Roger Moore

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 20:14

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 20:25

Full details can be found on the Castaways page on the Desert Island Discs website.

Speaker 20:30

The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen eighty one.

Speaker 20:34

And the presenter was Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:52

This week, our castaway is the actor Roger Moore.

Presenter0:56

Roger, it said that you play the guitar.

Presenter0:58

Very badly. I I strum it for my own amusement. Self-taught? Well, I had a couple of picking lessons from John Pertwee years ago. I was making a series called Ivanhoe, and John was a friend of mine. And I was suffering with duodenal ulcer problems, worrying about my performance. What performance I was playing, Ivanhoe. But he said buy a ukulele and strum the ukulele. I mean, by the time you picked out G A B and E flat. It was like worry beads. Yes. He said it'll solve all your problems. And from that, I moved on to the guitar.

Roger Moore1:11

Yeah.

Presenter1:33

Do you ever play it in public?

Presenter1:34

No, never.

Presenter1:36

Unless you call my children public.

Presenter1:39

Could you endure the loneliness of a desert island? Could you adjust yourself?

Presenter1:44

Yes, I think I could. What would you be happiest who got away from?

Presenter1:47

Well, I don't I don't think it's a question of being happy to get away from anybody or anything. But I could endure it because I am fairly adaptable. Maybe because I'm a Libre and well balanced. Oh, yeah, that's a nice thought. Right, your first disc. You've got eight there on that little bi. What's the first one?

Presenter2:06

Oh, well, I I I think mister Sinatra would have to come with me.

Presenter2:11

Singing the theme of New York, New York, Vagabond Choos, keep them moving.

Presenter2:21

I'm leaving today.

Presenter2:25

I want to be part of it.

Presenter2:29

New York, New York.

Presenter2:34

These vagabond shoes.

Presenter2:38

Our longings astray

Roger Moore2:39

Uh

Presenter2:43

Right through the

Speaker 42:45

Very heart of it, New York, New York.

Presenter2:50

Bank Sinatra, the theme from New York, New York, chosen by a Londoner. You are a Londoner, aren't you, Roger? Yes, I am indeed, but that sentiment of Sinatras could apply to a Londoner as well. Of course.

Presenter3:03

Are you one of a large family?

Presenter3:05

If being an only child is being part of a large family, no, I'm an only child.

Roger Moore3:08

No, it's not.

Presenter3:10

What were you good at at school?

Presenter3:13

Actually I was very good at at school, at looking as though I was listening. I suppose it's the reason I became an actor. I was able to daydream and always look as though I were listening. Meanwhile I was thinking about getting out of school early to go swimming. But I was a I I was lucky. I never really had to study very hard. I found things came easy and I that was probably a mistake. If they'd come a little harder I might have worked that much more and become really intelligent. In fact, you moved out quite early to an art school. Well that was because of the war. At the beginning of the war I'd just started grammar school and that was evacuated to the south of England to Worthing. But then we sort of drifted back to London and most of the schools had been evacuated and so

Presenter4:00

Grammar scores, central scores, art scores were all jumbled up together and and I went one and

Presenter4:06

Mainly art school.

Presenter4:08

And that took you into your first job? Yes, as an animated cartoonist.

Presenter4:13

Now that seems a nice steady job. This was for films, of course. Yes. How did acting come into it?

Presenter4:18

Well, it was a nice steady job until I got fired. Oh, dear. And uh then some friends who were doing who, you know, were ex-servicemen who had been invalided out were working on the crowd of a film called Caesar and Cleopatra, not the Elizabeth Taylor one. Yeah. Vivian Lee and uh

Roger Moore4:34

I don't know if it's

Presenter4:37

Claude Rains and Stuart Granger. The production went on for years, I remember. It did. It went on a long time. Not for me. I it went on for one day because I.

Presenter4:45

I was asked if I wanted to be an actor.

Presenter4:48

And I naturally said yes, rushed home, said to my mother, I'm going to become Stuart Granger.

Presenter4:55

And Brian Desmond Hurst, who was the co-director with Gabriel Pascal, met with my father and said, I think he should maybe go to Rada, which I did.

Presenter5:04

What was your first professional job?

Presenter5:08

As an actor, I appeared in The Italian Straw Hat while I was still at Rada. Where was that? At the Arts Theatre. Mm-hmm.

Roger Moore5:14

Where was that?

Presenter5:17

And then I went into the Circle of Chalk.

Presenter5:21

Directed by Christopher Fry, no less. That was also at the Arts Hospital.

Roger Moore5:25

Mm-hmm.

Presenter5:25

Yes. And then after leaving Rader I went to Cambridge and during that period contracted yellow jaundice, which immediately made the army think I was A one, and off I was dragged, long hair, yellow corduroys and green Harris tweed jacket, to Bury St Edmunds to become a soldier. A long engagement in His Majesty's Armed Forces. Indeed. What sort of job did they give you?

Presenter5:51

Well, for the first six weeks I did primary training, learning to march and shoot a gun, and then everybody got and well, the sergeant kept on saying to me, I corps for you, lad, which I thought meant that I was going into the medical corps dealing with eyes. I couldn't quite understand all that, but he meant intelligence corps, which shows you I had this ability, even in the army, to look as though I were listening.

Roger Moore6:08

Um

Roger Moore6:12

Which

Presenter6:17

Or thinking, or something. Anyway, they looked up my records after everybody was posted away except me, and they looked up my records and they said.

Presenter6:24

cartoonist, painter so they said, Paint that hut. So I I painted an awful lot of huts inside and out. Then they said do some murals and I did this and and finally one morning they they were rather fed up with me they sent me off to what was called a WASBY, a war office selection board, for commissioning.

Presenter6:43

And

Presenter6:44

I seemed to have got through that, because it again it looked as though I were listening, and and I was commissioned.

Presenter6:50

And then

Presenter6:51

from sort of military duties proper.

Presenter6:56

managed to escape by doing welfare work, doing quiz shows, running around various other camps, and then I had a a a nasty accident in a car and

Presenter7:05

had a head injury and I thought, well, this is a good chance, speak to the psychiatrist, get myself transferred to CSE Combined Services Entertainment.

Presenter7:13

And it all happened. I went to C S E all my old friends from Rad O'Brien Forbes.

Presenter7:20

Joey Baker, of oh, dozens of people I'd known at at school. Where were you?

Presenter7:26

In Hamburg.

Presenter7:28

And for the last few months of

Presenter7:30

My uh army career, I actually went out on the road in a play to get my hand back in. Shop at Sly Corner. Touring Germany? Germany, Austria, and Italy. How long were you in uniform altogether?

Presenter7:42

Approximately three years.

Presenter7:44

Let's break off now for your second record. What's that to be?

Presenter7:47

Oh, well, I mentioned that I was in Italy. Musetta's Waltz from Laboem.

Speaker 48:09

Yeah.

Speaker 48:10

Praise the word in the song.

Presenter8:48

Branata Tabaldi singing Musetta's Waltz Song from La Boem.

Presenter8:53

Three years in uniform, Roger, just long enough to lose all the contacts you'd made. What happened then?

Presenter9:00

Well, I'd I'd been tested actually while I was in the Army. I was given a week's leave to come back to London to test for a film called The Blue Lagoon. Yes. And I made the test with Claire Bloom, who was not going to play it. She knew that Gene Simmons was going to do it, but Rank wanted her on film.

Presenter9:17

and uh Donald Houston played the part that I was being tested for.

Presenter9:22

But Laundron Gilliatt recommended that I should go under contractor rank. And when I came out of the army I fully expected to go under contract, but they were reducing their contract list and I was the first casualty. I think I was very lucky actually because had I gone under contract I would probably have been put into something that I was not ready to cope with.

Roger Moore9:36

Uh

Presenter9:44

and my career would have been finished. As it was, I went on doing everything a bit of this and a bit of that, and I learnt.

Presenter9:50

To a certain extent, my craft. Did you find things pretty tough to start with? Did you have to do other jobs, modeling and that sort of thing? Well, I was in and out of rep.

Presenter10:00

and tours and the odd spit and cough B B C. I did the early days of television when there was only B B C, not B B C one or two or I T V. It was just the Alexandra Palace with two stages. And I did some stage management as well and I did a little modelling on the side.

Presenter10:23

Did about everything. Now you had a break in a West End play that had a good long run.

Presenter10:29

Well, I was in Mr. Roberts. Yes, that's the one I was thinking of. But I I really uh didn't have too much to do apart from make announcements and understudy. And at the same time I was understudying in everything in the West End. I I I was riding what was called the tenant bicycle. I was understudying in the little hut, both David Tomlinson and Geoffrey Toon. I was understudying for a while in Waters of the Moon, all at the same time. I never knew which theatre to go to. I just that's what they meant by riding the bicycle.

Presenter10:57

What took you first to the United States?

Presenter11:00

In nineteen fifty three I finally I w I went with my then wife Dorothy Squires. We went off to discover a new world. Did you?

Presenter11:10

Well, they discovered me. I'm delighted to say MGM, for some unknown reason, put me under contract. What was the first film you made for them? The last time I saw Paris with Elizabeth Taylor and Van Johnson. Before that you had appeared in one Broadway play that had a rather poor run.

Presenter11:27

Oh, it was a fantastic success.

Presenter11:30

A play that's been seen on television here, a pinned to see the peep show. Yes. It opened on September the 17th, 1953, and closed on September the 17th, 1953. Well, this is rather encouraging because you can always. Who for struggling actors? Well, you can always say that however long I'm in the business, I'm never going to have a shorter run than this. You certainly couldn't.

Roger Moore11:42

Who for?

Presenter11:50

Right, so the first time I saw Paris. The last time I saw Paris. The last time I saw Paris. What was the first film you did with your name above the title? That was my fourth film at MGM, and that was a film called Diane. I played opposite Lana Turner. Wonderful piece of casting. Lana was Diane de Poitier. I played Henry II of France. My father was played by Pedro Amandaires as François Prime. He was Mexican. And Lana Turner, of course, American. When it came round to casting the part of Catherine de' Medici, my wife in the film.

Presenter12:26

They tested

Presenter12:27

A wonderful French actress called Nicole Marais.

Presenter12:30

And then rejected her because she had a French accent, and my wife had to be Italian. I mean, and I'm an Englishman playing a Frenchman. Absolutely crazy, but that's Hollywood to me.

Roger Moore12:33

Italian. I mean, and I'm an English

Presenter12:38

Now you were to stay in costume for quite a long time, because quite soon after that you went into Ivanhoe.

Presenter12:44

Yes. How many episodes of Ivanher did you do?

Presenter12:48

I think it was thirty nine.

Presenter12:50

It seems an awful long time ago.

Presenter12:53

An awful lot of rusty armour has gone under the bridge since then. And then, of course, The Miracle, that was a costume for the. The Miracle, yes, th that the Duke of Wellington's nephew in that.

Roger Moore12:59

The memory of the

Presenter13:03

The Rape of the Sabines, that of course. I I did two more television series in between that at Warner Brothers, The Alaskans, which never showed here.

Roger Moore13:05

Close that.

Roger Moore13:07

Yeah.

Presenter13:14

And Maverick, in which I replaced James Garner. Well, that's right. That was the the break for your cowboy period. There was Maverick and then um.

Presenter13:22

Gold of the Seven Saints. You were an Irish cowboy in the Irish cowboy. It was a very prophetic title in actual fact, Gold of the Seven Saints, because I went on after that to make a film called Gold.

Presenter13:34

I did the Saint for seven years and I've done double O seven, I think.

Presenter13:41

Right, yes, of course.

Presenter13:43

Well, at this point, which seemed to have a sort of mystic significance, let's have your third record. Barry Manilow. Ready to take a chance again.

Speaker 413:54

Take a chance of giving

Speaker 413:59

Good morning, oh line.

Speaker 414:06

Been living with nothing to show for it

Speaker 414:11

Get what you get when you go

Presenter14:22

Barry Manila. Right now after the the costume period and the cowboy period it must have been something of a relief to wear your own suits again.

Presenter14:31

in The Saint. That ran longer, I think, than I haven't heard.

Presenter14:35

Oh, yes, it did. We uh went on for nearly seven years. I read somewhere that you had played Hundred and Fourteen Hours as the Saint, and that doesn't include a couple of features. Yes, you're absolutely right. Now you directed some installments. Uh yes, I f I found that it was

Presenter14:52

Easier to do it because as a director, I didn't have an actor to argue with, and as an actor, I didn't have a director to argue with. I just got on with it. But seriously, did that appeal?

Roger Moore14:59

I agree with.

Presenter15:02

Yes, I love. I lo I love directing. Have you done much since? I then in The Persuaders directed some, and I've uh I've not directed any feature films. I have been, I am delighted to say, offered them, even without me in them.

Roger Moore15:13

You're out.

Presenter15:15

And you produced a feature, the crossplot, was it? Yes, m well, my partner Bob Baker and I, we did the same together and the Persuaders and we did for you a a a film called Crossplot.

Roger Moore15:18

Yeah.

Presenter15:25

Now, the Persuaders, I missed that. Now, what was the Persuaders? I didn't see one. There was Tony Curtis and myself. And.

Presenter15:33

We did it for about thirteen and a half months. It was a story, funnily enough, of an American and an Englishman.

Presenter15:40

And I was

Presenter15:42

Lord Brett Sinclair, and Tony was Danny, somebody or other.

Presenter15:47

I can never remember what the other name was, because I never called him by it. Who were you persuading to do what?

Presenter15:52

Well, we were sort of brought together by a judge who tried us to it was a sort of four just men, only there were two of us and the accent was more on comedy.

Presenter16:03

I think. Well then of course came James Bond, which we'll talk about in greater depth in a moment. Let let's have another disc.

Presenter16:12

Well, I think after all that amount of work I need slowing down a little. I would love a little of La Traviata.

Presenter17:03

Part of the overture to Verdi's La Traviata, Richard Bonning conducting the National Philharmonic Orchestra. Who is married, of course, to Joan Sutherland. Not the Philharmonic Orchestra, but Richard Bonning, as you know. She is a very large lady, of course. A few years ago I'm absolutely in awe of Joan Sutherland, having seen her do Lucia de Lammamour. She is absolutely wonderful, and you know, being a straight actor and with a touch of vaudeville in my background.

Roger Moore17:14

Really fun.

Roger Moore17:16

As a lady, of course.

Presenter17:32

uh most impressed with operatic stars and I was at that time was chairman of the Spastics, the Stars organization for Spastics, and she very kindly gave a concert for us at the the Arbutt Hall.

Presenter17:45

and I afterwards had to sit next to her at a dinner that was given.

Presenter17:50

I was absolutely petrified.

Presenter17:52

And she looked at me and she said, You know, something, you're a real beaut. You're not as good looking as my hubby over there, but you are beautiful. She was a wonderful lady. She is a wonderful lady. Yes, she is indeed.

Roger Moore18:02

She is a woman.

Presenter18:05

Right, Roger, James Bond, 007, licensed to kill, that successful creation of the late Ian Fleming.

Presenter18:12

Now you've done, what, four or five films now? My fifth. My fifth is out now for your eyes only. Now, these have taken you to a lot of nice locations, and I'm sure you've met some very interesting people. I mean, the whole thing sounds a very good setup. How long does each production take? Actual shooting time for me approximately uh twenty-six weeks, six months. Sometimes twenty-two. In the main, twenty-six. Or the new one is going to make a lot of money, obviously. We we sincerely hope so.

Presenter18:41

Two things arise. Does it worry you that you're hardly being stretched as an actor, as Bond?

Presenter18:48

Maybe just as well. That's a defeatist attitude. Well, I enjoy making films, whether I have a lot to say or very little to say. I mean I

Presenter18:58

I say my name is Bond James Bond.

Presenter19:01

Do you enjoy the gadgetry?

Presenter19:04

Uh some of them, yes. I can tell you one I really didn't enjoy, which was in um

Presenter19:09

Moonraker, which was th the wonderful gondola that had to come out of the water and then drive across St Mark's Square in Venice. Oh, yes, yes. But of course, those things really don't work, and it was supposed to be a hovercraft, but it wasn't. It was an old Ford Cortina and had to be towed up the ramp. And it kept every time I started it, it tipped over, and I, like an onion, for two days kept falling in the waters of Venice, much to the amusement of forty thousand American, German, and Japanese tourists. Well, let's face it, it isn't terribly clean, is it? No, nor am I.

Roger Moore19:18

Yeah.

Presenter19:42

Ha ha ha ha ha.

Presenter19:44

Now the other thing, the violence, I mean the in the new one, two hours and seven minutes of nonstop mayhem. Does it worry you that you're showing all this violence to the impressionable young and the impressionable feeble minded?

Presenter19:59

Uh well, I think that not in the case of Bond. I think they all recognise that it is fantasy, it is not your Sampecken power.

Roger Moore20:08

Yeah.

Presenter20:09

type violence by that. People who don't know Sam Peckenbar is he directed films like The Wild Bunch. And in a sense, you know, he makes it an art, but it is all in slow motion. I mean, blood and brains flow very slowly across the screen.

Roger Moore20:16

Yeah.

Presenter20:25

The only slow motion in Bond is when we're trying to walk on the Moon.

Presenter20:30

or showing a car turning around going over a river. We don't dwell on the blood and the gore. In fact, there is very little blood, if you work it out. There's a vast amount of carnage, but very little blood. True. They're slow bleeders.

Presenter20:46

Now the next Bond film is already being publicised. Are you going to do that?

Presenter20:50

Ah, well, we're back to the cat and mouse game that I play with Cubby Broccoli, you know. If I say yes, I am going to do it, he thinks I've committed myself and I'll work cheap.

Presenter20:59

So you don't know? Well, lawyers get a great deal of money an hour.

Roger Moore21:00

Yeah.

Presenter21:03

So they like to spin out the contracts.

Roger Moore21:07

I don't know.

Presenter21:13

and I would hate to miss.

Presenter21:14

A wonderful acting part, which I I may be able to prove to myself that I can do it.

Presenter21:22

Record number five. Bob Newhart, who for years has made me roll around all over the place and one particular thing that he did, which was the captain of a a submarine, a nuclear submarine, that had spent two years under water going around the world, is about to surface. He's already asked the crew to sort of let's hear it for the cook.

Presenter21:45

Pick it up there.

Roger Moore21:47

As we're adding another glorious page to the already illustrious history of the USS codfish.

Roger Moore21:55

I don't know if you men know this, the codfish uh holds the record for the most Japanese tonnage sunk.

Roger Moore22:01

being comprised of five freighters.

Roger Moore22:04

and five uh aircraft carriers.

Roger Moore22:06

Unfortunately, they were all sunk.

Roger Moore22:09

In nineteen fifty four,

Roger Moore22:12

when we we were no longer at war with the Japanese.

Presenter22:17

Bob knew her.

Presenter22:19

Now, James Bond may not call for much in the way of dedicated acting, but it does call for a great deal of physical endurance. Do you go into training before you start one?

Presenter22:30

Well, I'm in I'm in training most of the time. I lead a very outdoor life.

Presenter22:35

is in the winter a lot of cross country skiing, you know, which is very good for the line.

Presenter22:40

And a little downhill when I

Presenter22:42

remain off my head. Tennis, I play and I swim and I sail and invariably if I haven't got time to do that during the day, I then do a physical work out in front of an open window, at home or in my hotel room. So you're ready to start a film at any time? Yes. Do you have a script?

Presenter23:02

Yes, of course. Curiously enough, I was going to talk to you about that. Thank you. But here on here on the island, of course, we don't have a camera, do we?

Roger Moore23:06

Here on here on the island of Go

Presenter23:10

Let's talk about some of the other pictures which you intersperse between the bonds. Um gold you mentioned, that had a a rather unusual background. Yes, we shot that in the gold mines in South Africa, appropriately enough, actually. Three to six thousand feet below ground most of the time. Was it? Yes. Very hot, rather worrying. Uh a little worrying. Sometimes, you know, because the shift goes down in the morning, we used to have to go down with the morning shift, and their job is to go and set charges to start blasting.

Presenter23:42

and then at two o'clock they come up and they set off the charges, and so when they go down later there are nice great big holes in the wall. Sometimes we were trapped down there when the charges went off.

Presenter23:54

And that noise rings in the ears somewhat. Which other films do you like to remember, The Wild Geese? Wild Geese was fun. We shot that a few miles south of what was then the Rhodesian border, in a place called Chapiz. And for the first time in my life, I I was able to work with two people I knew and admired greatly, Richard Harris and Richard Burton.

Presenter24:14

And a director, of course, who I adored is Andrew McLagland.

Presenter24:18

son of the late great Victor. And the Sea Wolves was was a very enjoyable picture. A lot of old mates in that one. Oh, absolutely. Well, d not so much accent on the old. A lot of mates say Gregory Beck, David Niver. I act I'd actually, funnily enough, going back to my cartooning career,

Roger Moore24:28

And next meet we say Greg

Presenter24:36

That was when I first met David Niven. Really? And he w he was it was actually a cover, his job. He was a lieutenant colonel then, and he was the technical adviser, presumably, on an instructional film we were making called The Seventeen Pounder, a gun.

Roger Moore24:38

But it

Presenter24:49

And he really was

Presenter24:53

Casting Montgomery

Presenter24:55

Oh, really? F for the deception.

Presenter24:59

Quite interesting then. Yeah. To me, certainly. Then I worked again with David much later, which was in a film edited MGM, The King's Thief. And then we got to work together in a a film that was not quite so successful called Escape to Athena. And then finally in The Sea Wars. Mm-hmm. Not finally, I hope. I hope there's another one somewhere. You've got two in the pipeline which we haven't seen yet. Sunday Loves. Sunday Lovers? Sunday Loves, which is it? Sunday Lovers. It's a it's a film in four parts. I've not seen the other three parts, but the part I did was with a wonderful cast, Lynn Redgrave, Denham Elliott, and a young American actress called Priscilla Barnes. And of course directed by a great chum of mine, Brian Forbes, who was actually in the I Corps and in the Army with me, and written by Leslie Brickers, who is an old chum.

Roger Moore25:19

Finally, I hope I hope there's another one up somewhere.

Presenter25:52

And there's another comedy we haven't seen yet. And yes, there's a film called The Cannonball Run, which has opened to enormous figures in America. I seem to be in competition with myself, actually. Well, in that one, you see, I I play a nice Jewish fellow called Seymour Goldfarb, who is heir to the largest girdle manufacturing company in the world, and is the despair of his mother, Molly Pecon, because she says you walk around thinking you're some gay actor called Roger Moore.

Roger Moore26:03

Is that

Presenter26:25

And this is the first film to show the outtakes, I gather. Well, th they did it once before on the closing titles of another Hal Hal Needham directed it, you know, Smoking the Bandit. And uh he did it on that. And in this we use nobody reads the titles. I mean the outtakes are so funny. But not quite as funny as the film, I don't think.

Presenter26:44

Let's have another record. Well, this one I would like to preface the reason that I would like this, because it would bring back memories to me on the island of the one night in my life when I was absolutely terrified. Fortunately, the spotlight was only on my face, so the audience couldn't see my left leg, which was shaking uncontrollably. I was on the same stage as Liza Minelli and Jack Jones and Mantini and all the greats of music, all performing beautifully, and I can't sing, and so I recited. Where was this? This was at a tribute to Leslie Brickers and Tony Newley in Hollywood. And I got up and recited from Goodbye, Mr. Chips, to the music, of course, of Fill the World with Love.

Speaker 427:28

Build the world within another

Speaker 427:32

We should feel the world with love

Speaker 427:36

Could you feel the world of my whole life?

Presenter27:49

Fill the world with love from the soundtrack of Goodbye, Mr. Chips. Where is bass nowadays, Roger? Where do you live?

Presenter27:56

In the main, Switzerland. That is where my home is, it's where all my children are. All your children, you have three. I have three, yes. Are they showing any inclinations towards following you? Uh my daughter is just finishing her A levels, graduates this month, and I filled out the application form for her the other day for Rada.

Presenter28:17

and she will audition in December and if she passes the audition she will start rather next May. Another record. Well, we spoke about the guitar before and this is somebody I would love to be able to play like Leona Boyd, she's a Canadian girl who is absolutely wonderful and this is Memories of the Alamborough.

Presenter29:25

Recuerdos de la Alhambra by Terega played by Leona Boyd.

Presenter29:31

Now, we've seen you break out of tricky situations with one bound as bond. How about this desert island? Could you look after yourself? Could you build a hut?

Presenter29:42

Yes, I suppose the the the equipment were around. I think the equipment's there, you have no tools.

Roger Moore29:45

The equipment's there, you are

Presenter29:48

I have no tools. I mean, you have some palm fronds, you will have some bamboo, I expect. I should grow my nails very long immediately. I would look for seashells, which would obviously be cutting tools. I'd get a roof above my head in no time. Well, it's going to take a certain amount of time to grow your nails. You'll have to sleep rough for a bit. Well, the diet I would be on, I'm afraid, would be full of calcium, wouldn't it? I mean, it would be all shellfish. Can you cultivate?

Roger Moore30:10

Well the diet I

Presenter30:18

As a child, I used to grow mustard and cress in a saucer underneath a wet handkerchief.

Presenter30:26

Well, it's a limited diet, but it it's a help. But I like mustard and cress. Would you try to escape?

Presenter30:34

Well, I'm a very good swimmer, as a matter of fact. Yes. And

Presenter30:39

One calm day I might be tempted just to go swimming off.

Presenter30:44

And as Bond, I've four sharks. Do you know which way to swim? Can you navigate? Do you know Yes, I can navigate, I sail. Yes. Could you could you build a boat of some sort, a craft, a raft? Oh, with what is on the island, yes, with bamboo, most certainly, and with palm fronds. All right, we'll give you your castaway's badge. Thank you very much. Your last record.

Presenter31:07

Well while I'm waiting for my nails to grow in this island, I'm going to need another laugh.

Presenter31:12

And I think Tom Lehrer, with his wonderful black humour,

Presenter31:18

and I hold your hand in mine.

Speaker 431:21

My joy would be complete

Speaker 431:26

If you were only here...

Speaker 431:29

But still I keep your hand as a precious

Speaker 431:35

So run here.

Speaker 431:38

The night you died, I cut it off.

Speaker 431:42

I really don't know why.

Speaker 431:46

For now each time I kiss it, I get bloodstains on my tie.

Presenter31:55

Tom Lehrer. Now, Roger, if you could take only one disc out of the eight you've chosen, which would it be?

Presenter32:03

I think I would stay with Frank Sinatra. New York, New York. And one luxury to take with you, one thing that would give you pleasure to have with you, but it's of no practical use.

Presenter32:15

I would like a a video player. Yes, we can manage that. To play what?

Presenter32:22

Well, the video cassettes that I would have in there that would have been of All My Family. Right, that we can organize, by Solar Power, and one book apart from the Bible and Shakespeare, which are already there.

Presenter32:35

I have just finished reading Noble House by Clavelle. That's a good long read. And that is a long read and a wonderful read, and while I'm reading it would remind me of Taipan, which I've always wanted to play, and King Rat, which I would love to have been in, because that's all part of Noble House.

Presenter32:56

James Clavelle.

Presenter32:58

You shall have it. And thank you, Roger Moore, for letting us hear your Desert Island Discs. Well, thank you for coming with me on the island. It was very nice. Goodbye, everyone.

Roger Moore33:01

Yeah.

Speaker 233:15

You've been listening to a download from the Desert Island Discs archive.

Speaker 233:19

For more downloads, please visit the Radio 4 website.