Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
An actor best known as British cinema's king of horror for his roles in films like Dracula and The Curse of Frankenstein.
On the island
Eight records
Air de la belle Hélène (from La Belle Hélène)
The castaway chose this because of his love of opera and the personal connection to the singer who had offered to train him; the transcript says 'You see Björling singing Offenbach's La Belle Elene.' [No verbatim reason quote available in the transcript for this disc other than the presenter cue.]
Si pel ciel (duet from Otello)
'It's to do more with my mother... she was lucky enough to be able to go to the opera and see all the singers of the Golden Age... Caruso, who knew my mother... And he's singing with another man who also in his particular way was unique.'
Waltz song (from Der Rosenkavalier)
'One of the greatest singing actors that I've seen, a bass, was a Viennese called Ludwig Weber... He gave me a couple of lessons, and he taught me to sing in Viennese dialect, part of the song that we're going to hear.'
Die Frist ist um (from Der Fliegende Holländer)
'A very good friend... we became great friends, and he had this demonic voice, and it could not be in a more appropriate role the tormented Flying Dutchman.'
Aria (from Rinaldo)Favourite
'A good friend of mine was Samuel Ramey... Who is to day, without a doubt, the most outstanding bass in all opera.'
Siegfried's Death Song (from Götterdämmerung)
'He was known... as the Great Dane... And he loved life, and he was such fun.'
Scintille, diamant (from Les Contes d'Hoffmann)
'Again, a very close friend... I would say the number one baritone, operatic baritone in the world.'
Deh vieni alla finestra (from Don Giovanni)
'He made himself most famous singing the greatest seducer in all opera. Don Giovanni.'
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:06You were born in London's Belgravia, the son of a soldier and an Italian contessa. In a career spanning fifty years, you've made over two hundred films but are universally known for one particular type: horror. How much do you mind that the reputation sticks?
If people only think of me as having done that, and nothing else. I don't mind because there are over two hundred other films which disprove the fact that I am committed and shackled to the playing of one particular role in one particular kind of film. I made my name known, and my face, which at first was unrecognizable, became known as a result of doing those pictures for Hammer from nineteen fifty seven onwards. I have always been extremely grateful for the fact that I was given the chance and the opportunity to play a character which by a stroke of good fortune happened to hit home all over the world.
Presenter asks
2:16Your music is all opera. Had you not gone into Hammer, you might have been an opera singer. How did that come about?
My great-grandparents founded the first opera company in Australia, ever. … It's an instrument I was given at birth. It's a gift. It's nothing to do with me. And I never really knew that I had this voice until one day in Sweden, in the summer, I was singing at a rather boozy party … I got a pull on the arm. I turned round and there was a small, stocky man, whom I instantly recognized, who looked at me and he said: 'You have the voice. You should use it. Come tomorrow at eleven to the Opera House … and sing to me.' … I sang in French, in English, in German, in Russian, and in Italian. … The Stockholm Opera said to me: 'We will take you and we will train you and you will eventually become a member of the company. But you've got to look after your own board and lodging.' Well, I didn't have the money. So it's the greatest disappointment of my entire life because it's a gift wasted.
The keepsakes
The book
T. H. White
there is more fun and more love and more beauty and more magic in the sword in the stone than there is in Tolkien's imaginary land.
The luxury
My golf clubs. To play on this golf course, it would certainly improve my bunker play.
Presenter asks
6:23You've said before that you've never played Dracula correctly, as Bram Stoker saw him. How was that?
If you read the book. You will see that when Jonathan Harker comes to the castle the door is opened … there in front of [him] stood a very old man, a very tall old man, with white hair and a white moustache, a long white moustache, dressed entirely in black from head to foot, without a speck of colour. Now that's Stoker. It's not hammer. I was in black. But afterwards, they gave me a red line to the cape, which I thought spoiled it. So I'm physically wrong in those. … I did do a film, which unfortunately wasn't at all good … in which I … appear exactly as described by Stoker. And I got younger during the entire film, younger and younger and younger.
Presenter asks
14:55You were too tall to be an actor and your mother didn't want you to be an actor. Tell me about your stage debut in Worthing rep.
It was one play a week for several weeks on end. Marvellous training, of course, but the problem with that sort of thing is that after a while you end up giving the same performance in every play, regardless of what you're playing. … I was playing Roberto the Butler. I didn't have much to say or to do, but I made up for it. … The producer … came backstage, opened the door, walked into the dressing room and said: 'oh, Christopher, I thought I'd just tell you … I'm sending the rest of the cast home. You can finish the play on your own. … you're already playing all the parts.' … I didn't know that you didn't act all the time. … I reacted to every single thing everybody did. Well, I learned the hard way.
Presenter asks
20:56You object to the word horror, you prefer fantasy. Why?
Horror sounds nauseating, foul, revolting, chilling. I mean really chilling. And I'm an entertainer, for heaven's sake, and it's imaginary. It's an imaginary character and an imaginary story. And of course they were very moral, those stories, because the cross always won, didn't it?
Presenter asks
31:47Do you find the image of life on a desert island enticing? Can you rough it?
Oh, good heavens, yes. I've been roughing it since I was sixteen when I had to leave school … I had to get a job, instead of continuing in my studies, and I went into my first job, which was a messenger boy, office boy, in the city, at a pound a week. … So this suave image … is a bit of a front, isn't it? No, I think you are what you are. … people think I'm a bit aloof … Part of that's my height and perhaps some of the parts I've played. … I've always had to cope. … Being on a desert island … would be absolutely wonderful. … I would probably … start designing a golf course. … assuming that I no longer had a family … I could cope.
“If people only think of me as having done that, and nothing else. I don't mind because there are over two hundred other films which disprove the fact that I am committed and shackled to the playing of one particular role in one particular kind of film.”
“I have sung in films. I have sung in concert things with amateur groups and professional groups. And I've even sung with the man himself.”
“It's the greatest disappointment of my entire life because it's a gift wasted.”
“I did not know that you didn't act all the time. My point being that if somebody came in and said 'It's raining up outside …' I would practically put up an umbrella to go with the rain inside the house. … I reacted to every single thing everybody did. Well, I learned the hard way.”
“Everything is out there in the open, everything is shown, nothing is left to the imagination. Like Hitchcock … What you don't see that is much more frightening than what you just do see. … An open door … the most frightening thing on the screen.”