19:35

Yeah.

Sian Phillips19:35

Oh, yes, yes. Same sort of lady. Well

Sian Phillips19:39

No, not really.

Sian Phillips19:41

They wrote her rather as um

Sian Phillips19:44

an understandable woman.

Sian Phillips19:46

I mean, she didn't have knives on the chariot or anything like that.

Presenter19:49

That was disappointing. Yeah.

Sian Phillips19:50

Yes, I'd rather

Presenter19:50

Yes, I'd rather

Sian Phillips19:51

Agree?

Presenter19:52

You could have insisted.

Sian Phillips19:54

Yeah.

Presenter19:54

No knives on the chariot, or I shan't drive him.

Sian Phillips19:57

That's right.

Presenter19:57

Well, they wouldn't let you drive it for a start, would they?

Sian Phillips19:59

No, I had a chauffeur.

Presenter20:01

Actually, I was quite pleased to find that.

Presenter20:04

What about the battle scenes?

Sian Phillips20:06

Well, they were a little bit short of money, so the battle scenes didn't take very long to shoot.

Presenter20:11

Very long to shoot.

Presenter20:13

Not very many chaps.

Sian Phillips20:14

Not not all that many, no.

Presenter20:15

Remarkably few casualties.

Sian Phillips20:17

Yes.

Presenter20:20

Looking back, what other apart from those three biggies what other television jobs stand out in your mind?

Sian Phillips20:27

I've been very, very fortunate in television to have a lot of interesting work.

Sian Phillips20:32

I loved doing shoulder to shoulder, for example, the series about the suffragettes. That was terribly interesting to do because we met so many suffragettes.

Presenter20:35

Yeah.

Sian Phillips20:42

Lovely ladies of over ninety, who were as bright as buttons, and revving on all cylinders, would come and give us advice and

Speaker 120:45

Right.

Sian Phillips20:51

I'm still campaigning for these ladies.

Presenter20:55

Yeah.

Sian Phillips20:55

I met a wonderful woman in Ireland called Miss Robinson, who was the headmistress of a school in Belfast, and she was only just five feet. She's now ninety six and President of the Irish Country Women's Association, and dashes all over the countryside on buses and waits for trains for hours, and never stops working. And she said to me, Oh, she said, Well, you see, I was headmistress of this school, and Mrs Bankhurst sent over and said, I need someone to come and smash up uh Regent Street, so I went over and did Swan and Edgar, she said, and then I went back again.

Presenter21:27

And then I went back again.

Presenter21:29

Ha ha ha ha.

Sian Phillips21:30

They are really wonderful.

Presenter21:32

Yes, indeed. Oh, that sounds fun.

Sian Phillips21:32

Yeah.

Presenter21:34

Another record.

Sian Phillips21:36

Ah, yes well, another big brave performer or rather a brace of them. I spent my childhood listening to my father singing, but he also had an enormous library of Caruso records, so I was very familiar with him as well.

Sian Phillips21:50

And I would like to hear that wonderful duet he sings with Ruffo from Otello.

Sian Phillips21:57

I'm told that they disliked each other a good deal.

Sian Phillips22:01

And I hope it's true because they come into the studio and nearly kill each other in this duet.

Sian Phillips22:07

And I I admire it enormously, but it does make me laugh a bit as well.

Presenter22:20

On the dog.

Presenter22:47

God is what

Presenter23:12

A couple of giants, Titeruffo and Caruso, battling away in a duet from Verdi's Otello.

Presenter23:20

Your most recent appearance has been in the excellent production of Shaws You Never Can Tell, which has reopened the lyric Theatre Hammersmith. Rather nice to work in a brand new theatre, because, all right, there's the old plaster work, but it is a new theatre.

Sian Phillips23:28

Yeah.

Sian Phillips23:34

Yes, it is. It's enormously exciting. It's it's beautiful to be in. It's very convenient to live in.

Sian Phillips23:41

It has all the modern amalities that one needs with the beauty of this lovely Victorian auditorium.

Presenter23:47

And you had a royal opening?

Sian Phillips23:49

Did. Gosh, it was it was far too exciting. We all got over excited.

Sian Phillips23:54

We did about three openings in one week.

Presenter23:58

And you do some journalism. You write quite often in Radio Times.

Sian Phillips24:02

Yes, I do. Yes.

Presenter24:03

Did you write anything else?

Sian Phillips24:05

No, I I don't regard myself as any kind of writer, and I only started writing about three years ago for various magazines, and subsequently for the Radio Times and the Odd Magazine feature.

Speaker 124:12

Uh

Sian Phillips24:17

And um I do find it quite difficult. I enjoy it in a way.

Sian Phillips24:21

But um I had terrible trouble when I'm just asked to write something, thinking of a subject, and I realized the other day I I've probably only written about eighteen pieces, and very possibly I am written out.

Presenter24:33

Oh dear, no, surely not. Have you no plans for fiction?

Presenter24:37

The great Welsh novel, for example.

Sian Phillips24:39

Oh no, no. I mean, who was it that said e everyone has a one good book inside them and usually it's preferable if it stays inside them.

Presenter24:47

Ha ha ha.

Presenter24:49

Another record.

Sian Phillips24:51

One of my favourite poets is A. E. Hausmann, and I spend a good deal of time reading it aloud if I'm asked to read anything.

Sian Phillips24:58

However, about

Sian Phillips25:00

Six years ago Michael Bryant and his wife gave me a long playing record of James Mason reading A. E. Heisman, which almost brought my

Sian Phillips25:09

Reading days of Hausman to an end because he does it so marvellously.

Presenter25:14

When first my way to fair I took

Presenter25:18

Few pence in purse had I

Presenter25:21

And long I used to stand and look at things I could not buy

Presenter25:27

Now times are altered if I care To buy a thing I can.

Presenter25:32

The pence are here, and here's the fare.

Presenter25:35

But where's the lost young man?

Presenter25:39

To think that two and two are four and neither five nor

Presenter25:44

A short poem by AE Hausman, read by James Mason. What sort of castaway are you going to make?

Presenter25:50

You're going to be good at looking after yourself.

Sian Phillips25:53

Well, yes, I'll do a lot of gardening, you see, which is what I like most in the world. So I'll be fully occupied looking at the vegetation for quite a long time. Well, that'll keep me amused indefinitely, in fact.

Presenter26:03

Or you could grow some crops of some sort.

Sian Phillips26:05

Uh yes, I could.

Presenter26:08

Uh Welter, could you build a a hut?

Sian Phillips26:11

Well, this this rather relates to the book I want to take.

Presenter26:14

I see. So we'll leave that until we've heard about the book.

Sian Phillips26:18

Yes, I'm not wonderful with my hands. Have you done any fishing? Little bit.

Presenter26:23

Would you try to escape, or is that covered by the book, too?

Sian Phillips26:27

Oh, very possibly it is. I'd have to re-read it. You you may be right.

Presenter26:31

I see. Right, well we'll leave this matter until we've heard about the book.

Sian Phillips26:34

Alright.

Presenter26:35

Your last record.

Sian Phillips26:36

Well, when I was in the South American jungle, my makeup artist Basil and I used to jealously share this next record because we got a little bit homesick.

Sian Phillips26:48

And

Sian Phillips26:50

We used to play a good deal of vivaldi, among other things, and I would like to hear

Sian Phillips26:58

The end of the summer movement from the four seasons, please.

Presenter28:03

The closing passage of SUMMER from Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Herbert von Carrion. If you could take only one disc instead of eight, which would it be?

Sian Phillips28:15

Well, that's tricky. I'd have to take the most durable, so I guess I would take the Vivaldi.

Presenter28:20

Vivaldi. Yes. And you're allowed to take one luxury to the island.

Sian Phillips28:25

Yes. That was difficult too. I was going to have a jersey cow. I'd forgotten it couldn't be, um

Presenter28:30

Must be in a most definitely

Sian Phillips28:31

I know, I know, but it wouldn't it be nice to have a little jersey cow for company and milk and somebody to chat to.

Presenter28:38

Yeah.

Sian Phillips28:38

Um

Sian Phillips28:40

Oh, I think a fridgeful of very good champagne just a tide me over the first fortnight.

Presenter28:45

Solar powered refrigerator. Yeah.

Presenter28:48

And one book, and and this is the book that's going to reveal

Presenter28:53

your castaway proficiency.

Sian Phillips28:55

Yeah.

Sian Phillips28:56

I would like to take

Sian Phillips28:59

Something really useful. I'd like to take scouting for boys.

Sian Phillips29:03

Because then I would be able to make my house escape if I needed to, tie knots and do all those things which I can't really do.

Sian Phillips29:11

So I would learn to become very proficient at all that.

Presenter29:13

I see, Scouting for Boys. That was by Maiden Powell, of course. I think it was. And I think we should let you have a a book in Welsh as well.

Sian Phillips29:21

That's very kind of you.

Sian Phillips29:23

I think this is not really cheating because

Sian Phillips29:27

Because it's in Welsh. The authorised version of the Bible in Welsh is a stunning work of literature. So I know one isn't allowed to to choose the Bible as a book.

Presenter29:37

The Bible in English is already on the island and as is um

Sian Phillips29:38

Regardless.

Sian Phillips29:40

Oh, the Welsh version is so divine. So I think I would like to take

Presenter29:45

Right. And thank you, Sean Phillips, for letting us hear your Desert Island Discs.

Sian Phillips29:51

Thank you, Roy.

Presenter29:52

Goodbye, everyone.

Speaker 230:01

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