Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
An actor known for roles from PC Fancy Smith in Z-Cars to Augustus Caesar in I, Claudius, and for climbing Mount Everest.
On the island
Eight records
Sinfonia Antarctica (Symphony No. 7)
Heather Harper, London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Andre Previn
The Antarctic is so wonderfully wild, and it has a kind of astonishing magic and power and purity and loneliness which I embrace. And it it brings back great memories of being very close to God.
Vivian Ellis (composer), likely BBC Orchestra
When I lived in South Yorkshire as a child, on the right was the North Eastern Railway, and on the left was the Disuse Railway, and I used to see trains like the Mallard and The Flying Scotsman. And of course this was kind of really augmented by the fact that Paul Temple and Dick Barton, all these wonderful BBC series, were on the radio. And the title music to Paul Temple's series was Coronation Scott, which we all adore.
Canoe Song (from Sanders of the River)
Paul Robeson was played all the time, the great, that great bass baritone. All his songs were played, of course Old Man River was a great favorite. But my my favorite was the canoe song from Sands of the River.
New York Philharmonic, conducted by Pierre Boulez
I I I find it the most haunting of all music. I adore those wonderful tales about South America, the Mattagrosa, the Lost World, that marvellous continent of waterfalls, Angel Falls, blue morpho, butterflies, and ocelots and cod cods and and electric eels, and I I just to feel the dawn coming up daybreak through those jungles, and I think that Raval does it in Daphnis and Chloe beautifully.
Non Nobis Domine (from Henry V)
Patrick Doyle and the Stephen Hill singers
Branner is a hero. We have this mild relationship. I love courage. You can never underestimate courage, physical courage. And that seven thousand British face sixty thousand French, and the French chose the ground at Agincourt. That is real courage facing the enemy. And this music i I think really says it all.
Symphony No. 5 in E flat major (finale)
Royal Scottish National Orchestra, conducted by Sir Alexander Gibson
When I was on Everest I couldn't get it out of my head that wonderful theme of Sebelius's Fifth Symphony. I couldn't get it out of my head. And that's what I'd love now.
Band of the Brigade of Gurkhas
Well, in actual fact, it is the Gurkhas, men of the hills, and the Gurkhas are the Sherpas on Mount Everest. They come from the Solo Kumbu, they come from Tibet, there's a Mongolian extract, and they're g they fought us in the war, we couldn't beat them, and they couldn't beat us, and East and West join together, and they love us over there. And on the mountains, I mean, they'll die for you, and they give so much and ask so little.
The Rite of SpringFavourite
London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Bernard Haitink
that wonderful throbbing, almost like volcanoes. But I love, of course, the the whole piece. Again, it relates to my childhood, and I was so disappointed as a child that there were no dinosaurs. I'd love to be a time traveller and go back there and just sit and watch them, because I'm sure they're wonderful mothers. You know, they're always fierce, but they're wonderful darling mothers, the dinosaurs, and different coloured skin, and so forth.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:29Is there any kind of link between acting and climbing? Do you experience the same kind of fear on stage as on a mountain?
Well yes, yes, I do. I feel very vulnerable about both. But I always feel that acting is holding up the mirror up to life, whereas climbing Everest or any of the great mountains going on expeditions, that is life. And I find there's a very big difference between the sweat and fear of a first night at Stratford on Avon and being on the Lhotse face close by Everest. But the panic is the same, presumably.
Presenter asks
5:20Do you feel that you've always been cast in villainous roles, as the big baddie rather than the hero or leading man?
Well, it's funny to you because you played, say, about four or five baddies, and there seem to kind of stick. I should say that three quarters of my roles have been rather goodies, really, or bad hero. You've been Long John Silver, I suppose. Yes, well, I've always yes, I thought Long John Silver was one of the loveliest things I've ever been. And a musketeer, of course, was always a little bit of a sound. And Portos, yes.
Presenter asks
5:52You were a leading man to Katharine Hepburn once. What was that experience like?
The keepsakes
The book
P. D. Ouspensky
because I've never quite understood it, or not remotely understood it, is Uuspensky's In Search of the Miraculous. Uuspensky was a scientist, writer, a tremendous explorer as well. He went round the world to try and find the meaning of life and what it was all about. And he travelled through he met all the rishis in India and went to different continents and ultimately ended back in Russia. Astonishing book, full of bravery and insight and poetry and passion.
The luxury
my luxury is a scarf from the Delai Lama. It's a beautiful patterned scarf that he gave me. I met him in 1990 and he advised me about Everest. And he's blessed me. I've seen him several times since then, and he's now ultimately given me this scarf. He wants me to place it on the top of Mount Everest. And so three mantras. A rather complex one for the peace of mankind, a mantra relating to the Delai Lama himself, and one to the mountain itself. So he believes you're going to get there. He does. He says, I'll suffer at this time, but I won't die. I won't get injured. But I'll go through hell. But I'll make it, he says.
Well, it was marvellous because it was for a film called Trojan Women that was made in 1970. Michael Kakianis, who directed Zorb of the Greek. And he got Hepburn was Hecuburr, Vanessa Redgrave was Andromache. Genevieve Bourgeon was Cassandra, and Irene Pappas was Helen of Troy. And I was the leading man.
Presenter asks
6:27Did you fall for Katharine Hepburn?
Well, I did. I was told by Kakianis to be very honest. He rehearsed me for five months before the film. And he said you must be honest with all these actresses. I was petrified. It was my first big film lead. And eventually I met her and we did the first scene together and I thought it was dreadful. And by that time I was kind of full of honesty and not diplomacy that Kakianis had filmed me with. And she said, Well, was it that lousy? I said yes. Was I lousy? I said, Yes, I thought you were lousy. ... And we did it again, and she did pester me, and she was brilliant, of course, and acted me off the screen, left, right, and centre, and was wonderful. And from that day on we were kind of two honest people together. She'd tell me if I was being bad, and I'd tell her she was being bad. But you've said since um I considered spending the rest of my life with her. I did. ... I found her amazingly sexy.
Presenter asks
10:17Were there fears that your father would have accidents at the pit?
Oh, they were they were amazing to I think they must I my father was a great hero to me, still alive, he's eighty eight, nearly eighty nine. Uh he was a coal hero, did the hardest work in the coal mines. And there were no pit baths, so he'd come through the fog, there was lots of smog and fog and pollution then, and the the wonderful lights. I'd wait for him and I could hear the sun and see the spark on his boots coming through the fog and the gas lights, and he'd have his lamp on his head, and his face was black, the no baths, and to see him coming down, he just looked like a Greek god, and to pick me up. ... And I'd help him to kind of get his dinner ready and then he'd fall asleep and then I'd bathe his back. And his back was like a mountain landscape.
Presenter asks
26:25You refused cylinder oxygen on Everest. Why did you do that?
I just felt so that ... There was no adventure on the southern side. 53, up went Hillary and Tensing, and it's been climbed many, many times since then. And I suddenly dawned on me it is much more of an adventure if a dotty, stupid fifty-eight-year-old tries it without oxygen. I was doing very well without oxygen. Let's see what I can do. And I hated the oxygen on my face and the masks. I was losing the mountain. I couldn't feel the mountain. This bloody mask on my face. Claustophobic and so forth. So I wouldn't have it.
“I thought the mountain loved me. I thought I was a servant to what I was doing.”
“I think it was Maury who said the greatest danger in life. They said isn't Everest dangerous. I said, yes, but the greatest danger in life is not taking the adventure. And an adventure can't be adventure unless it is tinged or manifest with danger.”
“I found her amazingly sexy. I think that had Tracy been alive, I'd have broken all his fingers to get to her.”
“I thought I was kind of a strong person, but it can happen to anybody. Then gradually I suddenly found that suddenly my hearing wasn't so good, which surprised me. Suddenly, from a distance, people seemed as if they were down a tunnel. And then I realised I was beyond parental help. You were kind of withdrawing from life. Withdrawing totally.”
“I was doing very well without oxygen. I was losing the mountain. I couldn't feel the mountain. This bloody mask on my face. Claustophobic and so forth. So I wouldn't have it.”