Jenny Agutter

Speaker 30:00

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

Speaker 30:05

For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music. The programme was originally broadcast in 1982, and the presenter was Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:30

This week, our castaway is the actress Jenny Agata. Jenny, how important is music in your life?

Jenny Agutter0:37

Very. I think one of the first things I do on arrival anywhere is to make sure that I have a fairly good sound system in the house, because I don't feel settled really without that.

Jenny Agutter0:46

and then I carry around cassettes and things with me. I enjoy listening to it because I find it very relaxing. Any different types of music I enjoy. And it's just a way of of relaxing and feeling out of different mood, you know.

Presenter0:58

Have you any musical skill yourself? Do you play the piano?

Jenny Agutter1:01

No. I learnt, I think, as everybody sort of does at at school, the guitar, and I can do about three chords and sing very simple songs like Blowing in the Wind and Michael Row the Boat Ashore and things like that.

Presenter1:12

Have you planned profession?

Jenny Agutter1:13

No. At home I was very much put off singing by being told when I used to sing in the shower Please Shut up

Presenter1:19

Oh no.

Presenter1:21

Are you an only child? Who was telling you to shut up?

Presenter1:24

But

Presenter1:26

Now you're very well travelled. Have your travels included any desert islands?

Jenny Agutter1:31

Islands, yes, but not really desert islands. Now I lived on C on Cyprus f for quite a long time.

Jenny Agutter1:37

which is a fairly large island.

Presenter1:38

Yes, I don't think that kind of

Jenny Agutter1:39

That doesn't count. And the only other thing is I had a very brief holiday in Tortola where a friend got married, which is a rather odd place to get married.

Jenny Agutter1:46

He was English and the wife was American, so it was somewhere in between.

Jenny Agutter1:52

And that was um coconut uh.

Presenter1:54

Coconut territory.

Jenny Agutter1:55

Yeah.

Presenter1:56

Could you endure loneliness?

Jenny Agutter1:59

In my imagination very easily. Yes, I enjoy being on my own.

Presenter2:04

You've got just eight records to keep you company. What's the first one you've chosen?

Jenny Agutter2:09

Jean-Pierre Rampal and Claude Bowling.

Jenny Agutter2:12

doing a piece from Claude Bowling's Suite for piano and flute.

Jenny Agutter2:18

And the piece is actually called

Jenny Agutter2:21

Baroque and blue.

Jenny Agutter2:23

I think one of the important things about music is is whatever it should delight in some way, and I find this a very delightful, light, enjoyable piece and quite simple.

Presenter3:01

Baroque and blue from the suite for flute and jazz piano, composed and played by Claude Boulain and Jean Pierre Wampal, the flautist. Now, your father, of course, was in the entertainment business.

Jenny Agutter3:13

That's right, yes. He has been running the entertainment for the for the forces for quite a few years now.

Jenny Agutter3:20

Uh

Presenter3:20

Are you still doing it?

Jenny Agutter3:21

Yes, he's still doing it, yes.

Presenter3:22

James

Jenny Agutter3:23

So I remember from the age of about eight onwards him being involved in variety, people like um Lonnie Donegan and Marty Wilde and Harry Seacomb coming out to Cyprus.

Presenter3:33

Uh

Jenny Agutter3:34

And now he does the same thing from London.

Presenter3:34

Yeah.

Presenter3:36

So he went wherever the troops were.

Jenny Agutter3:38

Yes, he he was based in Cyprus and he used to travel around the Middle East at that time and now he goes all over the world to um various places.

Presenter3:44

And did you and the rest of the family go with him?

Jenny Agutter3:47

When we were in Cyprus we used to see the shows there, but no, we didn't travel because they only have a short tours and things, so we didn't um go to the shows later on. But in Cyprus I do remember them coming out and we'd go and see them at various army bases.

Speaker 23:59

Yes.

Jenny Agutter3:59

The shows were were great to watch and uh even though they were often done in army tents and

Jenny Agutter4:04

Odd locations.

Jenny Agutter4:06

It's somewhat different in a way really than obviously the theatre I'm involved in, but it must have given me a taste for some sort of public life, just enjoying these uh figures that that came out.

Presenter4:16

So that was an early ambition as a result of these shows, was it? That that's where you wanted to spend your life.

Jenny Agutter4:21

Yeah.

Jenny Agutter4:23

Maybe there's somewhere in that I enjoy the idea of entertainment.

Jenny Agutter4:27

Although for me it was always going to take a different form. I went back from Cyprus to a ballet school and I enjoyed dancing. But, you know, it's obviously something extrovert and and it was.

Jenny Agutter4:36

stage and I probably was somewhat stage struck.

Jenny Agutter4:40

in a very childish way.

Jenny Agutter4:42

But in fact it wasn't really what started me in film. I I got into film quite by chance.

Presenter4:46

Yes. Well, we'll talk about that in a minute. In the meantime, let's have your second record. What's that?

Jenny Agutter4:51

The second record is Buddy Holly.

Jenny Agutter4:54

It's Peggy Sue, which makes me laugh.

Jenny Agutter4:58

And uh

Jenny Agutter5:00

I really enjoy rock and roll and and Buddy Holly to me really is the beginning of of rock and roll and this song I particularly like, so.

Jenny Agutter5:07

as Peggy Sue.

Speaker 25:15

Maybe you need

Speaker 25:16

Piggy Soup

Speaker 25:18

Then you know why I feel blue without Peggy

Speaker 25:23

Fuck the eggy soup.

Speaker 25:27

Oh well I love you, Kelly, I love you, begging soon.

Presenter5:29

The

Speaker 25:34

Veggie soon

Speaker 25:35

Eggy suit

Presenter5:38

Peggy Sue by Buddy Holly.

Presenter5:40

The ballet school you went to, was that in London?

Jenny Agutter5:44

No, it was in Camberley.

Jenny Agutter5:46

Out in Surrey, not far from Sandhurst.

Presenter5:48

How old were you when you went there?

Jenny Agutter5:50

9.

Presenter5:51

Now it's there that you got into films by A Curious. Connection of circumstances. Tell me about that.

Jenny Agutter5:56

So tell me about that.

Jenny Agutter5:58

What happened was that um Walt Disney was making a film about the Royal Danish Ballet.

Jenny Agutter6:03

and he auditioned girls from various ballet schools.

Jenny Agutter6:06

and I was auditioned.

Jenny Agutter6:08

And then I was asked if I would screen test, and the school sent a telegram to my parents saying, Do you mind if she screen tests? Don't worry, not Nordic type.

Jenny Agutter6:17

In other words, she'll have a jolly nice weekend, but don't worry, nothing very much'll come of it.

Jenny Agutter6:21

And I also wrote home and said I was going out for the part of a great day'cause I thought it was a pantomime and I had no idea what it Uh

Speaker 26:26

Yeah.

Jenny Agutter6:26

Yeah.

Jenny Agutter6:27

And I think, you know, as I said, because my parents were involved in some way with the entertainment world, it didn't seem such a strange thing, you know, to be going off and perhaps going up for a film or whatever. And I actually got that role, but it was two months before I heard anything back from the Disney studios about it. I screen tested in Berlin, and it was great fun. I went with about five other girls.

Presenter6:48

Yeah

Jenny Agutter6:48

But whilst I was going up for the part,

Jenny Agutter6:50

I was then seen by an agent who handled Anthony Quayle.

Jenny Agutter6:54

And Anthony Quayle was making this film called East of Sudan, and they were looking for a young girl to play an Arab.

Jenny Agutter6:59

Quite different. Definitely not Nordic.

Jenny Agutter7:01

And the one thing about her is that she had to be quite small and light because she was younger and she has to be carried through this thing quite a lot by Anthony Quayle and one of the other actors.

Jenny Agutter7:09

Samaya

Jenny Agutter7:10

Audition for that was going and meeting these people and being picked up, and I was found to be the right weight and cast.

Presenter7:18

So really you've got both film jobs at the same time?

Jenny Agutter7:18

Got both.

Jenny Agutter7:20

Yes, a lightweight actress.

Presenter7:21

See ya.

Presenter7:23

Where did you make the the Danish belly for?

Jenny Agutter7:25

In Denmark and Berlin. We did a lot of the studio work in Berlin and filmed at at the theatre at the Royal Danish Ballet use, which was of course a great thrill for me.

Presenter7:34

Yes, I would think.

Jenny Agutter7:34

Because I love ballet at that stage, you know, I really I still do.

Jenny Agutter7:37

But then I sort of believed somehow that maybe I would be a dancer.

Jenny Agutter7:41

The dedication slowly diminished.

Jenny Agutter7:45

And it was certainly fun.

Presenter7:47

And what about the Anthony Quayle film? Where did you make that?

Jenny Agutter7:49

That was all done at Shepperton Studios, not the Sudan at all.

Presenter7:52

Not the Siddhan at all.

Jenny Agutter7:54

No desert, no lions, no giraffes, nothing. Lots of back projections, shots stolen for other films. In fact, the whole reason I wore my costume was they used footage from a film I think called Four Feathers in which there's this young boy who falls off and they wanted to use this spectacular falling off a water for. And this whoever the person was was costumed in blue trousers, red shirt and had short black hair.

Jenny Agutter8:18

I had this costume for the film.

Speaker 28:20

Ha ha ha ha.

Jenny Agutter8:21

But it was great fun, I must say, as as a child, you know,'cause you totally

Jenny Agutter8:25

Fall into the it was make-believe, and I thought this was what films were about, and it was great fun. And they said, Now there's a lion there, do you see this lion in the distance? I remember Jerry Duran, the director.

Jenny Agutter8:34

holding his hat up and saying, Now this is a giraffe, now watch this And of course, you know, at eleven years of age, I just thought this is wonderful.

Presenter8:40

It was a game.

Jenny Agutter8:41

Game and people throwing rubber rocks around and spears and things and bouncing off

Jenny Agutter8:46

When I did the f waterfall scene, I fell off a six-foot cliff, which was a little sort of

Jenny Agutter8:52

asbestos rock onto a mattress and Julie bounce back into shot again.

Presenter8:57

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

Presenter8:58

Record number three

Jenny Agutter9:00

The third record is a piece of classical music that I really love. It reminds me very much of the English countryside. In fact, it's the pastoral Beethoven's sixth.

Jenny Agutter9:11

Symphony.

Jenny Agutter9:12

And there's a particular passage in it which is

Jenny Agutter9:15

very grand and one of the things, again, with with music, it's l it's lovely to feel the grandeur of something and and to be moved in the way that Beethoven can move one.

Presenter10:24

Part of the first movement of the Beethoven Sixth Symphony, the Pastorale, Herbert von Carrian conducting the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. So you had done two films, Jenny. Were you allowed then to go back and finish your education in peace at school?

Jenny Agutter10:39

Well, neither of those two films really interfered very much with my education, which is why I was really allowed to do them. And also it was sort of early on, so it didn't matter. But yes, I went back to school and did films off and on, providing it was always the provisor was that it wasn't going to take too much time away. If I was away from school it would be for three weeks at a time, and then I would have to have a tutor during that time.

Presenter10:58

Yes. Was dancing as important to you now as it had been, now that you're done acting?

Jenny Agutter11:04

Oh, absolutely. In fact, more so. The filming to me at that age was

Jenny Agutter11:09

As I say, I looked at it very childishly. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the life of it. It was wonderful going to the places I was visiting, you know, even if it was Shepherd's Hughes.

Jenny Agutter11:18

But I didn't take it seriously and I didn't think of it as being something that I would probably carry on with and or take up. Therefore dancing was most important. It was very absorbing and I was doing ballet every day.

Speaker 211:25

Yeah.

Presenter11:25

Yeah.

Jenny Agutter11:29

It was only later on that I realized that I hadn't the dedication to the banning.

Jenny Agutter11:33

And it's only later on that I realized that I would have to think about what I wanted to do with my life, but not until I was about fourteen, fifteen.

Presenter11:39

Yeah.

Jenny Agutter11:39

Yeah. And I was going to have to think about exams and ballet exams and

Jenny Agutter11:43

education and things like that.

Presenter11:45

I suppose the next important thing in your life was Walk About, the film that was made in Australia. You were, what, sixteen when you made that?

Jenny Agutter11:51

I was sixteen when I made Walk About. In fact, there had been a couple of other things before. One was a television which actually led to me getting the role in Walk About, which was in the Boy Meets Girls series which they did some years ago. I was fourteen.

Jenny Agutter12:06

And uh it was a love story, a sort of love story, between an artist and a young girl.

Jenny Agutter12:11

And in fact, Nicholas Rogue's wife saw me doing that.

Jenny Agutter12:15

and said Why didn't Nicholas Rogue see me for the part in Walkabout? which is when I met him when I was fourteen and the film wasn't actually done until much later.

Speaker 212:18

Do it on

Presenter12:21

But

Jenny Agutter12:21

And of course I did Real With Children on television before I did it as a film.

Presenter12:24

Oh, you did that?

Jenny Agutter12:25

Yes.

Presenter12:25

When you were still at school.

Jenny Agutter12:27

I was still at school, yes, I was fourteen when I did the uh television version.

Presenter12:28

Yeah.

Presenter12:31

And then walk about. Now that was an exciting film to make, I should think, in the Australian Art Back.

Jenny Agutter12:35

Yes.

Jenny Agutter12:37

For two reasons.

Jenny Agutter12:38

The Australian Outback, which is an extraordinary location to be in, and also working with Nicholas Rogue, who's a great director.

Jenny Agutter12:44

I think probably at sixteen I didn't really appreciate that and I hadn't really seen anything that he'd done before the film because he'd only just finished performance when we started doing Okaba.

Jenny Agutter12:52

and I was sixteen and travelling round this wonderful landscape.

Jenny Agutter12:56

I really fell in love with the with the place. It is strange, it has extraordinary colours.

Jenny Agutter13:01

has very strange people.

Jenny Agutter13:04

Yeah.

Presenter13:04

Uh A little s

Jenny Agutter13:04

In some of the outback towns.

Presenter13:06

Yeah.

Presenter13:07

And then you made the film version, the feature film version, of the Railway Children.

Jenny Agutter13:11

Right.

Presenter13:11

in which you had had this success on television.

Presenter13:14

Where did you make it? Where did they get all that lovely rolling stock from? Was it a real station?

Jenny Agutter13:19

Oh, yes.

Jenny Agutter13:21

Up at um Howarth, the Worth Valley railway line.

Jenny Agutter13:24

What happened was Lowell Jeffries found this location, which was obviously beautiful for the whole of the film, all of the Yorkshire moors and things.

Jenny Agutter13:31

and uh the railway line which was run by the enthusiasts up there.

Jenny Agutter13:35

And they um

Jenny Agutter13:37

contributed to the railway line by doing up the places and and painting it back as it originally was and giving money to the to the stations and things.

Jenny Agutter13:44

and it was a wonderful place to work.

Presenter13:46

I should think so.

Jenny Agutter13:47

And the and the enthusiasts played various roles, you know, as station masters and things.

Presenter13:53

And there's a kind of immortality about that film. I think children will always love it.

Jenny Agutter13:58

It's a film, you know, people actually say to me, Are you annoyed about Railway Children that people keep on harping on about it?

Jenny Agutter14:03

But no, because I do think it's a very special film. I think it's a really wonderful film. And it captures something extraordinary. It captures.

Jenny Agutter14:11

that innocence it's like the end of a summer, it's like the

Jenny Agutter14:14

you know, the it's the adolescence or whatever. It's the end of childhood.

Presenter14:17

Yeah.

Jenny Agutter14:17

Which E. Nesbitt does all the time in her book. She captures childhood, but it's in a in a in a strange sort of looking back.

Jenny Agutter14:24

It's in a sentimental but lovely way, and I think Nional Jeffrey has made an extraordinary film.

Presenter14:28

Yes, it is most sensitive and most loving.

Jenny Agutter14:30

Yeah, and therefore I'm very happy, as you say. And I've got to an age now where I'm quite happy to be remembered as sixty.

Presenter14:35

Yeah.

Jenny Agutter14:36

I don't mind that going on.

Presenter14:38

Record number four, what's that?

Jenny Agutter14:40

Bob Dylan.

Jenny Agutter14:41

Someone that I've always enjoyed all the way through my life in various stages. He seems to begin with to have been the sort of.

Jenny Agutter14:48

revolutionary young figure or whatever.

Jenny Agutter14:51

And I love listening to the words of his song.

Jenny Agutter14:53

which often have wonderful poetry in them, even though sometimes the singing seems relentless in going through them, I must say it. Some of his songs I enjoy being sung by other people, but this one I love which he sang himself, and this is I Want You.

Speaker 215:23

Guilty undertaker sighs, The lonesome organ grinder cries, The silver saxophones say I should refuse you.

Speaker 215:32

The cracked bills and washed out horns Blew into my face with scorn.

Presenter15:37

Bob Dylan, I want you. Now, after The Railway Children, well, you were a grown-up actress from now on.

Presenter15:45

You went to Hollywood for a film.

Jenny Agutter15:48

Yes, actually maybe not quite a grown up actress at that point.

Jenny Agutter15:51

After Railway Children, in fact I stayed I was in England for a while.

Jenny Agutter15:55

Very much getting past that adolescent stage.

Jenny Agutter15:58

And it was during this period of time in England that I started doing theatre.

Speaker 216:01

Mm-hmm.

Jenny Agutter16:02

I came out of school.

Jenny Agutter16:04

Aged seventeen, having done Walk Apart, a film called I Start Counting and Railway Children, realized in fact that I had no real knowledge of my profession.

Jenny Agutter16:13

and that the only things that people could look at were me as an adolescent, and suddenly I was out of that. I mean, it lasts a very short time.

Jenny Agutter16:20

So I thought, well, maybe I should do some theatre.

Jenny Agutter16:23

And television. Television, of course, is immediate, as is theatre.

Speaker 216:26

Yeah.

Jenny Agutter16:27

And one of the first theatre things I did was Lady Teasel and School for Scandal at Farnham Refugee Company.

Jenny Agutter16:33

which of course is a comedy.

Jenny Agutter16:34

I didn't get one laugh for the whole

Speaker 216:37

Ha ha ha.

Jenny Agutter16:38

I had a terrible time.

Jenny Agutter16:40

and um managed to catch flu and things, which I'm sure was uh

Jenny Agutter16:44

just as a result of not enjoying myself.

Jenny Agutter16:46

And I thought, I don't think stage is for me. But Fortunate was then offered another play immediately afterwards, which was at the Hampstead Theatre Club, and it was

Jenny Agutter16:54

a modern piece and it was an Australian writer and it was about Australia. And having been to Australia I thought well this is very

Jenny Agutter17:00

Funny.

Jenny Agutter17:01

and I understood the people and everything. I thought, well, it'd be really lovely to do,'cause it's a comedy and it's light and it's modern and I'll find it easier to do. So I did that and um it worked out. As soon as one got any sort of Australian audience in and you mentioned Foster's Lager they fell about, which is great encouragement when you're doing the comedy. Just had to say Bruce or Foster's Lager and I thought it was very fun.

Jenny Agutter17:20

And then James Maxwell offered me a role right from that in a a shore play.

Jenny Agutter17:25

Arms and the man.

Jenny Agutter17:27

With Tom Courtney.

Presenter17:28

Where should you do that?

Jenny Agutter17:29

With the Manchester Sixty Nine Company and we went to Sheffield and York.

Jenny Agutter17:34

and at Brighton and somewhere else. But the touring with that, and also working with someone as accomplished as Tom Courtenay and as good a director as James Maxwell.

Jenny Agutter17:43

Really, that was the beginning of my real enjoyment of theatre and understanding that, ah, there's an awful lot that one can do and it's great fun and I want to do this and I want to learn more about it.

Jenny Agutter17:54

And after that I did another play with Hampstead and then I went to uh the National.

Jenny Agutter17:59

and I spent almost a year there, doing the Tempest and Spring Awakening.

Presenter18:02

You played Miranda to Sir John Gilgood's Prospero, which must have been a wonderful experience.

Jenny Agutter18:04

Yeah.

Jenny Agutter18:06

Yes, because he is really the master of um Shakespeare. To listen to him you learn a great deal. It was just wonderful and inspiring to listen to. Also, as a person and as an actor, he's extremely generous and very, very helpful.

Jenny Agutter18:20

I had one of my first experiences of really

Jenny Agutter18:22

Losing concentration and drying on stage, which is when your mind goes completely blank and you don't know what you're doing. I remember looking at the audience and wondering why they were watching me.

Jenny Agutter18:31

And then thinking, Oh no, I have to say something, and wondering what it was, and then finally the line came. But the performance was completely frozen, as was my face and my body and everything. I couldn't really do it.

Jenny Agutter18:41

And at the end, um, Sir John Gilgood said to me,

Jenny Agutter18:43

What was the matter, dear? What went wrong? And I said, Oh

Jenny Agutter18:46

I don't know, I just panicked and I and I dried, I forgot the line He said, Oh, don't worry, if I see you're sinking, I'll throw you a line.

Speaker 218:52

Which was

Jenny Agutter18:53

Which was absolutely true. There's this person that totally knows what they're doing and he would completely support one through any drama.

Presenter18:54

Uh

Presenter19:00

Yes. And then after that?

Jenny Agutter19:01

And then after that was the move to America. It was when I finished at the National.

Jenny Agutter19:06

that I decided I really wanted to get back to doing film again.

Jenny Agutter19:09

And I also just wanted to go off somewhere that was completely my own territory.

Jenny Agutter19:14

And Los Angeles was going to be new ground and

Jenny Agutter19:18

In a way I was somewhat fighting the the image that was left with film. I hadn't done a film since Railway Children.

Jenny Agutter19:24

And therefore I decided to go over, and this was aged twenty one.

Jenny Agutter19:27

And I went over it was it was sort of crazy in a way, because a lot of people said, What are you going there for? There will be nothing to do, and they were quite right. I could have gone and boiled my brains, you know, sitting in the sunshine. And I was just lucky.

Jenny Agutter19:39

that a film came up.

Presenter19:40

What was it?

Jenny Agutter19:41

A film called Logan's Run.

Presenter19:42

Ah yes.

Jenny Agutter19:43

And the reason that I I was actually cast was because Mike Landerson, who's an English director,

Jenny Agutter19:49

had cast Michael Yaw.

Jenny Agutter19:50

as the leading role.

Jenny Agutter19:52

And um Peter Eustonoff.

Jenny Agutter19:54

And he obviously his his tendency was towards English actors as opposed to American ones.

Jenny Agutter19:59

And uh I was screen tested and got the role.

Jenny Agutter20:03

As I say, it was a lucky thing, you know.

Presenter20:03

Yeah.

Presenter20:05

Before we talk about some more of your films, let's have record number five.

Jenny Agutter20:09

This is a piece of music that really brings

Jenny Agutter20:12

Pictures into my mind. There are some pieces of classical music that one loves to listen to because you see vivid.

Jenny Agutter20:18

Scenes, almost like films running before your eyes. And this is Vaughan Williams.

Jenny Agutter20:23

Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tannis. Actually the the reason I I first played this was because as a child I'd always enjoyed green sleeves, which was something I used to endlessly sing at home. It was one of those songs that I was being told to shut up.

Presenter20:37

And one that you accompanied yourself on the guitar to, yeah?

Jenny Agutter20:40

No, at that stage I hadn't quite learnt Bekita. In fact, also I remember we used to audition every year at school. I never got to play acting roles at school. I was always given dancing parts.

Jenny Agutter20:49

And I remember struggling to get some sort of

Jenny Agutter20:52

acting or singing role in a in a play at school.

Jenny Agutter20:55

and for an audition I sang greensleeves.

Jenny Agutter20:59

And

Jenny Agutter21:00

I had my little school shirt on, tied with a belt, and my black tights and my Wellington boots which must have been quite a sight. And I stood quite far back on the stage and sang in a very quiet voice that no one could hear. And some one at the wings kept on telling me to move forward. So I spent all my time singing

Presenter21:06

Lovely.

Speaker 221:06

Pytha site

Jenny Agutter21:18

to the wings and off stage because of this person waving at me and trying to get me to move forward on the sta

Speaker 221:23

Yeah.

Jenny Agutter21:24

So that wasn't very successful. But the the reason I was mentioning that was that um this piece of Vaughan Williams first came to my attention when my parents got me uh a record of green sleeves. And it was um Vaughan Williams, again a fantasia on green sleeves, and on the other side was uh the Thomas Tannis theme.

Jenny Agutter21:41

Which I really love.

Presenter22:43

Part of the Phantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis, by Vaughan Williams, Sir John Barbie Raleigh conducting The Sinfonia of London. Let's talk about some more of your films. Logan's Run was the first Hollywood one. You went back with the Disney studio, didn't you?

Jenny Agutter22:58

Just recently, yes. Long gap in between.

Jenny Agutter23:02

and played in a film called Amy, which is about a young woman at the turn of the century that teaches deaf children to lip, read and speak.

Jenny Agutter23:09

It was extraordinary film to do, for one reason, working with the

Jenny Agutter23:13

Children from a deaf school.

Speaker 223:14

Mm-hmm.

Jenny Agutter23:15

who were very good fun, really lovely.

Jenny Agutter23:19

It was also a very good part to play.

Presenter23:20

Did you have to learn to sign?

Jenny Agutter23:22

I did, yes, but it was more really to understand what was going on with the children, because if you didn't, they were very sort of cheeky and were constantly um sending people up, rotten. You know,'cause there was this people can be very condescending, do you know, and sort of think, Well, aren't they sweet? and sort of pat them and

Jenny Agutter23:39

And just because they couldn't hear what was going on didn't mean they were totally they were totally aware of everything that was happening around them and they could lip-read it very well, a lot of them.

Jenny Agutter23:48

And um would then sign to one another extremely rude things.

Presenter23:51

The various people.

Jenny Agutter23:52

The various people that they could see. So I try to understand a little of it because also it's a courtesy, which is that there is it is their language and it's also a very expressive language, and I think perhaps

Presenter23:58

Okay.

Jenny Agutter24:02

It ought to be taught.

Jenny Agutter24:04

Because it's also a universal language and ought to be taught in schools and the

Presenter24:06

Not all

Presenter24:07

Except that the American language is slightly different from the European, isn't it?

Jenny Agutter24:09

It is slightly different. Yes, I think it would be it would be good if there was one language. But generally there are signs and symbols which are understood.

Presenter24:17

Now some of your other films, you did the film version of Equus.

Jenny Agutter24:20

Yes, right.

Presenter24:22

Joining in the fashion, you did a horror movie, An American Werewolf in London. I'm afraid I missed that. Tell me about it.

Jenny Agutter24:28

Ah, th that is the last film I made, and it's a horror film first.

Jenny Agutter24:33

But it's a horror film with a difference that it's very funny. But it's not a spoof. It's funny because it's.

Jenny Agutter24:39

crazy and the way John Landers used to describe it is it is as though, you know, someone says to you, Do you see that man over there in that corner with that cape and those funny teeth and there's blood? and you'd turn round and laugh,'cause it would seem ludicrous that there was this vampire figure. And then the next minute he turns round and bites you in the neck.

Speaker 224:55

It's that strange to spend

Jenny Agutter24:56

It's that strange suspension of of belief and then suddenly you believe the horror and at the same time you're laughing at it, you know, because it's so ridiculous to us in this day and age.

Speaker 224:58

Yeah.

Presenter25:05

Did you find it horrifying or funny to do, or both?

Jenny Agutter25:09

It's often funny, again, because you're in sort of slightly hysterical situations. If you've been filming through the night and it gets to be three o'clock in the morning and there's this

Jenny Agutter25:18

pretend wolf at the end, you're half believing in it and half thinking that that's funny and because at three o'clock in the morning there's no sense of reality at all.

Speaker 225:26

Hmm.

Speaker 325:26

Yeah.

Jenny Agutter25:26

Also, I mean, you can't help but laugh on the set

Jenny Agutter25:30

It seems that one's being stabbed and there's blood all over the place and you're actually just lying there on the floor with people pouring more and more blood over you.

Jenny Agutter25:36

And the only way out of that is to laugh at it.

Jenny Agutter25:38

Or cry.

Presenter25:39

Yeah.

Jenny Agutter25:41

It's very uncomfortable too.

Presenter25:42

Record number six.

Jenny Agutter25:44

Jethro Tull, a group that I very much enjoy.

Jenny Agutter25:47

particularly there's a piece that delights me, which is called Boure.

Jenny Agutter25:51

And it's all it it basically guitar and

Jenny Agutter25:54

Flute

Jenny Agutter25:55

Flute seems to be a preoccupation with me all the way through the reflute instrument. It it seems much more emotional than other instruments because it's like the breath, it's almost like someone breathing.

Jenny Agutter26:04

And uh

Jenny Agutter26:06

As I say I love this piece called Burray because it's very delightful.

Presenter26:39

Buray by Jethro Tal.

Presenter26:41

Now you're back in the theatre, Jenny, with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and after the horror film you're you're doing a horror play, Arden de Fabergeum.

Jenny Agutter26:48

Yes. Actually in some way it is quite similar.

Jenny Agutter26:53

to werewolf inasmuch as

Jenny Agutter26:55

It is a terrible story, and it is a true story that happened in fifteen fifty one, this murder.

Jenny Agutter27:01

Which is sort of fascinating.

Jenny Agutter27:03

and awful and gruesome, and yet

Jenny Agutter27:06

Funny.

Jenny Agutter27:07

Because you realize throughout the whole thing how difficult it is to murder someone.

Jenny Agutter27:11

How ridiculous the whole thing is

Speaker 227:13

Mm-hmm.

Jenny Agutter27:13

And I see it is a true story.

Jenny Agutter27:15

And we don't know who it's written by, it's an anonymous playwright in Shakespeare's time.

Presenter27:19

And after that you're going to d do Regan in King Lear, another well, almost a horror play too.

Jenny Agutter27:25

Yes, certainly another extremely bad lady.

Jenny Agutter27:30

Stiff fun to do.

Presenter27:31

And how long are you going to stay with the R A C, do you know?

Jenny Agutter27:34

I have a contract for sixty weeks, which will take me through into next year.

Presenter27:36

So much I'll take.

Presenter27:37

Do you know what you're going to do after Leah?

Jenny Agutter27:40

Well I'm doing the two Lears, one is King Lear and the other is Edward Bond's Lear, which we'll be playing simultaneously.

Presenter27:44

Which will be playing

Jenny Agutter27:46

And I hope I don't get into one of those terrible muddles where you say, Not the line, the play, please.

Presenter27:53

Another of your occupations is photography.

Jenny Agutter27:56

Yes.

Presenter27:57

In fact, you've got a camera in the studio here. You you hardly ever move without a camera.

Jenny Agutter28:01

I like to take it around with me, inevitably if I don't have it with me there's as a picture that I want to take.

Jenny Agutter28:06

In fact, this morning when I left home

Jenny Agutter28:08

As I was stepping out of the house, I rushed back in for the camera because

Jenny Agutter28:11

I'm living right.

Jenny Agutter28:13

on a farm with the sheep practically outside the window.

Jenny Agutter28:16

and as I was getting to my car I noticed that one of the lambs was lying on its mother's back as though it was a haystack.

Presenter28:21

Yeah.

Presenter28:23

Another equal.

Jenny Agutter28:25

Someone who's a favourite of mine is Stevie Wonder, and there's a song on the Songs in the Key of Life album called As.

Jenny Agutter28:34

Which is rather romantic and I like this one. I think I'd like to take it to the desert island.

Speaker 228:48

As around the sun, the earth no seas revolving

Speaker 228:53

Rosebuds know the bloom in early May

Speaker 228:58

Hate noose loves the cure You can rest your mind assure that I'll do

Presenter29:07

Stevie Wonder and AS. Now, with all those travels of yours, have you picked up some knowledge that might help you to live reasonably comfortably on a desert island? Are you a handy girl?

Jenny Agutter29:18

I think that I am quite practical, actually. It's funny'cause my most of my choice of music tends to be rather romantic.

Jenny Agutter29:24

And it would all be a reminder of civilized life, well pretty well civilised. But when it comes down to it, I think I could probably cope.

Speaker 229:31

Yes.

Jenny Agutter29:32

But i one would require uh certain things like a fish hook and

Jenny Agutter29:36

A radio perhaps. So I can't.

Presenter29:38

Radio we can't provide. Fish hooks you should be able to improvise.

Jenny Agutter29:42

Improvise that remember.

Presenter29:43

Yeah.

Jenny Agutter29:43

Uh

Jenny Agutter29:43

It would be a challenge and I enjoy a challenge.

Presenter29:44

Sh

Presenter29:45

Yeah.

Presenter29:46

Oh, you've got the right attitude to it. Have you fished?

Jenny Agutter29:49

Yes.

Jenny Agutter29:51

I haven't a great deal of patience, but if it was a matter of food, then I think I would find that I had the patience.

Presenter29:57

Do you know anything about small craft which will try to escape?

Jenny Agutter30:00

No, I don't think so. I think I would rather build myself a large bonfire, in the hope that some one would come by.

Jenny Agutter30:06

Unless I got to enjoy it so much that I didn't want anyone to come by.

Presenter30:08

Well, we'll have every confidence.

Presenter30:10

In the meantime, your eighth and last record.

Jenny Agutter30:13

The last one is a Beetle's number, actually Paul McCartney's Blackbird.

Jenny Agutter30:19

which I love again. It reminds me of the countryside. I don't know why I keep on of English countryside. There's actually a blackbird singing through it, and it's a very pretty song.

Speaker 230:37

Blackbirds singing in the dead of night

Speaker 230:41

Take these broken wings and learn to fly.

Speaker 230:46

All your life.

Speaker 230:50

You are only waiting for this moment to arise You are only waiting for this moment

Presenter30:58

Paul McCartney, Blackbird.

Presenter31:00

If you could only take one disc out of the eight you've played us, which would you choose?

Jenny Agutter31:04

Oh

Jenny Agutter31:05

I think the Vaughan Williams.

Presenter31:07

A fantasier on a theme of Thomas Tallis.

Jenny Agutter31:08

Theme of Thomas.

Presenter31:10

And one luxury to have with you something of no practical use.

Jenny Agutter31:14

It's quite difficult to think of one thing, but I actually think probably an Oriental rug because.

Jenny Agutter31:20

It actually has a practical use, but it also delights one, which is that it will

Jenny Agutter31:24

Do up any cave that one finds, or hang in the branches, and I can enjoy looking at it.

Presenter31:30

Yes, this is really

Presenter31:32

Borderline case, because it would be awfully useful. You'll virtually be able to make a tent out of it if it was a big one.

Jenny Agutter31:33

Is this

Jenny Agutter31:38

Uh yes, yes. Is that not allowed?

Presenter31:42

Well

Presenter31:43

Well, when you look at me like that, yes, all right, you can have your Oriental rug, but not a very big one.

Jenny Agutter31:48

No.

Presenter31:49

and one book apart from the Bible and Shakespeare.

Jenny Agutter31:52

I think probably the Oxford Book of Modern Verse. I love poetry and I also think that many more images are packed into poetry.

Jenny Agutter31:59

And with a collection of verse like that, you've got all sorts of different writers, T. S. Eliot, who I love, and many other people.

Presenter32:03

Yeah.

Presenter32:07

The Oxford Book of Modern Verse. And thank you, Jenny Agata, for letting us hear your Desert Island Disc.

Jenny Agutter32:12

Thank you very much.

Presenter32:14

Goodbye everyone.

Speaker 332:23

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