Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Actress and dancer, whose stage career progressed from Birmingham Rep to the West End in revues such as 'Sweet and Low'.
On the island
Eight records
Dance of the Hours (from La Gioconda)
Not explicitly stated in transcript — first disc not introduced. The transcript begins mid-discussion and discs are not enumerated. No disc choices appear in this extract.
The keepsakes
No book or luxury recorded for this episode.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:21Any precedent in the family for the theatre? How did it all start?
No, um nobody in the family. My father's always been very artistic, but there's no acting in the family. I think I fell in love with the theatre when I was about three, and I was taken to the Coliseum. and saw somebody uh dancing the jackdaw of rings and We were in the upper circle, and I can remember that cold brass rail on my forehead. And my behind up in the air and my mother holding on to my knickers because she thought I was going to take off.
Presenter asks
0:58What was your first professional engagement?
Um I was a dancer in a pantomime.
Presenter asks
1:08And after being a dancer in a pantomime?
Um Barry Jackson, Birmingham Rep.
Presenter asks
1:23How long at Birmingham?
Three years.
Presenter asks
1:26And in that three years growing up from playing maids to?
Well, no, I mean, I I was terribly lucky in the beginning actually. Um I'm sure you haven't time to hear the whole story, but the first thing I played was Anne Bronte. And I went on. Maids came later in my career, but I started off playing quite big parts.
Presenter asks
1:47And then after Birmingham?
Uh then I went to Liverpool for a season, and then back to Birmingham, but this time to the Alacrep.
Presenter asks
1:55What was your first West End appearance?
Uh in review. Sweet and low.
Presenter asks
2:39Which is your favourite [Shaw play]?
Pygmalion.
Presenter asks
2:42And of course you played Peter Pan. Yes. Did you enjoy the flying?
Not terribly because I get vertigo.
Presenter asks
3:12A rewarding audience?
Oh, marvellous. Yes, marvellous.
Presenter asks
6:12What's left that you'd especially like to do, or any part in the theatre?
Well, I like to play any part that comes along. I I can't think immediately of some great missed opportunity. There's one thing I would like to do I mean, never mind about the parts I what I would really like to do is to live for at least five hundred years. with all my faculties.
“I think I fell in love with the theatre when I was about three, and I was taken to the Coliseum. and saw somebody uh dancing the jackdaw of rings and We were in the upper circle, and I can remember that cold brass rail on my forehead. And my behind up in the air and my mother holding on to my knickers because she thought I was going to take off.”
“Well, I loved playing. Elizabeth in Richard the Third because it was for once left in its entirety, and it's a really marvellous part, very underrated, I think. Paul Lina in Winter's Tale.”
“Oh, yes. It's quite a it's a way of life. It's not entirely the acting, it just is a way of life. I love living in the country.”
“There's one thing I would like to do I mean, never mind about the parts I what I would really like to do is to live for at least five hundred years. with all my faculties.”