Anthony Andrews

Speaker 40:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty 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.

Anthony Andrews0:30

Our castaway is an actor with an international reputation. It was television that set him on course for stardom when he had a huge success in Britain and America, playing the part of Lieutenant Brian Ashe in Danger UXB and Sebastian Flight in the much-acclaimed Brideshead Revisited. At present, he's working at the National Theatre in Coming into Land. He is Anthony Andrews.

Anthony Andrews0:51

Anthony, are you musical at all?

Presenter0:54

Well, I like to think so. I definitely like to think so. I mean, it there's music in the family, to say the least. Father having been a a musician, conductor, arranger, composer.

Presenter1:04

and my mother having been a dance ham, and it was in me, without a doubt.

Anthony Andrews1:07

Looking at the catalogue of stage and film and television work that you've done, it's quite extraordinary range of it. But there's one absentee there. There's a missing electronic mission.

Presenter1:14

That's a missing element. Yeah, it's a non-missing element.

Anthony Andrews1:16

Wouldn't would you like to do a musical?

Presenter1:18

It's a secret ambition, it has been for years. I don't know if I could ever sing a difficult role. It would have to be a particularly kind of fun show, I suppose. But yes, it's a deep, deep passion. I mean, the thought of actually standing there and listening to the orchestra play the overture would probably render me completely comatos and unable to go on at all. What about?

Anthony Andrews1:37

The uh musical influences. I mean, it was the one particular piece of music that had an effect on you as a as a person growing up, that that changed your attitude toward music.

Presenter1:46

Yes, the trumpet voluntary was something that I first remember hearing at school. And it wasn't the first piece of music I'd heard, of course, by a long way, but it was the first piece of music that made me aware of musical structure, the integration of the trumpet with the orchestra, of of orchestrations. And therefore, of course, it made me terribly aware, suddenly, of what my father had been about.

Presenter2:08

And the complexities of what he had had to do late into the night, almost every night of his life, rushing arrangements around to the BBC where we sit, and getting involved with people deep into the early hours of the morning who desperately needed some new arrangement for a tune. It made me realise, because it has a complex structure of its own, and it is its structure, the arrangement of it musically, that makes it great. The thing that I think I identified with was that it reminds me of great occasions of pomp and ceremony, and I'm a great one for a bit of pomp and ceremony. Let's hear it now.

Anthony Andrews3:45

And that was the Trumpet Voluntary by Jeremiah Clarke, played by John Wilbraham with the Academy of Saint Martin's in the Fields, conducted by Sir Neville Mariner. Anthony, you mentioned there your father and the influence he had on your life, but in fact he died when you were very young, didn't he?

Presenter3:58

Well, I was five, yes, leaving uh well, me at five, my sister, who was a couple of years older, the twins, who were two years younger than me, and the baby Corin, who had only just been born, so it was quite a kind of shock to the family, I thought.

Anthony Andrews4:10

And uh what what kind of upbringing do you have after that? I mean, was it a poor upbringing?

Presenter4:14

Very. I mean, they were not two halfpennies to rub together, to say the least. I mean, m mother performed miracles. God knows how she did it. I mean, none of us have really worked out how she did it. But, I mean, she managed it somehow. People used to advise her that she'd never be able to handle it with five children, that she'd have to put them into care or do something, you know. But she was deter

Presenter4:31

not to do that. And she was also determined to maintain the most impossible standards when your stone you broke. She was a great one for kind of setting rules and uh regulations, which, I mean, I'm sure

Presenter4:42

did us the world of good at the time, of course we were all moaning and groaning like mad, but um

Anthony Andrews4:46

So it was poor but not deprived in any sense.

Presenter4:48

Not at all. I don't remember being deprived. I mean, I remember being hungry. And I distinctly remember there being nothing to eat on various occasions. Not always. She was always kind of managing to kind of uh scrape something together or persuade someone that we can run up yet another bill somewhere. What about your father? What do you remember of him?

Presenter5:03

Very, very little. It gets confusing, of course, because one hears so many stories about him, both from mother and from people that knew him.

Presenter5:11

But the only true memory that I have is I remember the front room when we lived in Finchley. I remember the ground piano.

Presenter5:18

which uh at some point with my sister I helped to ruin by throwing darts into it, would you go? for which I was never forgiven.

Presenter5:27

And I remember him coming home one night with a drum.

Presenter5:29

That I do remember. I suppose it's because when you're a small child it's the kind of noise that she would distinctly remember discovering.

Presenter5:37

And that's all, which is really not very good, not to remember anything at all. But the things I do remember, of course, is is getting to know his music. I mean, I remember when I became old enough to realise not only what he was, but what he had achieved in the past. I became very, very interested, and and then my mother, of course, started playing the old Scratchy Seventy Eights. I'll never forget when I first heard the first recording of him actually playing one of his own compositions.

Presenter6:05

Because it was the moment where I felt closest to him, and for the first time close to him. I mean, before it was just a word, a name, you know, the father of the family, which I couldn't really identify with.

Presenter6:16

And I started thinking of myself when I started the impossible task of thinking of these eight pieces of music.

Presenter6:21

that if I was going to be stranded anywhere, I would definitely take a piece of his music with me, because

Presenter6:27

Strangely enough, throughout life he he's always been present. It's it's a very odd feeling. And I don't mean this to sound sort of strangely religious or anything like that, but he really has been a presence in me. And I think that he's been able to guide me by remote control in some way or other. So I would love

Presenter6:44

The facility to continue that guidance.

Anthony Andrews6:46

What is a piece of music?

Presenter6:47

It's a piece of music called Sparks Fly Upwards, which is the I think the only one we we now have which was actually one of his compositions on which he's playing.

Anthony Andrews7:58

Sparks Fly Upwards by Stanley Andrews, and also the father of our castaway today, Anthony Andrews.

Anthony Andrews8:04

W given that your father was a this composer and musician, that your mother was a dancer, was there any doubt that you were going in fact to uh go onstage? I mean, did you always have a in the beginning an an idea of performing? Well

Presenter8:12

Oh yeah.

Presenter8:15

I think deep down inside, without a doubt it was there. There was always this feeling, I mean, we were always being told that you weren't, you know, we're different, we're sort of um.

Presenter8:23

We've got something inside us which makes us continue in the face of adversity and all those kind of things were constantly drummed into us as kids. And it was definitely associated with Showbiz. I mean, I distinctly remember my first

Presenter8:36

Experiences of film were those Sunday afternoon movies where we used to sit down with mother who couldn't wait to get there.

Presenter8:42

rush through the Sunday lunch, such as it was, to sit down in front of the T V and watch those old forties musicals which were full of the old showbiz principles. Do you know what I mean? I mean um so I mean uh I remember identifying with those at an early age and knowing that it was definitely in me. Another choice of record activities. Well

Presenter9:02

I couldn't go without Elton John.

Presenter9:05

And Elton John for me means your song, which was a track from the first album, which I think was called Elton John. It evokes to me that whole period when it came out, and and it was a time when I was beginning and I was firmly out of work, desperately broke. I think I was appearing in Forty Years On at the time, so I'd done about a year and a half at the Apollo Theatre playing one of twenty schoolboys in Alan Bennett's play. But it was a time when I met Georgina and my wife, so we firmly associate with it as being our song.

Presenter9:35

Its lyrics are full of moments that I deeply identified with at the time, because I was broke and because I was being a romantic.

Presenter9:42

desperate for the facility to be able to whisk Georgina off to some wonderful uh desert island, if you like. Little did I know, of course, at that time, that the last thing in the world Georgina would would would have wanted is to be whisked off anyway. She's not she's not in favour of those kind of glamorous holidays anyway. But uh

Presenter9:59

I was frustrated by the lack of facility to do those things, but we look upon it as our moment.

Speaker 410:05

It's a little bit funny.

Speaker 410:08

This feeling inside

Speaker 410:13

Not one of those who can easily

Speaker 410:20

Don't have much money but

Speaker 410:23

Boil faded.

Speaker 410:27

I'd buy a big house well

Speaker 110:28

Big hat

Speaker 410:31

We're both good lines.

Anthony Andrews10:35

Elton John and Your Song

Anthony Andrews10:37

Anthony, since you entered this profession of acting of yours, you've never actually been been out of work. But the the first steps into it were rather hesitant, weren't they? It wasn't your very first job.

Presenter10:46

No, no, no. I mean I I did a number of things when I left school. I was desperate to leave school. I couldn't wait. I was appalling at school. I had I I upset my housemaster, who thought there were better things in store for me, but

Presenter10:59

It was fashionable at the time, I remember, those numb skulls who weren't going to get any exams were all leaving to go on things like catering courses, and I thought, right, catering course, that's it, and uh fancied myself instantaneously in pinstripes running the Savoy Hotel. I mean it was role playing, you know. I mean I was

Presenter11:13

Just kind of letting the imagination run around. So I went to occasionally college and hated that, of course, because it was like going back to school.

Speaker 111:15

So I went to

Presenter11:20

I learnt a bit of cooking, mind you, worked in a few restaurants, got a lot of experience of of being out with people in that way. But then I I kind of drifted from role to role. I mean I I did a bit of salesmanship, um I got sent to London to flog chickens in cream to chefs in restaurants because some farmer thought it'd be a good idea'cause I had sort of vague catering experience and and I was disaster at that.

Presenter11:42

I fancied myself as a journalist very much, but I couldn't spell, so I mean they they put me and now this is really interesting, why on earth they would put someone who can't spell into the advertising department? I don't know, because it caused much embarrassment in local papers when all advertisements had to be given for free one a week,'cause Andrews had spelt them wrong again. But anyway, that's what happened. And I was it was when I was gathering dust in the advertising department of a local paper down in Sussex that I walked literally walked into the Chichester Festival Theatre and said, Can I have a job? And I got a job as a, you know, shifting scenery.

Anthony Andrews12:14

And that that was the start of it. Now, you you've never been to drama school. You've never learned how to act. I mean, your your background was in fact from there was was repertory, wasn't it? Yes. Did you feel um inferior when going for jobs because of this lack of background?

Presenter12:18

You're not learning.

Presenter12:19

Me Look.

Presenter12:22

And yes.

Presenter12:26

Because of this lack of background? To to begin with, definitely. I mean, apart from the fact that all my contemporaries were always telling me, you know, you you've had no training, you've got to go to drama school.

Presenter12:35

I knew that if I'd gone to a drama school and had to stand up and give my rendition of some speech and some expert had got up and said, You're appalling.

Presenter12:45

I would never have done it again. I'm

Presenter12:47

There would be no chance. I mean, I had no confidence in those days at all. So I knew that I had to kind of.

Presenter12:53

somehow very carefully watch everybody, and see what it was that they had that I had not got.

Presenter12:58

and see if I could apply any of that to me. And that's one of the reasons why working with Sir John Gilgard in Forty Years On.

Presenter13:07

When I was very young, for a year was a tremendous advantage to watch Tommy Luther on stage every night. What did you observe?

Presenter13:12

Well, one of the things I learnt was that that that it's not the same all the time and that it changes like mad and that you have to be in charge both of the character and yourself to such an extent that you c are completely flexible. I mean the wonderful things that he would do I mean are outrageous when you think about it. But he was very flexible and he could play it.

Presenter13:31

differently every night and and yet it was the same, do you know what I mean? Within the structure of the play, and he could keep himself fresh and alive and interested and all the rest, whilst we were all bored to tears with the bits that we had to do.

Presenter13:42

within a very short space of time.

Anthony Andrews13:44

Let's have another choice of record, please, Anthony.

Presenter13:47

This is very interesting'cause this is very recent. I mean this is something that that burst at me recently'cause I was watching Barbara Dixon on the Southbank Show.

Presenter13:56

And although I'd known about her music and her as a as a singer before, I'd never ever heard McCrimmon's lament, and especially not sung like this. And the only way to describe it is it it literally kind of um

Presenter14:09

shook every particle of every Celtic gene in my body when I heard her sing. It's the most extraordinary emotive piece of music.

Speaker 414:19

Do

Speaker 414:21

Running the speech

Speaker 414:25

The night of sailing

Speaker 414:33

Mm the baby.

Speaker 414:40

Her naught away

Anthony Andrews14:47

McCrimmer's Lament, sung by Barbara Dickson.

Anthony Andrews14:50

That's right.

Anthony Andrews14:52

Television's been terribly important in your career, hasn't it? I suppose that the the one that really made you international was uh was Sebastian Flight, wasn't it, in Bride's Hill? That has the most extraordinary effect in your career, didn't it?

Presenter14:59

Yes, yes.

Presenter15:02

Well, I've never really got over the fact, I don't think any of us have, that it it had such a profound effect on television audiences all over the world. I mean

Presenter15:09

I still get all the mail. I mean, you can always tell where Brideshead's playing,'cause that's where you're getting the mail from. It's the most obscure corners of the world are now seeing Brideshead. The French have finally bought it, I'm here to tell you.

Presenter15:19

They were the last, I think, of all countries to bite, and they finally succumbed, they were round.

Presenter15:25

They were playing hard to get.

Presenter15:26

But yes, it's extraordinary. And I mean

Presenter15:29

It did me a tremendous amount of good, internationally.

Presenter15:33

And so I shall be eternally grateful. But it it's the the thing, of course, about Sebastian Flight is that those roles come once in a blue moon. People used to say to me Do you feel you're getting typecast? or do you feel that um you're now sentenced to playing nothing but Sebastian's, which of course is

Presenter15:50

Daft really, because um they don't exist. Roles like that are really

Anthony Andrews15:55

But I suppose there was a sense in which the the reputation, or your reputation because of Brad said, w could in fact have been something of a burden. I mean you must have got sick of talking. You're probably sick now.

Presenter16:05

Well, I think you're sick now, too. Well, no, I'm not. It always comes up, yes. But I'm not sick of it because of what it means. There are certain corners of the world.

Presenter16:12

who will never ever see me as anything else except uh a blondhaired queen. You know. Let's face it. And there have definitely been roles that have been lost as a result of certain American executives not seeing further than their noses. I mean, let's be honest here.

Presenter16:31

But uh apart from that, I mean, I don't see one one could never regret it.

Anthony Andrews16:35

Another choice of record, please.

Presenter16:38

I couldn't go to my desert island without a piece of Frank Sineltra. So, I mean, that was, again, an impossible choice. But I chose a piece that's that's definitely, as far as I'm concerned, slightly autobiographical, which is is call me irresponsible. It really evokes quite a lot of my own failings. And since I thought on a desert island one's probably going to get time to uh reflect and possibly even correct, that's not a bad thing. But it also, for me, sums up

Presenter17:06

Some of what I feel about my relationship with my wife.

Speaker 417:10

Call me irresponsible.

Speaker 417:16

Call me unreliable.

Speaker 417:21

Throw in

Speaker 417:23

Undependable too

Speaker 417:31

Do my foolish alibis

Speaker 417:37

Barrie

Anthony Andrews17:40

That's Frank Sinatra and Call Me Irresponsible. Anthony, you mentioned there that that record reminds you of of your wife as well as your own feelings, you said. Whenever you read about a piece about you, you you mentioned Georgina. Uh of course you would, I mean you were married to her, but it seems that it goes deeper than that. There's a kind of um attitude you have toward her which goes beyond that normally expected of a of a marriage.

Presenter18:03

Uh

Anthony Andrews18:03

Yeah. Yeah.

Presenter18:05

No, I think she had a profound influence. When we first met, there there's no two ways about it. I was kind of um not just down and out, I was

Presenter18:13

Pretty much no good when I look back on it. I mean I'm not saying that I wouldn't have kind of shaken free of that in some other way.

Presenter18:20

But I mean, I was fairly desperate. I desperately knew by this time that I wanted

Presenter18:26

passionately to be an actor, and to be able to express myself

Presenter18:30

in the way that I thought I could on stage.

Presenter18:33

I had very little in the way of equipment to do that, having not been to drama school or anything.

Presenter18:38

I think when I actually met her I was working in the in Regent's Park in the New Shakespeare Company, playing A Fairy and Midsummer Night's Dream and I remember having terrible fights with the director, who never really understood what I was trying to do when

Presenter18:53

And it seemed that I was going to go nowhere, and didn't really understand how to cope with myself on stage. Not only had she been to drama school,

Presenter19:01

to the Bristol Olvik and and therefore was capable of giving me certain pointers. But also she had an attitude of mind which I think comes from from her upbringing and the fact that she w it was a different kind of end of the scale from mine.

Anthony Andrews19:15

But she's very different. I mean, she's she has a very rich family.

Presenter19:16

Yeah.

Presenter19:17

Well, I mean, I wouldn't call it very rich at all, but I mean she was they were certainly not uh hard up. There was a a a confidence in this young person who which I did not possess.

Presenter19:26

She was still aware of the same sort of personal failings as all of us are at that age, all like our stuff. She wasn't in any way spoilt, but she possessed an inner confidence which comes from security, basically. Which is something that I had not touched at close quarters until that time. So that was the first inspiration, without any doubt. It was a great help for me.

Presenter19:46

to watch someone with poise and confidence.

Presenter19:51

And she gave me a tremendous amount of early self respect. She taught me how to rely on what I was doing, what I was saying, and who I was. Which w of course was the first step down the road to putting oneself together on stage or on film.

Presenter20:07

So, I mean, from those early days there was always um inspiration there.

Presenter20:12

But also, I mean, I think it's it is, you're quite right, deeper than that, and later through our marriage, the one of the greatest and most important things I think that's happened is that she is my closest friend, and that's the most important thing I think, outside the relationship, outside the love that we feel for each other and uh the romance that we've always felt, is that that I have this great and true friendship which uh I feel could never be damaged by anything.

Anthony Andrews20:39

Another choice of record, please.

Presenter20:42

If I was going to be marooned, I couldn't go without Handel's Messiah. I chose-

Presenter20:46

For Unto Us a Child is Born, because it's always amused me, I hope people won't take this the wrong way, but when my first child was born, when Joshua was born, he was born by Caesarean and therefore it was quite miraculous. We weren't ready for any of that at all. It was quite a sort of fast and dangerous emergency kind of operation. It was quite a strenuous period of time in the hospital. When I finally got out of there, very late at night, I leapt into the car to drive off and kind of celebrate and tell everybody. And the first thing that came out of the radio was For Unto Us a Child is Born from the Ross. Joyous music for a joyous occasion.

Speaker 421:32

What's up, Miss Hill?

Speaker 421:35

Welcome to Custom Chinese for Custom Chinese.

Speaker 422:07

For sure that was in Shannon before

Speaker 422:17

Almighty God, the everlasting Father, the great home.

Anthony Andrews22:25

Foreign to us a child is born from Handel's Messiah, performance by the English Chamber Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Raymond Lepard.

Speaker 122:31

RIM

Anthony Andrews22:33

Anthony

Anthony Andrews22:34

You've now returned to the theatre. In fact, it's your national theatre, and I think I'm right in saying this is a.

Presenter22:38

I'm right in saying this is your debut there, isn't it? Indeed, indeed. The great thing about it is that that I've been away from the theatre for a a long, long time. I actually did a play beginning of last year at Greenwich called One of Us, which was my sort of return after nearly

Presenter22:53

Ten years.

Presenter22:54

Not all by design. I mean, i about

Presenter22:57

five years of that was was because I was terribly busy doing other things.

Presenter23:01

The longer I left it, the the more determined I was not to go back into the theatre doing

Presenter23:07

a revival of any kind. I was absolutely determined to find a new piece of work. The thing I missed most was not strange enough that the facility to be on stage every night, because after a while, to be absolutely frank, that becomes a bit of a drudgery.

Presenter23:20

But it was the rehearsal period, and and for me the most exciting and the most challenging part of the work was going to be done in the rehearsal room, and I wanted therefore to be able to work on a brand new text and discover that with a group of people.

Presenter23:32

And so I started back at Greenwich with with one of us. And then on top of that, sort of almost hard on its heels, came the offer from the National Theatre to go and do Coming into Land, which is another new piece of work by Stephen Polyakov. And that was very exciting. I mean it it it provided the golden opportunity really to go to the National Theatre not only with a new play but with Maggie Smith. I mean God, who could ask for anything more?

Anthony Andrews23:58

Another choice of record, please.

Presenter24:00

For all of us around about my age, how can you ignore the sixties? It was such an um an important time for music and for all of us, I think. And I I couldn't

Presenter24:11

Get through thinking about that period.

Presenter24:13

and wanting to remember that period if I was cast away.

Presenter24:17

without thinking of Jalice Joplin, who for me seems to evoke an awful lot of of what it was all about.

Speaker 124:23

Oh Lord, won't you buy me a night on the town? Everybody, oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes bends? My friends all drive Porsches. I must make amends. Worked hard all my lifetime. No help from my friends. So oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes be

Anthony Andrews24:54

Janice Joplin and Mercedes Benz.

Anthony Andrews24:56

And what about the plans for the future then? Would it include more theatre than you've you've done? Yes.

Presenter25:01

Yes, I mean I'm kind of thrilled to have uh rebroached that situation and find myself more interested in the theatre again.

Presenter25:08

Not that I wasn't um during the ten years I've been away. It's just that it be uh, first of all, as I said, it was impractical, and then it became a search for something new. But it's yes, I feel it's back in my blood. I've been there again, I've put the toe in the in the water, and it doesn't feel too bad. So, um I'd be thrilled to go on with it, you know.

Anthony Andrews25:26

What about spin-offs and what you do? I mean, are you into the production side of the business?

Presenter25:30

Yes, I mean I'm very interested in in uh I've had a I formed a production company with a friend of mine, two dear friends of mine.

Presenter25:36

Not that long ago. And uh we've been busily developing ideas for the screen. And I hope to continue to do that. I mean it's I think it's an inevitable part of of working in the industry for uh a good few years now. Did you begin to be interested in the the actual birth of pieces to do either on screen or on stage?

Presenter25:54

So I'd like to continue that very much. I'd also like, of course, to at some point to direct. But I mean

Presenter25:59

I think the peace will have to come up and bite me, probably, you know, rather than me looking for it.

Anthony Andrews26:04

Wh when you look back on your career, d have you found acting a a satisfying life?

Presenter26:08

Yes, the business itself, the the it satisfies everything within me. I mean, when you think back, you've got the opportunity to to meet and touch on so many different aspects of life, and that's the great thing. I mean, for me, the reason I joined up, the thing that was missing in me, the thing I wanted, was variety.

Presenter26:23

I mean, I wanted to be different people. I wanted to be able to touch different areas.

Presenter26:28

Final choice of record, presented it.

Presenter26:30

Again, I couldn't go without uh a slice of Elgar.

Presenter26:35

Paduh.

Presenter26:36

The Enigma variations for me have always been important since I was very young.

Presenter26:41

For various reasons. I mean, they remind me of England, and they do everybody, I think, because of England's premier composer probably. They evoke all those extraordinarily English things like uh the smell of roses after the rain's fallen and uh hills and clouds and stormy weather and all those things.

Presenter26:58

Would you be mildest to take a piece of England with you?

Anthony Andrews28:01

It was the last of Elagar's Enigma variations, played by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Serabium Bolt.

Anthony Andrews28:08

Antony, now to the desert island. You're there, you've arrived. Are you a practical fellow? I mean, would you survive?

Presenter28:10

You're there.

Presenter28:14

I probably would, but just uh how well would probably be the question.

Presenter28:19

If I had to kind of um

Presenter28:21

Build myself a shelter, it's bound to fall down.

Anthony Andrews28:24

What about what about loneliness? Do you like your own company? Could you survive?

Anthony Andrews28:28

Being without contact.

Presenter28:29

Well, I think inevitably to begin with, I probably would.

Presenter28:33

Appreciate it deeply, I would think, the peace inquired. But I mean, uh no, I'm truth be known, I'd be desperately lonely on my own. I'm not very good at being on my own.

Speaker 428:35

Yeah.

Presenter28:43

Although I like to make time on my own, if I possibly can, which is increasingly difficult.

Presenter28:50

So, I mean, initially one thinks, Oh, goody, that'd be a time to reflect on everything and uh the time to read and time to do all the things that that you wanted to do. But i I w it would be awful, I mean, to be parted from the people that are important to you. And I'm just not good at at not responding to people, you know.

Anthony Andrews29:05

And what about the the the records? You've got you've picked eight records, imagine seven have been washed away, you're left with one.

Presenter29:11

Which

Anthony Andrews29:11

Which would that be?

Presenter29:11

Uh

Presenter29:12

It's terribly difficult, but I think since you've just you you let me know that I can take the whole album, it would have to be Handel's Messiah, because uh well, it's got everything. It's full of uh hope, drama, faith, all the things that I would probably need.

Anthony Andrews29:26

Yeah.

Anthony Andrews29:26

And what about the choice of book? You've got the Bible and you've got the complete work works of Shakespeare on the island. Which book would you take apart from those?

Presenter29:34

This is interesting because it again it was a terrifying choice to make, and I've always been sentenced to this business of not being able to read nearly as much as I'd like to, because I'm always reading scripts and things that I have to read.

Presenter29:45

And because of that I don't know a great deal about Oscar Wyle.

Presenter29:51

But each time I've come in contact with him I remember particularly things like uh a play based on a short story, A Critic as Artist, which was terribly interesting.

Presenter30:01

And um the band Re Reading Jail of course, which is probably one of the most moving things I read in my youth.

Presenter30:07

And the great thing about it, of course, the complete works of Oscar Wilde, for me, on Desert Island would be

Presenter30:12

That you've got stories, you've got poetry, you've got plays, you've got fairy tales. I mean, you've got it all. So I think I could knowing the quality of that writing, I don't think I would ever tire of it.

Anthony Andrews30:26

And what about the luxury object inanimate?

Presenter30:29

Well, this was tough too, but it would always have been a musical instrument. My first choice was the piano, because I tinkle away at the piano for hours, and I would finally, somehow, if I had enough time.

Presenter30:40

Before I was rescued, I would teach myself to play that instrument.

Presenter30:44

And today Anders, thank you very much indeed.

Speaker 430:53

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