Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
An actor who found fame on television as Lieutenant Brian Ashe in 'Danger UXB' and Sebastian Flight in 'Brideshead Revisited'.
On the island
Eight records
John Wilbraham with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, conducted by Sir Neville Marriner
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.
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.
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 ... But it was a time when I met Georgina and my wife, so we firmly associate with it as being our song.
it literally kind of um shook every particle of every Celtic gene in my body when I heard her sing. It's the most extraordinary emotive piece of music.
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.
English Chamber Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Raymond Leppard
when my first child was born, when Joshua was born ... 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 ... Joyous music for a joyous occasion.
For all of us around about my age, how can you ignore the sixties? ... I couldn't get through thinking about that period ... without thinking of Jalice Joplin, who for me seems to evoke an awful lot of of what it was all about.
London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Adrian Boult
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.
In conversation
Presenter asks
4:10What kind of upbringing did you have after [your father died]?
Very. I mean, they were not two halfpennies to rub together, to say the least. I mean, m mother performed miracles ... She was a great one for kind of setting rules and uh regulations, which, I mean, I'm sure did us the world of good at the time ... So it was poor but not deprived in any sense.
Presenter asks
4:48What do you remember of [your father]?
Very, very little ... the only true memory that I have is I remember the front room when we lived in Finchley. I remember the ground piano ... And I remember him coming home one night with a drum ... 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.
Presenter asks
12:14Did you feel inferior when going for jobs because of [your] lack of background [in drama school]?
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. 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. I would never have done it again ... I had no confidence in those days at all.
The keepsakes
The book
The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
You've got stories, you've got poetry, you've got plays, you've got fairy tales. I don't think I would ever tire of it.
The luxury
I would finally, somehow, if I had enough time, before I was rescued, I would teach myself to play that instrument.
Presenter asks
13:12What did you observe [watching Sir John Gielgud on stage]?
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 ... he could play it differently every night and and yet it was the same ... Within the structure of the play, and he could keep himself fresh and alive and interested
Presenter asks
15:33Do you feel you're getting typecast [as Sebastian Flight]?
There are certain corners of the world 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 ... But uh apart from that, I mean, I don't see one one could never regret it.
Presenter asks
28:24Could you survive being without contact [on the island]?
Well, I think inevitably to begin with, I probably would. 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 ... it would be awful, I mean, to be parted from the people that are important to you.
“I'll never forget when I first heard the first recording of him actually playing one of his own compositions. Because it was the moment where I felt closest to him, and for the first time close to him.”
“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”
“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 to watch someone with poise and confidence.”
“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.”