Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Actor known for his long association with the Royal Shakespeare Company, performing mainly in London and Stratford.
On the island
Eight records
Piano Sonata No. 15 in D major, Op. 28 "Pastoral"Favourite
I had a friend when I was uh so about thirteen, a friend at school who was an extraordinary pianist, he used to play Beethoven sonatas and uh straight through could read them perfectly. And uh I used to struggle, used to spend a whole year on one sonata. So uh that would remind me of those days and uh I mean they're they're just wonderful music.
The Magic Flute, K. 620: Queen of the Night Aria ("Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen")
It's a Mozart opera, The Magic Flute, which I remember first hearing, I think, when I was about fourteen, and I was electrified then, and I still am, and I play it frequently. It's a constant source of inspiration to one's work, and also in one's life. I find it a permanently accompanying work. What I'd like to hear now, if possible, is the Queen of the Night Aria, the great sort of cursing piece where she gets really angry. And it was the first time I really heard Koratura singing when I was fourteen. It just riveted me by its power and its sensuality.
String Quartet in B-flat major, Op. 76, No. 4 "Sunrise"
Chamber music has sort of increasingly become great sort of source of interest to me. And um Haydn, I think, is a sort of tremendous exponent of the form.
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
It was the first time that I'd well, actually the second time I worked with Ralph Richardson, and I've chosen this record partly to do with that. It's uh Ralph Richardson reading the Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner, a poem which is a particular favourite of mine, and I find it fairly appropriate, perhaps, for this island venture ahead.
The Revenger's Tragedy: Coronation March
I'd like a memory of the RSC if I was going to be away for a great length of time. And uh so much of my work has been connected with the work of Guy Wolfenden, who is the music director of the the RSC and has written some very fine music for many of the plays that I've been in.
String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, D. 810 "Death and the Maiden"
I think the thing about these string quartets is that there seems to be so much meat on them. I think that if one's going to be on an island for however long it might be, one will need something that one could play and play and play and still keep finding something.
Mass in D minor, Hob. XXII:11 "Nelson Mass" (Missa in Angustiis)
Choir of King's College, Cambridge, directed by David Willcocks
It's a mass, often called a Nelson mass, but I think it's more normally known as the sort of Miser in Angustis, which is a a mass in time of need. It's very vital and it might stimulate one into doing something.
In conversation
Presenter asks
3:16As the son of theatrical parents, do you remember your childhood as a rather switchback life?
Very much, sir. Very much, sir. Uh always swings and roundabouts. Uh my father was away in the war and my mother was trying to be an actress in in London at that time, so very often one was um … passed off over to uh other people in the family and sent away to boarding school or whatever.
Presenter asks
3:56Did you take it for granted that you were going into the theatre as the fifth generation?
Yes, I always somehow assumed that I would do it. Uh it it came and went a bit. My parents certainly discouraged the idea quite a lot. They didn't think it was a particularly, you know, uh secure thing to be up to. And certainly I wasn't in any way encouraged.
Presenter asks
5:50How did you start [in the theatre]?
The Belgrade Theatre in Coventry, when it very first opened in fifty eight.
The keepsakes
The book
A comprehensive teach-yourself piano book
I've always been meaning to try and do something about it.
The luxury
upright piano with waterproof cover
I signally failed when I was a young man to learn the piano. I've always been meaning to try and do something about it.
Presenter asks
When you joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, had you decided that you wanted to play a lot of Shakespeare?
Yes, I wanted to do Shakespeare. Yeah. I suppose like uh well, a lot of I mean, as a lot of actors do. They want to do uh good work and I suppose at that time I felt that that was probably the best work that might come my way.
Presenter asks
15:04Are you a quick study? Do you learn easily?
No, I don't. I'm a very bad study actually. Very slow. And I I try to develop all sorts of ludicrous systems, none of which work. I mean, I try everything. But the only thing that works is literally sitting down and slogging at it.
Presenter asks
22:15Do you ever get a feeling of being enclosed in a small community [at the RSC]?
Yes and no. … On the whole, it's very various. Luckily, working in Stratford is like working in a different country. Working in London is like d working in another country. … each new production is like another country, it seems to me. And at the same time one is working with people that one is closely associated with and that one respects and that seems to me the object.
“I used to play the piano, but sadly I don't any more. I learned from the age of six and then it uh it it came and went, and then I went through a bad period of just not practising, and I never had a piano at home.”
“I'm a very bad study actually. Very slow. And I I try to develop all sorts of ludicrous systems, none of which work. I mean, I try everything. But the only thing that works is literally sitting down and slogging at it.”
“I've only got one superstition, and that's the Macbeth one, that you're not supposed to quote Macbeth in somebody's dressing room. Or if you do, then there are all sorts of idiotic things you have to do, like turning around three times and knocking on the door and then cursing and swearing, and that exorcises the thing.”