Donald Pleasence

Speaker 10:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young and this is a download from the Desert Island Discs archive. This edition may be slightly different from what was actually broadcast, but it's the only version we have. It comes from the British Library's radio collection. It was archived without the music, so although the Castaways choices are introduced, they're not part of this recording. Full details can be found on the Castaways page on the Desert Island Discs website.

Speaker 10:26

The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen eighty.

Speaker 10:30

And the presenter was Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:32

This week, our castaway is the actor Donald Pleasance.

Presenter0:37

Donald, I've never seen you in a musical. Have you ever sung in public?

Donald Pleasence0:41

Well, I've done pantomime in places like the Birmingham Repertory Theatre. Donald Sindon and I, for instance, at the Bristol Old Vic one Christmas were rusty and dusty.

Donald Pleasence0:53

And uh we pelted the audience with uh snowballs and squirted water pistols at them and climbed ropes and did all kinds of funny things. And we sang as well.

Speaker 20:53

Ground.

Presenter0:58

Yeah.

Speaker 20:59

Uh

Presenter1:01

And we sang as well.

Presenter1:03

What did they pelt you with?

Donald Pleasence1:04

Yeah.

Donald Pleasence1:04

Oh, I think they would just have got rather angry. I would have been angry. Do you play an instrument?

Donald Pleasence1:10

Do I play an instrument? No, I wish I did. I started to play the violin.

Donald Pleasence1:14

Um but I gave it up probably wisely at the age of about nine. Do you play discs? I

Donald Pleasence1:21

Is that a game?

Donald Pleasence1:23

Oh, discs, yes. Um uh records as we used to call them. Records as we used to call them. Well, I play cassettes really because I I'm not clever enough to put records on. I'm rather inept. Did you have any plan in choosing these eight records?

Speaker 11:26

Red clocks as we used to call them.

Speaker 11:29

Yeah, because I

Presenter1:38

Cold.

Donald Pleasence1:38

Uh no, not really. I I thought of uh pieces of music that I really liked enormously and one that I thought was a bit of a joke, actually, which I thought might make me laugh as well.

Presenter1:48

Right

Presenter1:50

Which one are we?

Donald Pleasence1:50

Yeah. To start with.

Donald Pleasence1:51

I think we should start on a positive note.

Donald Pleasence1:56

With

Donald Pleasence1:57

Gloria Gaynor singing I Will Survive. This is not the bit of a joke, but this is I won't tell you. But you could guess that it might be. But it's a lovely oh, I I think it's lovely.

Presenter2:10

Gloria Gaina, I will survive.

Donald Pleasence2:13

Not

Presenter2:13

Your

Donald Pleasence2:13

Or for

Presenter2:14

From the Midlands.

Donald Pleasence2:15

No, I'm from what we call the North Country.

Donald Pleasence2:18

We called the Midlands Birmingham and Nottingham and Coventry and so on. I was in fact born in Worksup, which is near to Nottingham, but I lived there only a few days.

Presenter2:27

Sorry.

Donald Pleasence2:27

Um I come from Sheffield, sort of, really, and lots of other places around there. And you were one of the railway children? Sort well, uh yes, you could say that. My father was a station master. A roving station master.

Speaker 12:40

Well

Presenter2:40

Uh

Donald Pleasence2:42

Well, in uh Grimmoldby, in Lincolnshire, in uh Connersborough, near Doncaster, and at Ecclesfield. It must have been near Sheffield. Must have been wonderful to have a a railway station to play in.

Presenter2:49

Most of the time.

Donald Pleasence2:53

It was uh most uh rewarding, yes. It was really nice. Sometimes they'd leave a whole train behind for my brother and I to play with. And once they left a steamroller and we managed to get it started up. And it it's very difficult to stop a steamroller once you've got it going.

Presenter3:05

Yeah.

Presenter3:08

Is it going down?

Donald Pleasence3:09

Downhill? But my brother was very clever and he found the right handle to pull to stop it.

Presenter3:18

And if you played your cards right, there was some free travel, was there?

Donald Pleasence3:21

Oh yes, or always free travel in those days. You don't half miss it. Oh yes, or what were called P T's or

Presenter3:29

Nope. Privilege tickets.

Presenter3:31

Now there wasn't a lot of theatre around those parts. How did you get hooked in the first place?

Donald Pleasence3:36

There were two theatres in Sheffield I used to go to regularly and sit in the gods, you know, for about a shilling or something. Um I used to go to Leeds sometimes and occasionally I would go to London.

Presenter3:50

This was on the Pt.

Donald Pleasence3:50

This was a very good idea.

Donald Pleasence3:52

Yes, uh yes. I on the well, I might go with my parents or, you know, with my father or both of them and uh we went to the theater sometimes. Later on I would go by myself.

Speaker 14:00

Yeah.

Donald Pleasence4:05

When did you make up your mind that you wanted to work in the theatre?

Donald Pleasence4:09

About seven years old uh I uh I used to go and and stand up in these musical festivals in places like Cleethorpe's and Scunthorpe and uh Sheffield. I know won prizes, silver medals and things like that and uh I thought uh this must be the life really. You stand up here, nobody interrupts you and I decided from that moment on that it was the only way to live.

Presenter4:32

It was a very good thing.

Presenter4:34

What were you reciting?

Donald Pleasence4:37

I wish I lived in a caravan with a horse to drive like a peddler man was my first effort at the age of seven. Then you got Scunthorpe, yes, first prize, yes. And then it went on through all those uh you know, The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes and all those things.

Presenter4:45

Yeah.

Presenter4:54

So you'd got this ambition firmly in your head. Did you go to drama school straight away when you left?

Donald Pleasence4:59

I I didn't go to dram school at all, uh actually. Well, I went to uh

Presenter5:01

No, actually well I went

Donald Pleasence5:04

A very nice gentleman called Edward, our broad headed runner.

Donald Pleasence5:07

uh kind of a drama school in Battley in Yorkshire.

Donald Pleasence5:11

used to give me lessons. But I didn't didn't ever go to anywhere like the Royal Academy or any you know, I couldn't get in actually.

Presenter5:18

What were you doing in the meantime while you were taking these lessons?

Donald Pleasence5:22

Well, I was at school. I started very early, you know, and then I for a couple of years I worked on the railways as a clerk. Yes. Until I could get a job in a repertoire company.

Presenter5:25

Yeah.

Presenter5:34

What sort of clerking were you doing?

Donald Pleasence5:36

I was in charge of a a small station uh called Swinton in Yorkshire.

Presenter5:41

Really?

Donald Pleasence5:41

Really? The main export of which was maggots for fishing.

Donald Pleasence5:47

There was a maggot factory just down the road. Mhm. And uh I used to lug these maggots, book them in and do whatever one used to do with way bills and things like that, and then lug them onto the guard's van as the train came in. That was my main occupation.

Presenter5:48

There was a map

Presenter5:52

And uh I

Presenter6:00

Lons of a

Presenter6:04

So you were in charge of the station.

Donald Pleasence6:05

I absolutely was. I had two porters under me. That was the whole staff.

Presenter6:10

Train loads of maggots shot from the low.

Donald Pleasence6:14

Yes.

Presenter6:15

What was your first job in the theatre?

Donald Pleasence6:17

I went to uh a repertoire company in uh in the Channel Islands. I I wrote to them and I got a job and uh thirty shillings a week. Where? Which pound fifty. Uh it was the Playhouse Theatre, Jersey, that I mean it it was run by Lawrence Naismith actually. An actor called Lawrence Naismith.

Presenter6:22

What

Presenter6:26

Well

Presenter6:35

Yeah.

Presenter6:37

What was your very first appearance?

Donald Pleasence6:39

On the boards? I had a small part in Wuthering Heights, Hairton Earnshaw. Right. At least my accent was right. Well, there we are. That's the beginning of your career. Let's break here for a second.

Presenter6:51

Record.

Donald Pleasence6:52

Shall we play one of the Bach French Suites recorded by Glenn Gould, the number four in E-Flat Major?

Presenter6:57

Yeah.

Presenter6:59

Yeah.

Presenter7:00

One of the French Suites by Bach, number four in E-flat major, played by Glenn Gould, The Allemonde and The Courant.

Presenter7:10

How long did you stay in Jersey at the Playhouse?

Donald Pleasence7:11

Yeah.

Presenter7:12

The

Donald Pleasence7:12

Ah, well the war came, you see.

Donald Pleasence7:15

That kinda put an end to things. By that time, after three months as a professional, I was being stage manager and playing parts.

Donald Pleasence7:24

And on a Sunday morning uh I was setting up this the set for the next week when the famous speech of Chamberlains came over the radio and uh and then that was it.

Presenter7:36

So hostilities, you joined the RAF air crew.

Donald Pleasence7:36

So

Presenter7:42

Yes. What was your job?

Donald Pleasence7:44

Well, I was uh what was called a Wap A G, a wireless operator air gunner.

Presenter7:50

What's your

Donald Pleasence7:50

What sort of aircraft? Uh well I I flew in uh Wellingtons and Lan Lancasters latterly and then got shot down in a Lancaster.

Presenter7:57

How many missions did you fly?

Presenter7:59

Yeah.

Donald Pleasence7:59

Yeah.

Presenter7:59

Nineteen, I think.

Donald Pleasence8:01

You were shot down, whereabout?

Donald Pleasence8:03

In France, Pas de Calais. Yes. On a daylight, right. And then what happened? I got caught immediately by by lots of Germans. This is only to make you understand that I actually am brave, but I couldn't do anything about it. There were so many. What did they do to you? They stuck me in a prison in France and then I was marched up to Germany with the retreating German army, more or less. And that was not very pleasant. But eventually I was in a German camp on the uh Baltic.

Speaker 18:09

I

Presenter8:22

What do they

Presenter8:33

Editor.

Donald Pleasence8:38

Any drama shows in the camp? Yes, we did quite a bit, though. It was a mostly American camp. They were all flyers of one kind or another. But they were mostly Americans. I did a production of, for instance, The Petrified Forest, in which I played the Leslie Howard part opposite a six-foot GI pilot. She had to s he had to sit down all the time for the seats.

Speaker 19:05

Ah.

Donald Pleasence9:09

But it was quite actually, seriously, it was a lot of fun. It was quite nice. Yes, sure, yes. The Betty Davis part. It was quite nice because uh I had a whole American company, you know, I was playing the Englishman and uh we had really good American actors. We had some really good actors.

Speaker 19:11

He was quite a good guy, but.

Speaker 19:15

Yeah.

Donald Pleasence9:26

How long were you in the bag?

Presenter9:30

Yeah.

Donald Pleasence9:30

Yeah.

Presenter9:30

Yeah.

Presenter9:31

Let's have your th third record. What's that to be?

Donald Pleasence9:33

Well, it's from the original Sargent Pepper album of the Beatles and the famous Day in the Life of Yes. You were in a film version of uh the

Presenter9:44

This

Donald Pleasence9:44

Yes, I I was. I was indeed, with the Bee Gees and Peter Frampton and uh oh, lots of other people. That's where you sang, you sang on this recording. I did, five lines. Mm-hmm. But um when I came to record my bit um they decided to let me speak it instead. They said it sounded more effective. I think it was because I couldn't get the notes right. But I was kind of talking dramatically. Rather like Rex Harrison in that uh

Presenter9:44

Yes, I was.

Presenter9:51

Yeah.

Presenter9:53

I did.

Presenter10:08

Rather like

Donald Pleasence10:11

Musical, you know.

Presenter10:13

Prech is sanguin. That's right.

Presenter10:18

A Day and the Life of By The Beatles.

Presenter10:21

Right, the war's over. You're you're back in London, Donald, climbing the agent's stairs. Was there much work about

Donald Pleasence10:26

Yeah.

Presenter10:27

Yeah.

Donald Pleasence10:27

I think

Presenter10:27

Yeah.

Donald Pleasence10:27

I think I was lucky. Uh I was supposed to be suffering from malnutrition or something, so I was I was about to be demobilized. I was splendidly dressed in a flight lieutenant's uniform and somebody told me that Peter Brooke was holding auditions for a play called The Brothers Karamazov.

Donald Pleasence10:48

At the old lyric theatre Hammersmith, so I went along.

Donald Pleasence10:51

Anne read.

Donald Pleasence10:52

And uh I got a part. I got a tiny little walk-on, so a part for seven pounds a week, which was not uh very much even in those days. But I went along to the first reading of the play eventually. And one of the the actors who was playing one of the brothers, Karamazov, Alec Guinness was starred in it and had adapted it. One of the other brothers wasn't able to be there, so I read Ivan in that play and uh they were very pleased, the young Peter Brooke, who was all of eighteen then, I think, and uh Alec Guinness. So they gave me a a nice part that wasn't cast of a kind of interrogator. I had a ten-minute scene with Alec Guinness and uh uh it was rather you know, it was it was my first sinister role, I think, actually. Never thought of anything like that before. And anyway, it was quite successful and we went on tour and everybody was being terribly nice and saying, Oh, it's wonderful, wonderful and all those things that people say w if they mean it and sometimes if they don't. And um

Donald Pleasence11:53

In Cambridge I came down with the measles and so I was taken away to the isolation hospital just before the opening night in London.

Speaker 111:56

Yeah.

Presenter11:56

And s

Donald Pleasence12:02

Uh However, I came back to it and then I did another play with Peter Brooke and Alec Guinness at the Arts Theatre and so on. Then I everything ran out and I went back and did about five years in rep

Presenter12:14

You did some rather distinguished rip with some

Presenter12:17

Rather distinguished companies.

Donald Pleasence12:19

I I did two years at the Birmingham Rapture Theatre, yes, and a year at the Bristol Olvic.

Presenter12:22

Yeah.

Presenter12:24

What was your first West End appearance?

Donald Pleasence12:27

I suppose you could say it was the Brothers Karamazov when I eventually got back into it and We Clothed the Play of Sartre which is now usually called No Exit. That was also with Alec Guinness and directed by Peter Brooke. But when I came back to London I did two plays at the Arts Theatre during the Festival of Britain year. And then I went to America with Laurence Livier and Livian Lee. Those were the two Cleopatra plays? Yes, to to the Siegfeld Theatre, New York.

Presenter12:54

Yeah.

Donald Pleasence12:57

And I came back here and did my own play at the Edinburgh Festival.

Donald Pleasence13:02

something I'd written and um the Royal Court Theatre. Yeah. And I went on from there really. It was it was al always I didn't really stop working from then on, but I didn't um have any enormous

Presenter13:07

So

Speaker 113:07

You know what?

Donald Pleasence13:17

Well, like monetary success, you might say, until some years later.

Presenter13:19

That's it.

Donald Pleasence13:21

Yeah.

Presenter13:21

You had one

Donald Pleasence13:21

One tremendous chance in in in a Harold Pinter play.

Donald Pleasence13:25

The Caretaker, yes, and that was in nineteen sixty. But by then I I was doing an enormous amount of television. I was probably doing a live television every well, first of all live and then recorded um later every month, perhaps playing leads in television. I got the Television Actor of the Year award in fifty-eight, I think.

Speaker 113:39

Um

Donald Pleasence13:49

And so I was doing all right, but certainly around 1960 I did Pinterest play the caretaker at the arts theatre and then the Duchess and uh at the same time I was presenting a show on T V every Sunday night, an armchair mystery theatre and acting in some of them. So it really was from then that I kind of became somebody whose name was known instead of just a face. Before I did this, I I was just somebody people used to whisper about in the streets and and and half turn round and say, Isn't that the man who? and all that. I remember that once uh before the uh Street Offences Act was passed passing two girls in Soho and one of them said hello ducky are you looking and the other said shh.

Speaker 114:15

Yeah.

Donald Pleasence14:38

She said, What's the matter? the other one said. She said, Well, he's son.

Speaker 214:41

Body.

Speaker 214:42

Yeah.

Donald Pleasence14:42

Who is he? But the other thing is I was once in a cafe having a cup of tea and I saw family uh sitting in the corner and they're whispering about me, you know, and uh and finally I just

Speaker 214:42

Who is

Speaker 214:55

heard the scrap of conversation from the little girl. She said, No, mummy isn't. He's the man from the cemetery in Bridlington.

Presenter15:04

Yeah.

Presenter15:06

Yes. Now what I was trying to talk about was the caretaker of um Harold Pinton, which really was a a magnificent performance and an excellent play. Oh, thank you. It certainly is a great play.

Donald Pleasence15:18

You played it in your

Presenter15:18

You played it in New York as well.

Donald Pleasence15:19

Yes, I did. Yes.

Presenter15:21

And you had a big success to follow that in in a Ennui play. Poor Beatos. Poor Beatos.

Donald Pleasence15:25

Yeah.

Donald Pleasence15:26

Which I also did in New York.

Presenter15:28

And what else? Two more pinter plays?

Donald Pleasence15:30

Uh yes, those were the last plays I did in London before the one I'm doing now.

Presenter15:35

Donald, you had a bad flop in New York. That seemed to disillusion you with the theatre. We haven't seen you on on the boards really since then. That was one about ten years ago.

Donald Pleasence15:42

For Nature

Donald Pleasence15:43

No, it well, it was eight. My daughter, Miranda, was a year old. She's nine now, so I guess it's eight years ago, yes.

Presenter15:50

What was that flow?

Donald Pleasence15:51

Uh it was a play of uh Simon Gray's called Wise Child, marvellous play. I didn't have a personal uh flop, as you might say, but the play was not liked by New York's major number one critic. In fact, he hated it, and so it came off. I think it's a terrific play, I think it's the best play that uh Simon Gray's written, but it it just didn't go and um it did

Donald Pleasence16:17

Make me rather sad about the theatre.

Presenter16:19

Well, after eight years you're back in the theatre at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in a play called Reflections, about which we'll talk presently. In the meantime, let's have record number four.

Presenter16:30

Could we

Donald Pleasence16:30

We play uh from the modern jazz quartet's last concert, Blues in A minor.

Presenter16:38

Yeah.

Presenter16:40

The modern jazz quartet blues in A minor. Now we've talked about plays. Let's talk about films.

Presenter16:46

Their name is Legion. How many have you done, Donald?

Presenter16:49

Seventy, eighty.

Donald Pleasence16:49

Seventy, eighty? But I really don't know. Some of them I've forgotten. Fortunately. I've forgotten about them. It's very difficult to do you know, if I were to sit down with a pencil and paper and try to write them all from the first one onwards, I would find it very difficult.

Presenter16:58

What is that?

Presenter17:06

What was the very first one you did? You must rem

Donald Pleasence17:07

Remember that.

Presenter17:08

Yeah.

Donald Pleasence17:08

It was a film called The Beach Coma, which was adapted from the Somerset Maugham story Vessel of Wrath, which Charles Lawton made a picture of years and years ago. This was Robert Newton.

Speaker 117:16

Here

Donald Pleasence17:21

I played a Singhalese servant in it. I learned to speak with a Singhalese accent and and I wore contact lenses to change the colour of my eyes and had my hair dyed blue black.

Donald Pleasence17:37

and browned up and um there I was in a s Sarong or something playing this no it was a good part, it was a very funny part.

Donald Pleasence17:45

And I said to the producer once at Pinewood, I can't understand why.

Donald Pleasence17:52

You chose me for this part because I've never played anything like this before. And he said, well, we saw you in and he named two plays in the theater, which were totally different roles. One was a Nazi and the other was Willy Mossop in Hobson's Choice, young shoemaker, you know. And I said, well and why did you choose me for this? He said, well, we decided if you could play two parts as different as those, then you could play anything. So we said, the next good feature part that comes along, we give it to Donald Pleasant. So I thought, well, this is films. It's not what I'd heard about at all. Anyway, I said, well, is it going all right? He said, yes, it's going beautifully and we're going to make a lot of films next year and you're going to be in all of them. Well, we finished that film and a year went by and I didn't work. And then I was given another part by the same producer to play an Arab.

Donald Pleasence18:45

I think they wanted to use the contact lenses again. Yes, yes, of course.

Presenter18:48

Yeah.

Presenter18:49

Yeah.

Donald Pleasence18:49

Yeah.

Presenter18:50

You're very prolific. You you you've taken pretty well most of the films that have that have been off

Donald Pleasence18:54

But

Presenter18:55

Yeah.

Donald Pleasence18:55

I haven't been selective enough, but I I can't bear not to work all the time.

Donald Pleasence19:02

How many good films? Well, that's not fair to the bad ones, is it? So I won't name numbers. I'll just tell you the ones I like. The ones I like are the film of the caretaker.

Donald Pleasence19:13

Cul-de-Sac Polanski's picture.

Presenter19:15

Cul-de-sac was excellent, an outstanding film.

Donald Pleasence19:17

Yes, it's a lovely film. It's I think the best thing that he's done. And um, oh, uh The Great Escape, Will Penny, Soldier Blue, Outback, a film we made in Australia. Those are a few of the ones that I like.

Presenter19:33

Right, those are the good ones.

Donald Pleasence19:33

Those are the good ones.

Presenter19:34

What's that?

Donald Pleasence19:35

I don't mean they're the only good ones.

Presenter19:38

Yeah.

Donald Pleasence19:38

I I hope.

Presenter19:38

Those are good ones. What have been the bad ones?

Donald Pleasence19:41

Oh no.

Presenter19:41

Oh no.

Donald Pleasence19:43

Well, you'll be in it. I wouldn't tell you. I'm too kind. Record number five. Number five. Could I have some of the Elgar Vallen concerto played by Menouin? The later recording. The one with Sir Adrian. Right, Sir Adrian Belt.

Presenter20:01

Yeah.

Presenter20:05

Part of the first movement of the Elgar violin concerto in B minor, Yehudi Menuen with the new Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Sir Adrian Belt.

Presenter20:16

At the moment, oh as you said, you're on the stage of the Theatre Royal Haymarket, this new play, Reflections by John Peacock, a costume play, and we see very few costume plays these days, and a very villainous part.

Donald Pleasence20:28

Ye well, it depends on how you look at it. If you look at it from the point of view of the re revolutionary.

Donald Pleasence20:36

The plays about the French Revolution, then he's not a villainous part at all. He's just trying to do his duty by.

Speaker 120:38

The brain is

Presenter20:40

We're going.

Donald Pleasence20:43

Bringing Madame Dubari to the guillotine.

Presenter20:47

Doesn't old Etonian revolutionary hills.

Donald Pleasence20:49

That's only in the programme notes. It's not in the play. That's uh that's the damned thing about about programme notes, you know. Some critic wrote about my being an old Etonian. Historically, yes, but it's not in the play. Uhhuh. We cut it because uh I play the

Presenter20:59

Yeah, but you

Speaker 120:59

That's not actually

Donald Pleasence21:06

The part with a with a North Country accent, and we felt, although Greave did have a North Country accent, that it would be somewhat confusing for people to be told that he was an Italian.

Presenter21:16

There are North Countrymen who go to Eton.

Donald Pleasence21:18

Yes, but they don't usually speak like that. They they tend to speak more like that.

Presenter21:22

What attracted you to the park? Because it it's um

Presenter21:26

A rather gruesome character.

Donald Pleasence21:28

Well, I I thought it was a terrific part and I I think the two parts are marvellous.

Donald Pleasence21:33

It was a challenge really. And I w wondered if one could

Donald Pleasence21:38

I you call it a gruesome character. I I find it quite a pathetic character actually. I think at the end of the play he is quite broken and and uh do you? Uh I don't, you see, I don't think I would.

Speaker 121:43

Well yes, but then

Presenter21:47

And one rejoices in it being broken.

Donald Pleasence21:53

People see this play in different ways. Uh I had a couple come to see me, like people I've known.

Donald Pleasence21:58

Oh, for ages and ages and twenty years or more. And they saw it as a revolutionary play. It was quite funny. They said to me, Well, how thank God to have a real play back in the West End that's really about about the revolution.

Donald Pleasence22:13

And, you know, they didn't see it from Dubari's point of view at all. I was in touch.

Presenter22:16

Door.

Presenter22:18

Probably onto bands.

Donald Pleasence22:18

I'm not surprised. And naturally I'm playing the character of George Greaves, so I've got to see it from his point of view.

Presenter22:20

That's the effect you have on me.

Presenter22:23

There are people who

Speaker 222:24

Uh

Donald Pleasence22:31

We've got to record number six. What's that? Miles Davis, the Rodriguez Concerto, some of the Rodriguez Concerto. This is uh on the album arranged by Gil Evans.

Presenter22:44

Miles Davis Sketches of Spain arranged and conducted by Gil Evans

Donald Pleasence22:48

Bye.

Donald Pleasence22:48

Yeah.

Presenter22:50

Donald, you're the father of five daughters, I believe.

Speaker 122:51

Daughters are

Presenter22:52

Yes.

Presenter22:53

One is a popular young actress, Angela Pleasants, the others are younger. Now, for the youngest, you've invented a character.

Donald Pleasence23:01

I told stories to her, um you know, I used to tell stories to all the kids and um together with Miranda I invented a character called Scouse the Mouse, who comes from Liverpool and becomes the most famous uh rock singer in the world by watching the television from his cage.

Presenter23:19

I see that Scouse the Mouse is next on your list, so he has been recorded.

Presenter23:24

Yeah.

Donald Pleasence23:24

Yes, we have. We we've got the book and in fact I've written another book, Scouse in New York. We've made a record of Scouse the Mouse and we hope very shortly to be starting the animated film in America. I've got Ringo Starr playing Scouse the Mouse and I've been lucky. I mean we've made this record and we've got Barbara Dixon as well and Adam Faith. But this number I thought I'll take with me in my castaway ship is Ringo singing the theme song, which is written by Roger Brown, not by me. I've written some of the lyrics and all of the book and my wife has written some of the music. But this is by Roger Brown and it's I'm Scouse the Mouse.

Donald Pleasence24:10

Yeah.

Presenter24:10

Scott.

Donald Pleasence24:10

House

Presenter24:10

It's the mouse.

Donald Pleasence24:11

Yeah.

Presenter24:11

Now, you're not new to writing. You you told us you'd written the play Ebbtide quite early in your career. Have you written other plays?

Speaker 224:19

Yes, uh well

Donald Pleasence24:20

Um I wrote for a while after that because that play was successful not only here, it was done by both channels actually at different times, on television, it was also done at the Royal Court. But uh it was done by CBC in Canada and that led me to write other things for CBC, uh mostly adaptations and uh short stories and things like that for television in the early days of Canadian broadcasting. And I did at this time in my life I I actually earned a living as a writer, but then I started to be successful as an actor and I I let it drop really'cause I I didn't think of myself as any great shapes until I came to this children's stuff and I I really like doing that. I like the simplicity of it, you know, it's very interesting to have to write simply. There's a novel on the stocks, isn't there?

Speaker 125:06

This one I

Donald Pleasence25:13

Well, yes, but I'm not not too far with that. I think everybody's got a novel on the stuff. However, I I am going to start writing again and but I shall go on for the moment writing these uh children's series. I've got to get Scouse to Hollywood yet. He's already conquered New York and London, so I've got to get him to Los Angeles.

Presenter25:18

Novel I'm just done.

Presenter25:33

Right, back to the desert island situation. Now you've been a prisoner, even if not a solitary one. Could you endure loneliness, do you think?

Donald Pleasence25:41

Yes, I I quite like to be alone. I certainly wouldn't want to be alone for the rest of my life and I hope do do people on your island usually get rescued? They usually get rescued.

Presenter25:52

See, do you guarantee that to no one?

Presenter25:58

How do you escape? From a desert island. Are you good with sp Small boats could you build?

Donald Pleasence26:01

Oh, could I build a boat? I I'm not good with anything, but I'd have a jolly good try. I'm the sort of man who has spent his whole life passing the screwdriver and the hammer to other people. Every time I start to do something, there's there's a big man comes along like the the fellow in the I'll read sketches. You say, Hey, hello, what you doing? Give me that, he says. And I find myself uh holding the tools. But I do my best.

Presenter26:01

Oh good.

Presenter26:27

They're not

Presenter26:30

But I

Presenter26:31

But you are an escaping type, that's what we wanted to know.

Donald Pleasence26:34

Yeah. Uh

Presenter26:35

But

Donald Pleasence26:35

Uh

Presenter26:35

I think so. Record number eight, your last. Watch that.

Donald Pleasence26:38

Oh well, this is in case I don't escape. I'd like to play the Ds E Re from the Verde Requiem Mass.

Presenter26:51

The Dies Ire from the Verde Requiem, a performance by the Vienna State Opera Chorus and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by George Schulte.

Presenter27:01

If you could take only one of your eight discs, which would it be?

Presenter27:06

Oh, I take that one.

Donald Pleasence27:06

The barely requiem favourite piece of music. And you can take one luxury to

Presenter27:09

Yeah.

Presenter27:12

to the island with you. What would you like?

Donald Pleasence27:14

Well, I'd take writing materials as much as you'd allow me. Well, as much as you could allow me. Or as much as I could swim ashore with, or however I'm getting there.

Presenter27:19

Or as much as I could

Presenter27:23

You'll find it already on the island. Thank you. And one book apart from the Bible and Shakespeare.

Donald Pleasence27:23

Uh

Donald Pleasence27:24

Beyond the island.

Donald Pleasence27:28

Uh well, I've got the Bible and Shakespeare. I would take Dostoevsky, but I don't know whether there's a uh a multi-volume edition. If not, I'll take the Brothers Karamas off.

Presenter27:37

The brothers Karamazov.

Donald Pleasence27:38

Yes, but if there's a a collected edition which you could allow me.

Presenter27:42

Well, it has to be bad one. No, I'm sorry. You can bind something else.

Donald Pleasence27:43

Test of all the webs.

Donald Pleasence27:45

You have

Presenter27:47

into the brothers Karamazov, if you like. You can take two.

Donald Pleasence27:51

Oh, then I'll take crime and punishment.

Presenter27:53

Right. And thank you, Donald Pleasance, for letting us hear your Desert Island Discs. Thank you. Goodbye, everyone.