Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
British actress, acclaimed for stage (Royal Court, St. Joan) and film (Oscar-nominee for Enchanted April), wife of Laurence Olivier.
On the island
Eight records
I chose this one because I've always loved Judy Garland. It's just the the theme of this particular song. Which I used to sing when I was a girl. And dream about when I went to bed ... It was so sort of exotic and far away. And it made me think I want some sort of adventure. In some world that I have never seen yet. I want to go places. I want to get out of here.
This is really in tribute to my mother. It's Catherine Ferrier. I mean it is also because it's a memory of My first introduction to it when she played this record to me.
Nimrod (from Enigma Variations)
This will bring quite a few memories. It's the Halley Orchestra. And We used to attend those concerts. My parents used to have quite quite exuberant rows where they would smash crockery. They would not be speaking to each other, so they would communicate through their children. So my father would say. Ask your mother if I'm to get tickets for the Barbarolli concert next month. And then we knew, yes, everything would be all right.
St. Crispin's Day Speech (from Henry V)
Well, this is very special. It is Laurence Olivier, I better say that, in a speech from Henry the Fifth, and I had written him a letter. My daughter found a schoolgirl diary which said got a letter back from Merlot. ... It also, of course. brings back him His voice and that. trademark cry at the end, which other actors would try to copy and never really succeed.
Leonard Bernstein & New York Philharmonic
The show that we both went to see and loved, and that is West Side Story. And it was something we Share the lab form. And perhaps particularly this song, because it it's a love song.
Piano Sonata No. 16 in C major, K. 545 (First Movement)Favourite
This is a bit of Mozart, because it's been played to my grandchildren as small babies, because it is supposed to develop the brain. So I thought if it does that small babies, it could probably retain brain power for people who are older. And stuck on desert islands.
Well now, when we were at the National Theatre we had we had the invasion of Franco Zepharelli. And then the happiest One The Neapolitan Eduardo di Filippo, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, in which Larry played the grandpapa. I played Mamma and Frank Findlay was the father. ... And this was the tune that was played during it.
The last record is, I guess, a kind of statement. It's Edith Pierre, again, a vulnerability, uh, quite a tough life, like Judy Garland. But emerged from it. And it it is atmospheric.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:28Do you identify with Mrs Palfrey, Joan? Do you relish now, in your mid seventies, being fully your own person?
Yes, I think I do. I don't think all my life has actually been spent as misses Palfrey's was, because misses Palfrey did Dedicate everything. to a marriage. and her husband and followed him everywhere. I think I've always kept A little Nugget. of Joan Plowwright even when I became Lady Olivia.
Presenter asks
8:01What did you look like [at your first audition in Soho] and what had you prepared?
I was in my school raincoat, if I remember rightly, under Berry. I didn't it didn't occur to me that that clothes and mattered all that much. I I liked acting. I knew I could act. ... Oh, I had prepared one or two things, but I never got the opportunity to do anything. He just called me in. and said, Look at this various waste paper baskets full of torn up letters. He was just telling me about the precarious nature of the profession and after So two, three minutes. He just sent me, um Go home, my dear, go home.
Presenter asks
17:51When was the point that you thought, hang on, this is not just another flirtation [with Laurence Olivier]?
He would always kind of engineer that other people around left before I did. And then he would talk, you know, about his life and and that he was at a at a crossroads, that life had become Horrendous. for him and he had to make a break and ... He actually wanted a family life. He wanted to be still, to be. To be solid, a life of substance, not sort of living out of a trunk and huge cattle glitzy parties which he never enjoyed.
The keepsakes
The book
Marcel Proust
It's epic. It takes you such a long time to get to the end of one sentence. And there is such a wonderful love affair between the boy and his grandmother, and as a grandmother now, and and with grandsons, I recognise it, and it's very moving.
The luxury
I will practice that Mozart sonata for the rest of my life on the Desert Island. And, um, think of my grandchildren who who'll be sort of grown up young men and women then.
Presenter asks
22:50What kind of father was he, Laurence Olivier?
He tried very hard to be a good father. I mean, he didn't have a lot of time, let's face it. He did once offer to take over on the Nanny's Day and Night Off. ... And give me a break. They were babies. Uh so he slept in the danny's room next to baby's and said I could have a full night's sleep and baby would be absolutely fine. And uh I came down about half past seven because there was quite a noise going on and And I went in and of course the you know, there was apple puree and baby cereal all over the floor and all over their faces and all over him. And he said, Oh, thank God you've come I'd rather play Othello eight times a week than ever do this again.
Presenter asks
26:36Since his death, seventeen years ago now, have you felt like the keeper of the flame? ... Have you felt it's fallen to you throughout this time to defend his memory?
I don't think there's any need to defend his memory. His performances, his greatness as an artist. are there and they are there in the films like the one we we had an extract from today. As I said, if a man is touched by genius, he isn't an ordinary person. He doesn't lead an ordinary life. He has extremes of behaviour which you understand, and you just find a way not to be swept overboard by his demons. kind of stand apart, continue your own work and your absorption in the family. And those other things don't really matter.
Presenter asks
29:53Do you think when you sit on the sand and think about it, are you going to have any regrets?
No, I wouldn't. I wouldn't have those because I believe there is a kind of a kind of destiny. I know you make choices. But I think what turns out is what is best. Because something guided those choices, which is very personal and to do with you, and it's your Tapestry you are weaving. And you've learnt a great deal from it. and experienced great joy. And sorrow and that That makes you a more rounded human being.
“I think I've always kept A little Nugget. of Joan Plowwright even when I became Lady Olivia.”
“If a man is touched by genius, he isn't an ordinary person. He doesn't lead an ordinary life. He has extremes of behaviour which you understand, and you just find a way not to be swept overboard by his demons.”
“I believe there is a kind of a kind of destiny. I know you make choices. But I think what turns out is what is best. Because something guided those choices, which is very personal and to do with you, and it's your Tapestry you are weaving.”