Antony Sher

Speaker 30:00

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.

Presenter0:30

Our Castaway is by common consent one of our finest and most exciting actors. Born in South Africa, he came to Britain to learn his craft and was promptly turned down by Rada. The rep at Frinton on Sea took pity on him, and that was the start of a remarkable career. He became well known to television audiences when he took the lead in Malcolm Bradbury's The History Man.

Presenter0:50

But he established his special talents with his stage performance of Richard the Third. First created three years ago, it's forever burned on the memory of anyone lucky enough to see it.

Presenter0:59

It was a performance celebrated by its creator in a fascinating book called The Year of the King. Our castaway is Anthony Schearne.

Presenter1:07

Anthony, you're on this desert island. Do you think there'll be any good at it? I mean, do you like the the aspect or the prospect of loneliness?

Antony Sher1:13

No, no, not at all. I'll be absolutely hopeless. I mean, uh

Antony Sher1:17

You can't be brought up in South Africa as a white South African.

Antony Sher1:21

and have any sense of how to look after yourself.

Antony Sher1:24

So, um no, I I don't think I'll survive very long at all.

Presenter1:28

No no practical talents whatsoever.

Antony Sher1:29

No practical talents at all and also a terrible hypochondriac, so if I

Antony Sher1:34

Didn't get ill d if I didn't catch some terrible stomach bug or chill or something from the sea, I'd imagine that I had and would be very miserable anyway.

Presenter1:43

But all right, given this unhappy state, you have got these eight records. Now I'd like to know just how much solace, how much comfort they might give you. Is has music been played an important part in your life?

Antony Sher1:47

And I would like to

Antony Sher1:52

Yeah.

Antony Sher1:53

Enormously important poem.

Antony Sher1:55

I'm actually tone deaf, which um is slightly crippling as an actor, but nevertheless I listen to music all the time.

Antony Sher2:03

when I drive and when I paint and and when I write.

Antony Sher2:07

I can't imagine life without it. It's uh enormously sustaining.

Presenter2:11

And how have you gone about selecting the the eight records for the desert owner? Are they memories or are they just

Presenter2:16

Hummable tunes over.

Antony Sher2:18

A a mixture. I mean, there's some one or two pieces I'll I'll sort of point out when we come to them which are associated with particular periods and places, people.

Antony Sher2:29

Some others are just all-time favourites, and those are mostly the opera ones, because opera is something that I.

Antony Sher2:36

I particularly enjoy though I I don't go to the opera because I I don't like the attic.

Presenter2:41

What about the first choice of record then? What what does that represent?

Antony Sher2:44

Well, Poppy Nongana, that's um it it it's a black South African musical that that came to London a few years ago, and I found the music uh particularly beautiful and moving.

Speaker 43:03

Yeah.

Speaker 43:12

Is the T R C form.

Presenter3:13

D R

Speaker 43:17

And a mom and a men and I do your home.

Presenter3:26

That was part of the musical pop in on Gayno.

Presenter3:29

Antonio, let's go back to those days in South Africa. Where in fact did your parents come from? I mean, where were they born, your parents?

Antony Sher3:35

Well, they were born in in South Africa, but all my grandparents came from uh Lithuania at the turn of the century.

Antony Sher3:42

Fled persecution. They they were Jewish. I mean, I'm not practicing Jew anymore, but they were.

Antony Sher3:51

And uh it's uh I always think it's a rather

Antony Sher3:54

ironic trick that history played them really to have

Antony Sher3:58

led them away from persecution in that part of the world and

Antony Sher4:02

uh invited them to become the persecutors somewhere else.

Antony Sher4:06

It's a sort of family guilt, I suppose, that I live with.

Presenter4:10

Do they e d did your parents ever see the irony of that situation?

Antony Sher4:13

Mm.

Presenter4:13

No.

Antony Sher4:14

Hello.

Antony Sher4:15

Uh I mean, I think it's difficult for people to understand how seductive the life in South Africa is if you're white.

Antony Sher4:21

You don't really think about the situation unless you're forced to and now I think white people are. I mean, my

Antony Sher4:27

My parents come over every year and I've noticed in the last couple of years there's a very definite new awareness.

Antony Sher4:34

Just how serious the situation is.

Antony Sher4:36

But when I was growing up there was no such awareness.

Presenter4:39

When you're growing up and and and discerning this lack of awareness, is that the reason why you're not now practicing June?

Antony Sher4:44

I think so. I think that that had an effect. I I could never reconcile the fact that

Antony Sher4:50

My family and a lot of the Jewish population in South Africa had fled persecution and yet could become part of apartheid and couldn't see that connection.

Presenter4:59

But what was the what were in this growing up in in South Africa? I mean, what were the the what was the stimuli to give you the idea that you could be an actor?

Antony Sher5:07

There wasn't really was well, I suppose films. But but then a lot of my generation, I mean even English actors of my generation, I think a lot of of this generation were inspired to become actors through films, through Hollywood. But

Antony Sher5:22

I no, I I was going to be an artist. I was always going to go to art school when I was.

Antony Sher5:28

when I was little. It was always going to be in Italy for some reason, like I didn't know how I was going to understand. But my parents always said, When you grow up you'll go to art school in Italy.

Presenter5:32

It was killed.

Antony Sher5:37

And then it sort of somehow got changed to acting. I I was a very shy child and and acting when I started doing what was called elocution classes.

Antony Sher5:47

In Cape Town, I found that actually it released me. It was very liberating for me.

Antony Sher5:54

In a way the drawing and painting alone in my room was simply making my isolation more.

Antony Sher6:00

Acting was was very good for me, and that's sort of I I went into it more for that reason.

Presenter6:05

Therapeutic reasons. Yeah.

Antony Sher6:06

Yes, I think so. So so the the public still still have to suffer being

Antony Sher6:13

Part of my therapy.

Presenter6:14

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

Antony Sher6:17

Well, as I said, I adore opera, though uh I never go to the opera. But this this is uh one of my favorite pieces, the trio from Cozy Fontutti by Mozart.

Speaker 46:55

Greece for the first time.

Presenter7:28

That was part of the trio from Mozart's Cosifantutti, featuring the voice of Lucia Popp, Brigitte Fassbender and Tom Krause.

Presenter7:36

Antonio

Presenter7:37

I have this picture now, this this young

Presenter7:40

Shy South African boy arriving in London with his ambition to to be an actor. How daunting was it when you first came to London?

Antony Sher7:46

Oh, absolutely. I'm terrifying. Absolutely terrifying. I can't begin to tell you. Because it it was a sort of mythological place. It was you know, I couldn't I I remember driving

Antony Sher7:59

from the airport right into the West End into Piccadilly Circus and I just couldn't believe it didn't look like what I imagined Piccadilly so it was all angular and I thought it was going to be round.

Antony Sher8:11

And I mean, it just continued like that. It was like being in a dream.

Antony Sher8:17

And then what made it all the more daunting was about a week after we arrived, my parents came over with me. I did this the audition for Rado.

Antony Sher8:27

Afro Central Festival.

Antony Sher8:29

And we'd found out in South Africa that Central and Radha were the two best schools at that time, best drama schools, and that Central was probably the best.

Antony Sher8:39

And in our naivety back in South Africa, we decided that's where I would go.

Antony Sher8:44

And my parents had even got me a bedseat from South Africa in Swiss Cottage, because that's where I was going to go.

Antony Sher8:51

And so we went along for the audition, which we assumed was a sort of token vaccine to do.

Antony Sher8:56

And I went in, and I was there for about ten minutes, and and waiting in the ante room afterwards with the group, and the registrar just put her head round the corner and said, Sorry, none of you to day.

Antony Sher9:09

And I couldn't believe it. I mean, I went back to the hotel convinced that there'd be a message there saying, Oh, no, no, we we didn't mean you, of course. You know, I mean, I travelled halfway across the world.

Antony Sher9:20

Of course, it was my first uh l the first lesson in just how.

Antony Sher9:26

Tough this profession is.

Antony Sher9:28

Luckily we were still in time to audition Ferrada, which I did.

Antony Sher9:33

And they sent me a letter saying.

Antony Sher9:35

Not only have you failed this audition,

Antony Sher9:38

And not only do we not want you to try again, but we strongly recommend that you think of a different profession.

Antony Sher9:45

So it it was a real baptism by fire.

Presenter9:48

What what made you not think of another profession at that time, you see? I mean, what was inside you that that decided you to c to continue?

Antony Sher9:55

I think I respond quite well to a challenge. I'd been very uncertain about being an actor until people told me that I couldn't be.

Antony Sher10:03

Do you know, it's a sort of perversity in my nature.

Antony Sher10:06

At that time I I was far from convinced that I wanted to be an actor. By now I thought perhaps I wanted to be a writer, having previously thought I was going to be an artist.

Antony Sher10:15

But it seems people started saying, Oh no, you're not good enough to be an actor.

Antony Sher10:19

I became determined to be an actor.

Presenter10:21

Another choice of record, please.

Antony Sher10:24

Well, as I said earlier, some pieces of music are just associated with specific um periods and places.

Antony Sher10:31

This is in fact the title track from Ry Kudu's music for the film Paris, Texas.

Antony Sher10:38

Which uh

Antony Sher10:39

is terribly associated with this present season up in Stratford.

Antony Sher10:43

For no reason other than it's been played a lot, and whenever I hear it in the future I'll think back to this season which has been the happiest of the.

Antony Sher10:51

Of the seasons that I've had there.

Antony Sher10:53

Although um when you hear the music, I mean the life in Stratford is not nearly as cool and laid-back as this.

Speaker 411:26

Um

Presenter11:34

Title track from Paris, Texas featuring Ry Kuda.

Presenter11:38

Let me ask you, Antonio, you said before we played that record, this reminds you of the happiest time of your life up at Stratford. Why? Why is that?

Antony Sher11:47

Well, I think it's the happiest company I've known up there. I mean, if you think about the directors casting each season, where they're sort of casting, say, 70 odd actors, the chances of the chemistry working with that amount of people is, you know, 50-50. In the past, I've experienced one season where it was very good, and one season where the chemistry didn't work so well. This one is just perfect. I mean, it's a very, very good company. And the work, obviously, is particularly satisfying. Why is that?

Antony Sher12:23

Well, um I wanted to do a very full season and I'm playing three parts.

Antony Sher12:29

Uh all of which I'm enjoying.

Antony Sher12:32

and w all of which I'm finding very stimulating. I think most of all the the one that's just opened recently, which is uh Vindici and the Revengers Tragedy.

Antony Sher12:42

The pleasure of that really is that with with Shakespeare plays you've got terrible reputations to follow all the time, famous footsteps.

Antony Sher12:51

Whereas um with something like this, which is a a Jacobin play that hasn't been done for twenty years, last done by Trevor Nunn very successfully

Antony Sher13:02

There isn't quite that same audience expectation about how are you going to do this. And indeed in oneself there isn't the same. There's a there's an uh a discovery of it rather like uh uh one would with a a new play. And I mean it's the most wonderful piece, off the wall black comedy. I mean some of it could have been written by Joe Orton.

Antony Sher13:23

extraordinarily modern sense of humour.

Presenter13:26

To balance against that, of course, you is the is one role you're playing where uh you'll be balanced to be compared with everybody, which is Shylock.

Presenter13:32

In in The Merchant. So how do you go about then putting that to the back of your mind and applying your own intellect, your own talents to the portrayal of a role like that? How difficult is it to shut out what's gone before?

Antony Sher13:44

D it it wasn't that difficult with Shrylock, because there isn't one overpoweringly famous interpretation of it.

Antony Sher13:53

When I did Richard the Third, obviously, there was a name.

Antony Sher13:58

we shall not mention hanging over one like a huge cloud. But there wasn't there isn't really with with Shylock and Bill Alexander and I both had very clear ideas about how we felt that play had gone wrong in the past and how we wanted to try and

Antony Sher14:15

Correct it, if you like, in in our production.

Antony Sher14:18

It's a very difficult piece'cause it's it's one of Shakespeare's plays where history has actually uh overtaken it and the Holocaust and the pogroms have actually unbalanced the play because it the stakes were never meant to be as high as they now are.

Speaker 414:32

That's my help.

Presenter14:33

Uh

Antony Sher14:34

So, I mean, we just decided to take that on board and and um

Antony Sher14:39

make the production about racism.

Antony Sher14:42

And uh again, my South African past came into rehearsals quite a lot there. That sense of when people are

Antony Sher14:50

spend their lives as second-class citizens that when they get the chance to

Antony Sher14:55

revenge themselves, they often do so in a very over the top and violent way, which is what Shylock does. I mean, when people say they find him villainous, he's sometimes classed as one of Shakespeare's villains. I can't see that. It seems to me that he's behaving completely logically, given the life that he's led.

Presenter15:13

Another choice of record, please.

Antony Sher15:16

Well, this is uh an all-time favourite opera again, Donizetti's Lucci de Lamamo.

Antony Sher15:23

Sung by Sutherland and Pavarotti, and uh I just think it's one of the most perfect pieces of.

Antony Sher15:29

Of anything, really, this tune sung by these voices.

Speaker 415:36

So we cried for sweet love.

Speaker 416:07

Oh, sweet.

Speaker 416:13

Spotify for us for man.

Presenter16:33

That's the duet from Act One, Scene Two of Donizetti's Lucia de la Mamo, The Voice of Joan Sutherland and Luciano Pavarotti.

Presenter16:41

Athanasia, I suppose the thing that causes most wonderment in people when they watch you or any other actor perform one of the major roles is how you arrive at those conclusions, how you actually become someone else.

Presenter16:52

When you did uh

Presenter16:53

Richard III, I mean that was as you say, the Lurking in the Shadow there was was that great performance by He Wish I'm not mentioned on his program.

Presenter17:01

But um well first of all let me ask you, before we ask you about the technique of it, how long was it, how long bef before you'd actually did the performance, did you nurture the desire to do it, to play that part?

Antony Sher17:12

As long as I've been an actor, I you know, I think there are one or two parts that you sort of earmark for yourself, and and that was one. And in fact, Shylock was another, so I've sort of done them now. But um no, a a long time. Which of course makes it even more difficult when when they come along, because you know you you've got your own

Antony Sher17:31

uh expectations to fulfill as well as uh everybody else's.

Presenter17:35

So then then how did you approach it? Because they say here was this extraordinary performance done by Aldevier. I mean, uh there it was imprinted on everybody's mind who ever saw it. And you had the task of

Presenter17:45

Not altering it, but but doing your own form.

Antony Sher17:49

Well, luckily I had a long time to prepare and um

Antony Sher17:54

I just embarked on a long journey of research, really, and and research in the sense of opening my mind up to different ways of playing it. I mean, just saying, well, it doesn't have to look

Antony Sher18:07

and sound like he did, although

Antony Sher18:09

When people heard I was doing it, they'd say, Are you going to be wearing the the false nose and the wig? You know, almost as if Shakespeare had written in uh Richard the Third to be played in false nose you know, and and that's how much that performance is embedded on on people's minds. And one said, All right, well, let's say it doesn't have to be like that. What other alternatives are there?

Antony Sher18:30

And a friend of mine, a physiotherapist called Charlotte Arnold, who treated me after an accident I had a few years ago.

Antony Sher18:37

And I s went round to homes for the disabled and um to medical libraries and I watched a lot of

Antony Sher18:46

Television on all sorts of different subjects, mass murderers.

Antony Sher18:52

As I say, just

Antony Sher18:54

By sort of creating a huge melting pot in into which you threw lots of different things, different, sometimes bizarre, unlikely things.

Antony Sher19:04

Something eventually came out that um

Antony Sher19:08

Probably was different.

Presenter19:10

Whoa!

Antony Sher19:10

What is

Presenter19:10

Uh

Antony Sher19:10

Yeah.

Presenter19:10

What did you learn from observing mass murderers? I mean, what do you mean by that?

Antony Sher19:13

Well, I mean, Richard III is is a mass murderer. And on on one level I was researching I was trying to find a way that he looked, that his deformity was, by

Antony Sher19:23

By going to home for the disabled, on another level I was trying to understand him psychologically.

Antony Sher19:29

That man, Dennis Nielsen, who killed all those people in Muswell Hill, he was on trial at the time.

Antony Sher19:35

And he became quite an interesting model for Richard the Third because one of the things that most shocked the police and the people at his trial was how witty he was and how urbane and sophisticated his mind was. And people said, But this can't be. You know, you can't have a civilized, witty man committing murder. But of course he was, and Richard the Third is. And so that became, you know, th all those odd different things go into the melting pot and and something comes out, hopefully.

Presenter20:05

Another choice of record, please.

Antony Sher20:07

Uh this is the Elgar's introduction and Allegro for Strings. I was introduced to it by someone who's had a uh an enormous influence on my life, uh who who's an actor up in the

Antony Sher20:21

Present company, and he's been with the RC for the last few years, an actor called Jim Hooper.

Antony Sher20:27

And um this is his favourite piece of music and has become one of

Presenter21:34

It was part of Elgar's introduction and allegro played by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Vernon Handley.

Presenter21:41

Antonisha, is there a uh a situation that develops whereby when you do something, as you did with with Richard the Firm, which got you national and international acclaim, that you are stuck with it for a for a while afterwards?

Antony Sher21:53

Not not if you don't want to let that happen, you know. I mean, uh when I came back to Stratford people would say, How are you going to follow that?

Antony Sher22:03

And I would answer, well, the profession is competitive enough without being in competition with yourself. You know, you you don't have to take that on board.

Antony Sher22:12

I mean the important thing is to work out what you think of things rather than what people tell you things are. I think that's one of the hardest things about being an actor, is to work out your own opinions of things, of your work.

Antony Sher22:26

And Richard the Third is not my favourite piece of my work, it is not I don't rate it as the best thing I've done.

Antony Sher22:34

So, um

Antony Sher22:36

there isn't that sense of having to follow it, you see. I mean uh I but I uh it it is hard because people will try and stamp certain things on you as an actor.

Presenter22:46

What would be your favorite piece then that you've done?

Antony Sher22:49

I suppose it would be a play called Torch Song trilogy.

Presenter22:51

Which you didn't after you didn't

Antony Sher22:53

Which I did have in the West End, uh Harvey Feistein's play.

Antony Sher22:59

Which was uh an extraordinary experience. Extraordinary. It's a for people who don't know, it's the story of a a Jewish New York drag queen and his sort of life and relationships.

Antony Sher23:11

And

Antony Sher23:13

I mean what was

Antony Sher23:15

Remarkable about that play was that Harvey Feierstein, the writer, takes.

Antony Sher23:21

It makes his central character the most exotic sort of outsider, you know. I mean, he's not he's not just gay, but he's a drag queen. I mean.

Antony Sher23:30

And yet turns him into every man.

Antony Sher23:34

So that you'd have these sort of very

Antony Sher23:36

Traditional West End audiences coming along.

Antony Sher23:39

To the Albury Theatre.

Antony Sher23:41

and often being very alienated to start with by the subject matter, and then gradually being drawn in, as Feierstein because then he he he writes not only about gay relationships, straight relationships, and then about parents and children.

Antony Sher23:56

And so by the end, everyone in the audience had sort of found something in that play for them, and and however chilly they might have been at the beginning, by the end they were sort of on their feet and

Antony Sher24:06

crying and laughing and clapping and it was it was a very extraordinary it was theatre operating on a very different level actually.

Antony Sher24:14

And on a on a much more um

Antony Sher24:17

human level really.

Presenter24:18

Another choice of record, please.

Antony Sher24:20

Well this is um the boy in the bubble from Paul Simon's album Graceland, which I think is just one of the most wonderful things to have happened in the music scene for since the Beatles really. It's just I mean I've been listening to it ever since it came out about a year ago and it just I just get such pleasure from it. I think it's wonderful as well that he did it in South Africa with with black South African musicians and that out of that

Antony Sher24:45

The agony of that country is such.

Antony Sher24:47

Joy and energy and life could come as a wonderful

Speaker 424:52

It was a slow day, and the sun was beating on the soldiers by the side of the road.

Speaker 424:58

There was a bright light

Speaker 425:01

The shattering of shop windows, the bombing the baby carriers is wired to the radio. These are the days of miracle and wonder.

Presenter25:08

Yeah.

Speaker 425:10

This is the long distance call.

Speaker 425:13

The way the camera follows us in slow-mo The way we look to us all

Presenter25:20

Poor Simon, the boy in the bubble.

Presenter25:24

Atanisha, you've got this talent, great talent as an actor, but also you're a very talented writer and also a very talented artist too. Is there any conflict or do all three come together?

Antony Sher25:33

Well, they have just recently, w when I did that book, Ear of the King. I mean, by by chance.

Antony Sher25:40

V very lucky, really. I don't know how quite how that happened, because the publishers just approached me and said, Would you like to?

Antony Sher25:48

write and illustrate a book about the next part that you play and that next part happened to be Richard the Third. It could have been anything, but obviously it was it was good that it was Richard the Third because there was a lot to write about.

Antony Sher25:59

And so, I mean, those old childhood ambitions about writing and painting and drawing all sort of suddenly came together on this one project, which is a

Antony Sher26:10

Uh uh life sometimes does that and it's quite thrilling and a bit worrying when it does, when it sort of delivers you everything that that you want.

Presenter26:18

What about writing now though? Are you writing at present?

Antony Sher26:20

I'm writing uh yes, I'm uh got a new book coming out next year.

Antony Sher26:24

Which is a novel, I'm afraid, to confess.

Antony Sher26:28

And that's all I'm going to say about that.

Presenter26:30

The plot is secret, is it?

Antony Sher26:31

Yeah.

Presenter26:32

All right. Another choice of red coffee.

Antony Sher26:35

Well, one of the many joys of

Antony Sher26:37

During Torch's song trilogy was the the staged of the Aubreys next to one of the best um.

Antony Sher26:43

Classical Music Cassette Shops in London.

Antony Sher26:47

And um Miriam Carlin, who played my mother in that play.

Antony Sher26:52

Suss that I

Antony Sher26:53

loved uh classical music and and she used to buy me a tape every now and then and leave it down my dressing room because I started the play in full drag and so I had this long hour-long make-up which actually is very like painting. We talked about painting. But anyway, um so I'd sort of sit in front of the mirror and be painting on this face uh each evening for an hour and and each night she'd have brought me some and I think it's the most wonderful gift you can give someone music. Anyway this this is one of uh it's um

Antony Sher27:23

an album called Ave Maria, which Kirita Kano has done, which is a very nice present for a nice Jewish mother to give to her nice Jewish son. And this is uh Gunner's uh sanctus from that.

Speaker 428:00

Sorry to Jesus, Scott's coming.

Presenter28:36

Guno Sancta sung by Kiriti Kanawa.

Presenter28:40

I think it's a

Presenter28:42

What is an actor? What is he?

Antony Sher28:46

A fool.

Antony Sher28:49

Oh, I don't know. It's uh it's a most peculiar profession to do, isn't it? I mean, so odd to to pretend to be other people and to get up in front of one and a half thousand people doing it.

Antony Sher29:00

It is bizarre.

Antony Sher29:03

I don't know. I suppose at its best uh i it it can become

Antony Sher29:07

a sort of art form, although people say it's not fully creative.

Antony Sher29:11

It's interpretive, but I think that we're some of the great actors.

Antony Sher29:15

have made it an art form. Because acting, I suppose, is your portrait of other human beings, isn't it? So in a way you are a portrait, a sculptor, you're using your body, I suppose, as sort of

Antony Sher29:27

uh of a piece of sculpture, you I don't know. But I I mean, I think that, you know, someone like Ralph Richardson, say, shows us such a

Antony Sher29:38

He's sort of like he p he paints us a portrait of how mad humanity is.

Antony Sher29:44

A lot of the great ones do that.

Antony Sher29:46

But it it is a a mysterious, bizarre uh thing to be doing.

Presenter29:51

But then you see you're an actor, you're a painter, you're a writer, which ultimately is the most fulfilling occupation.

Antony Sher29:59

I I can't answer that because what's very fulfilling at the moment in my life is that they're all operating.

Antony Sher30:05

Before the season I spent nine months writing this new book.

Antony Sher30:09

And grew to love being alone in my room just doing that.

Antony Sher30:15

Then went to Stratford and

Antony Sher30:17

I resented it at first, having to be with all these other people and sharing creative decisions when I had it all. But then now now I'm l I'm loving this again. It's it's I think it's just very lucky being able to do both. They they feed one another.

Presenter30:33

Final choice of Reco, please.

Antony Sher30:34

Another opera favourite which is the slave chorus from Verdi's Nabuka.

Speaker 430:56

God's all deep.

Presenter31:44

Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves from Berdi's Nabucco from a performance by the chorus and orchestra of the Vienna Opera conducted by Lamberto Gadelli.

Presenter31:53

Anthony Scher, you're now on this desert island, which you're not looking forward to, are you?

Antony Sher31:58

Dead.

Presenter31:58

Now, you've got the eight records. Imagine tidal wave comes along, it it wipes out seven records, you're left with one. Which one would you want to preserve?

Antony Sher32:07

I think it would have to be Lucia de la Mamo. I get constant pleasure from that.

Presenter32:12

What about the book? Assume that you've got the Bible and the works of Shakespeare.

Antony Sher32:17

Well, I'm gonna cheat a bit on this'cause um

Antony Sher32:20

I'm not actually a a great reader and uh throughout my life whenever

Antony Sher32:26

There have been difficult times. I I've always been sustained by being able to create myself.

Antony Sher32:33

So I'm going to ask for the thickest sketch book stroke journal you'll allow me to take along, and so it's going to be a book of blank pages which I shall fill during my stay there.

Presenter32:46

I don't know if we've ever had that before. And what about uh a luxury object inanimate?

Antony Sher32:51

Well, obviously that has to be uh an endless supply of my favourite pens and charcoal thing.

Antony Sher32:59

Pains to use in this book. Antonio Shia, thank you very much indeed. Thank you.

Presenter33:03

Yeah.

Speaker 333:11

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