Raymond Glendenning

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This download is the only extract the BBC has of this edition of Desert Island Discs. The presenter was Roy Plumley.

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Raymond, in what part of the country were you born? I was born in Newport, in Manworthshire. What was it your first ambition to be?

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Well, I don't know, quite honestly, since the theatre has always been my first ambition, but my parents decided I should get a good general business education, so I took a degree in commerce at London University and became an incorporated accountant, which of course is now the same as a chartered accountant. Talking about your theatre days, your amateur theatre days, you did indeed find the Newport Little Theatre. Yes, indeed, under the title of Newport Playgoers. What sort of parts did you play? I played all sorts of parts. I played Lobb in Dear Brutus. I played the lead in Pirandella's The Mask and the Face. I played in Shakespeare. How did broadcasting come into things? Well, I don't know. They suddenly found a young man of 19 who seemed to be doing good things in the local theatre, and I was asked to 5WA in Cardiff in 1926, given an audition, and a part the following week.

Presenter1:02

A radio acting wasn't a very highly paid job in those days, was it? It certainly wasn't. You were lucky if you got more than a guinea for an evening show, according to the length of your part, and half a guinea in children's hair.

Raymond Glendenning1:11

BAAA.

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Now were you practising a as a chartered accountant by day?

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No, no, I couldn't. Uh the time when I really uh ran in to do a lot of work for the BBC was nineteen thirty one when I qualified, and I was on the short list for a job. In fact, I was given the job of a travelling accountant.

Presenter1:28

And then Mr Hitler stepped in and the merger with the continental firm which would have led to my job was uh stopped in mid-air as it were. And so they said to me, Well, look, we'll keep the job open, but get anything you can in the meantime and of course I at once turned to broadcasting. Well you joined the BBC full-time at Cardiff. You joined it as what, Raymond?

Presenter1:49

I joined it as the lowest form of BBC life and announcer. Still, you know, there's nothing derogatory about that. After all, John Snagg was one too. Yes. You were in charge of Children's Hour after a while, weren't you? I was indeed. And most exciting, I found it, because you see, we did a miniature programme of one hour which covered all the aspects of BBC: drama, variety, talks, plays, everything like that, all in the space of one hour and six days a week. Kept you busy. And when did you start sports commentating? Oh, that wasn't until I got to Northern Ireland, actually, in 1935, when they opened up Big New Transmitter.

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Covering the whole of the province? Yes. And what did you start as? What was the first commentary you did?

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Um oh well, I did motor racing to start with and when we went on to football during the first season of um league football, because the Irish league were then much more cooperative than the English league were in those days.

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Horse racing?

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which I suppose I am probably best known for,'cause I've done so many races. That happened in a most peculiar way.

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Um that that's all right. That's a lead in for me to tell you. You you you can't stop me now. Right, go ahead. Uh no, it happened in a most peculiar way because, as a point of fact, I was number two.

Raymond Glendenning2:54

Yeah.

Raymond Glendenning2:57

Uh no it

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What's that? Number two is the man who really sort of uh stands next door at the commentator, hands him the microphone at the right time, listens to the announcement, slaps him on the back when he comes on. Generally a dog's body, isn't it? And um in this case he's at the C.

Raymond Glendenning3:13

Yeah.

Presenter3:16

So um I just went through the horses in the paddock, and as I was doing so I memorised the colours they were wearing, just out of pure fancy, that's all. Then, duly, as they cantered down to the post, I handed the microphone over, and the broadcast was going along swimmingly, when about halfway through, I suddenly realised I'd got nothing on my earphones. Well, of course, as this was a check on the broadcast, I looked down at my plugs. I couldn't see anything wrong with those. Then I turned to my pal and found him holding the microphone, his mouth moving open and shut, just like a sort of dying duck in a thunderstorm, but nothing coming out of it. He dried up. He dried up completely. So all I did was to pinch the microphone from him and finish the commentary.

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So your horse racing uh commentary uh career started really by accident, that's like it. It was, yes, quite by accident. When did you move from Northern Ireland to London? That was at the beginning of the war, that I was going to join the RA, but the BBC said no, we're keeping you on the retained list, and they swung me straight back into London and made me Assistant Director of Outside Broadcasting. Well, now, Raymond, the war's on and you're at Broadcasting House, this meant all kinds of commentaries at all kinds of places. It most certainly did. Everything from going up a fireman's ladder and putting out an imaginary fire to show how they'd trained, to enthroning the Bishop of Coventry in the flame-flushed ruins of his cathedral, to doing Lord Mayor's shows, everything you can think of. Yes. You also did some inside broadcasts as well as outside ones in those days. I remember in particular Theatreland. Well, indeed we did, because you see, in those days, the London Outside Broadcast Department had to meet the needs of London. And so it was Eric Mashwitz's idea that I should be put in charge of a programme which was really an illustrated brochure of what was going on in London during that particular week. We used to get ten-minute excerpts of everything from variety shows.

Raymond Glendenning5:11

But what

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From Dame Maury Tempest to Hermanni Gingold. And you had quite a lot to do with the beginning of that perennial programme, those were the days.

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Yes, I did, and I rather look back with nostalgia now whenever I hear it on the air.

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Now going outside again, sporting commentaries during the war must have presented special problems, Raymond. For example, for security reasons, not being able to mention what the weather was like. Oh, yes, that was really shocking. I remember one football match where I literally didn't sort of, I don't know what you'd call it. I was just guessing purely and simply, but I couldn't say so. I pretended I saw the ball perfectly every inch of the way. Point of fact, half the ground was covered in fog, and I was being led by the way the chairs of the crowd were going from one side to the other. If they went from left to right, then Dennis Compton had made a spectacular run. If they went from right to left, then Stanley Matthews had done the same thing. How many cup finals did you commentated on, though? Oh, cup finals, races, well, ever since the beginning of the war. Yes. Now, you've had a front seat at most of the big sporting events of the last 25 years. Which has been the most exciting sporting event at which you've assisted? Which really had you on the edge of your seat? I think it's very difficult, but I think I will say.

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Harry Llewellyn on Fox Hunter doing a complete clare round at Helsinki in the Olympic Games.

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and winning the first gold medal that Britain had won at those games. Arama, the essence of sports commentating obviously is speed, and I never cease to marvel at the rate at which you can report. Has anyone ever worked out how many words a minute you utter in full speed? Yes, indeed. As a matter of fact, Seymour de Lobigneur, when he was director of Outside Broadcasting, did it on the occasion that we broadcast our first Greyhound race.

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There described the six dogs out of the trap, the six dogs at the first bend, the three at the second bend, all six down the back straight, the three at the third bend, the three at the fourth bend and all six over the line, and that was at an average speed of three hundred and twenty words a minute. Wow. And and and the greyhound race only takes, what, half a minute? Well, this one took twenty-nine point five seconds. Yes, I like it when you get down to tenths of seconds.

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How do you memorise all these horses and jockeys and footballers? What what's your system? Well, I think it's principally a a photographic memory. I do have visual aids which I work on a week or two before. But why I say a photographic memory? Because I remember a very early match I did between England and Ireland amateurs. There was a tremendous bombardment of the English goal, and suddenly a figure hurtled in and bashed the ball into the net, and I said Fulton scored.

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Then to my horror I realized Fulton was a left back and had no place there at all. But I was right. I'd just seen that vision.

Raymond Glendenning7:58

I