Dora Bryan

Speaker 10:00

Hello, I'm Kirstie Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive. For rights reasons we've had to shorten the music. The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen eighty seven, and the presenter was Michael Parkinson.

Presenter0:29

A Castaway is without doubt one of Britain's most versatile actresses. She's played everything from musicals to Shakespeare, review to Restoration Comedy, Fast to Tragedy.

Presenter0:39

She's one of the few people I know to have been both a member of the Carry On Team and the National Theatre, and she is Dora Bryan.

Presenter0:46

Dora, welcome. It's amazing to to think looking at your career. You've been now in your profession for what fifty-one years.

Dora Bryan0:52

Yes, that's right, isn't it? It's an awful long time. I can't believe it myself. I feel as if I'm still.

Presenter0:54

Yeah.

Dora Bryan0:58

You know, insecure, and what's going to happen next, sort of that never leaves you.

Presenter1:02

I never leaves you.

Dora Bryan1:02

Oh no, I don't think it ever does. No, you know, what's the next job and uh and still the excitement of the next job, you know, just like it was when you were young.

Presenter1:04

Yeah.

Presenter1:09

No, just

Presenter1:12

You've just come out of of a highly successful musical, Charlie Girl. Of all the things you've done, which I listed in the introduction, would I be right in thinking that musicals are are your favorites?

Dora Bryan1:21

Well, when I was in rep, I was in rep for seven years, and to get a marvellous part in a play is great. It really is super.

Dora Bryan1:31

Particularly if it's a funny part, a well well it's got to be well written, you know, not just um well fast of course can be well written, but there's nothing like making an audience laugh. But with musicals, I just love the atmosphere backstage with the musical. I noticed it terrifically last year. I was at the National doing She Stoops to Conquer. And I don't know if you've been backstage at the National, but it's really it's like a block of offices anyway backstage. And it's fine when you're on the stage and you've got the audience. I mean audiences don't vary anywhere really in the world. But immediately I finished at the National I went off to the Theatre or Brighton to do pantomime with Chris Biggins and you go backstage in a real theatre, a real, you know, plush and and gilt and uh dressing rooms, proper dress where you can shout to the dressing room opposite you, you know, and you're all

Dora Bryan2:21

clustered together backstage and you get a real theatrical atmosphere. And again, we had the music, you see, so and with She Stoops to Gonka, we did, we had some sort of that sort of music, but it wasn't really

Presenter2:30

But it wasn't.

Dora Bryan2:31

the commercial music and it lifts you, you know.

Presenter2:34

Part of what prompted the question was in fact your first choice of record, because that's from a musical, isn't it?

Dora Bryan2:39

Yes.

Dora Bryan2:40

I love to go and watch a musical and I was not out I was on my way back from Canada I've been doing a straight play, an Alan Aykebourne play out there, relatively speaking.

Dora Bryan2:49

You can come back by New York from Canada and so Bill was with me and somebody got us tickets for Chorus Line. And to be in New York on your first night and go into the Schubert Theatre and see Chorus Line, and having been a Chorus Girl myself when I was twelve A Corine, as Pretty Corps is her little girl, one of the twenty four Eileen Rogue and Drury Lane babes. I think it's such a proy show. And if I was on this desert island, I'd like to remember when I was an Eileen Rogue and Drury Lane babe. And

Speaker 33:07

Open s

Dora Bryan3:21

Courseline just personified what the career is about, really.

Speaker 33:28

He's the one.

Speaker 33:34

One

Speaker 33:36

Singular sensation, every little step she takes.

Speaker 33:42

One, two, three.

Speaker 33:44

Thrilling combination, every move that she makes.

Speaker 33:50

One smile and suddenly nobody ever

Presenter3:57

That was one from the original production of Chorus Nine. I have to report too that Dora Bryant doing that piece of music was in a trance. It is actually one of the best show biz songs written for a long, long time, isn't it then?

Dora Bryan4:09

I think so, because you can see them picking out that one girl that's got that spark. You know, there's always one, isn't there, when you see a row of dancers, just one that's got that little bit extra. They may not be cleverer.

Dora Bryan4:22

But they've just got something that makes you look

Presenter4:24

That happened to you. Yeah.

Dora Bryan4:25

Uh

Presenter4:25

Yeah.

Dora Bryan4:25

They must have done, I mean, I was too young to know it, but G S Melvyn, who was a wonderful dame, and it was at the Palis theatre, Manchester, Jack and the Beanstalk.

Dora Bryan4:34

and Billy Dambers was also in it. G S Melvin said he'd like

Dora Bryan4:39

Obviously saw the row of dancers and doing our bit and he said he asked me to go forward and I did a sketch with him. And my friend Vera Swindles, she did it as well. Yeah, Vera Swindles and I, we did the sketch with him. And then Billy Danvers chose me to do another sketch with him. So I must have had that little bit. That's right.

Presenter4:48

Those last things.

Presenter4:56

That's right. I I love showbiz stories like that. It's marvellous, yes. It's tale of a chorus girl on the end of a star.

Dora Bryan4:58

Love

Presenter5:01

But you you could talk about Vera Swingles there, of course, but your of course your name wasn't Brian at the time, was it?

Dora Bryan5:05

No, Dora Broadbent.

Presenter5:07

Door broke.

Dora Bryan5:07

Dora Maybro

Dora Bryan5:09

Uh

Presenter5:09

Yeah.

Dora Bryan5:09

Yes, it was an awful toss up uh when I left Oldham Rep, where I was definitely Dora May Broadbent in the programme well, Dora M. Broadbent in the programme. Assistant stage managers John Shuttleworth and Dora M. Broadbent.

Dora Bryan5:22

'Cause I've still got a tappenny programme.

Dora Bryan5:24

And um when I was asked to go to this other rep for Harry Hanson's Court Players, uh he said would I change my name? because he thought it wasn't quite suitable and so

Dora Bryan5:34

We sat in the kitchen in the gardens of Oldham, mum and dad and I, and Dad had bought a trunk second hand somewhere, and he'd put DB on it for me, you see, to move to Peterborough Rep. Oh, no, it was Keithley Rep. Well, near you, Michael, you might have come to see me.

Speaker 15:47

Well near you, my

Dora Bryan5:49

So, to change my name it had to be something like

Dora Bryan5:53

It had to be begin with a B, and on the b table in the kitchen, I can see it now.

Dora Bryan5:58

The apple pie was there, and the box of matches was there, and it was said Bryant and May. Well, my middle name being May. Mum said, Oh, what about Dora and May? and I said, No,'cause of the B, so B on the trunk, so it became Bryant. And when I got to Keithley Rep, the man that printed the programme left the tea off, so it was Dora and Bryant.

Dora Bryan6:17

So that's how I change the name.

Presenter6:18

There you are. The rest is history. Doro, let's have another choice of record.

Dora Bryan6:20

And the

Dora Bryan6:22

It's Saint Benny Goodman County, Alaken.

Speaker 36:58

Uh

Presenter7:24

Benny Goodman and Clarinet Ada King.

Presenter7:26

Dora, you you mentioned the rep. That in fact was your acting school, wasn't it? Because you didn't actually officially attend any acting school at all.

Dora Bryan7:33

Well, actually I suppose you could have called it. I did have one term at the Russian Rep it was called, but I didn't learn anything. It was just uh six weeks I think I was there and then mum took me to the rep in Oldham and uh where they took me on as an assistant stage manager and that's when I started to learn. Now I can't say that I went to acting school, no. But what was rep like? It was hard work I bet, wasn't it? Oh yes, it was, but it was the best days of my life. And listening to that record reminds me of the things that used to go on.

Speaker 17:50

Yeah.

Presenter7:59

My

Dora Bryan8:03

Well, I worked jolly hard. I really did work hard seven days a week, and I was an assistant stage manager because they couldn't give me a part every week'cause I looked very young and ca you know.

Dora Bryan8:12

So apart from putting grey wigs on me and playing old ladies and things, I couldn't work every week and I was in a s A S M. I remember I was in charge of the music for the plays, and we were doing ghosts.

Dora Bryan8:24

And I was always in trouble, and no wonder, really, when looking back. We were doing Ghosts, and it was a very foggy November evening, and our director, Douglas Emery, had gone to Manchester on the Thursday night, he always did, to see the show that was on at the Opera House, Manchester.

Dora Bryan8:38

And uh so I was sort of in

Dora Bryan8:41

In charge, really. Anna had put the records on in the interval.

Dora Bryan8:45

and he'd chosen some very awful, dreary music. And I mean it was a cold evening and I looked through the curtains at the audience and then oh, can you imagine in November you know in Oldham watching ghosts It's a very depressing play, you know.

Speaker 18:59

It's a very

Dora Bryan9:01

Anne had just bought Joe Loss's In the Mood, with Woodchopper's Ball on the other side. I thought now this'll cheer them up.

Dora Bryan9:09

So I put on In the Mood and this lovely mus d d d going on, and I was just turning over, and now you could see them visibly cheer up. Music's so important to people, you know.

Dora Bryan9:20

You could see them start they sat up in their seats and so this sort of m chamber music. I was just turning over to put Woodchopper's ball on, and Douglas hadn't gone to Manchester to see the play at the Opera House'cause it was too foggy, and he broke my record.

Dora Bryan9:35

He did. He broke it and threatened to get me the sack. He said, I'll get the sack Dora Bro Dora Broadbent I was then. Anyway, he didn't get me the sack. He was a lovely man and uh but those are the sort of things I did at the rep. And a different play every week and then eventually I was playing leading parts and

Presenter9:50

Death.

Presenter9:50

Well let's have another choice of record now and after what you've told me there can only be one other choice of record in this spot. Oh, Joe Nothing.

Dora Bryan9:55

Ouch.

Speaker 39:55

Check that out.

Presenter9:57

Oh.

Presenter10:57

Joelos and Woodchoppers Ball.

Presenter10:59

Uh that always reminds me, Dora, I don't know about you. It reminds me of the local dance hall when I was a kid, not music.

Dora Bryan11:04

Yeah, that's why I played it.

Presenter11:05

Yeah.

Dora Bryan11:05

Yes, that's why I wanted it. Because then I can see myself still at the Hill Stores or the Conservative Club in Oldham after the rep. I used to go because meanwhile I'd met Bill, you see, when I was there, my husband, who is now, and I was seventeen and I met him outside the gentleman's toilets in Oldham, you see, and he sent his friend over and asked me was I going to the Hill Stores on Saturday night and I took one look and I thought, Well, I'll go. And so I did and that's how it started. Anyway, oh, we'd get all the big bands. We didn't get Joe Loss actually at Hill Stores, but we we'd got Oscar Aben and we got Ted Heath. We got Joe Loss at the Odeon Cinema, no, the Gaumont, he came to the Gaumont and did a big concert there. And I mean it was like those in a way like those films of Andy Hardy films, you know, where you stood round and looked up at the big band, you know, and they

Dora Bryan11:53

Oh, I always thought it was thrilling, you know, like the six sacks'UD get up and play something, then the the brass'UD get up, and then

Dora Bryan12:00

Oh, it was marvellous.

Presenter12:01

Were you a good dancer? Yes, very good.

Dora Bryan12:02

Yes, very good. Oh, excellent.

Presenter12:04

Lots of boyfriends as well.

Dora Bryan12:04

Uh

Dora Bryan12:06

I had a letter the other day from somebody, oh, and I do think it's nice, and I wished I'd kept it, the letter. I replied to it, I think. Or it might still be at the theatre. I don't know the man, but he said he used to cheat in the Paul Jones so he could get a dance with me.

Dora Bryan12:21

And that night is called Arthur. I wish I could remember his last name. If he hears the programme in public. But I thought it was so nice of him to write to me. He was just reminding me of the Lost Empires, as it were, in olden, because we've lost the Empire, which was the theatre where I played Cinderella when I was sixteen.

Speaker 112:33

Yeah.

Presenter12:33

In Oldham

Presenter12:37

Yeah.

Dora Bryan12:38

And he would just remind me of a few few things in Oldham and um

Presenter12:41

Well all those north country towns we both know very well, they're just gone out of totally they're they're changed.

Dora Bryan12:44

Yes, it's just a it's just a sort of empty space there where the empire uh just a derelict bit of land where the empire was, where I played Cinderella with Frankie Franks playing buttons.

Presenter12:51

So then

Dora Bryan12:56

They gave me six weeks off from the rep, you see, to go. I got eight pounds a week then, when I did Cinderella. I was only getting uh was it, seven and six at the rep.

Dora Bryan13:05

But th they put it up to twenty five shillings when I went back again after the six weeks with the banter. Extuff. Another record, please, uh Dora. Right, now I'm going to have my I think she's about my favorite artist, Judy Garland. I've got all her L P's and uh

Presenter13:09

Another echo

Dora Bryan13:19

I think I'd like her to sing this for me on that desert island.

Speaker 313:23

Life is just a bowl of cherries.

Speaker 313:26

Solive it, love it.

Speaker 313:33

Wiggle your ears and think nothing of it. You can't do without it. There's no two ways about it. You live.

Presenter13:53

Judy Garland and Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries. Course, I mean, it it just wasn't a bowl of cherries for her, was it?

Dora Bryan13:59

No, it wasn't. It wasn't at all, was it? I think it was probably her fault, you know, Michael. I don't think we can keep, you know, all the books that have been written about to blame the system.

Presenter14:00

Yeah.

Dora Bryan14:09

We can all get out of that. I think she should have stuck with one of those husbands, and, you know, made the best of it.

Presenter14:16

Yes. But I mean there there is a problem though, isn't there involved. I mean I mean you've been married now for a long, long time. You've got your family around you and you managed to survive all that. But there's been pressures on you, there must have been over the years.

Dora Bryan14:16

But I mean there are

Dora Bryan14:21

You found it.

Speaker 314:22

Yeah.

Dora Bryan14:22

Huh?

Presenter14:27

Trying to be a mom.

Dora Bryan14:27

Trying to be a

Presenter14:29

A wife, a star?

Dora Bryan14:29

Actually,

Dora Bryan14:30

In the gilt complex that you're not doing any of them very well.

Presenter14:32

I absolutely imagine that. I mean you you had b bad time with that.

Dora Bryan14:36

Yeah, I did. About seven years ago I had a nervous breakdown.

Dora Bryan14:40

And I had one also after I lost my first baby. It's awful and you you know, just blaming yourself all the time for things and

Dora Bryan14:48

No, I think I'm a bit stronger in my faith anyway, so I don't think it'd happen again. Although

Dora Bryan14:53

Got a pretty strong faith seven years ago when I had a breakdown, and still had it.

Dora Bryan14:58

But I think that was accumulation of moving home and the children growing up and

Dora Bryan15:03

My age, maybe, I don't know.

Presenter15:05

I don't know.

Dora Bryan15:06

Women do go through funny periods in their life.

Dora Bryan15:09

But I've come out of it a lot stronger and

Presenter15:12

How do you come out of it, Minj?

Dora Bryan15:13

How'd you come out of it? I don't know, Michael. You have to be patient, I think, with a breakdown and uh good doctors and just watch your way of life, really. It's not easy.

Presenter15:14

I don't know, Michael.

Dora Bryan15:24

But uh

Dora Bryan15:25

It can do it.

Presenter15:28

Well, you're still here anyway and still working and and looking good as well, so it can't be that lasting, the the the effects of it. But as I was saying, it it is though, nonetheless uh it is a it's a funny old occupation, isn't it? It has its own kind of problems.

Dora Bryan15:39

Yes, it has. Being on top all the time is um a strain, you know.

Presenter15:44

Yeah.

Dora Bryan15:45

So the thing to do is to

Dora Bryan15:47

Just keep yourself calm so that you can be on top, on stage and nowhere else. But it's no good trying to be on top all day long. You can't

Presenter15:52

But it's

Presenter15:55

Yes. Another choice to record, please do.

Dora Bryan15:57

Oh, I'm going to have fair.

Dora Bryan15:59

Pericomo singing It Had to Be You

Speaker 316:03

It had to be you.

Speaker 316:07

It had to be you.

Speaker 316:10

I wandered around and finally found

Speaker 316:16

Somebody who

Speaker 316:19

Could make me be true

Speaker 316:23

Couldn't make me be blue.

Speaker 316:28

And even be glad just to be sad thinking of

Presenter16:34

Pericomo, and it had to be you. Dora, I suppose the big break for you was w was movies, wasn't it? That was the first time that you became a sub national known.

Dora Bryan16:42

Well, I was doing all right in the West End in plays, and then Carol Reed saw me in Peace and Our Time, I think it was, at Noah Carr Play saw me in

Dora Bryan16:51

Or maybe it was his casting director, but I know that was through Peace Nower Time. And he put me into the first film I mean the first film studio I ever went into was at Shepperton, and I did um a very tiny part in Odd Man Out of the girl in the telephone box giggling away while James Mason was trying to get in to make an urgent phone calls and it was and then he put me immediately straight into The Fallen Idol. And there I really did, although it was only a s very small part, only one day's work on it.

Dora Bryan17:22

Uh got notices for it and did very well.

Dora Bryan17:26

And then from then on I seem to be in every British film just if it's only one day here and one day there and including I noticed an Old Mother Riley film. Oh yes. Oh, I've got that um somebody gave it me on video. Oh Mother Riley meets the vampire. It's one of the funniest films I've ever seen.

Presenter17:41

And QN Film, yeah.

Dora Bryan17:43

Oh, very

Presenter17:43

Very funny film, that was. Did you want to be a film star though? I mean, was that the the burning ambition at the time?

Dora Bryan17:44

Never mind.

Dora Bryan17:49

When I got the parting cure for love with Robert Donut, I thought, Well, obviously, Hollywood, here I come. You know, I'll be a big star after this. It went down with a great thud at the Ode in Leicester Square.

Dora Bryan17:59

They hated it. They ran it was a superpart. But then you see what can you do? In Manchester, they were queuing up for seventeen weeks to see it. And Newcastle, north of Watford, it went terribly well, that film. They never show it on television. I think Robert didn't like it. He directed it, he starred in it, and I don't think he should have done all that. It was too much for him,'cause he was a very sick man when he made the film. He had asthma and he was a lovely man. I think he was miscast as well. He di he's not like a Lancashire private in the army.

Presenter18:26

No private in the army, is he? Far too refined.

Dora Bryan18:28

That's fine too.

Presenter18:29

That's fine too.

Dora Bryan18:30

Beautiful. Uh Much too beautiful. His voice is too beautiful.

Presenter18:31

I'm not sh

Presenter18:33

It's been a tough

Dora Bryan18:33

Blacker

Presenter18:34

That's the Z. Was it? No, that's right. Was he the most beautiful leading man you worked with? Of course, you've worked with some very good learning, you've worked with a tool, haven't you, and people like that? Yes, so.

Dora Bryan18:35

I was

Dora Bryan18:40

Yes, Saint Peter's very attractive, yes.

Presenter18:43

Yeah.

Dora Bryan18:44

Kenneth Moore was very nice,'cause he was nice, you know, as well as being attractive.

Dora Bryan18:49

Another choice of record. Oh, now you'll enjoy this, Michael.

Dora Bryan18:53

Not very classic lammer. It's Errol Garner playing Where oh When.

Dora Bryan19:54

Oh, it's lovely. Great.

Presenter19:55

It's a wonderful aerial garner and where I'll win.

Presenter19:59

I forgot to mention that we were talking about movies, Dorian, in fact that um

Presenter20:02

One of the best movies you you made was Taste of Honey, for which you got the British Academy Award. Now that obviously looking at your career in films, that would be a high spot. What I'd like to do now is to look back over the the fifty-one years you've been in every aspect of showbiz from review to restoration comedy, whatever you there is you you've done it, and pick out some sort of key moments. I mean what have been the wonderful moments when you look back in these fifty-one years?

Dora Bryan20:24

Obviously receiving an award for Taste of Honey was really very special, particularly as little William, who's now twenty four, was six weeks old, you know, and I had wobbled across that floor to receive an award for a film.

Dora Bryan20:37

Yeah, I must have got pregnant when I was making the film,'cause it you know, it takes about nine months to get it all together.

Dora Bryan20:43

So that was a wonderful moment. And also at that time my brother who lives in South Africa was flown over because they were going to do This Is Your Life on me. So he was at the dinner where I got this award as well. So that I mean it was all too much for me. A new baby, an award and my brother who I hadn't seen since the war, you know. So that was a great moment. Another marvellous moment was I won't say the opening night of Hello Dolly at the Theatre Audrey Lane because I was probably too nervous. I only had three weeks to get it all together and do it and return to the moment. You took over from Mary Martin. Because I took over from Mary Martin. She only did four and a half months or something.

Presenter21:12

You two go from Berry Market.

Dora Bryan21:17

and I took over and I you when you think, you know, they'd all had about

Dora Bryan21:21

two months' rehearsals, and I was thrown in the deep end at three weeks with no previews like they have now, you know, and everybody had been doing it all. Anyway, uh but once I was into it

Dora Bryan21:32

I think there was it was the most magical moment to stand at the top of those stairs in that gorgeous red dress.

Dora Bryan21:39

And look at all the boys standing there waiting for you to come down and sing.

Dora Bryan21:45

Hello, Harry Hallo, Louie. It's so nice to be back home where I belong.

Dora Bryan21:51

and you know, it starts very gently, the music, and then it swells up, and then the boys come in and we had the best singers in London and this great sound came up. That must be my favorite moment in the theatre.

Presenter22:03

Yeah.

Speaker 322:04

Uh

Presenter22:04

Yes.

Speaker 322:04

Yeah.

Presenter22:04

Uh

Dora Bryan22:04

And uh also one night we had the all the cup final players when they'd won the cup out front. Can you that was a thrill, you know, they were all sitting out front as well and all came round afterwards. We and all the best people came to see the show, I know it was lovely, and the Theatre Andre O Lane's a lovely theatre.

Presenter22:22

Another choice of record.

Dora Bryan22:24

Well, I had an eye-opener this year. I went to see Barbara Cook at the Don Mar Warehouse. She's different, isn't she? And she's really something, that lady. She's marvellous. And on the way home,'cause it was a late night show, we went after the show, and so we went home in the car where normally it would be the train, and and so I bought the tape, and Ella and I put the tape on, and we played it all the way home. And it was difficult to choose a number from a track of hers, but this sort of combines her lovely voice with the fact that it is I've got a nice big band again. And it's Barbara Cook, it's better with a band.

Speaker 322:56

Give me a base, that's a perfect place to start.

Speaker 323:02

Then add a drummer with rhythm and you're sure to reach my heart.

Speaker 323:08

Perhaps a touch of percussion, not be getting close to us. Singing, maybe swinging, but maybe it's better with a band, so much better with a band.

Presenter23:24

Barbara Cook, it's better with a band. You've had this this total career now, uh a lifetime involved in in show business. What about your your your kids? Any of them followed you into the theater at all?

Dora Bryan23:33

Well

Dora Bryan23:35

Daniel, my eldest son.

Dora Bryan23:37

Who is twenty seven?

Dora Bryan23:39

He from the age of oh, um I can't remember how young he was when I was doing Dolly, he was always in the prompt corner Saturday afternoon, he used to come up specially and he learnt to read Pat because he was dyslectic, amongst all his other problems. So he used to with the help of Nora Stapleton, our stage manager, he used to press the buttons and he used to have a good time and he knew the prompt script better than his school books, you know. Then every time I did a show I'd find him a job backstage, like school holidays and things, and so he he adored the theatre. And so he became a very good stage manager when he left school and then he started getting funny pains here, there and everywhere from the age of eighteen onwards and

Dora Bryan24:18

And eventually it was diagnosed as ankylosin spondylitis. What's that? Well, it's a sort of arthritis, arthritic condition of the spine.

Dora Bryan24:29

and he's just had a hip replacement and eventually I have to have the other one done and it's affected him very badly and he's not been able to work for

Dora Bryan24:37

About three years now. But we keep hoping and praying that something will come through. As long as we can keep him

Dora Bryan24:45

you know, bright and happy because arthritis is a crippling cruel disease and and they work so hard in in the hospitals with the

Speaker 324:45

Brahman.

Dora Bryan24:53

researcher. He's been in and out of the hospital in Bath, where they specialize in rheumatic diseases, and uh they've been wonderful to him and it's just waiting for a breakthrough which they will find eventually. Meanwhile to keep him out of as much pain as we possibly can.

Presenter25:09

And what about yourself then? I mean, I mean, you're going to keep on working. I mean, we're going for the next half century, are we? Yes, yes.

Dora Bryan25:14

I think so, Michael, I think so. You know, Bill gets just as pleased about jobs that I do as you know when I said about this Charlie girl that I've just finished eight months in. Bill, you know, if I do it, I mean going up to London every night you'll be on your own. Oh, don't be so silly, you do it He loves all that, you know. And touring oh, he loves it when I go on tour, because it means he can come on Friday evening, you see. Then he has all day Saturday to go and see a football match, whatever town I'm in, and then he can drive me back home after the show Saturday night, where at Newcastle, it doesn't matter where it is, he'll drive me home so I can get home for Sunday.

Presenter25:47

Let's have a final choice of record, please, Dora.

Dora Bryan25:47

But

Dora Bryan25:50

Yes, well.

Dora Bryan25:52

I'm a sucker for, you know, The Last Night of The Proms and The Pomp and Circumstance, Elgar.

Dora Bryan25:59

And I'd just love to hear that music as the big ship arrives to rescue me with my dog on that desert island and all the pets that I found on the island, all the animals. And I'll be like Mrs Noah getting onto that big ship and they're going to play Land of Hope and Glory.

Presenter27:13

Part of Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance March No. One, played by the role Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Norman Del Mar.

Presenter27:19

So, Dora, you're now on this desert island. You have one record to select from the eight. Imagine seven have been washed away.

Presenter27:26

Which which would you keep?

Dora Bryan27:26

Oh.

Dora Bryan27:28

Or I'll have to hang on to Ergana.

Presenter27:30

Aragana The book, you've got Shakespeare, you've got uh the Bible.

Dora Bryan27:34

Yes, I'll be fine with the Bible. I'll have a lot to read there. I need to study it more carefully. I ought to take a concordance with me as well, which helps you. But I'll be fine there with Shakespeare and the Bible, but I would like a good laugh. So I'm going to take

Dora Bryan27:48

My favourite book of all time. I've been reading it since I was twenty, on and off.

Dora Bryan27:53

Three Men in a Boat Jerome K. Jerome. Oh, it is a funny book.

Presenter27:57

Mm, it is. I agree with you. Now, your luxury object. What will that be?

Dora Bryan28:02

I shall get it in.

Dora Bryan28:03

I'm going to Battersea Dogs Home and I'm going to choose a dog from there, the one that looks the rattiest, and I'm going to give him a really good life on that desert island. I'm going to show him what freedom is.

Presenter28:12

You can take a stuffed dog.

Presenter28:18

Dora Brian, thank you very much.

Dora Bryan28:20

Thank you, Michael. It's been lovely.

Speaker 128:29

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Islandists Archive.

Speaker 128:33

For more podcasts, please visit bbc.co dot uk slash radio forward