Helen Mirren

Speaker 10:00

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

Speaker 10:05

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 Helen Mirren.

Presenter0:34

Helen, how much does music mean in your life?

Helen Mirren0:36

My parents were both very musical. In fact, my father used to play the viola in a large London orchestra in his very early days, yes, before he realized he couldn't keep a family on it.

Helen Mirren0:49

But I didn't inherit the musical bent of my father at all. I I'm really pretty ignorant about music. Do you sing? Horribly, yes.

Presenter0:57

Have you had occasion to sing in the theatre?

Helen Mirren0:59

Oh yes, I have yes. I learnt the meaning of the word bottle.

Helen Mirren1:03

And also I learned how that you can actually persuade an audience that you can do something that in fact you patently and obviously can't do, just by sheer force of

Speaker 11:10

Uh

Speaker 41:10

Just

Helen Mirren1:12

of your mind over theirs, and I can't sing at all.

Speaker 41:14

Yeah.

Helen Mirren1:16

But I had to sing in a play called Teeth and Smiles.

Speaker 41:18

Ah yeah.

Helen Mirren1:18

The group that used to play behind me was a rock and roll group.

Speaker 41:21

Ha!

Helen Mirren1:21

You say, Come on, Ella, now, don't lose your bottle.

Speaker 41:21

Here

Helen Mirren1:24

And I said, no, no, I'm not, I won't lose my bottle. Because the minute you lose your bottle, in other words, you lose your courage. And you're kind of uh self-confident.

Presenter1:31

Yeah.

Presenter1:34

Do you play discs a lot?

Helen Mirren1:35

Yeah.

Helen Mirren1:36

I do from time to time. Very, very late at night, as I'm drifting off to sleep, is the time I like to actually listen to music. Otherwise I use music really as a total kind of background sort of fur.

Speaker 11:43

Yeah.

Presenter1:43

Yes.

Helen Mirren1:49

you know, energizer. I really listen to basically a lot of rock and roll, only I don't have any rock and roll in my selection at all. And um I think that's because I don't really listen to it.

Presenter2:00

What's the first one you've chosen?

Helen Mirren2:01

Oh, the first one is violin concerto by Brooke, played here by Kung Wa Chung. I chose this because one of my earliest memories was my father practising his viola upstairs in the bedroom. And um this was the piece of music he actually used to practise on his viola, although it is a violin piece and um it will remind me of my dear father who's died just a year ago, so it's for him really. Right.

Presenter3:28

Part of the Broek First Violin Concerto with Kyung Wa Chung and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Rudolf Kempe.

Presenter3:36

Your father, in fact, was Russian, wasn't he?

Helen Mirren3:38

Yes, he was born in Russia. We changed our name when I was about thirteen or so.

Helen Mirren3:44

It was not easy to be an immigrant in England in those days. I I'm sure it still isn't. But to be a foreigner with a sort of f foreign accent was not an easy thing, and I think he wanted to become as English as possible.

Presenter3:56

What part of the country were you born in?

Helen Mirren3:59

I was born in London, in Chiswick. I was a record birth, in fact, in Chiswick. I don't know if it's been broken since. Apparently I came out in twenty minutes, from beginning to end. Yes.

Presenter4:01

Yeah.

Presenter4:03

I don't know if it's been

Presenter4:08

Oh, that's marvellous. Yes.

Helen Mirren4:12

That's right. Yes, we moved to uh Leonce in Essex.

Presenter4:16

And you were educated in the convent.

Helen Mirren4:18

Yes.

Presenter4:18

Apart from lessons, what were your main interests at school?

Helen Mirren4:22

Um, dreaming. I was a great dreamer and a fantasist.

Helen Mirren4:26

I liked drama at school. We we had quite a lot of drama at school, and I I I sort of hooked on to that at quite an early age.

Helen Mirren4:33

mainly because it was so easy for me.

Helen Mirren4:35

And and also it sort of related to the the dreaming and the fantasy part of my life.

Presenter4:40

You were very bright at school. I I've got a note here that says seven O levels and two A's.

Helen Mirren4:45

Well, that's not very bright, is it? One of my A levels was art as well, so you can't really count that, can you? And the other one was English, and you can't really count that. No, I did have three goes to get Mathso levels.

Presenter4:58

Hmm.

Helen Mirren4:58

I can't understand how how could have been so stupid in those days.

Presenter5:03

When you left school, what did you set about doing?

Helen Mirren5:06

Well, I made the great mistake of going to a teacher's training college.

Presenter5:09

What did you want to teach?

Helen Mirren5:10

I didn't want to teach anything. I absolutely hated school. I hated school even worse as a teacher than as a pupil. It was just something that my school thought I ought to do, and my parents thought I ought to do. I wanted to be an actress, but they

Speaker 45:17

Mm.

Helen Mirren5:24

Both parents and school just thought that was impossible and ridiculous.

Presenter5:28

How old were you when you decided that you wanted to be an actress?

Helen Mirren5:32

I think I was probably about thirteen or fourteen.

Helen Mirren5:35

I mean, you don't really know. It's all so jumbled up with dreaming and fantasies. You don't know whether you're just being a silly dreamer like everyone tells you you're being, or if it's a realistic thing.

Presenter5:44

So what did you do about it? Here you were in a teacher's training college wanting to be an actress.

Helen Mirren5:50

I obsecretly applied for the National Youth Theatre, which a teacher at school told me about.

Helen Mirren5:56

because she was the only one really who gave me any sensible encouragement and and I think she kind of recognized that I possibly could do it.

Helen Mirren6:04

And um she told me about the National Youth Theatre and I secretly applied for it without telling my parents or anyone. Not because I thought they disapproved, but I'd be so embarrassed if I didn't get in.

Helen Mirren6:14

and um I was accepted.

Helen Mirren6:16

And that was a wonderful thing for me, because it meant every summer holiday I went off.

Helen Mirren6:20

and did plays as near to professional theatre as you could possibly imagine. We did it one in the Queens in Shaftesbury Avenue one season. The next season we did it at the Old Vic. Um in fact I did Anthony and Cleopatra and the Old Vic on our

Presenter6:32

You played Cleopatra, didn't you?

Helen Mirren6:34

Yes, I did.

Presenter6:34

And you played Helener in Midsummer Night's Dream.

Helen Mirren6:37

That's right, yes.

Helen Mirren6:38

Yeah, so I mean that was the most wonderful opportunity to actually find out what it was realistically like.

Presenter6:45

Well let's break for your second record. Watch that.

Helen Mirren6:47

Oh, this is the present, really. And this is just a dance around to it's good to have a dance around to get your energy and your spirits up. And this is such a lovely record called Past the Duchy.

Speaker 46:59

While in my gate and went out for a walk

Speaker 47:05

Some prize judges count the same

Presenter7:30

Pass the Duchy by Musical Youth.

Presenter7:33

So, Helen, there you were at the National Youth Theatre. What was your first professional engagement?

Helen Mirren7:40

I can't actually remember. I think it was doing a play called Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs, which I did for one week in Sunderland.

Helen Mirren7:49

at I think it was the Alambra Theatre in Sunderland. And it's a huge theatre, vast, you know, one of those real barns.

Helen Mirren7:58

And I think we had about fifty people a night. Oh dear. And one of my lines in the play was

Helen Mirren8:03

Will you shaft me?

Helen Mirren8:05

And at this point, of those fifty people, at least twenty-five would get up, and they did have those seats that went, you know, back, back, back. Sounded like a round of applause. A rather distant round of applause. So we used to regularly lose twenty-five of our audience of fifty. And I think that was my first professional engagement.

Presenter8:06

And at this point

Presenter8:12

Sounded like a round of applause. Uh Uh

Presenter8:22

Yeah.

Presenter8:26

Then you were on Rep. in Manchester.

Helen Mirren8:28

Yes, then I I went to rep in Manchester for six months. No, I was at uh what is now actually the Royal Exchange, but it was the very, very early days of the Royal Exchange.

Presenter8:30

For the libraries?

Presenter8:35

It was the

Helen Mirren8:38

and there was a very good company working at the University Theatre.

Presenter8:42

Yeah.

Helen Mirren8:43

under Breem Murray, who now is running the Royal Exchange.

Helen Mirren8:47

So we did good work there.

Presenter8:49

And then quite soon you were invited to join the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Helen Mirren8:53

Yes, I think they'd seen me do Antony and Cleopatra, you see, and

Helen Mirren8:57

I was accepted for the Roger.

Presenter8:58

What part did they give you?

Helen Mirren9:00

The first year I played Diana in Allswell that ends well I played A Beggar in Coriolanus and I played Castiza in The Revengers tragedy.

Presenter9:10

This is pretty good considering we'd only been in the business a year or two.

Helen Mirren9:13

Yes. One should beware of what you want, because it is actually what you get. And I did want very much to be a, you know, classical actress. I mean, the area of acting that I'd always found the most magical.

Presenter9:18

Uh

Helen Mirren9:25

to me was not actually films or television. It was basically going to the early Royal Shakespeare and the early national theatre

Presenter9:32

Yeah.

Helen Mirren9:32

Actions

Presenter9:33

Now, despite the fact that you were playing fairly serious parts in classical plays, you were being described in the press as Stratford's sex queen and a magnificent animal, and the rest of it. This wasn't the usual way to greet a new recruit to the serious theatre.

Helen Mirren9:48

No, I suppose that's why they did it, probably. They liked the the contrast or the contradiction. It's a contradiction that I've not exactly encouraged, but I haven't not enjoyed. I I like that contradiction. I think it's great.

Presenter9:54

Yeah.

Presenter10:02

Well, you did rather clench matters by going off to play in a couple of films in which you had to take all your clothes.

Helen Mirren10:06

Yes. But everyone has to do that nowadays, yeah.

Presenter10:07

But everyone I

Presenter10:09

Yes, but I presume the producers were cashing in on your sexy publicity.

Helen Mirren10:13

I don't think so. I don't think that sort of uh occurred to them, probably. I don't think they probably even read newspapers in that way.

Presenter10:21

Now the following year you played Lady Anne and Richard the Third, and Ophelia, and you were offered the privilege already of being an associate artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company. What does that entail?

Helen Mirren10:33

It was rather a one sided relationship. It meant that, you know, you were supposed to give the Royal Shakespeare Company first call, sort of thing. In fact, it didn't work out practically very well.

Helen Mirren10:44

It was a hangover from the days when people actually used to be paid, a a sort of retainer.

Helen Mirren10:48

But that doesn't exist anymore.

Presenter10:51

nevertheless possibly a rather comforting feeling that there was some security about.

Helen Mirren10:56

Well, the whole point of being an actress is is to deny comfort in that sense and security, and so I always find it very discomforting.

Helen Mirren11:04

and alarming, any suggestion of security, I I feel claustrophobic about it and try and r and run as fast as I can in the opposite direction.

Presenter11:10

And

Presenter11:13

I'm sure that's the right attitude.

Helen Mirren11:15

So I I wasn't a a natural associate member at all, and I still am not.

Presenter11:20

What's your third record

Helen Mirren11:22

But it's just so wonderfully sad, this piece of music. It's the Adaggio by Albanoni.

Helen Mirren11:28

It just makes me cry every time I hear it. It's wonderful.

Presenter12:31

The Adagio by Albinone and Giazzotto played by Imuzici and Maria Theresa Garratti.

Presenter12:39

How long was it, Helen, before you decided you ought to have a break from Shakespeare?

Helen Mirren12:45

Well, it was about four years. I mean, it was a very useful four years, because I didn't go to drama school.

Helen Mirren12:50

It was an absolutely wonderful experience to be in that kind of theatre, doing that sort of quality of work as a young actress. But I did start feeling I was on a sort of uh culture factory, you know, just churning out.

Speaker 113:02

Turning

Helen Mirren13:04

very good, you know, very laudable productions, but nonetheless, you know, every year there's awful'cause of regularity.

Helen Mirren13:10

and I started really questioning the whole basis of what theatre was.

Helen Mirren13:16

how it should be approached.

Helen Mirren13:18

I actually began thinking about it in a way other than just simply w what sort of actress I was. So I asked a director called Peter Brooke if I I I heard that he was starting an experimental theatre group, and I asked him if I could join his group, spend a year sort of just doing theatre research.

Presenter13:36

Mm-hmm. Where was he working in Paris? Wasn't he?

Helen Mirren13:38

He was uh based in Paris then, yes.

Presenter13:39

Did you travel with it?

Helen Mirren13:41

Yes, I spent a year. We went uh to Africa and to America.

Presenter13:45

What sort of productions?

Helen Mirren13:46

Yeah.

Helen Mirren13:47

Well, we didn't really do productions. We did improvisations in villages to audiences which varied between literally three women and six goats was one of our audiences. And another audience was two thousand tribesmen and women who were having a some festival or other.

Presenter13:50

In

Helen Mirren14:06

So we we played very, very varying audiences.

Presenter14:08

Present.

Presenter14:09

They do learn a lot?

Helen Mirren14:10

I yes, I did. I didn't feel at the time I'd learnt much, but uh perhaps there's your best lessons, the ones that dawn on you very, very slowly over the years, how much you've learnt. It seemed to be so so very alien from the sort of work that I'd done before and that I came back to do subsequently.

Helen Mirren14:29

But in in retrospect, actually, I learnt an enormous amount from it.

Presenter14:32

How long did you stay with the group?

Helen Mirren14:34

Just one year.

Presenter14:35

And then back to the RSC, to the World Shakespeare Company.

Helen Mirren14:37

No, back to all kinds of things then television, you know, film.

Presenter14:40

Yeah.

Presenter14:41

And then you did a Ben Travers Farce, which must have been a nice contrast.

Helen Mirren14:45

Yes. The the best thing about the Bender, it was not a very good part I had to play and so I didn't do it out of any sort of reasons of furthering my career at all. But the greatest pleasure was to meet

Helen Mirren14:57

The wonderful man who is sadly not with us anymore called Ben Travers.

Presenter15:00

A marvellous man.

Helen Mirren15:01

An absolutely extraordinary man, and one of the best people I've ever met in my life.

Presenter15:05

The bed before yesterday.

Helen Mirren15:07

That's right, yes.

Presenter15:08

And Teeth and Smiles tell me about that. I don't know anything about Teeth and Smiles.

Helen Mirren15:12

Well, that was a play that started The Royal Court. It was a play about the rock and roll business. And it was actually the first play. When that was written, it was written by David Hare. No one had thought of writing plays about the rock and roll business. Now there's an awful lot of them. But it was before Rock Follies and all that. And um it went down a bomb at the Royal Court.

Helen Mirren15:33

And the nicest thing was that we didn't get normal theat theatre audience, we got a lot of people from the music business, people who wouldn't normally go to the theatre at all.

Helen Mirren15:41

and it was absolutely packed out every night.

Helen Mirren15:44

And I played this sleazy rock and roll singer. In fact, The Rose, you know, the film with Bette Midler was a very, very close copy, in fact, of this particular play.

Presenter15:56

So you did some rock singing.

Helen Mirren15:57

Yes, I did. It was a nightmare because I can't sing and it was an absolute nightmare. But um I got through it by it was a bit rather like Daimedh Evans apparently, you know, the story of Daimed Evans going on to play one of those Restoration beauties that everyone talks about, how beautiful she is all the time, and sitting and you know Daimedh's not the prettiest of women sitting looking in her mirror before she goes on saying, I am beautiful, I am beautiful, I am beautiful then walking on the stage with such a conviction of beauty that the audience perceive her as beautiful.

Speaker 416:08

Yeah.

Speaker 416:30

Yeah.

Helen Mirren16:30

Well, I used to the same thing with my singing.

Speaker 416:32

Yeah.

Helen Mirren16:32

Yeah.

Speaker 416:32

Uh Yeah.

Helen Mirren16:33

And just make the audience believe I could sing by sheer force of my mental command over them.

Speaker 416:33

And just

Presenter16:40

Command over the packed houses rolling in the eyes.

Helen Mirren16:41

Mm.

Helen Mirren16:43

Yes, at at the court and then we transferred it to the West End and it was empty. It just wasn't a West End play. It was funny.

Presenter16:46

But it just wasn't

Presenter16:51

Another record.

Helen Mirren16:52

This is Doctor Brownie's famous cure I'd like next, Sunny Terry and Brown and Magee. This is a blast from the past for me because it was a record I heard in my very early days, about fourteen or fifteen I was, before I'd really heard any pop music or rock and roll music. And it was the first time I'd heard blues music and it was like the most wonderful opening of a door into a whole new world. And it was just one of the most exciting sounds I'd ever heard. It's a pretty exciting record if you listen to the words.

Speaker 417:32

You got bad blood, baby.

Speaker 417:36

I believe that you need a shaman.

Speaker 417:44

You got bad blood baby

Speaker 417:48

I believe that you need a shock.

Presenter17:52

Doctor Brownie's Famous Cure by Saniteri and Brownie Magee.

Presenter17:57

Back to the Royal Shakespeare Company, a part that must be very exciting to play as Queen Margaret and Henry VI Part 1, 2 and 3. I know, it is exciting, it sounds so.

Helen Mirren18:06

I know it is exciting. It sounds so boring, doesn't it? Henry VI parts one, two and three.

Presenter18:11

Yes, he wasn't very good at titles was Datthrush.

Helen Mirren18:13

Oh, it's it's a real killer, isn't it?

Presenter18:15

That

Helen Mirren18:16

It's a wonderful, extraordinary, mighty classical park.

Presenter18:20

Did you ever have to play the three parts in one day?

Helen Mirren18:23

Yes, oh yes, we did that quite often, doing all the three plays together, which is is a theatrical experience which always works.

Helen Mirren18:31

People love to come to the theatre at ten in the morning and stay till ten at night.

Presenter18:35

Yeah.

Helen Mirren18:35

They feel a sense of participation. It's funny because it's how the ancient Greeks used to do it, of course, and it actually works.

Presenter18:41

It does work because in in the historical plays you recognize all these odd barons and people. You know who they are and you follow their career through.

Helen Mirren18:42

Perfect.

Helen Mirren18:45

Parents and people

Helen Mirren18:48

And by the end of the evening, the actors and the audiences, having been through such a sort of exhausting experience together, you become like old friends. You you have a real relationship with the audience at the end.

Presenter18:56

And then you

Presenter19:01

You're now back with that first leading part you ever played, Cleopatra. How does it feel to tackle it again after so long, under such different circumstances?

Helen Mirren19:11

Well, it's wonderful to have played it before. I mean, mainly because you actually remember the lines, which is an extraordinary miracle. Especially for someone like me who's ho totally forgetful. Oh, good thing.

Presenter19:20

Are you good at learning?

Helen Mirren19:22

I'm good at learning lines, yes I learned quickly. I forget them quickly as well. I mean, after you finish a play.

Presenter19:24

Very fast.

Helen Mirren19:29

Within a week

Helen Mirren19:30

You wouldn't be able to quote a line from it. I can never quote lines from plays.

Helen Mirren19:34

But they're somewhere in the back of your brain, and so when you just read the speech again it it comes back to you. And also because you do have that sort of deep knowledge of the lines

Helen Mirren19:45

It's difficult to explain, really, but you're not

Helen Mirren19:47

It it's a terrible disadvantage to be fighting for lines and especially in Shakespeare, because your your brain's having to move so fast on such a sort of uh complicated level in Shakespeare, to act in Shakespeare, um that if you're having to worry about what line comes next, it's it's it is an extra burden.

Presenter20:00

Yeah.

Presenter20:06

Now this production, which is currently in Stratford and is coming to London later, it's a studio production, a small-scale production.

Helen Mirren20:12

Yes, it is. It it was in fact apparently written as a chamber play. And in fact the scenes that are on the page are mostly just scenes between two people. They're quite small scenes. They're not huge epic scenes at all. You don't have any battle scenes. All the battle scenes are reported.

Presenter20:15

For an epic play.

Speaker 420:21

Yeah.

Helen Mirren20:41

People standing watching the battle happen.

Helen Mirren20:43

At no point do soldiers come on stage at all.

Presenter20:46

Mm-hmm.

Helen Mirren20:47

So it is o actually written on a small scale.

Presenter20:49

One thinks of it as a big place.

Helen Mirren20:51

As a huge play. No, not in the way. However, that said, it's dealing with such epic matters, such as the losing of an empire, the making of an empire, and anyway to have people on stage called Antony and Cleopatra. Michael Gambon and I wanted them to be called Geoffrey and Janet because

Helen Mirren21:12

Somehow, Antony and Cleopatra, you know, you've got such preconceived ideas, but as soon as you say those names, you know, you have such massive sort of ideas. Especially with Cleopatra. I don't think you can win with Cleopatra, because everyone's got an idea of how she ought to look. Some people think she ought to have big bosoms, some think she ought to be thin, some people think she ought to be dark haired, you know.

Helen Mirren21:33

Just everyone's got an idea of how there Cleopatra would be.

Presenter21:36

How much say did you have in what she ought to look like? I mean, was this a a matter of mutual agreement? No, it was a matter of sheer.

Helen Mirren21:42

No, it's a matter of sheer economy, because being at the other place we have a a budget of I think two thousand pounds for the whole thing.

Helen Mirren21:49

for the whole production.

Presenter21:51

From there.

Helen Mirren21:51

I mean, it is absolutely minute. And when critics, which they have done, criticise the set, we're simply using the set they use for Mollier, because the Mollier set was so we we just didn't have enough money to make a set.

Presenter22:00

Really?

Presenter22:02

It amazes me that the Royal Shakespeare Company can get in debt for four hundred thousand pounds and yet only put down two thousand pounds for a whole production.

Helen Mirren22:10

Yes, but then other productions are massively expensive.

Presenter22:13

Yeah.

Helen Mirren22:13

But the idea is about the other place is that it is always done on an extra mind you, people do break the rules. Some productions use a lot more money than they should. But we didn't. We kept very strictly within the rules of the

Presenter22:22

Good.

Helen Mirren22:25

The budget.

Presenter22:26

And you're going to do The Roaring Girl by Decker. Yes. Is that going to be at the other place in the middle of the main house?

Helen Mirren22:31

No, no, that'll be in the main house. In the main house. In what yes, what we call the main house.

Presenter22:36

And that's coming to London, too.

Helen Mirren22:37

Yes, that'll be at the Barbican.

Presenter22:39

Have you started rehearsing that?

Helen Mirren22:40

Not yet, any minute now. Yes. With a director who likes a lot of improvising. I spent a whole year doing improvisations with Peter Brooke, nothing but and he still brings me out in a cold sweat. My palms go cold at the idea of improvising.

Presenter22:53

How much travelling have you done? I I know you w you talked about uh playing in Africa and France with Peter Brooke. You've played in Russia, haven't you?

Helen Mirren23:01

Yes, I've played in Russia.

Presenter23:03

Do you speak any Russian?

Helen Mirren23:04

No.

Helen Mirren23:05

No. I was very upset, actually. When I came back from Russia, my father told me that I've actually got um relatives alive in Russia.

Helen Mirren23:14

And uh he didn't

Helen Mirren23:15

That was quite early days, Andrew, on the cultural exchanges, and it was all a little bit tense. I don't know whether he didn't

Speaker 423:19

New

Helen Mirren23:21

want to make their life more complicated than it need necessarily be.

Helen Mirren23:26

But I would have loved to have seen my relatives in Russia.

Presenter23:29

We've got now to record five. What's that?

Helen Mirren23:31

Yes, here we have a record.

Helen Mirren23:34

which appeals to my Russian side of my nature, which is from the Russian liturgical choir, singing beautiful chants.

Speaker 423:53

Speak.

Speaker 423:55

Smo Simio Shenu Smil.

Presenter24:40

Beata Sveer, sung by a male chamber choir conducted by Mihail Mirkov.

Presenter24:46

Helen, you're a political person. You stood for the Equity Council a year or two ago.

Helen Mirren24:51

I used to be political, sort of political. Now I'm not really political at all, actually.

Presenter24:56

You stood as a member of the Revolutionary Workers' Party. Are you still a Revolutionary Worker?

Helen Mirren24:59

It's still a

Helen Mirren25:01

No, I wasn't a member then. I never had been a member, but I stood on what they wanted to happen in equity, which at that time I agreed with.

Presenter25:08

And

Presenter25:10

Do you know?

Helen Mirren25:11

I'm not quite sure what they want nowadays. I I don't know. I mean it was just rather a slightly rogue elephant sort of thing to do a bit because I noticed of all the things that most shocked my friends was any mention of the WRP. They just used to go into a complete fit, you know. I mean it was like as if I was talking about joining the moonies or

Speaker 125:21

There's

Speaker 125:22

Guys

Helen Mirren25:36

you know, becoming a fascist or something. It was very peculiar. They were really excessive in their reaction, and that rather brought out the devil in me and made me go.

Presenter25:43

Well, the party was advocating a a communist state. It was a very extreme party.

Helen Mirren25:48

Yes, oh, absolutely.

Presenter25:49

Hmm.

Helen Mirren25:50

Totally. I I mean, I agree with extremes.

Helen Mirren25:53

There used to be a party in Italy which I would have joined called the Radical Party, and it said that it was the pepper in the arse of all the other parties. Just something to get everyone galvanized and angry.

Presenter26:02

Just something.

Presenter26:04

But this really was a sense of mischief, of outrage.

Presenter26:09

Yeah.

Helen Mirren26:09

Yes, I'm just yes, I'm afraid it was, really.

Presenter26:09

To be outrageous.

Presenter26:13

We've got to record number six.

Helen Mirren26:16

I I'm so ignorant about music, really. Opera, totally ignorant. I was just played this piece of music recently and I thought it was so extraordinary in terms of performance, sheer performance. I think that's why I've got this one actually, as an actress just recognising a piece of extraordinary acting performance. And it perhaps it'll teach me a bit about opera. Anyway it's Joan Sutherland singing the mad bit from Lucia de la Mamour.

Speaker 427:05

RAAAAAAAAA

Presenter27:38

Joan Sutherland in Donizetti's L'Uce de la Momo with the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra conducted by Nello Santi.

Presenter27:46

Time is pressing, Helen. Let's go straight ahead into your next record.

Helen Mirren27:50

Well, my next record is a piece of Indian classical music. I know very little about Indian classical music, except that I love it whenever I hear it, so it's something that I could learn about on my island.

Helen Mirren28:01

This is Araga from South India.

Speaker 428:33

Yeah.

Presenter29:04

Surayana Rayana playing a South Indian raga.

Presenter29:09

Are you a self reliant person, Helen? Could you look after yourself on this island?

Helen Mirren29:13

On an island I could, yes. I find it difficult to look after myself in in the modern world. But um I love camping. Did you ever do anything?

Presenter29:22

Did you ever do any were you a girl guide?

Helen Mirren29:24

Oh, no, not in that organised way. I can't bear all that.

Helen Mirren29:28

That sort of military type camping. But I I mean, when we went through Africa we camped every night and um I love making little huts out of bamboo and things like that.

Presenter29:33

Yeah.

Presenter29:38

Marvelous.

Helen Mirren29:38

Making it at the bottom of the garden.

Presenter29:42

What about food? You can forage for food?

Helen Mirren29:42

Absolutely.

Helen Mirren29:45

I'll forage away like anything, yes, and plant things, I'll garden.

Presenter29:49

Done any fishing?

Helen Mirren29:51

Fishing I have done fishing, with very, very little success, but um I don't mind fishing. It's one of the few sports blood sports, and it is a blood sport, which I can actually bear.

Presenter29:57

Yeah.

Presenter30:01

And you've done some sailing, I believe?

Helen Mirren30:03

Yes, I used to sail at at home. I never really enjoyed it too much, so I don't think I'll be constructing myself a little boat.

Presenter30:09

All right, just stay there and we'll try and come and fetch you as soon as we can.

Helen Mirren30:10

to get away on.

Helen Mirren30:12

Try and come and fetch you as soon as we can.

Presenter30:14

In the meantime, record number eight is what?

Helen Mirren30:17

Record number eight is Billy Holiday singing Falling in Love Again, for two reasons. One is Billy Holiday, one of my favorite singers, and the other is a song Falling in Love Again, which is really that's kind of been the the main guiding force in my life to this point, I would say.

Speaker 430:35

Men flock around me like moss around.

Speaker 430:43

And if their wings burn, I know I'm not to blame

Speaker 430:50

Falling in love again.

Speaker 430:53

Never wanted to.

Speaker 430:57

What am I to do? Gee, I can't help it.

Presenter31:03

Billy Holiday

Presenter31:05

If you could take only one disk instead of eight.

Presenter31:07

Which would it be?

Helen Mirren31:10

I just completely changed my mind. I was going to say the Indian music.

Helen Mirren31:13

Because it'd be good education for me, but I think I'm going to take past the duchy.

Presenter31:18

Right. Pass the Duchess. And one luxury, one thing you would like to have on the island that's of no practical use.

Helen Mirren31:21

And what

Helen Mirren31:25

So

Helen Mirren31:26

and are no practical use.

Presenter31:27

Mm.

Helen Mirren31:28

No. Oh, so I can't have the QE two, for example.

Presenter31:30

Oh, no, no, no.

Helen Mirren31:31

Without the sailors, just security too.

Presenter31:34

No, no, much too practical. You'll learn how to sail it yourself.

Helen Mirren31:34

Much too practical.

Helen Mirren31:37

Well, in that case, it's a tight battle between a jar of Marmite and um

Helen Mirren31:43

An incredibly expensive set of

Helen Mirren31:45

Silk underwear. I think I'll take the silk underwear.

Presenter31:48

The silk underwear. We'll give you two sets, one for Sundays.

Helen Mirren31:49

We'll give you two sets.

Presenter31:52

Of course. And one book, The Bible and Shakespeare, are provided.

Helen Mirren31:57

Yes. The book I take again is Education.

Helen Mirren32:00

And it's a book called the Bhagahadvita.

Helen Mirren32:03

I hope I've pronounced it right. It is a an ancient Indian book of knowledge. Yes. Hard going. I keep trying to read it. I can't understand a word.

Presenter32:04

Yeah.

Presenter32:05

Just a

Presenter32:08

Was a philosophy.

Presenter32:12

Bakahad Vita.

Helen Mirren32:13

Yes.

Presenter32:14

I hope I pronounce it.

Helen Mirren32:15

Boof.

Presenter32:16

Anyway, thank you Helen Miran for letting us hear your Desert Island Disc.

Helen Mirren32:21

Thank you very much for the pleasure.

Presenter32:23

Goodbye, everyone.

Speaker 132:48

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