Carla Lane

Speaker 20:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young, and this is a download from the Desert Island Disc's archive. This edition may be slightly different from what was actually broadcast, but it is the only version we have. It comes from the British Library's radio collection.

Speaker 20:15

The recording didn't contain the guests' eight music choices, so we've rebuilt the original show by using discs from the B B C Gramophone library. For Wright's reasons we've had to shorten the music.

Speaker 20:26

Full details can be found on the Castaways page on the Desert Island Disc's website.

Speaker 20:31

The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen eighty one.

Speaker 20:34

And the presenter was Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:53

On our Desert Island this week is the television comedy writer Carla Lane. Carla, how well could you adjust yourself to extended loneliness?

Carla Lane1:03

Not very well. I really do not like my own company, so it's going to be a very dreadful experience.

Presenter1:11

Would music help?

Carla Lane1:12

Yes.

Presenter1:14

You have

Presenter1:15

A very miserable allowance of eight records. Have you any musical skill yourself?

Carla Lane1:19

None.

Presenter1:20

You know

Carla Lane1:20

None at all, no.

Presenter1:21

Do you sing?

Carla Lane1:23

Well I make noises in the bathroom, but I can't sing.

Presenter1:28

Any plan in choosing your music? Are you choosing nostalgically or?

Carla Lane1:33

Well, I have chosen music which would make

Carla Lane1:37

My stay bearable. Um a couple of them are very nostalgic, but the rest are simply they give me certain moods.

Presenter1:45

Where do we start? What's the first one?

Carla Lane1:47

The first one is um the Shostakovich Fifth Symphony.

Carla Lane1:52

And I find this very stirring, and it gives me a great determination.

Carla Lane1:59

Uh

Presenter2:55

An excerpt from the Shostakovich Fifth Symphony played by the USSR Symphony Orchestra conducted by the composer.

Presenter3:03

It's an open secret, Carla, that you come from Liverpool.

Carla Lane3:06

Yes, yes, I do.

Presenter3:08

From a Liverpool family?

Carla Lane3:09

Yes.

Presenter3:10

See if

Carla Lane3:10

Yeah.

Presenter3:10

Right.

Carla Lane3:11

Yeah.

Carla Lane3:11

Yes, all the men in my family were seafarers or connected with the sea.

Presenter3:16

Do you have many brothers and sisters?

Carla Lane3:18

I have a brother.

Carla Lane3:19

And one sister.

Presenter3:21

Were you a bright child? Were you good at school?

Carla Lane3:24

No. I was um honestly I was thick at school.

Carla Lane3:28

I could write a composition which was the only

Carla Lane3:31

thing I could manage. But, um, arithmetic, as we called it, and all those awful things, I just could not cope. I tended to dream a lot.

Presenter3:40

A lot. You were busy in your own imagination.

Carla Lane3:43

Yes, I they did a wrong thing. They put me by a window, I remember, and I used to I can see now very clearly the milk crates all on top of each other, and the leaves swirling around them, and I I used to spend my time sort of watching this, and I don't know quite what I was thinking, but it was far more important than what the teacher was saying.

Presenter4:04

Television was not yet. Did you go to films a lot?

Carla Lane4:07

Yes, every Saturday I used to stand in the queue, you know, and you know this business of take me in, please, I did all that.

Presenter4:14

And did you go to the theatre, too?

Carla Lane4:15

No. We we were not a theatre going family.

Presenter4:19

And radio?

Carla Lane4:20

Yes, we we had a lot of radio at home. Each night it was on, and often we just all sat as a family. I remember listening to things like the ink spots.

Speaker 44:30

Yeah.

Presenter4:30

Yeah.

Carla Lane4:30

I remember that very well. Yes.

Presenter4:34

Now, you liked writing compositions. Did you continue to write compositions, as it were, for yourself when you left school?

Carla Lane4:42

Yes, I can't remember any part of my life even going right back.

Carla Lane4:47

Oh, when I wasn't actually scribbling something.

Presenter4:50

You won a prize, didn't you, as a youngster?

Carla Lane4:51

Yes, when I was seven I won the Auntie Muriel Prize for a poem.

Carla Lane4:58

A desperate little thing called Do Not Despair.

Presenter5:01

Can you recite it, do you remember it?

Carla Lane5:02

Well, I I couldn't out of sheer embarrassment. But it was a sad little thing. I know it began with Do not Despair.

Carla Lane5:12

And it was about my my uncle who'd been killed in the war, and it was to my grandmother in an effort to cheer her.

Speaker 25:16

Yeah.

Carla Lane5:19

I can only imagine that I, you know, did far worse than that. But I Auntie Muriel gave me um a write-up and a prize and then

Carla Lane5:28

I won a poetry composition when I was about nine in school.

Presenter5:33

Did your family encourage you?

Carla Lane5:36

In a way they did. Nobody actually sort of patted me on the head and said, You you go ahead, you do this thing, but I was aware that my father was quite a poetic man, and indeed wrote poetry, but he did it secretly.

Speaker 25:48

Uh

Speaker 45:48

But he

Carla Lane5:51

And um my my grandfather was an art critic and so he had to write a lot and

Speaker 45:51

Uh

Presenter5:56

Uh

Speaker 45:56

Uh

Presenter5:56

Mm-hmm.

Carla Lane5:57

So, you know, it was an accepted thing rather than an encouraged thing.

Presenter6:01

What did you want to do? What did you want to be?

Carla Lane6:04

Oh, what I wanted to be w it was nothing to do with writing, it was nothing to do with anything real. What I wanted to be was a gipsy.

Presenter6:13

I want to

Carla Lane6:13

I wanted to go and live in a caravan and be a gipsy.

Presenter6:17

Yes, you have to put your name down very early to be a scripture.

Carla Lane6:19

Yeah.

Presenter6:20

What, in fact, did you become? What was your first job?

Carla Lane6:20

Flat

Carla Lane6:23

The first thing I did, I went into a baby linen shop, a very tiny one, um, quite near to where I lived, and I earned what we called ten bob a week, and I just sold babies' bonnets and cotton reels and that sort of thing.

Presenter6:39

Well, there you are. You're out into the world, so let's break for your second record. What shall that be?

Carla Lane6:44

The next one is Pink Floyd, and um it's from the track Crazy Diamond. It's the musical piece at the beginning.

Carla Lane6:53

The thing I find about this music is it totally unwinds me.

Carla Lane6:58

And I make decisions when I've heard this music. It just relaxes me, and it has pleasant memories too of.

Carla Lane7:06

Someone.

Carla Lane7:08

A word in our own swing

Speaker 47:09

They won't

Speaker 47:14

Can never have fun.

Speaker 47:17

Shine on it!

Presenter7:38

The Pink Floyd shine on you crazy diamond.

Presenter7:41

Now you were selling baby linen. Did you see any future in that?

Carla Lane7:44

Not really, but I wasn't

Carla Lane7:47

Looking for a future. I suppose in those days I was fifteen. I'd left school with nothing in my head, really.

Carla Lane7:54

And in truth, what I wanted to do, apart from be a gipsy, which um my father quickly persuaded me was the wrong thing I wanted to get married, you know.

Carla Lane8:04

and uh do all those things. I wanted to get married and have a hundred children. And very early in my life I wanted those things.

Presenter8:12

You did in fact get married very early.

Carla Lane8:14

Yes, yes, I did. For me it was um a sort of a door opening to freedom, you know, my own house, as many animals as I wanted, and um

Presenter8:14

Yeah.

Speaker 28:24

Um

Carla Lane8:25

I wasn't very disciplined.

Carla Lane8:27

Youngster

Carla Lane8:29

And I suppose marriage, apart from marriage for what it is, it brought those things to my mind.

Presenter8:34

What was your husband's job?

Carla Lane8:36

He was a naval architect while he was studying to be one when I met him.

Presenter8:39

Now you had children? Not a hundred.

Carla Lane8:41

Not a hub

Carla Lane8:42

Not a hundred. No, I soon went off that idea.

Presenter8:45

Two.

Carla Lane8:46

Yes.

Presenter8:47

Did you make up stories for them?

Carla Lane8:49

Yes, I did yes but actually no more, I suppose, than most mothers. Maybe my stories were a little more horrific than some. But I yes, I spent a lot of time um I never read them a story.

Carla Lane9:04

I always like to make make it up. I used to make songs up too, and we used to sing them all together.

Presenter9:10

Did you write any of it down?

Carla Lane9:12

No, I didn't. It never occurred to me to write it down. I suppose for the first five years of my marriage I didn't pick up my pen seriously at all.

Presenter9:22

And then?

Carla Lane9:23

And then suddenly, um, they went to school and

Carla Lane9:27

that old thing, you know, you have time. And then I started writing again all the time.

Presenter9:32

What sort of things?

Carla Lane9:34

Well, I started by writing a short story.

Carla Lane9:38

And it was something through the eyes of a dog. It occurred to me that a dog sees only feet, and I wanted to write a story from a dog watching feet, and another pair of feet appear on the scene and cause jealousy in this dog. I wrote that, and to my great surprise, it was accepted.

Presenter9:56

By whom?

Carla Lane9:57

By my weekly.

Carla Lane9:59

And uh the man there liked this so much that he commissioned me to do many things. I mean, I worked continuously after that.

Carla Lane10:09

And I wrote for radio.

Presenter10:11

What sort of things?

Carla Lane10:12

I used to write some dreadfully miserable prose for the third programme. I mean, it was all sad and miserable and

Carla Lane10:21

Oh, self-indulgent, you know, just words. But it suited the kind of programme they were doing.

Presenter10:29

You belong to a writers' club in Liverpool. Tell me about that.

Carla Lane10:32

Yes. Yes, this was nice. It was um a collection of people in Liverpool who got together and um the idea was that you read your work to the others and everybody criticises or praises it accordingly.

Carla Lane10:47

And they were good days those. Um we had lots of fun and of course it was teaching me to take criticism and to have confidence too in um words I wrote, which is something you don't have naturally.

Presenter11:00

You more or less ran it. You you were chairman.

Carla Lane11:03

Well, I yes, I became the chairman, but um a lot

Presenter11:07

Now there was a girl at the club called Myra Taylor, and you decided to work together.

Carla Lane11:11

Yeah.

Carla Lane11:13

Yeah.

Presenter11:13

What to do right.

Carla Lane11:15

Well, we wrote a thing called Up, Down, All Around, which was quite um nonsense and it was not unlike Monty Python really. Not as good perhaps, but a a similar idea.

Speaker 411:25

Yeah.

Speaker 211:25

Similar.

Carla Lane11:27

And we send it away, and and suddenly we get not a letter but a phone call from Michael Mills, who said.

Speaker 211:27

I believe

Carla Lane11:33

Can you be here on whatever it was? And of course we were on the train, weren't we?

Presenter11:40

Michael Mills, a a great name, a pioneer in television comedy.

Carla Lane11:42

He was the start of it all for me.

Presenter11:45

So off you went to well.

Presenter11:47

Television center.

Carla Lane11:48

We went to the centre and uh we went through all that desperation of sitting in the main hall waiting for our names to be called and feeling pale and anxious and finally going up there.

Carla Lane11:58

And there's this amazing bearded man, I know he wore white socks. And um he said, I can't do this, I mean I can't cope with this, but why don't you write something that we c we can all understand? or words to that effect. And we actually walked out of that room.

Carla Lane12:16

With a series.

Carla Lane12:18

I mean, it was like that.

Presenter12:20

You wouldn't know yet what about.

Carla Lane12:21

We didn't know anything. We just knew that we had got, you know, a series. Because within that conversation, we'd mentioned.

Carla Lane12:30

girls and in a flat and

Carla Lane12:32

Suddenly it was all being examined.

Presenter12:35

Well, let's have another record, and then we'll talk further about this.

Carla Lane12:39

Yes, this is um it's not exactly my favorite piece of music. That is, I like other pieces of music better.

Carla Lane12:48

But it means more to me than any other music. It's Tchaikovsky's violin concerto.

Carla Lane12:54

And that's really all I can say about that.

Presenter13:57

Part of the slow movement of Tchaikovsky's violin concerto with Salvatore Icardo as the soloist.

Presenter14:04

So Michael Mills said go off and write a series about two girls in a flat, so there you were in the train going back to Liverpool. What did you decide to write about?

Carla Lane14:12

We were horrified. We couldn't believe it. It was it was like a fairy story, you know. We didn't know how scripts were written, we didn't know how they were laid out, we didn't know what fade and cut meant.

Presenter14:25

Had either of you ever shared a flat with another girl?

Carla Lane14:27

No, no.

Presenter14:29

Whose idea was to set the series in Liverpool.

Carla Lane14:32

Well, I think that came automatically with the fact that we came from Liverpool.

Presenter14:36

Yes.

Carla Lane14:37

The idea that it should be two girls in a flat was in honesty, I think, Michaels. He sort of, I'm sure, mentioned it first, and then suddenly we were all talking about it,

Carla Lane14:48

I suppose all of us feel we were part of that decision.

Presenter14:51

Right. Two girls in a flat. Not just.

Presenter14:55

Making jokes, they had to be characters, there had to be a story, there had to be conflict, all this had to be thought out.

Carla Lane15:03

Yes. Well, of course we didn't do any of those things in the beginning, because we didn't know what we were doing. I mean, I had no idea what was happening. I didn't realize that writers usually waited years to get where we had got suddenly in a few days.

Carla Lane15:19

And we went through the whole motions of writing the first seven Liver Birds in a sort of trance. We went back to the centre, we went through all the the business of it becoming a pilot.

Carla Lane15:33

And I don't think either Myra or I knew.

Carla Lane15:36

What was going on?

Presenter15:37

So, you were given a contract for seven.

Carla Lane15:40

Yes.

Presenter15:41

And when you'd done the seven, they went into production with the first.

Carla Lane15:45

Yes.

Carla Lane15:46

And it just happened. People liked it. I now wonder why.

Carla Lane15:52

But they did.

Presenter15:53

Now Carla Lynn, we know i is a nom de plume. Did you adopt that right at the beginning for television, or had you been using it in your short stories?

Carla Lane16:00

No, I adopted that long ago. Um, in the days, the early days of radio. I started with the Radio Mersey side.

Carla Lane16:09

And uh the producer there, um Jim Black, gave me my very first little programme of my own called Breaktime.

Carla Lane16:16

And it was round about then, because I was in Liverpool, I didn't want everybody to know precisely who I was.

Carla Lane16:24

So because I I suppose I wanted to exaggerate, if not lie a little, in some of the things I said.

Carla Lane16:30

in my um articles, you know.

Speaker 216:32

Yeah.

Carla Lane16:33

And so I suddenly

Carla Lane16:35

Was faced on the phone one day with this business of do you want to be Romana Barrack? as it was, and I thought, No, I don't.

Carla Lane16:42

So Carla Lane sort of fell out.

Presenter16:45

Mm-hmm.

Carla Lane16:45

Yeah.

Carla Lane16:46

And I I can't abandon it now.

Presenter16:49

No, much too late. Let's have record number four. What's that to be?

Carla Lane16:50

Hmm.

Carla Lane16:54

This is Vivaldi, uh The Four Seasons. And I love this because no matter how I feel, it makes me feel happy. It's it's um

Carla Lane17:05

Exhilarating, and best of all I love playing this when I'm driving along the Bayswater Road.

Carla Lane17:12

And with all my windows open so everybody can hear it. And it's very impressive.

Presenter17:18

Why does it suit the Bayswater Road more than other roads?

Carla Lane17:21

Because the Bayswater Road was the first road in London that I drove along and felt important for the first time.

Presenter17:29

And which season are we going to hear?

Carla Lane17:31

I think it's summer. I love them all, but this is part of the summer one.

Presenter18:30

Summer from Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Herbert von Carrier.

Presenter18:37

Your first series of Liver Birds, seven programmes were commissioned. Did your expectation go further than that? Do you think it might be good for another seven?

Carla Lane18:47

No, I d I don't think we did. I d I honestly thought at that time that it was a fairy tale ended, you know.

Presenter18:55

At that point, Myra Taylor and you split up. Why didn't she want to go on?

Carla Lane19:00

I don't think it was as much that she didn't want to go on. I think that the pressures of the whole thing.

Carla Lane19:06

and her particular temperament.

Carla Lane19:09

didn't get on with the kind of thing we had to do. I mean, the friendship between she and I is still she's my dearest friend.

Carla Lane19:18

So it was a sad thing, but she just was honest. She said, I've finished. I've really nothing more to say. And I think she wanted also to go to a drama situation.

Presenter19:29

Yes.

Carla Lane19:30

rather than comedy.

Presenter19:32

And there was, I suppose, a certain amount of pressure. You were hering up and down between Liverpool and the television centre.

Carla Lane19:36

It was it was a very a very desperate time for both of us because we were experiencing for the first time being individuals, which is a cliche word now, but it was a very new one then, twelve years ago. And it came rather quickly and, you know, it got to be too much.

Presenter19:53

So on you went on your own. How many Liverbird scripts did you write, Solo?

Carla Lane19:58

Well, altogether oh, solo, I probably wrote about eighty.

Presenter20:02

After a few years, one of the original birds decided she'd had enough, and you had to write her out.

Carla Lane20:09

Yes, you're talking about Polly.

Presenter20:11

Yeah, I wanted you.

Carla Lane20:11

I want to do it. Yes, and that really was a rebirth of the Liver Birds. I didn't think that was possible either. But we had Liz Estenson, who is fantastic, and she brought an entirely new

Carla Lane20:24

Vision to it really.

Carla Lane20:27

And so it they winged off again, and it was out of my control. I mean, it looked to me as though I was going to be.

Carla Lane20:33

Liverbirding for the rest of my life.

Presenter20:35

You did in fact keep it going for ten years.

Carla Lane20:38

Yes, it was eleven, really.

Presenter20:40

Lot of work to keep each instalment fresh and young.

Carla Lane20:42

Yes, yes, it was. And I began to think in the end that um I really mustn't sink all my uh ideas into one series.

Presenter20:51

The great advantage or one of the great advantages of having a success like that is that it subsidizes less successful ventures. You you could write other scripts and unless you were completely happy with them, you you didn't have to go ahead with them.

Carla Lane21:03

Yes, that's true. And but it becomes a kind of crutch, you know, which you lean on and it it becomes a rut.

Carla Lane21:10

And I was aware of this, and fortunately we all arrived at that conclusion at the same time, the girls and I. So we we broke up in a in a natural way.

Presenter21:19

After ten or eleven years. Now, which was the next series really to make an impact?

Carla Lane21:20

Yeah.

Carla Lane21:24

Well, it for me it was butterflies. I did do No Strings for Rita Tushingham, which was pleasant enough, but Butterflies was something I loved. I wrote about that from the heart, you know.

Presenter21:38

We'll talk about butterflies in a minute. Let's have another record.

Carla Lane21:41

Well, this one, of course, is the music that I used in Butterflies. It's albinone, a daggio for um organ and strings.

Carla Lane21:50

And it's just a beautiful piece of music.

Presenter22:49

The Albanone Adaggio for Organ and Strings, arranged by Remo Diazzotto.

Presenter22:55

The Richard Hickox Orchestra.

Presenter22:57

With Alastair Ross at the organ.

Presenter23:00

Now, butterflies. Was butterflies set in Liverpool too?

Carla Lane23:03

No. No, it wasn't. In fact, it was in Cheltenham. Um I didn't actually set it in Cheltenham. All I said was I didn't want another northern thing and could we have it as far south as possible? And in fact Gareth Gwynlin, the producer at that time, he chose Cheltenham.

Presenter23:21

Now we had moved on from those two cheerful youngsters in a flat.

Presenter23:25

Butterflies was about a middle-aged wife trying to make up her mind whether to deceive her husband. A much more

Presenter23:32

Well, not adult, but a much more realistic theme, shall we say.

Carla Lane23:36

Yes. It's funny. Everybody refers to the character Rhea as middle aged, isn't it strange? It never occurred to me when I was writing it that she was middle aged.

Carla Lane23:47

I still don't believe that she was middle aged.

Carla Lane23:50

Uh I wanted to write it possibly two years before I actually did. The B B C

Carla Lane23:57

were a bit worried about it because it was a subject which hadn't been approached in comedy before.

Carla Lane24:03

And in order to push them along, I wrote the script uncommissioned and sent it to.

Carla Lane24:09

James Gilbert and John Howard Davis, and they loved it and I think, if I remember correctly, I got a phone call within the hour to say, you know, six more, which was really nice.

Presenter24:21

A theme perhaps, well reflecting something of your of your own feelings, because your your own marriage had collapsed at last.

Carla Lane24:27

Yes. But my marriage had collapsed in a different way and for different reasons in that um somebody didn't come in and and finish it. But I I feel that every woman is in that situation at some time or other. I mean

Carla Lane24:43

It doesn't matter whether you're married or not, there is usually an admirer somewhere.

Carla Lane24:48

And what I did was take the beginnings of all that and and carry it on into a story.

Presenter24:53

How many episodes did you do?

Carla Lane24:55

I did uh twenty or twenty-one.

Presenter24:59

And I believe there's some interest in it now in the United States. You may maybe writing an American version.

Carla Lane25:03

Yeah.

Carla Lane25:04

Yes. I don't think I'll write the American version, frankly, because I don't think they'd want me to do with it what I would wish, but they are considering making a film of it.

Presenter25:15

Now your latest successful series, which is just finished solo.

Presenter25:20

A young couple, again, the husband has been off and had an affair, and the wife is undecided whether to take him back. There's a lot of pain behind this comedy.

Carla Lane25:30

Yes, except that they're not married actually. They have lived together, but they're not a man and wife.

Presenter25:37

Oh, that I hadn't realized.

Carla Lane25:38

No, well, you wouldn't unless you saw actually probably the first one, you see.

Carla Lane25:43

Um yes, pain.

Carla Lane25:45

Um it seems to be my favourite background thing um to comedy.

Carla Lane25:52

In fact, I can't actually sit down and write a comedy if I'm laughing about it.

Carla Lane25:57

If I'm feeling rather miserable and despondent about the story.

Carla Lane26:02

Then I think probably I can write it in a funnier way.

Carla Lane26:06

I can't explain why.

Carla Lane26:08

But that's how it works with me. A very funny situation presents me with nothing to write about.

Carla Lane26:14

but a very sad one presents me with a very funny thing to write about.

Presenter26:19

Well

Presenter26:20

That seems to make

Presenter26:21

A certain kind of sense it certainly does with you.

Presenter26:26

Let's get back to music. What next?

Carla Lane26:28

Well, this again

Carla Lane26:30

is a a little piece I found by accident and when I was writing solo I wanted desperately to have

Carla Lane26:36

opera over the titles. It so turned out I couldn't have those I wanted, and I was given some remote operas to choose from, and I found this, and it's Donizetti, and if I can get this name said, it's Nemoublique Pas.

Carla Lane26:54

And she's singing about, I believe, the glorious countryside.

Presenter27:59

Margretha Elkins singing a romanza from a Donizetti opera which will be new, I think, to most of us, Ne Moublier Pas.

Presenter28:07

Now, the television situation comedy. What is it, twenty-eight minutes on the box?

Carla Lane28:12

About that, yes, yes.

Presenter28:14

The confines are are are fairly limiting, aren't they?

Carla Lane28:17

They are in some ways. I feel much less inhibited now. Are you talking when you when you speak of confines set wise, or or what one is allowed to say?

Presenter28:27

Is it about

Presenter28:29

Everything wants one has allowed to say, the number of characters one can use, the number of sets one can build, and above all the limitations of time.

Carla Lane28:38

Years ago there seemed to be many more limitations, but just lately by that I mean over the last two years

Carla Lane28:45

Of course sets will always be a problem, but characters you you can bring a fair amount in if they're interesting, but of course, in half an hour I suppose the right thing to do is stick to the main character mainly.

Carla Lane28:57

Um, things we can say, it's much better now.

Presenter29:01

Sticking to the main character mainly, I w I was watching Solo, one of the last extremes to go out, and in the middle of the story about the young couple you cut away to a couple of girls in another flat. One of them was having a baby.

Carla Lane29:06

Sounds cool.

Carla Lane29:15

Yeah.

Presenter29:15

Now, were these two characters that you were hanging on to, to to use...

Carla Lane29:15

And that

Presenter29:20

for a bigger part in another instalment, in another story, because they didn't seem to have

Carla Lane29:25

No, no, I wa I mean that could very well happen to them because they're very good, those girls. But no, I was trying something new and I'm always trying to do this and sometimes it works and this time perhaps it didn't. I wanted to write a little cameo within the uh the script but but not connect it with the script the way all comedy is, you know, meanwhile back at the flat. I didn't want that situation.

Speaker 229:50

I didn't want

Carla Lane29:52

The idea was that as we saw Gemma, who is older and wiser, stepping away from this man and this problem, I wanted to go and see these young girls, who were younger and not so wise, desperately trying to step into the situation. And on paper it all looked good.

Speaker 230:08

Yeah.

Carla Lane30:10

And everybody agreed it was a fine idea. But you know, in the end, often the viewers have.

Carla Lane30:18

Requirements.

Carla Lane30:20

And they required to have those girls linked in some definite way, and I've confused everybody. So it's a little exercise which perhaps didn't work as well as I'd hoped.

Presenter30:31

Do you still live in Liverpool?

Carla Lane30:33

Well, it could be said that my I do have a big house in Liverpool which you live in.

Presenter30:37

In a very big house, I believe.

Presenter30:41

So many rooms?

Carla Lane30:42

Well, there's there are forty-four rooms.

Presenter30:44

Where's Rom to swing in case?

Carla Lane30:45

I feel silly in saying it. Um, yes. Liverpool is my home. It's where the people most of the people I love are. And I go back. I go at the end of rehearsals whenever I can. But I suppose I'm shared now between

Presenter30:59

Between

Carla Lane31:00

There and here.

Presenter31:01

Anywhere

Carla Lane31:03

Anywhere. I r honestly. I write in my car in Hyde Park. I've written in the galleries. I write in the main reception of television. I write in my bedroom, in my lounge, in somebody's garden, on a train.

Carla Lane31:17

I'm very lucky a noise and bother doesn't stop me.

Presenter31:21

What sort of hours do you work? Do you work regular hours or just when the pressure really mounts and you've got a deadline?

Carla Lane31:26

No nothing regular. I'm not disciplined. I just get up and if I if there's nothing in my head I go for a walk until there is and

Carla Lane31:35

It's different parts of the day. I do it each day.

Presenter31:38

And during production do you go to rehearsals?

Carla Lane31:41

All the time, yes.

Presenter31:42

All the time.

Carla Lane31:42

All the time. I'm there each day. If I don't do that, to me it's sort of like being pregnant and not having the baby.

Carla Lane31:50

You know what I mean, there's no point in writing a script.

Presenter31:50

Better.

Carla Lane31:53

if you're just going to abandon it at the most important time.

Presenter31:56

So you're there to protect your script, to stop anybody cutting or inserting without your approval.

Carla Lane32:00

Yeah.

Carla Lane32:02

Yes, but I mu I must say that um not a lot of that happens. They're very sensitive, um we're all sensitive with each other. I'm very uh lucky that way. So if I wasn't there they'd ring me up, because they know that I I do sort of care about the scripts.

Presenter32:19

Are you contented with the medium, Carlo? Uh would you not like to write in a more permanent form, books with hard covers, for example?

Carla Lane32:28

Yes, I would. I haven't got the courage. That's my problem. I'm I'm tend to stick to what I know.

Carla Lane32:34

Um, yes, I'm always wanting to write a book. I haven't got a story to tell yet.

Carla Lane32:39

I don't think I have anyway.

Carla Lane32:41

I I hope I don't do what everybody seems to do and suddenly come in with my

Carla Lane32:46

Autobiography. I'cause I don't think it would be a very interesting one, frankly.

Carla Lane32:51

But in a way, it seems to be the way you start.

Carla Lane32:55

You know, because you do know that story, and who knows, I might just inflict it upon the world one day. I don't know.

Presenter33:02

You did write one play for the theatre.

Carla Lane33:04

Yes, I did the Liverbirds play, not on my own, I did it with um John Chapman, and I learned a lot, but it was fast, and I'm not really happy doing fast.

Presenter33:14

Record number seven we go to.

Carla Lane33:17

This is Ballio's The Symphonie Fantastique.

Carla Lane33:20

And what happens with this is it's a record which in my big house, the one we talked about, is played often.

Carla Lane33:28

And on the lawn on a summer's day, this is the kind of sound that comes from the house. It also reminds me of my dog when I'm walking in the park with him, and he's quite enormous, and when he runs around this music seems to be

Carla Lane33:43

Very appropriate to Igor and me walking.

Presenter34:49

Part of the Symphonie Fontastique by Berlioz, part of the March to the Guillotine, and played once again by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Herbert von Karian.

Presenter35:00

How good a castaway are you going to be, Carla, in a practical sense? Can you look after yourself?

Carla Lane35:07

Well, of course I have a huge problem because I'm a vegetarian and a practising one in every way, so I won't be able to go out and hunt little creatures and roast them and things like that.

Presenter35:16

No, but there should be plenty of fruit on the island.

Carla Lane35:18

Yes, providing there's lots of fruit and providing I can get up a tree, I suppose I'll manage very well. It's the loneliness which will cripple me.

Presenter35:25

Thanks.

Presenter35:27

Would you try to escape?

Presenter35:30

A seafaring family from way back.

Carla Lane35:32

Oh, if it meant going in water, no. I mean, I'm terrified of water. I would stay there for ever rather than swim. So.

Carla Lane35:42

No, I couldn't escape. That's awful, isn't it? It's only just come to me. It's frightening.

Presenter35:45

For listen.

Presenter35:48

To say the least, we'll send you a postcard.

Carla Lane35:50

I hope so.

Presenter35:53

What's your last record?

Carla Lane35:54

This one is ah, there's there's a special reason for this. This is red sails in the sunset.

Carla Lane36:01

And one of the things I'm most grateful for in life

Carla Lane36:04

is my childhood, and I don't mean that in a sentimental, silly way.

Carla Lane36:08

But my parents were very romantic parents. My mother is still alive. My father died quite young. But

Carla Lane36:15

I was always surrounded by love, for want of a better word, not just love given to me.

Carla Lane36:21

but love between those two, and it was very evident all the time, and I think it's done me good. And when my father went to sea

Carla Lane36:29

My mother used to play this, and we laugh about it now because it's all a bit melodramatic but she used to actually stand, like they do in these lovely big films, the Bet Davies bit, with tears in her eyes, when my father was away, listening to this.

Carla Lane36:44

And it reminds me very much of when I was very tiny and didn't know what it was all about.

Carla Lane36:49

but was automatically gathering something very good from it.

Carla Lane36:53

And that's what this record's about.

Speaker 436:58

was down where fish of hope gathered

Speaker 437:03

I wandered far from the throng.

Speaker 437:07

I heard a fisher girl singing

Speaker 437:11

And this refrain was her song.

Speaker 437:16

Red sails in the sunset

Speaker 437:21

Way out on the sea

Carla Lane37:21

Way out on the s

Speaker 437:25

O carry, my loved one.

Carla Lane37:27

Water.

Speaker 437:29

Come safely to me.

Speaker 437:34

He sailed at the dawning All day I've been blue

Speaker 437:42

Red sails in the sunset

Carla Lane37:45

Uh

Speaker 437:47

I'm trusting in you.

Presenter37:51

Red Sails in the Sunset by Ambrose and his orchestra with vocal chorus.

Presenter37:56

If you could take only one disc out of the H you've played us, which would it be?

Carla Lane38:00

Oh, without doubt, it would be Tchaikovsky's violin concerto.

Presenter38:04

The Tchaikovsky violin concerto, and one luxury to take with you?

Carla Lane38:08

Well, uh I've been taking into consideration everything, and in honesty it's the simplest thing. There's a certain shampoo I use. It's French and uh effective, and actually I cannot bear

Carla Lane38:23

My hair not being

Carla Lane38:25

Washed in this shampoo, so I want please lots of that.

Presenter38:29

You shall have a barrel of it.

Presenter38:32

And one book apart from the Bible and Shakespeare, which are already on the island.

Carla Lane38:36

Oh, is Shakespeare already there? I mean, not that I would have taken him. I don't like him very much.

Presenter38:38

I mean not that I

Carla Lane38:41

Yeah.

Presenter38:42

I think

Carla Lane38:43

Yeah, he's okay.

Carla Lane38:45

I think I'd like the book of quotations, probably the Bartlett one, or any good book of quotations, because it's the book I go back to always, and I think it will be the thing I'd need.

Presenter38:58

A good dictionary of quotations. And thank you, Carla Lane, for letting us hear your Desert Island discs.

Carla Lane39:04

Thank you. Thank you.

Presenter39:06

Goodbye everyone.

Speaker 239:15

You've been listening to a download from the Desert Islandists archive. For more downloads, please visit the Radio 4 website.