Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
2 appearances
British broadcaster and comedian, known for his radio comedy and humorous songs, appearing on Desert Island Discs for a fourth time.
On the island
Eight records
from the Peer Gynt suite. Played by the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. It's a lovely melody. I like it.
from Kismet. That lovely bit 'Stranger in Paradise'. An excerpt from Borodine's Polotsvian Dances, The Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Nikolai Malko.
Richard Murdoch and Arthur Askey
from Bandwagon. This is half mine. This is half Dickie and I.
Romeo and JulietFavourite
My favourite, Tchaikovsky. I'd love Romeo and Juliet.
I do like the Beatles, who I think started this pop scene. I would love to hear them singing All My Loving.
Sergei Rachmaninoff (piano), Philadelphia Orchestra
The closing passage of the Rachmaninoff second piano concerto with the composer at the piano and the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski.
If the Whole World Stopped Loving
I would like a record of my old pal Val. I think the one I'd like him to sing is If the Whole World Stopped Loving.
Romeo and Juliet OvertureFavourite
London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by André Previn
I think it's a a a lovely piece of music. It's very corny, okay, but for me it holds all the melody
I was on the bill once, well, more than once, with Mr. and Mrs. Preeney's son, Sem. And he always used to include Russell of Spring in his repertoire. And if you've got a record of Sem playing it, I'd like to hear it.
it leads to what I think one of the best songs written for many, many years, and that is Yesterday.
if I was on a desert island, there's nothing I'd like better to bring back very many happy memories of a lovely guy and a great musician. Well, he wasn't a great musician, but a great showman.
Bob Hargreaves, Stanley Damerell & Robert Hargreaves
of all his repertoire, that includes Sam Sampicup the Muski, the one I used to love was Brown Boots. So I'd love to hear that again.
If I was wrecked on a desert island. and I was sitting very despondently one day and wishing I was back in civilization. When I hear records like that played, I think, well, I can't be so badly off being here, stuck on a desert island.
Northern Sinfonia, conducted by Paul Tortelier
my second favourite is uh Grieg. I I adore Grieg. I'd like one of his little light pieces like uh There's something to do about spring. The last spring.
Original Broadway Cast of South Pacific
One thing we are devoid of there is company, and particularly female company. I can still think, you know, even at the age of eighty. So please could I have something from South Pacific?
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:13What did you want your records to do for you on a desert island?
memories of home, um, passing the time, or something immediate
Presenter asks
3:04In spite of your singing, did you have a musical education?
Uh yes, a fair musical education. I learned the piano from the lady next door when I was a kid in Liverpool. And I had to do an hour's practice every day. And if I didn't do it, she knew because we had very thin walls in these terraced houses ... And then, of course, I had a very good smattering of music from my experience as a choir boy.
Presenter asks
6:37When did you decide to give up that nice, safe job in the education office?
much against my father's will, of course it was. But as I say, I ran this amateur concert party, and I was seen by a man who used to have a little theatre at Rock Ferry ... and he saw me working with my amateur concert party, and he wrote to me and said, have you ever thought of going professional? ... And he put me in touch with a touring concert party, and I gave up a job in the education offices, £3 a week, to go into the theatrical business at £6.10 a week.
The keepsakes
The luxury
please can I have a piano? A floating piano. And then I will become Tchaikovsky the second.
Presenter asks
9:28Was Bandwagon an immediate success or did it take a bit of time to get into its stride?
It didn't take too long. The first three programs, with all the hoo-ha that went ahead of it about the resident comedian and the first big show of radio, the critics found the pandit, you see. And Dickie Murdoch and I went to John Watt ... and said, we don't think the scripts we're being given are very good. We feel we could write better ourselves ... we made such an impact that we were given another six and by the time we'd done twelve, we were, well, nationwide idols.
Presenter asks
15:39How well could you take the loneliness of a desert island?
I think I could take it. I'm a bit of a loner, really. I don't belong to any theatrical organizations. The loss of home would mean a lot to me, naturally, my family. But I think I could take it for a period, provided I know I was going to be rescued eventually.
Presenter asks
15:39Would you be a good castaway? Could you look after yourself?
I don't think so. Not without everything was to-hand. I mean, that I could catch fish easily, that I could get coconuts easy, or breadfruit, or whatever I was going to live on.
Presenter asks
16:26Would you try to escape?
No, I'd wait for the gentleman to come, you know. Come and collect me. My agent, yes, he'd be after me, I think, too.
Presenter asks
0:41How do you remember your childhood Christmases in Liverpool?
Oh, as being very, very happy. Of course, uh, my first Christmas was uh was spent in the Holy Land. In uh in Liverpool. You know, in Liverpool there's a little collection of streets uh called biblical names like David Street, Isaac Street, Jacob Street, Moses Street. Uh well I was born in Moses Street, so I was born in the Holy Land. But as a kid it was just the usual family, rather Victorian.
Presenter asks
3:05Why were you in the Welsh Regiment?
Influence. I went along to St George's Hall, Liverpool, to have my medical on my 18th birthday, 6th of June, 1918. And I thought they wouldn't for a minute take me with my stature and my bad eyesight and one thing and another, but by golly, they did. They were taking anything then. And I found myself at Kinmall Camp in North Wales in the Welsh Regiment for some reason, after which I was posted to the Far East, Great Yarmouth. And then in November, news got to the Kaiser that I was in, so he threw the towel in, and I was back in the office about a month later.
Presenter asks
7:28Did Tommy [Handley] become a professional before you did?
Oh, yes, he did. When I came into show business, he was the only one in show business that I knew, the only person who was, as we used to say in those days, on the stage. And when I thought of giving up my job to go on the stage, my father went berserk. He said you've got a good job with a pension at the end of it. You're giving it up to going to something you know nothing about. Look what happened to Tommy Hanley. He had a lovely job selling pramulators in Lisy Street. And look what he's doing now he's in the court of Samait of the Mountain.
Presenter asks
8:30What was the job you were giving up?
I was in uh the Liverpool Education Offices, the Tonsils and Adenor's department. In other words, I was in the medical part of it, and I used to have to send out slips of paper saying if Mrs. Murphy will present her daughter Bridget at the Stebble Street Clinic next Friday, she will have her tonsils and adenoids removed. Well, as you know, at Liverpool, everybody suffers with tonsils and adenoids. So I had a very busy job.
Presenter asks
14:37Do you remember any particular Christmases you spent away from home in digs?
Oh, I spent a lot of Christmases away from home. Uh some of them j very jolly, some of them a little on the sad side. For instance, when Anthea, my daughter, was born, that Christmas I was in Nottingham in pantomime, staying at a Temperance Hotel. And I said to my little wife on the phone, Well, uh I'll get off early in the morning to get home for Christmas Day... And uh when the uh dawn broke, it had been snowing all night, it was freezing, there were no trains, it was foggy, and to go by road would have been impossible. So I had to get on the phone to my little misses and say, I'm sorry, I won't be able to make it.
“memories of home, um, passing the time, or something immediate”
“I learned the piano from the lady next door when I was a kid in Liverpool. And I had to do an hour's practice every day. And if I didn't do it, she knew because we had very thin walls in these terraced houses down by the Dockland in Liverpool.”
“I gave up a job in the education offices, £3 a week, to go into the theatrical business at £6.10 a week. I did, and they still owe me that.”
“we made such an impact that we were given another six and by the time we'd done twelve, we were, well, nationwide idols.”
“I think I could take it. I'm a bit of a loner, really. I don't belong to any theatrical organizations. The loss of home would mean a lot to me, naturally, my family. But I think I could take it for a period, provided I know I was going to be rescued eventually.”
“I was born in good Queen Victoria's golden age, you know. Just. Only just, but I d I did it.”
“I carved my initials on the desk, AA, and [Paul McCartney] said we looked on it as a sort of shrine. So there you are two geniuses on the same seat”
“calling myself big-hearted Arthur, and with this big voice, people all thought I was a big fella. And when I used to walk on the stage, I could hear a gasp go round the theatre. And that was my opening egg. I used to say, This is all there is, you're not being diddled.”