Beryl Reid

Speaker 20:00

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

Speaker 20:05

For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music. The programme was originally broadcast in 1983.

Speaker 20:11

And the presenter was Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:31

On our desert island this week is a very funny lady, Beryl Reed.

Presenter0:35

Now, Beryl, this serious problem of being cast away alone on a desert island, there's nothing funny about that.

Presenter0:41

How well do you think you could adjust yourself to loneliness?

Presenter0:45

Oh, I think quite well.

Presenter0:47

Really quite well, because I get n at the moment what I call people poisoning. But I mean, that's because I just sometimes see too many people.

Presenter0:55

And I do find my own house in the country.

Presenter0:59

a sort of perfect retreat.

Presenter1:02

And I I do try and escape from

Presenter1:05

cocktail part is I don't like

Presenter1:08

Large social gatherings of any kind. Right now, on this island, you have just eight records. Did you find it very hard to choose? Yes, I did.

Presenter1:18

Because I love so many things. It's very hard to make a a choice of only eight records. What's the first one? The first one is um Snarzled Verant singing Monte Carlo or Bust.

Presenter1:34

Because I think that at some time I might need a great deal of energy on the island to get up and if it was hot I don't know if it'd be hot but if it was hot to go and collect some sticks to build something or really to go and do something practical. And this is such an energy filling

Presenter1:51

tune and sound that I think that would really get me off on to my feet and get me moving and doing something. I think that'd be a very good one.

Speaker 32:01

Got it. P had polished the wheels. She's gotta be the smartest of the older mobile.

Speaker 32:09

Polish the paint blink and clean off the rust They won't see our chancy for dust And when we arrive miles ahead of the rest Everyone will know that our jalapi is best They'll have to admit she's a car you can trust So it's not a cow

Presenter2:31

Jimmy Duranti, Monte Carlo or Bus

Presenter2:35

What part of the country are you from? Well, I I was born in Hereford. You and Nell Gwynne? Yeah, I suppose so, and uh but from Scottish parents. I see. Any family precedent for the performing arts? Oh, no.

Presenter2:50

Nobody was anything to do with the theatre. Were you taken to the theatre as a child?

Beryl Reid2:53

Were you taking all the

Presenter2:56

When I was four I learnt dancing.

Presenter2:59

And

Presenter3:00

I was in dancing displays, and I said, Oh, that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to be on the stage, you know. As early as I was four, yes. Were you taught music?

Speaker 23:05

Yeah.

Beryl Reid3:06

Yeah.

Presenter3:08

Yes. I I learnt to play one tune called By the Sea for Small Hands by a lady called Miss Turner. Can you still play it? No, can't play anything. I'm terribly sorry not to

Presenter3:20

be able to play an instrument'cause I love the sound of music and I would love to be able to play. Did you shine at school? Were you good?

Presenter3:27

No. My brother was brilliant. I was always dragging behind a little. I was very good at creative things, you see.

Presenter3:36

But couldn't do maths could do languages standing on my head from sound, you see.

Beryl Reid3:42

Yeah.

Presenter3:42

Because my ear has stood me in good stead.

Presenter3:45

for voices and dialects and things. Now you had this ambition from the age of four to work in the theater. So what did you do when you left school? Well, I worked at it, you see, all the time. I

Beryl Reid3:50

Yeah.

Presenter3:57

I'd sort of got a turn ready. I mean, I used to put my father's hat on and pretend to be Uriah Heap when I was about six, and then I.

Beryl Reid4:04

Mm.

Presenter4:06

learnt to do some impressions of film stars and things. I could dance and I could sing. To whom did you display your your little turn? Well, I used to have to write to a lot of people to see if they would see me.

Beryl Reid4:13

Yeah.

Presenter4:22

The first job I got was with a man called Fred Rain, who had the North Regional Follies at Bridlington. Mm-hmm.

Beryl Reid4:31

Yeah.

Presenter4:31

And I got two pounds a week.

Beryl Reid4:33

Yeah.

Presenter4:33

How old were you then?

Beryl Reid4:34

Yeah.

Presenter4:34

I was sixteen and a half.

Presenter4:38

What did you have to do in the Follies? It was a very good opportunity because, you see, I I got some what I thought would be turns ready sort of act, you know, a little because you didn't have long, you had about five minutes to do. But several programmes to do. That's right, about five programmes.

Speaker 24:52

That's right, about five

Presenter4:54

Then I was allowed to be in sketches and sing in concerted numbers and of course it was a great experience. I was terrible at.

Speaker 25:01

I'm telling you.

Presenter5:02

What?

Presenter5:03

But at the end of the season, after your several months' apprenticeship, you could now go to agents and show your press cuttings. But I well not exactly.

Presenter5:12

But I could at least say I I had trodden the boards and I was ready now to be the big success that I thought I was going to be in a year, you see. Did you go into Pantomise?

Beryl Reid5:16

Rice.

Presenter5:23

Yes. I went to a man called Jack Gillam, and uh he said, What do you do? and I said, Everything.

Presenter5:29

And he said, Now, how much money do you want? I said, I want three pounds a week.

Presenter5:34

And he said, All my life I've been looking for somebody who could do everything for three pounds a week.

Presenter5:42

So that that was the the pattern really, summer seasons and pantomime. That's right. Whatever you could scratch up in between. Yes, and cine variety if I was lucky enough to fix a Friday night or something like that.

Beryl Reid5:44

Seasons and pantomime.

Beryl Reid5:50

Uh

Beryl Reid5:54

Uh

Presenter5:55

We've got you started. Let's have your second record.

Beryl Reid5:55

In London.

Presenter5:59

Right. Well, I would feel I think perhaps romantic on the island sometimes, and I would choose a song called So Close to Me, and it's sung by Julio Iglesias.

Beryl Reid6:25

So close to me

Beryl Reid6:29

I wish that you could spend forever close to me But there is someone else and this can never be

Beryl Reid6:40

Poole.

Presenter6:40

You and

Beryl Reid6:41

Uh

Presenter6:43

Now, I'd really be digging my toes in the sand after that. I can imagine.

Beryl Reid6:46

I can imagine.

Presenter6:48

Julio Iglesias singing so close to me

Presenter6:52

You had a long run in a very celebrated show called Half Past Eight. Oh, yes, in Scotland. With um Dave Willis. That's right. You must have learned a lot from him. Oh, I don't know what I would have done without Dave.

Beryl Reid7:01

Uh

Presenter7:05

I did four hundred and twenty seven sketches with him, and I never had anything written down. I'd have to go to the pub to find him, you see,'cause he never rehearsed really.

Beryl Reid7:07

Yeah.

Presenter7:15

And I said, What do we have to do next week? And I mean, we're going to do five or six sketches And he said, Oh, well, uh you just come on and see soon, soon, soon, soon then I come on.

Presenter7:28

And would do some domestic patter, and then soon, soon, soon, so and that and then he told me the end of the sketch, and that was it.

Presenter7:36

So, I mean, that's why I'm really rather good at making things up.

Presenter7:40

Exactly, they're wrong.

Presenter7:41

To be a comedian's labourer is very good training. Oh, absolutely. A comic's labourer i first of all you learn timing from the comic, because if you do it wrong they get very angry.

Presenter7:54

So when you become a comic performer yourself, that's inbuilt. And you know how to bring things back on course. Absolutely.

Presenter8:03

Did you work in Varati with your own actor? Oh yes. I mean, I I got as far as being a year at the Palladium with Harry Seacombe in a show called Rocking the Town.

Presenter8:15

But my heart was elsewhere. I mean, I loved that and we had a wonderful time, Harry and I.

Presenter8:21

And uh we did twice nightly and three shows on Saturday.

Presenter8:26

But I knew

Presenter8:28

I had done revue in the theatre.

Presenter8:31

And press people had written.

Presenter8:33

This comedy actress and the word actress had rather stuck in my mind, so I was looking wildly for a play, but I did in fact look for a play for eight years.

Presenter8:47

You mentioned cine variety. Now, that was very hard work. It's something that's terrible. Sometimes it meant playing more than one cinema at a time.

Beryl Reid8:50

Oh, that's terrible.

Beryl Reid8:54

Five a day

Presenter8:55

Five shares a day? Yes, I doubled the Astoria Old Kent Road and the Astoria Brixton.

Beryl Reid8:56

Yeah.

Presenter9:01

And we started at eleven in the morning and we went backwards and forwards in a coach until.

Beryl Reid9:05

Yeah.

Presenter9:06

I think the last performance was about 11 o'clock at night. The best training in the world.

Presenter9:13

Record number three. This is Jake Thackeray, who I absolutely love, and I'd like to hear him sing one of my favourite songs, Leopold All Cox.

Speaker 39:27

So Leopolocos, my distant relation, Has gone away home after his visitation.

Speaker 39:38

I glimpsed him waving by by this last minute Waving his hand with my dollop still

Presenter9:54

Jake Thackeray singing Leopold Walcock.

Speaker 39:55

Leopold or

Presenter9:57

You had quite a lot to do in getting him launched, didn't you? Well, I like to think I have, yes. I was doing a television series then called Beryl Reed Says Good Evening, and they wanted me to have a pop star, a different one, every week. And I said, Oh, no, I want that man from Yorkshire who I saw singing something about Joseph. Where had you seen him?

Presenter10:21

He was doing something on the television in some tiny way, and he was a schoolteacher at Leeds. And um I didn't think that was quite the thing for him to be doing. He really ought to be coming and singing these wonderful songs to the world.

Beryl Reid10:34

Come here.

Presenter10:37

At large, he writes all those songs. Beryl, do you remember your very first broadcast? Oh, that's going back a very long way.

Presenter10:47

I think

Presenter10:49

It was with Wilfrid Pickles in The Children's Hour.

Presenter10:54

With Violet Carson playing the piano. That must have been Manchester, wasn't it?

Beryl Reid10:58

Yes, that was right.

Presenter11:00

And I think that was my first broadcast. In fact, I remember there was a a man called David Porter. Yes. I was the twenty ninth audition on a Sunday night.

Presenter11:11

And I I did it all in rather a grand voice, you see, and then when I'd finished what I had to do, I said, Now, do you think I'll get a broadcast?

Presenter11:21

Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 311:21

Ha ha ha.

Presenter11:21

In a very ungrand.

Speaker 311:21

In a very

Speaker 211:21

Uh

Presenter11:23

And he said, Yes, I think you might.

Beryl Reid11:24

Any

Presenter11:26

And I did. Now you had invented as as part of your music hall material a couple of characters who came in very useful on the radio. There was a schoolgirl. Ah, Monica. Yes. Yes. Monica uh was actually

Presenter11:40

Invented in the theatre, right? She was that, you know, absolutely feathered and slightly a grand school girl who having her teeth put straight, you know, and spat all over everybody.

Presenter11:51

and uh had a friend called Stephanie, my best friend, I hate her. Then w when I had done two years as Monika, I thought, besides doing moniker, I ought to

Presenter12:03

Think of another character.

Presenter12:06

of a different class. What show had Monica been in? Well, Monica had b had uh she'd been in the Henry Hall guest night. Yeah. And she'd also been in something that used to be called Monday Night at Eight, but it changed its name.

Presenter12:20

and Janet Brown was going to do it, and then she was ill and couldn't do it, and I was engaged to be in it, and Monica was taken out by Brian Rees, who was her supposed to be her uncle. Oh yes. But she hadn't then really got a name. I had to name her for that.

Presenter12:38

She was I just the schoolgirl, I used to say. You know, shall I do the schoolgirl?

Presenter12:43

It's my original gym slip, too, that I wear, with B. Reed written in the back.

Beryl Reid12:47

Really?

Presenter12:48

NIT

Presenter12:49

And it's wearing a bit thin now.

Presenter12:51

And temperat omnium weeritas written on my hat. Truth governs all things. I was trying to remember that. Now, was she in educating Archie? Wasn't that Marlene? Ah, Monica was in first for two years. And then Marlene

Beryl Reid13:04

Yeah.

Presenter13:07

Who I found in Birmingham.

Presenter13:10

Where?

Speaker 313:10

Right.

Presenter13:11

Well

Presenter13:12

I thought it was so funny when I went to Birmingham. I did a pantomime with Jack Buchanan there and I had no responsibility in the theatre and so, you know, I learnt to drive and all that sort of other things and I had a wonderful landlady who pretended she didn't eat anything at all, said I'll never have bacon and egg, you know, and well, I can't eat I can't eat breakfast tea. Well, I force it down and then I don't have another thing till ten o'clock and I have a cup of tea and a few biscuits. Then not a bite passes my lips till eleven.

Presenter13:42

Then I don't have nothing then till twelve. I mean, she was at it at every hour. Yeah. But of course she was pretending she and I thought all this was very funny and good night each and

Presenter13:51

My granddaddy was terrible with women.

Presenter13:54

They used to refer to him as the Bullsleith Stallion.

Presenter13:59

All these things are so funny. And I sort of saved them up for all those years. And then, when I was trying to think of another character, I tried several.

Speaker 213:59

All these things are so funny.

Beryl Reid14:00

I might as well

Speaker 214:00

So say

Beryl Reid14:01

Ah.

Beryl Reid14:02

Uh

Presenter14:06

that didn't work because they were like somebody else. And then I thought, well, nobody has ever publicised the Birmingham accent. There are lots of our comedians like Tony Hancock.

Presenter14:18

Um Sidfield came from Birmingham.

Presenter14:20

But they never publicised the accent and I said to Bruff Peter Bruff, that is, do you think th that would be any good?

Presenter14:26

These people can try.

Presenter14:28

And of course, uh she was one of the kids, you know, whatever the kids wore, I had to wear. Archie Andrews became very fond of Marlene. Oh, I know, and very fond of Monica. I mean, they got up to terrible tricks, like sawing the legs off the piano and

Beryl Reid14:36

Yeah.

Presenter14:42

He liked Marlene'cause she was rather

Presenter14:45

A bit pushy, you know, to

Presenter14:48

What about television? When did you start that?

Presenter14:51

Oh, do you know, I'm terrible about remembering when I actually start up the hill? Did you start at Alexander Palace or had they moved down to Lime Grove? They'd gone to Lime Grove by the time I got my toe in there. And uh I think the first show I did was Vic's Grill, which was a series. Vic Wise. Vic Wise and Norman Wisdom was in it and he was terribly funny and sang and fell over and did all the things that one remembers him for.

Beryl Reid14:53

And did your startup

Beryl Reid14:56

Yeah.

Beryl Reid15:08

Likewise.

Beryl Reid15:10

Five

Presenter15:21

Good. Well, let's have your fourth record. Well, um, I think we we need a bit of slush now. And as I'm I am rather old fashioned, I'd like uh Charles Asnavore singing Dance in the Old Fashioned Way.

Presenter15:35

Yeah.

Beryl Reid15:35

There

Beryl Reid15:38

In the old-fashioned way.

Beryl Reid15:41

Won't you stay in my arms?

Beryl Reid15:48

Just melt against my skin

Beryl Reid15:52

And let me feel your heart.

Beryl Reid15:56

Don't let the music ring, By dancing for ball.

Beryl Reid16:04

Yeah.

Presenter16:04

Charles Aznavour. Um your very first West End appearance was in review, I believe.

Presenter16:11

Yes. I don't know if you would call the Watergate Theatre Club a West End appearance. Oh, yes, of course. The West End friend.

Beryl Reid16:17

Uh

Presenter16:18

Well, we did transfer, actually, in that review from though I think was in nineteen fifty.

Presenter16:25

To the St Martin's Theatre. After the show, wasn't there? After the show, that's right. Of course, reviews are lost art form. It doesn't exist anymore. I think it's going to because I'm determined to to get a review on. Really? I would love to do a review again. I'd love to see one again, I really would. I think, you know, with people looking beautiful when they've got to, and

Beryl Reid16:34

I think it's going

Beryl Reid16:39

Yeah.

Beryl Reid16:41

Yeah.

Presenter16:45

being terribly funny, and a carefree sort of evening with not a an awful lot to think about. I think people would enjoy it now.

Presenter16:54

You did quite a lot. I mean, you talked about the the Palladium. Then there was one to another. Where was the... Oh, that was at the lyric Hammersmith.

Beryl Reid17:00

Oh that

Presenter17:03

And there were a great number of people launched in that. I mean, it was introducing Joe Mealia.

Presenter17:09

It was Tony Tanner, it was um Sheila Hancock, I mean there were uh Roddy Maud Roxby. There were a great number of people in that. And some very distinguished people used to contribute songs and stuff. Oh, surely. And Patrick Weimark's first review. He'd come straight from Stratford.

Beryl Reid17:21

Oh sure.

Presenter17:27

And he said to me, You have to establish the characters quite quickly, don't you? I said, Well, actually, two seconds flat or get off.

Speaker 217:33

Yeah.

Presenter17:35

Uh

Speaker 217:35

But

Presenter17:35

Well Harold Pinter wrote for it, N. F. Simpson, John Mortimer.

Beryl Reid17:35

But how

Presenter17:40

Yeah.

Beryl Reid17:40

Yeah.

Presenter17:41

I know there were twenty one authors. Um Bamba Gascoigne wrote a sketch for me. Working out the percentages at the end of the week. That was the management, of course.

Beryl Reid17:45

Yeah.

Beryl Reid17:47

We're gonna

Beryl Reid17:49

Good.

Beryl Reid17:51

Yeah.

Presenter17:52

And then we did transfer into the West End, the globe.

Presenter17:56

My first Go at the Globe, one of my favourite theatres. And All Square, that was another one. All Square, that was at the Vaudeville, yes.

Beryl Reid18:00

Uh

Presenter18:02

That was at Mile and Melville.

Presenter18:04

You have this genius for creating characters very quickly. You can just about do it in two seconds, I should think.

Presenter18:11

I've got the feet right.

Presenter18:13

If I get the feet right. Yes. What does that mean? I have to decide how the lady is going to walk.

Presenter18:20

And if I can get that set in my head, then the character's almost there. I mean, in the play that I'm in at present, School for Scandal, there's one line that gave me that clue.

Presenter18:32

And that was, um, dear heart, how provoking we will have the whole affair in the newspapers before I have had chance to drop the story at a dozen houses. So she was very busy walking, walking, walking, to a dozen houses on Cobble Street, so she was obviously going to be very bad on her feet, which indeed she is.

Beryl Reid18:47

So it doesn't have

Presenter18:55

I see. So that gave me that clue. But there is always an indication of how they're going to walk. Get the shoes right. Yes. And you can establish the catch. Oh, yes, and the voice seems to appear from nowhere.

Beryl Reid19:02

Yeah.

Presenter19:08

Record number five.

Presenter19:10

Record number five. Now, you know I love the human voice. And this is Gerard Hofnung at the Oxford Union. I have you some letters written in answer to holiday inquiries.

Presenter19:23

Which we wrote to the Dolomar mites, and we received some replies.

Presenter19:28

in English from Tyroline landlords

Speaker 319:36

We have ample garage accommodation for your char.

Presenter19:42

Uh

Speaker 319:42

Uh

Presenter19:44

Gerard Hofnung at the Oxford Union.

Presenter19:48

Now, you had been building up a very satisfactory career in the musical theatre and variety and revue, and then, as as they say, you went legitimate for the first time.

Beryl Reid19:57

The first time.

Presenter19:59

How did that happen? Well, as I said, I'd waited for eight years to to f all the people I worked for in review said, Oh, darling, you must do a play, but they never found a play for darling.

Presenter20:11

and eventually Michael Codron, who I'd never worked for.

Presenter20:16

Sent me to see entertaining mister Sloane.

Beryl Reid20:19

Joe Orton.

Presenter20:20

Joe Orton's play. He said, I want to know whether you like it or not, or if you're shocked by it, or anything like that. This was in nineteen sixty four, you see.

Presenter20:29

So, um

Presenter20:31

I rang him up the next day. I thought I thought it was absolutely marvellous. He said, Well, in that case, I've got something that I want you to read, called The Killing of Sister George.

Presenter20:40

Yes, yes.

Beryl Reid20:41

Uh

Presenter20:44

A very outspoken comedy about lesbians. Yes. Well, I thought it was about people who incidentally happened to be lesbians.

Beryl Reid20:47

Yeah.

Presenter20:52

Did you tour?

Presenter20:54

Oh, yes, di a disaster. We emptied every theatre.

Presenter20:58

I mean, the only thing I could look at was the

Presenter21:01

There was a shop that sold second hand false teeth next to the theatre at Hull. I used to stand staring into the window thinking, However did you try those on, I wonder dreading going into the theatre, really The the audience really hated Oh, hated it.

Beryl Reid21:14

Emma.

Presenter21:15

Absolutely hated it. And I said to Eileen Atkins, who it was in I said, We'll ju we'll only run one night in London, Eileen. That'll be it. I said, I won't be disappointed because we couldn't run longer than that.

Presenter21:27

And of course on the first night we were sold out for five months. A smash hit. A smash hit, and nobody would have believed it less than me. How long did you play it in London?

Presenter21:36

A year and five months in London. Then I went to New York. Well, you won a Tony Award. That's right.

Beryl Reid21:41

Were you one?

Beryl Reid21:42

What's

Presenter21:43

I played it for seven months there. And uh

Presenter21:48

It was very funny when I got the Tony Award, because we were what Morton Gottlieb, who took me over there.

Presenter21:54

I said, How do you think it'll be? and he said, I think it'll be a sort of nervous hit.

Presenter21:59

And it was a kind of nervous hit because it was a bit near home for some of those tough ladies. And, um,.

Presenter22:06

When I got the tony, there were three people injured trying to get into the matinee. I mean, you have to get a badge for doing it there.

Speaker 222:14

Okay.

Presenter22:15

Nobody seems to bother here whether you've got a badge or not. And then you played Sister George in the film. Which was made partly here and partly in Hollywood. Why was that? Well, Robert Aldrich, who is a wonderful director.

Beryl Reid22:20

Then I did the film.

Beryl Reid22:22

Yeah.

Beryl Reid22:24

Why was that?

Presenter22:29

and has my total admiration. He had bought what used to be Mary Pickford's Independent Studios in downtown Hollywood, which had been last used in nineteen thirteen.

Presenter22:43

And he'd modernized them and it was really a beautiful little studio to work in.

Presenter22:48

So that's why we were taken to Hollywood. So Sister George kept you going what, about three or four years? Three years, actually it was th at least three years of my life.

Beryl Reid22:54

Three

Presenter22:58

And then you took a chance a big chance in a revival of Noel Card's blithe spirit. You played Madame Arcati the Medium, which Margaret Rutherford had created and made

Beryl Reid23:07

The creation

Presenter23:08

Very much her own. Now how did you tackle that?

Presenter23:12

Well, I I put off doing it for two years, actually, because I thought that nobody could be better than Margaret Rutherford, and it's absolutely no use

Beryl Reid23:12

Yeah.

Presenter23:22

trying to do a carbon copy of her or to imitate her or anything.

Presenter23:27

And I had to find a new way of doing it. So I had the idea of doing it as a refugee from Edinburgh.

Presenter23:36

had rather been drummed out because there were lovely things to say like ectoplasmic manifestations which were of course in that sort of voice was awfully they're awfully nice to see.

Speaker 223:43

Yeah.

Presenter23:50

She wore rather with it gear that she thought was with it. Yes. When all those crocheted things were very popular, and culottes, which she looked dreadful in.

Presenter24:00

and those home knitted stockings and

Presenter24:02

Thong sandals. Did you present this idea to Cardinal?

Beryl Reid24:06

No card, yeah.

Presenter24:08

I I discussed it with him and uh

Presenter24:11

I must say he laughed so much he almost cried when I was telling him about it.

Presenter24:16

And um

Presenter24:18

Of course, he talked about all sorts of things. I can never believe that he's not still here. And.

Presenter24:24

He started talking about people dying and, um

Presenter24:28

He said, of course, you know, when you die, um

Presenter24:30

Your hair keeps on growing, your fingernails, and the and the hair on your chest.

Presenter24:35

I said, Well, not on my chest. He said, Oh, you give up hope so easily That's a perfect card remark.

Presenter24:50

Are you a nervous person? Well, I'm I'm nervous in the theatre to begin with.

Presenter24:55

I'm very afraid of, I think, forgetting words. Are you a quick study? Can you learn easily?

Presenter25:01

I'm absolutely hopeless. I have dyslexia, you see. Yes, and uh I perhaps have to work about twenty times harder than anybody else does. I

Beryl Reid25:04

How do you?

Presenter25:11

You see, I not only are the words in the wrong order to me,

Presenter25:14

But they they're words that aren't there. Yes. I see a lot of scribble, really. So it really is a chore for you. Oh, it's an absolute chore. I have to un scramble the words.

Beryl Reid25:21

Oh, it's an absolute

Presenter25:26

And then kind of point to them like a child would each word.

Presenter25:31

and underline them and the ones that get away I put little marks and symbols and things over, you see. And then I have to start trying to learn a sentence at a time. Well this it must be a handicap. It is. And particularly in specialized language like a play of Sheridan's, for instance.

Beryl Reid25:43

That's it.

Presenter25:50

or Congreve.

Presenter25:52

Very difficult language. Are you superstitious in the theatre? No, no, I'm not. Don't care about that.

Presenter26:00

Your next record.

Presenter26:01

I'd like to hear Isabel Bailey again. I used to s go to school with her daughter. Did you? Yes.

Presenter26:09

And she just is a lovely, lovely person. And I'd like to hear her sing Let the Bright Seraphim. You used to know her, didn't you? Oh, very well.

Beryl Reid26:18

Oh!

Presenter26:19

Yes, very well. She actually saw me on up that terrible ramp at the Albert Hall when I was grown up.

Presenter26:26

Because she said you'll be all right, lovely. What were you doing in the Albert Hall? Well, I was called into Lud.

Beryl Reid26:29

Uh

Presenter26:31

Phyllis Selleck and Cyril Smith were playing the piano.

Presenter26:35

And um Isabel Bailey was singing, and I was a funny bit in the middle, somehow. I don't know how I got there, but I was also doubling that and the Watergate on a Sunday night. That's a pretty busy Sunday. Yes, it was. But anyway, Isabel Bailey launched you up the ramp. That's right, and also cooked chips for us.

Presenter26:54

When we used to get home from school sometimes. A delightful lady. What's she going to sing?

Beryl Reid26:57

Yeah.

Presenter26:59

Let the bright seraphim

Presenter28:02

Handel's Let the Bright Seraphin by Isabel Bailey

Presenter28:06

Now we've talked about the fact that you are at the moment in the School for Scandal at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. You made an onslaught all of a sudden, really, on on the classical theatre. You you began at the National, didn't you?

Presenter28:19

Ah, yes, that was when the National was at the Old Fic. I did Spring Awakening. That was a completely straight part for me, The German Mother, and it's a wonderful play.

Beryl Reid28:21

Yeah.

Presenter28:29

And uh I played the nurse in Romeo and Juliet too there. And uh then I had two years away because the new building wasn't finished. Then you went to the opposition, the Royal Shakespeare.

Beryl Reid28:38

Hmm.

Presenter28:41

Yes, I did uh Way of the World, Lady Wishfoot. And that's for the same director that I'm working for now, John Bartman.

Beryl Reid28:44

Yeah.

Speaker 328:44

Uh

Beryl Reid28:44

Uh

Speaker 328:47

Unberg.

Beryl Reid28:47

Yeah.

Presenter28:49

She was outrageous, of course, too. Almost as outrageous as Mrs. Candor, whom you're playing at the moment. And in the middle of all that you did a a Joe Orton play. Oh, yes. Well, it it's rather funny because that was the one that um I'd been sent to see. The one that Michael Codron had sent you to see to see if you'd be shot.

Beryl Reid29:05

Not

Speaker 329:06

Right.

Presenter29:07

Entertaining Mr. Sloane. But I did it a funny way round, really. I did the film first.

Beryl Reid29:09

Yeah.

Speaker 329:09

Yeah.

Presenter29:13

of that. And then I later on did the play. I did the play with Malcolm McDowell and we opened at uh the Stone Square Theatre. Royal Court and then we transferred to the Duke of York's.

Speaker 329:23

The Royal Court

Presenter29:28

And uh because I'd discovered a lot more about Cath, that character, by that time.

Presenter29:34

But I I enjoyed both of them immensely. We did the film at uh Camberbell Cemetery.

Presenter29:40

Well, that's a cheerful occasion.

Beryl Reid29:41

Yes

Speaker 229:41

Uh

Beryl Reid29:41

Cash no Yeah.

Speaker 229:42

I missed you more.

Beryl Reid29:43

Yeah.

Presenter29:46

And you hope.

Presenter29:48

Soon, one day, you're going to do another review. Oh yes, please.

Presenter29:52

How could we be there?

Beryl Reid29:52

Hope you'll be able to do it.

Presenter29:53

I shall be there the first night. Good. Keep me away. Next record.

Beryl Reid29:54

God

Beryl Reid29:56

Next

Presenter29:57

Well, I'd like to hear as I love the human voice, I think the the sound I like next best is the

Presenter30:04

sound of the cello, and I'd like Jacqueline Dupre to play Elgar's cello concerto.

Presenter31:12

The opening of the Elgar Cello Concerto, Jacqueline Dupuy, with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir John Barbie Raleigh.

Presenter31:22

Now a brief interrogation, Beryl, about your suitability for this post as a castaway. Could you look after yourself, do you think? Were you ever a girl guide? No, I was never a girl guide. But I think, quite honestly, if you've knocked about in the theatre

Presenter31:36

And been in as many lots of digs and on those terrible Sunday train calls and I fended for myself.

Beryl Reid31:42

You've

Beryl Reid31:43

I found

Presenter31:45

You could rig up a shelter? I could rig up some sort of a shelter, yes. You live by the river, I know, by the River Thames. Do you fish?

Beryl Reid31:51

Yeah.

Presenter31:53

No, I don't fish, but I could learn to do that, because I I see all those nuts on the other side of the river.

Presenter32:00

Do they ever catch anything? Oh, yes. Actually there's a a chap who comes and fishes in my garden.

Beryl Reid32:02

Mm-hmm.

Presenter32:05

And he caught a four and a half pound chub.

Presenter32:08

So, I mean, I've watched him just sitting there. I hope you had a slice.

Presenter32:12

No, I didn't, because he puts them back. He doesn't he has them in a keep net and puts them back.

Beryl Reid32:14

It hasn't a

Presenter32:16

But then he's not trying to survive. I would be. Now you have small boats, don't you? Well, I haven't now. I have had small boats, and I can handle small boats.

Beryl Reid32:21

Bye.

Presenter32:25

So you would you try to escape? No, I wouldn't. I'd wait for somebody to come and get me.

Presenter32:31

Because I I have such confidence in confidence. Yes, I'm I'm a very good swimmer, but I have great confidence that

Beryl Reid32:35

Are you good?

Presenter32:41

You know, the management would look after me.

Presenter32:44

I think somebody would come and get me. Have you a religious faith that would help? Oh, yes, I have.

Presenter32:50

Quite my own, I think. But, um, I think that would be lovely.

Presenter32:56

Have a lot of time to think.

Presenter32:58

We've got your last record. What's that? Well, as I've got nine cats Nine. Nine. That's the standard usual number, isn't it? That's the number at the moment, yes. There may be one another one walks in to morrow. I don't know, but I can't refuse them a home, you see, really.

Beryl Reid33:03

That's the standard

Beryl Reid33:06

That's

Presenter33:14

They're all little stray ones.

Beryl Reid33:16

Yeah.

Presenter33:16

But uh they're all very loving and nice and get on well together. And uh so I have to have something from Cats. From the show. Yes, from the show Cats, and I would like Elaine Page to sing Memory.

Speaker 233:37

Uh

Beryl Reid33:38

Not a sound from the page.

Speaker 233:40

Damn.

Speaker 233:43

Has the moon lost her memory?

Beryl Reid33:47

Yeah.

Speaker 233:47

She is smiling.

Beryl Reid33:49

Ling along

Beryl Reid33:53

In the lamb light.

Beryl Reid33:56

The withered leaves collect at my feet

Presenter34:01

Elaine Page in a song from Cats. If you could choose only one disc out of the eight you've played, which would it be?

Beryl Reid34:06

Out of the eight you played.

Presenter34:09

Well, I think it would have to be Isabel Bailey singing,'cause that is such a pure, marvellous sound, and would remind me of my childhood and school days and very happy times, and of her. Let the Bright Seraphim

Beryl Reid34:27

Yeah.

Presenter34:28

And one luxury to have with you, one object of no practical use that will just give you pleasure to have.

Presenter34:35

I think I'd like some garment made of absolutely pure silk.

Presenter34:42

That I could just float about in when I wanted. Swan around the beach. Swan around the beach, yes.

Beryl Reid34:44

Or what

Presenter34:48

For a few chimpanzees or whoever or whatever happened to be about. Well, think up a a good designer and we'll arrange it.

Beryl Reid34:53

But

Beryl Reid34:55

Yeah.

Presenter34:56

And one book, you already have the Bible and Shakespeare.

Presenter35:00

I think I would take forever amber.

Presenter35:03

That's a nice long read. Yes. Well, it's a long read, and it's also a period piece which I seem to be in at the moment.

Beryl Reid35:05

Yeah.

Presenter35:11

And I would be very interested in all those eighteenth century goings-on. That's right. I'm very familiar with them.

Beryl Reid35:16

Good. You should have it.

Presenter35:20

And thank you, Beryl Reed, for letting us hear your Desert Island Disc. Thank you very much. It was lovely to come. Goodbye, everyone. Bye-bye.

Beryl Reid35:27

But

Speaker 235:53

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