Sir Cecil Beaton

Speaker 10:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive.

Speaker 10:05

For rights reasons we've had to shorten the music. The programme was originally broadcast in 1980, and the presenter was Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:29

A few weeks ago I went down to Broadchalk in Wiltshire and recorded a programme with Sir Cecil Beaton in his lovely 17th century house.

Presenter0:38

As you all know, Sir Cecil has died, and it's with the approval of his family and friends that we're broadcasting this last interview.

Presenter0:46

He had suffered a stroke five or six years ago which deprived him of the use of his right hand, but he had taught himself to use his left, and was continuing to travel and carry on with his work as designer and photographer.

Presenter1:00

I knew he had sung in Gilbert and Sullivan at school, and I began by asking him if he played an instrument.

Sir Cecil Beaton1:06

No, I don't think I do.

Sir Cecil Beaton1:08

I um

Sir Cecil Beaton1:10

I played very many parts in my time here as a schoolboy and during my terms at uh St. Cyprian's.

Presenter1:20

St. Cyprian's was your prep school at Eastbourne, and you were in the school theatricals there. What did you play?

Sir Cecil Beaton1:29

Well, I played

Sir Cecil Beaton1:31

A part I don't think was very suited to me.

Sir Cecil Beaton1:34

I was just a sweet little buttercup.

Presenter1:38

Ha ha ha ha.

Sir Cecil Beaton1:40

And later I arrived sing as a prince in the Mikado.

Presenter1:40

Uh

Sir Cecil Beaton1:46

But, uh i it wasn't really very good.

Presenter1:49

Did you hear a lot of music in your home? Were were your parents musically inclined?

Sir Cecil Beaton1:54

I I think so, yes.

Presenter1:55

Oh yes.

Sir Cecil Beaton1:56

I think they rather objected to my having such a uh easy time of it because I got all sorts of records. But um I think the reason why I've uh had such a

Speaker 42:03

Hey.

Presenter2:03

Yeah.

Speaker 42:06

Yeah.

Sir Cecil Beaton2:12

upbringing in music or comedy was the fact that I first heard the Merry Widow when I was five years old and living in a house in Hampstead.

Sir Cecil Beaton2:24

I heard it being played by the hurdy gurdy man in the street, and I used to listen to hear if pennies were dropped, which they always were.

Sir Cecil Beaton2:36

That gave me a tremendous feeling for the Merry Widow itself.

Presenter2:41

And that's your first record, isn't it? A a duet from The Merry Widow.

Sir Cecil Beaton2:46

Yes, one of the duets which is called A Little Pavilion.

Speaker 42:52

Oh worlds were faint. Name wash river.

Speaker 43:19

My whole state is

Presenter3:48

Werner Holweg and Theresa Stratus in the second actuet from The Merry Widow.

Presenter3:56

Now, in due course, as Essex, you you went to Harrow, what were you good at at school?

Sir Cecil Beaton4:01

I was good at taking photographs.

Sir Cecil Beaton4:04

And I was good at

Sir Cecil Beaton4:06

taking very amateur

Sir Cecil Beaton4:08

Pictures of people.

Presenter4:09

Yes. Was that already your ambition?

Sir Cecil Beaton4:12

No, I don't think so. I didn't have an ambition. I wanted to just have a success at the sort of things that I was good at, and at the moment I wasn't good at anything.

Presenter4:26

You went up to Cambridge. What did you read there?

Sir Cecil Beaton4:28

Uh

Presenter4:29

Uh

Sir Cecil Beaton4:29

I really forgot.

Presenter4:30

Uh

Sir Cecil Beaton4:30

I don't think it was very important.

Presenter4:31

It was very

Sir Cecil Beaton4:33

But I went to wa one or two

Presenter4:33

Die

Sir Cecil Beaton4:35

Valleys, which certainly were important.

Presenter4:38

You've spent a lot of time, of course, working in university theatricals.

Sir Cecil Beaton4:42

Yes, a great deal of time.

Presenter4:45

When you came down you you you went into the city.

Presenter4:49

That presumably was forced on you.

Sir Cecil Beaton4:52

Yes. My father got sick of my not having made up my mind what I was going to do, and uh he said, If you don't have a job definitely in six weeks' time, you you must come to the office and uh I will teach you.

Presenter5:09

How long was it before you escaped from the city?

Sir Cecil Beaton5:12

Oh, it was a long, long time. It was practically a year.

Sir Cecil Beaton5:18

But ju as a matter of fact,

Sir Cecil Beaton5:20

The city wasn't the most boring part.

Sir Cecil Beaton5:23

The most boring part was the uh

Sir Cecil Beaton5:26

waiting around and hoping for some sort of job.

Presenter5:30

You tried to sell some designs to Diagilev, I believe.

Sir Cecil Beaton5:35

Ah yes, that was really a very great moment for me. I never thought that I would uh see him, but I went to a certain place, it was in Venice, I went to a certain little establishment where I heard Diagliev used to go for an ice cream, and certainly he did turn up and was willing to accept my advances. I showed him photographs later, but I showed him drawings to begin with, and he wasn't at all impressed with them, because he knew that they were copies of uh something that had derived very badly from his own workshop. But he was very impressed by my photographs and Ancient Baba.

Sir Cecil Beaton6:30

They were taken using very unlikely

Sir Cecil Beaton6:34

the usual photographic models.

Sir Cecil Beaton6:38

They were just very photogenic, that's why they were published, but uh they were r really very unlike the sort of things that had been seen in the manager's office. Uh th they wouldn't have stood a chance. But Djaglev found them very interesting and uh he promised me that he would use them when he came to London. And did he?

Sir Cecil Beaton7:07

No, unfortunately.

Sir Cecil Beaton7:09

He never I I never uh crossed his path again, except I used to see him at the Savoy theatre, but I wouldn't dare go up to him a second time.

Presenter7:21

Now your next record, I see, is from Lesil Fide.

Presenter7:26

Ballet music. Does that remind you of the Diagolev days?

Sir Cecil Beaton7:30

Oh, entirely so.

Presenter7:31

Yeah.

Sir Cecil Beaton7:31

I used to go as much as I possibly could to the valley.

Sir Cecil Beaton7:35

And uh I was also very pleased to see Pavlova at this time. She was perfectly wonderful and um she really stretched my imagination to believe that uh she was dying, that she was ill, that she was poor when she had to be. And I I did believe in her. Yeah.

Presenter8:00

Very much.

Presenter8:01

Well, now we're going to hear this excerpt from Les Silphide.

Presenter8:06

And this is once again conducted by Herbert von Garyan.

Presenter8:55

The prelude to Les Silphide, Chopin's music.

Presenter8:59

The Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Herbert von Carrier.

Presenter9:04

Now, so Cecil, you began working as a photographer in the family house with all the stuff all over the floor, didn't you?

Presenter9:13

Absolutely. The situals were very helpful, I believe, when you started.

Sir Cecil Beaton9:17

Yes, they were really my first sitters. They had great faith in me and they uh pinned it to me very strongly with the result that I took a lot of photographs of friends of the Sitwals and people who admired the sitwals and uh all the sitwall family I thanked very much for being my first enthusiast.

Presenter9:43

And then lots of assignments began coming in. You were sent to Hollywood quite early, I believe the early thirties?

Sir Cecil Beaton9:50

Yes.

Sir Cecil Beaton9:51

I I wasn't sent so much as I determined to go. I had a friend

Sir Cecil Beaton9:57

who said that I could stay with him if I went.

Sir Cecil Beaton10:02

And um

Sir Cecil Beaton10:03

I think I had a rather wonderful time in that I uh saw all sorts of people for the first time who I wouldn't uh see, and I used the camera as the means of uh getting my way about.

Presenter10:21

Your social invitations included a visit to that legendary establishment kept up by the the Press Baron, W. R. Hurst.

Sir Cecil Beaton10:29

That's right.

Presenter10:30

San Simeon is is that

Sir Cecil Beaton10:31

Saint Simeon, yes. Saint Simeon was an extraordinary place that uh he had had built stone by stone from some Scottish castle.

Sir Cecil Beaton10:44

And there was a huge

Sir Cecil Beaton10:47

A medieval chapel.

Sir Cecil Beaton10:49

which was uh now turned into the dining-room.

Sir Cecil Beaton10:53

And around this, all the various types of uh extraordinary

Presenter10:59

Bill

Sir Cecil Beaton11:00

Bing Sh

Sir Cecil Beaton11:01

were placed.

Presenter11:02

He brought over he took over to do.

Presenter11:05

Los Angeles. All these wonderful

Presenter11:09

Buildings which were bought in Europe and reconstructed, went in in his castle.

Presenter11:16

He was married Hurst was married, of course, to

Presenter11:19

The star Marion Davies.

Sir Cecil Beaton11:22

She was a delightful person.

Sir Cecil Beaton11:25

Absolutely charming. Very unsuited to being very

Sir Cecil Beaton11:30

famous as a person. She was completely real and she used to appear absolutely amazed if anyone said

Speaker 111:34

Rio

Sir Cecil Beaton11:41

Something nice to

Sir Cecil Beaton11:43

She was really a very

Sir Cecil Beaton11:45

Dear woman and a great friend of mine.

Presenter11:49

You photographed her, of course.

Sir Cecil Beaton11:50

Yes, I did.

Presenter11:51

as you did most of the the great stars of those great days of Hollywood.

Sir Cecil Beaton11:56

Yes, it was very great.

Presenter11:59

I think it's time we had another record. What shall we have now?

Sir Cecil Beaton12:02

Oh, it's Fred Aster. He was one of the great men of the time.

Sir Cecil Beaton12:07

and he just uh had arrived in Hollywood and he burst into flame.

Sir Cecil Beaton12:13

And uh it was a terrific success.

Sir Cecil Beaton12:17

in everything that he touched.

Speaker 412:24

Um

Speaker 412:26

I didn't have a meeting

Speaker 412:29

And my heart beats so that I can hardly speak, And I seem to find the happiness I seek When we're out together dancing cheek to cheek

Presenter12:46

Fred Astair singing

Presenter12:48

Cheek to cheek. Now in the thirties you were, of course, already a top man as a photographer.

Presenter12:55

Possibly that the first great accolade you received was the invitation to photograph the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.

Sir Cecil Beaton13:02

Yes, I suppose that was.

Sir Cecil Beaton13:04

It was very extraordinary, very exciting and uh for me very uh moving because I did adore Mrs. Simpson.

Sir Cecil Beaton13:13

One always did adore her when meeting her.

Sir Cecil Beaton13:18

But uh I didn't imagine that she'd really ever get the uh accolade.

Sir Cecil Beaton13:25

and uh walk up the aisle with him.

Presenter13:28

How much notice were you given to to to go to France to the wedding?

Presenter13:32

Do you remember?

Sir Cecil Beaton13:33

Oh, I think I went twice. I think

Sir Cecil Beaton13:37

Several days.

Presenter13:39

And you were invited to photograph Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace. How is that done, Sir Cecil?

Sir Cecil Beaton13:47

Yes, I dare say.

Presenter13:48

Yeah.

Sir Cecil Beaton13:48

I had never had a wish to take anything so glamorous as she was, but um the wish came

Sir Cecil Beaton13:59

Editor.

Sir Cecil Beaton14:00

Great sign of success, if I may put it that way.

Presenter14:05

Tell me about your equipment. Some photographers I've known have all they require in a little leather bag, and others are laden with suit cases and tons of lighting equipment and tripods. How do you rate? I mean, are you a leather bag man, or or do you like to take a lot of stuff with you?

Sir Cecil Beaton14:23

I like to take as little as possible.

Sir Cecil Beaton14:26

I hate being cramped with my stuff.

Sir Cecil Beaton14:30

Uh I have to have lights, but apart from those, I really have had very, very l little in the way of encumbrance, and I generally managed to take these pictures with a small size lens.

Presenter14:47

Have you cameras that you've owned for a long, long time which are old friends, or or do you like to to try new ones?

Sir Cecil Beaton14:55

I like old friends and I also like new

Presenter14:58

New

Sir Cecil Beaton14:58

Ones.

Presenter14:59

Now during the war you were a an official war photographer. You started by taking some very impressive pictures of the Blitz on London, didn't you?

Sir Cecil Beaton15:08

Uh yes, I was very lucky that I took pictures quite by chance. That happened to be the first.

Sir Cecil Beaton15:15

of the bombing of England. And then after a bit I got only too cheery of the bombing.

Sir Cecil Beaton15:23

because uh i it started uh at six o'clock in the evening and sometimes it used to go on till

Sir Cecil Beaton15:32

at seven o'clock next morning.

Presenter15:35

But those Blitz pictures you took went all over the world and they did a very useful job by telling people in the United States, for example, just what kind of thing was happening in Europe, in Britain.

Sir Cecil Beaton15:48

Yes, I'm afraid it did uh give them a great shock and I think that that helped us a great deal in in

Sir Cecil Beaton15:56

our little intimate world of uh

Presenter16:00

Bombed.

Presenter16:02

And then you were seconded to the RAF and given all facilities to photograph everything that was happening in the Air Force.

Sir Cecil Beaton16:11

Yes, that was very true. I was very lucky in that I had most specially an invitation to take pictures that were authentic, because they always thought that they might come in useful.

Sir Cecil Beaton16:26

And I became a photographer who was capable of taking any sort of photograph.

Speaker 416:32

And it

Speaker 116:32

Yeah.

Presenter16:35

And a vast amount of travelling. You went to the Middle East, the desert.

Sir Cecil Beaton16:40

Yeah, so

Presenter16:42

and to the far east.

Sir Cecil Beaton16:44

Yes. On two different occasions.

Presenter16:47

You had a lot of adventures. You had one very nasty plane crash, didn't you?

Sir Cecil Beaton16:51

Yes, it was horrible, because all the people that I liked very much came vividly to life in that circumstance.

Presenter17:01

Turning to pleasanter subjects, another wonderful royal occasion for you was the invitation to take the the post coronation pictures of of the queen and royal family when they returned to the palace after the service.

Sir Cecil Beaton17:15

Yes, that was a great occasion. And I think it was the most thrilling.

Presenter17:15

Yes, that was a great

Sir Cecil Beaton17:21

thing that happened, although uh only a certain amount of time was given to me.

Sir Cecil Beaton17:28

That time was very valuable.

Presenter17:30

One of the reasons why you were given so little time was that the queen had already worn that heavy crown for about three hours.

Sir Cecil Beaton17:38

Yes, exactly.

Sir Cecil Beaton17:40

He'd r done a hard job of it.

Presenter17:43

A sordid commercial question. What happens to the copyright of royal pictures? Are you entitled to sell them wherever you wish, or do you have to work with the Palace Press Office?

Sir Cecil Beaton17:55

Oh, I have to work with the Palace Press Office if it's uh anything vital. But uh ordinarily uh they're sold just for ordinary amount of money. They come at a very ch cheap rate.

Presenter18:11

Really?

Presenter18:14

Right, we got your fourth record. What shall that be?

Sir Cecil Beaton18:14

Right.

Sir Cecil Beaton18:17

It's something from the Russian ballet by Francis Poulac called Les Biche.

Sir Cecil Beaton18:24

It was so much an influence over the Russian ballet that it's become part of their repertoire.

Presenter19:31

Giadaggiato from the Ballet Suite by Poulanc Les Biche, Roger de Zomière conducting the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra.

Presenter19:40

Now we've been talking about your photography, but your designing has always gone on as well. What was the first play you designed?

Sir Cecil Beaton19:48

I think it was Isabel Jeans in Heartbreak House, and it really had a terrific impact when it came to London.

Presenter19:59

You have a great eye for detail, have you not? Every little piece of jewellery must be right.

Presenter20:05

every detail of of of the costumes.

Sir Cecil Beaton20:09

Yes, I think that is very important.

Sir Cecil Beaton20:12

Because there are only certain things that show.

Sir Cecil Beaton20:15

And uh they ought to be seen.

Sir Cecil Beaton20:18

People thought I was absolutely mad if I was uh wanting to write some detail in the set or costumes. But I believe honestly that it did count a great deal, and always has in all my work.

Presenter20:36

And possibly the most famous set of costume designs of the past thirty or forty years, those you did for My Fair Lady.

Sir Cecil Beaton20:43

Ah, yes, I'm very glad you mentioned that, because I loved doing the costumes, although I was slightly aghast at their not having offered me the contract to do the sets.

Sir Cecil Beaton21:02

But I realized that to do the sets and costumes for a big production

Sir Cecil Beaton21:10

was rather a nightmare.

Sir Cecil Beaton21:14

and I soon lost heart.

Sir Cecil Beaton21:17

And put my name to the agreement when they played their little number.

Sir Cecil Beaton21:23

The reign in Spain

Presenter21:25

It was a stroke of genius on Lerner and Lo's part to put that in tango rhythm.

Sir Cecil Beaton21:30

Yeah.

Presenter21:30

Yeah.

Sir Cecil Beaton21:32

It was really dazzling.

Presenter21:34

You also designed the film version of My Fair Lady. Did that involve a complete rethinking? Yes, it did.

Sir Cecil Beaton21:40

Yeah.

Sir Cecil Beaton21:41

I thought uh absolutely none of the original designs for sets or costumes worked, and I thought about it in much greater detail. I did an enormous number of costumes for the Ascot scene.

Sir Cecil Beaton22:00

Did you do all that work in London? All that work was done in London. And then I I went to uh Hollywood for the last nine months. It was a long job then?

Sir Cecil Beaton22:12

It certainly was very long.

Sir Cecil Beaton22:14

And it was quite long enough for

Sir Cecil Beaton22:17

With certain members of the cast.

Presenter22:22

We won't mention any names, of course. No, don't let it. And then not too long after that, you did that exceedingly successful film, Gigi.

Sir Cecil Beaton22:24

No, don't

Sir Cecil Beaton22:34

That I adored.

Sir Cecil Beaton22:36

Because I thought the music so original and the lyrics also. And

Sir Cecil Beaton22:42

It struck a different note. It was uh really absolutely fresh and

Presenter22:49

Tireless.

Presenter22:51

Ah, you've worked on a number of plays in London, New York. You've also appeared on on the Broadway stage as an actor. Ah, yes. That was in what? One of the wild plays.

Sir Cecil Beaton23:02

Uh Lady Windermere's fan.

Sir Cecil Beaton23:04

They've found difficulty finding people in New York.

Sir Cecil Beaton23:09

for the part of this dilettante.

Sir Cecil Beaton23:13

And they suddenly said, I would.

Sir Cecil Beaton23:16

Do, wouldn't I?

Sir Cecil Beaton23:18

And I said, Yes, I'll think it over and they'd entirely forgotten about it the next morning, and were very surprised when I said, I'm going to take the part.

Speaker 423:30

Yeah.

Sir Cecil Beaton23:30

They thought that I was a raving lunatic.

Sir Cecil Beaton23:33

Back John.

Sir Cecil Beaton23:34

Anyhow, I'd had a great success in the part.

Sir Cecil Beaton23:38

and I loved being with it.

Presenter23:41

Would you have liked to have been an actor, to have done more of it?

Sir Cecil Beaton23:44

Very much, yes.

Sir Cecil Beaton23:45

If I'd had confidence and i if I'd had any sort of luck, I would have liked enormously to

Sir Cecil Beaton23:53

Swap.

Presenter23:54

Occupations.

Presenter23:56

And you've of course you've designed opera. Is opera an interest?

Sir Cecil Beaton24:00

Distributed?

Sir Cecil Beaton24:01

Not a real serious interest. I'm not really operatic-minded.

Sir Cecil Beaton24:06

I like the froth of opera, but I do see that opera is more than froth, and it really is a very serious job, and I think it is uh by and large too serious for me.

Sir Cecil Beaton24:22

Ha ha ha.

Presenter24:23

Thank you.

Presenter24:24

Your fifth record, what have we got to?

Sir Cecil Beaton24:26

G V

Sir Cecil Beaton24:27

We've talked enough about the film. We'll let ourselves swoon in our seats as we hear the old song Gee Gee.

Speaker 424:38

Yeah.

Speaker 424:40

Who without a mind?

Speaker 424:42

Or have I merely been too blind?

Speaker 424:45

To realize.

Speaker 424:47

Oh shit.

Speaker 424:50

Why you've been growing up before?

Speaker 424:53

My eye.

Speaker 424:58

It's easy!

Speaker 425:00

You're not at all that funny, awkward little girl.

Speaker 425:05

I knew

Presenter25:07

Louis Jordan singing the title song from Gigi.

Presenter25:12

Sir Cecil, you're a man who has fulfilled himself in in in many ways. You've written a lot of books, mainly about your travels.

Sir Cecil Beaton25:20

Yes, I think that it mu it's much easier to write. Uh you don't have to think about the setting so much. All that takes care of itself.

Presenter25:32

And of course you've never had any difficulty about illustrating your books.

Presenter25:36

You had all your photographs.

Presenter25:38

Yes, I have.

Presenter25:40

Enormous

Sir Cecil Beaton25:40

Enormous number.

Presenter25:41

And you're a Dardist as well.

Presenter25:44

You've published, what, six volumes of of of uh your diary?

Sir Cecil Beaton25:50

You are very well informed.

Presenter25:51

I've been looking you up.

Sir Cecil Beaton25:55

Well, I I I th guess you know more about me than I kn know myself.

Presenter26:01

Recently a selection of excerpts from your six volumes of diaries has been published, selected by your neighbor Richard Buckle.

Sir Cecil Beaton26:11

Yes. Richard is a great friend of mine. He's a wonderful person and a really

Sir Cecil Beaton26:18

Fast rate person.

Presenter26:20

And this gives the whole sweep of all those years in in one volume.

Sir Cecil Beaton26:24

Yeah.

Presenter26:25

You've always led a v very social life. There can be few distinguished men and women in the arts of your time that you haven't met.

Sir Cecil Beaton26:32

Oh, I don't know. There's so many that I haven't met that I'd long to meet.

Sir Cecil Beaton26:37

I want to to start all over again.

Presenter26:41

It's time we had your sixth record. What's that to be?

Sir Cecil Beaton26:44

The Ballad of Mac the Nye

Sir Cecil Beaton26:47

I'm Godwald.

Sir Cecil Beaton26:49

played by the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Presenter26:53

You prefer to have an orchestral version.

Presenter26:56

And then you can sing it yourself.

Sir Cecil Beaton26:58

Yes, I used to sing it myself.

Sir Cecil Beaton27:01

to a very large extent in the bath. But now I think I've given that up.

Presenter27:39

Mac the Knife from the Threatbonney Opera.

Presenter27:42

By Curdweil.

Presenter27:44

Let's go straight on to your seventh record. What's that to be?

Sir Cecil Beaton27:48

Marla, because I loved Marla.

Sir Cecil Beaton27:51

and here he's sung by that extraordinary person, Janet Baker. She can sing anything, as far as I concern.

Sir Cecil Beaton28:01

But this is the little thing called Two Blue Eyes.

Speaker 428:06

It's fine no one over.

Speaker 428:10

I've no shots We have in the light of shit

Presenter28:42

Janet Baker singing Two Blue Eyes from Mahler's Lieder Eines Fahrenden Gesellen Songs of a Wayfarer.

Presenter28:52

Now, you're going to be on this island. You you've got to look after yourself. You there are a few outdoor occupations which I think would be useful. Ever done any fishing?

Presenter29:01

No.

Presenter29:03

Well, you have a trout stream going through the garden, don't you?

Sir Cecil Beaton29:06

Yes, I have.

Presenter29:07

Have you never been tempted to?

Presenter29:09

Drop a line into it.

Sir Cecil Beaton29:11

I have been uh uh tempted, and that's just about all I was, because I didn't have enough patience to cope with the rest.

Presenter29:20

Okay, cool.

Presenter29:22

Right, there are no trout on the desert island, but you will have plenty of time, plenty of patience, I'm sure you'll catch something.

Sir Cecil Beaton29:28

I hope so.

Presenter29:30

We've come now to your last record. What's that?

Sir Cecil Beaton29:32

Beethoven's

Sir Cecil Beaton29:34

Symphony number one.

Sir Cecil Beaton29:36

Conducted by Toscanini.

Presenter29:38

Why do you choose it?

Sir Cecil Beaton29:40

I particularly enjoyed him in the afternoons, in the thirties, when I went to all the Sunday afternoon concerts at the Carnegie Hall.

Sir Cecil Beaton29:53

In New York.

Presenter30:46

The last movement of the Beethoven First Symphony.

Presenter30:49

Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra.

Presenter30:53

Out of the records you played us.

Presenter30:56

If you would only have one, which would it be?

Sir Cecil Beaton30:59

The last one that I played.

Presenter31:01

The Beethoven. Yes. And you're allowed to take one luxury to the island, one thing purely for the senses, one thing that you'll enjoy having with you.

Sir Cecil Beaton31:11

for the senses I think.

Sir Cecil Beaton31:14

A Cashmere Shoal.

Presenter31:15

Warmth and luxury, right.

Presenter31:18

And one book apart from the Bible and Shakespeare, which are already there, and we don't encourage big encyclopedias.

Sir Cecil Beaton31:26

Well, I definitely would choose one of my scrapbooks, because they're full of pictures of people unknown, people known and forgotten, but still alive in my memory.

Presenter31:42

Photographed by you.

Sir Cecil Beaton31:44

Yes.

Presenter31:45

And thank you, Sir Cecil Beaton, for letting us hear your Desert Island discs.

Sir Cecil Beaton31:50

Thank you.

Presenter31:51

Goodbye everyone.

Speaker 131:59

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