Robert Morley

Robert Morley0:01

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. Hello, I'm Lauren Laverne and this is the Desert Island Discs podcast. This is the only extract the BBC has of this episode. The surviving recording did not include the music, so we've recreated the programme, adding the castaways' choices. For rights' reasons, the music is shorter than on the original broadcast. The presenter is Roy Plomley. I hope you enjoy listening.

Presenter0:27

Mr Morley, where were you born? Good gracious. I was born at a place called Semley in Wiltshire, and named after a sheepdog. You were or or Semley? No, no, the dog was I mean the dog had its name when I arrived. I was called Bob, after the sheepdog. Very suitable. Did you see a lot of theatre as a child?

Robert Morley0:34

Yeah.

Speaker 40:34

Uh

Robert Morley0:34

Uh

Presenter0:43

My uncle used to take me to Chuchin Chow, I don't quite know why. And my father used to take me to the Cooptimists, and I used to go to the Pantomime on the Pier at Brighton. But I don't think I did go to the theatre a lot when I was a child. Was there any one particular moment when it struck you that you must spend your life in the theatre? Ah, yes, when I stopped being a child at the age of twelve, or it may have been thirteen.

Robert Morley0:59

Ah yes.

Presenter1:03

I managed to get into my public school. This was considered by the headmaster a very great achievement, I think because he'd done most of the common entrance paper himself, and he gave the whole school a half holiday.

Speaker 41:10

Anyway

Presenter1:12

And I took it that I was then free to do anything. I afterwards we had an argument about it, but I went to see Esme Percy play in Folkestone, The Doctor's Dilemma, and I always remember that because it was an empty theatre, and Mr.

Presenter1:24

Esme Percy was pure magic and it was the most wonderful

Presenter1:28

experience I ever had in the theatre and I knew from that moment that there was nothing in the world I wanted to do more and curiously enough unlike most things that happened to me I did it and always if I have a particularly bad matinee I try to remember but usually fail to do so of that day and think well I must play up because there might be some

Presenter1:44

Stupefied schoolboy in row.

Presenter1:46

L.

Presenter1:47

Who wants to go on the stage. But mister Percy was marvellous in that play. Yes. What was your first professional appearance? I you went around. I don't think we can go into all that. I wa I played a pirate in Treasure Island.

Robert Morley1:53

I don't know.

Presenter1:57

And misses Kerr Belew said at the dress rehearsal, Move the fat boy off the stage, he spoils the picture And I really, you know, it was very naughty of her, but probably true at the time.

Speaker 42:02

Yeah.

Presenter2:06

Was work fairly regular in those first days? Oh yes, those were healthy in days for actors. And um we used to tour and tour and tour and tour at four, five and six pounds a week and live like princes. You did a lot of repertory tour.

Robert Morley2:08

Oh yes.

Speaker 42:14

Like

Presenter2:17

We did our stint of repertory when we felt we ought to improve our standard, but of course we weren't serious. You see, the young actors, they are so serious about it all. We never thought we'd get any better, and I don't think we ever have. What was your first appearance in London?

Presenter2:28

Ah, that was a play called Up in the Air, which an astute manager put on three times in quick succession round about Christmas, taking it off after the first performance each time and closing on Boxing Day after he'd got the rather bumper receipts which is customary on that day.

Presenter2:40

Uh you and Peter Bull formed your own repertory company. Well really Peter Bull formed it. He wouldn't like you to say that I formed it. He formed it and I acted there. But this was a holiday task after we'd achieved comparative success.

Robert Morley2:43

Well

Robert Morley2:47

Yeah.

Presenter2:52

Uh yes, we had it at Pennport. People used to motor many miles and I sat in the box office and sometimes sold the same seats four times older over.

Speaker 42:59

Over.

Presenter2:59

Was there any one event or one production that you feel was the turning point in your career? Well, I wrote a play, you see, and as soon as you wrote a play, they all think you can do something else. And then I was given large parts in the theatre. Once you get a large part in the theatre, you see.

Robert Morley3:09

Uh

Presenter3:12

Life is much easier. The difficulty is that if you have small parts you can't really impress the public. But if they're faced with you for the whole evening, then they discover, reluctantly but gradually, facets of your performance and characterisation which they like and grow accustomed to and they're stuck with you and they have to like you, which is why, you know, a star stays a star and a small part player, unless he gets the breaks, stays a small part player. It's really...

Presenter3:33

Lucky. Well, let's have your third record. What's that?

Speaker 33:36

Miss Otis regrets she's unable to lunch today, madam, Miss Otis regrets she's unable to lunch today.

Speaker 33:50

She is sorry to be delayed, But last evening down in Love's Lane she strayed Madam

Speaker 34:01

Miss Otis regrets she's unable to land.

Presenter4:07

Now your first play, Mr. Morley, a short story, wasn't it? The one I wrote, yes. So that brought you your first success. What was your first success as an actor? Well, I think it was playing Oscar Wilde at the Gates Theatre. I remember when we had this theatre at Piranport, one of the actors was asked to play a small part in the play, and I remember saying to him, Very dangerous to play in a play like that, dear boy. And then about three weeks later, because the actor who was originally Cast Felier, they offered me the lead. So then I was rather surprised to find him at the theatre. And I said, it'll be perfectly alright when I play Oscar Wilde. So I played Oscar Wilde and it was perfectly alright, luckily for me. And then I went to Hollywood and did a film of playing the Dauphin. Your first film and a starring part opposite Norman Shelley. Well, it wasn't quite my first film, because I've been sacked from the two that I tried to do before, but it was certainly the first film I ever completed.

Robert Morley4:42

Yup.

Robert Morley4:45

Get him up.

Presenter4:50

Yes. And you had also written another very successful play, and a very charming one, goodness how sad. Yeah, but it wasn't very successful, I e said, because, you see, actually n nobody it's never made any money, but it's a play that all the actors love, but it's a backstage play. Backstage plays don't do in England.

Robert Morley5:02

Nick

Presenter5:04

Well then, interspersed with films, you had a series of long runs in the theatre. The man who came to dinner. How long did that run? Two years. I always ran them two years in those days. Yes. The first gentleman, in which you played the Prince Regent. Yes, that ran two years. Your own play, Edward My Son. You played that all over the world, didn't you? Yes, I thought I took it round as a sort of caravan to rest in, and uh I went to Australia, New Zealand, and

Presenter5:23

And uh America with that. And the family, and we all had a wonderful free ride. And the little hut about a desert island. Are you all? Hippo dancing? That was perhaps, yes, the best of them.

Robert Morley5:31

Are you bored?

Presenter5:34

Are you bored by a long run? Does it worry you playing the same part night after night? No, because as you say, I always play the same parts. It's just a question of learning different lines. I don't mind in what stage this takes place, but I'd rather it didn't take place more often than a two-year interval. Yes. Now, you could, if you wish, devote yourself to the comparatively easy money of films, but you spend quite a large part of your time in the theatre. I don't think I could devote myself. I like to hear you say so. It's very reassuring. But I do do the theatre because I am primarily, if that's the right word, I suppose a stage actor. I'm not really a film actor, but I spive around in the films and enjoy myself very much.

Robert Morley5:37

Yeah, because as you say

Presenter6:05

Let's have record number four.

Presenter7:05

Mr. Morley, you haven't devoted much time to writing plays lately. Why is that? Ah, well, yes, well, uh that's a very awkward question. I have written a few plays, but they haven't had very much success. They've been tried out locally, most of them. Um I suppose when one get to my age, uh I'm not driven on by any great desire to assert myself, and

Presenter7:25

It happens that I haven't had anything very much to say. You see, Edward, I had something to say, although everyone took what I had to say quite wrong. But I live in hopes that the Muse will strike again if they... You're also in management. You present plays. Yes, that's easier, because you can cast the plays quickly. You say, who shall I have for the spot? Robert Morley, yes. Can I get him? Can I afford him? I'll have to pay him a lot. Yes, well, that's all right. And I'm in, you see.

Robert Morley7:36

Uh

Speaker 47:36

As a way.

Presenter7:49

What have you been doing recently?

Presenter7:51

I've been making a lot of films. I can't think why. Any that you'd like to talk about? I don't think so.

Robert Morley7:56

Uh

Presenter7:57

Have you any particular big ambition that that hasn't yet been fulfilled?

Presenter8:04

Uh I've never had very many ambitions, funnily enough. I don't know why. Some people, you know, get it through ambition and some by

Presenter8:10

Chance. I haven't. I I don't think I have anything. I've put a lot of goods in the shop window, and they've all been bought. I don't know whether there's much more in the shop.

Presenter8:18

Hope so, of course. Let's have record number five.

Speaker 48:25

Oh y Leon.

Speaker 48:34

Oil baby.

Speaker 48:49

Praise God.

Presenter9:08

Mr. Molly, is it true that you have on occasion insisted in your contract that there should be no matinees on days when there's horse racing near London? Well, I've insisted that if there were matinees, I wouldn't have to play on them. But it isn't quite true that I've ever managed quite to do it in London. What happened in Fanny was they cancelled the Wednesday matinee because when I said I wanted to go to the Derby, they said, well, we'll take all the Wednesdays out because it'll save the heating bill. Then we were doing very well. When I was in Australia, it is true.

Presenter9:32

That I didn't play matinees on Saturday, which is the only day they race in Australia. What is the fascination that racing has for you? Are you a gambler?

Presenter9:39

I'm a punter. The difference being a punter is a man who thinks he can afford and a gambler is a one who knows he can't. But I always think I can afford to lose a little and indeed I do. I love racing. How many horses have you owned? Well, I've had six or seven, I think. And I've got one now called Just Ennis, who's just beginning his career. They're like children, but of course more expensive. You make allowances for them all the time, so they never entirely disappoint you. You're hopeful of this one?

Presenter10:06

Uh always think I have the next Derby winner, though of course if Just Ennis won the Derby, this would be rather against the breeding,'cause in point of fact Just Ennis is a sprinter.