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Castaway
1 appearance
Television writer known as the king of television adaptation, best known for classic dramas like 'Pride and Prejudice' and 'Vanity Fair'.
On the island
Eight records
Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61
I can remember my dad used to used to sing Beethoven all the time round the house. We didn't even have a have a record player or or a gramophone. He said he got all his music off the radio and um and he'd make up little words to it.
Missa Brevis in D, Op. 63: Kyrie
Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge
I was completely blown away with it. I I just I just love uh treble voices. When I was a little kid I had a very nice voice myself until my voice broke.
Hiawatha RagFavourite
every time I hear it, A, I remember being eighteen years old, and B, you know, it just makes me feel frisky, you know.
On the Waterfront (Main Title)
I was just so so knocked out by On the Waterfront, it's uh it's such a romantic film, and there's some absolutely wonderfully written scenes in that that made me think, Yeah, I'd I'd love to write a movie like that.
I first saw that when I went to see this film, Jazz on a Summer's Day, and I thought. God, I never heard anything like this before, and I don't think I've heard anything quite like it since, either.
I just love female singers who who just belt it out, sort of yell their guts out, and what's more, Bonnie Tyler comes from Cardiff and you can hear it.
I love her little sort of whispery voice and she was a kind of, you know, ideal fantasy French girlfriend for me when I w when I was young.
it's not that I'm religious or anything like that, it's just blissfully serene piece of music and I I I imagine putting it on last thing at night and uh the mosquitoes would come round and listen and we'd all be at peace together.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:27Is that the key, then, to any successful adaptation, finding the links that will make things relevant for a twenty first century audience?
Yeah, well, absolutely, because there there's no point in doing them unless yeah, unless you can make them enjoyable and relevant for now. Wanting to get on, uh, falling in love, falling in lust, needing to get money.
Presenter asks
2:56How much do you worry about changing what's in the text when it makes it to the screen?
I love to do it. I love to make up scenes that weren't in the book and convince people that Jane Austen wrote them. I like the sense of people riffling through the book trying to find their favourite scene and it's not there. But I particularly wanted to write a very pro-Darcy adaptation.
Presenter asks
6:02Did you grow up in a bookish household?
Yes, there yes, there was. My dad was a teacher. He taught French at Cardiff High School for boys, but he was yeah, he was also very l very kind of literary and there were plenty of books about.
The keepsakes
The luxury
I think they'd be very healthy as well, wouldn't they, because of all the mint in them.
Presenter asks
7:29What happened as you progressed through adolescence [with your mother]?
Well, what it was was I I I mean I had you know, views of my own and things I wanted to do, you know, like like going out with girls and reading the nearest thing to dirty books you could get in the early fifties... But she'd always find things... because she'd always go through my stuff when I wasn't there and so there then there would be scenes and things like that. And she didn't like me having girlfriends or anything at all.
Presenter asks
18:50Does that bother you, that you haven't made such a mark on the big screen?
Yeah, I do find it slight a slight niggle. I mean, you know, like most writers in the business, I've written a lot more film screenplays than have been made into films... and film is just so chancy. What I like about television is, you know, if the thing gets commissioned, there's usually a date when they're going to put it out and it happens.
“I love to make up scenes that weren't in the book and convince people that Jane Austen wrote them. I like the sense of people riffling through the book trying to find their favourite scene and it's not there.”
“I know it's arrogant but you you kind of have to be if you're doing this kind of thing. And and I suppose my ultimate defence is there the book still is, you know, and if you didn't like my adaptation, well, you know, get hold of the book and make your own ada adaptation in your head, which is what most good readers do anyway.”
“I think I think it is now. Um I used to be one of those guys that like most guys apparently who who think about sex about forty times a minute and uh and now I I it's it's writing and it's food. I think about my next meal and what I'd like to eat.”