Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Actor known for musical plays and films, with singing and dancing abilities.
On the island
Eight records
Symphony No. 2 in C minor, Op. 17 "Little Russian" (4th movement)
Concertgebouw Orchestra, conducted by Bernard Haitink
Because I love Russian music. I love Shaikhovsky. And it's music that would wake me up on a desert island and I would I would love listening to it.
Symphony No. 9 in C major, D. 944 "The Great" (3rd movement: Scherzo)
Concertgebouw Orchestra, conducted by Bernard Haitink
Well, I choose it because I have to have Schubert. And I could have chose a massive music by Schubert, but The Great C Major is to me just full of Schubert's invention and gift for orchestration and melody, and it's just a superb piece of music.
Pelléas et Mélisande Suite, Op. 46: The Death of Mélisande
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham
I would like really the death of Milisonde from that suite.
the track that I would like to hear is Red Top, which is a little masterpiece.
Così fan tutte: "Soave sia il vento"
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Christa Ludwig and Walter Berry
it is the moment when the girls say goodbye to those wicked boys in the first act.
I want it really because Sinatra I grew up with and uh I mean I fumbled about with my first dates with Sinatra in the background and and I think that he is incomparably the greatest phraser of a popular song.
Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61 (closing passage)
David Oistrakh with the French National Radio Orchestra, conducted by André Cluytens
I love the violin. I love Oestrach. I love this recording of the violin concerto. It has everything. It it it's joy and also contemplation and whatever. And it speaks for itself.
In conversation
Presenter asks
4:06Did you grow up with the inevitability that you were going to be an actor?
No, indeed, it wasn't really until I think I went to university and began to act at the uh A D C, the Amateur Dramatic Club.
Presenter asks
5:14Why [did you never quite settle down at Eton]?
I never quite settled down at Eton.
Presenter asks
5:47Were you hooked by now? Had you made up your mind you were going to be an actor?
Well, I think by that time, by say the second year in, that we had our own theatre there, of course, and I was sort of. kind of drawn towards it willy-nilly. I mean, what was in the blood was obviously coming out. Right. But it wasn't really until I left Cambridge that I thought Well now, what am I going to do?
Presenter asks
8:35Did you have some really unsuitable parts in Worthing?
The keepsakes
The book
James Agate
The reason I want it, I think, is because it's part of my business. He talks very interesting and fascinating about the period. It will remind me that critics are human beings, which indeed they are, and that there is cause for laughter and tears and constant interest.
The luxury
Oh, surely I did, and parts that I was horrendously bad at. Indeed, the first four or five weeks of my time at the Conaut is why I will always be very grateful to Gilly, because he stood by me when any sane-minded man would have said, you know, get out and go gardening. I was really not Not good, but I stumbled onto a part that that had some laughs in it and From then on things got a lot better.
Presenter asks
9:17How did this [American debut in New York] come about?
Well, it was directed by a writer and a director called Garson Koenigan, who just achieved a great success with the production of uh The Diary of Anne Frank in New York. And this was the posthumous production of a play by Robert Sherwood called Small War on Murray Hill. About the American War of Independence, and they needed an English officer, and at that time. They didn't seem to have a lot of English actors over there, so I was recruited and I went over there and played it and we rehearsed.
Presenter asks
18:48How do you like working for a big subsidized company [at the National]?
I like it very much because it is it is the only place now where it is possible to play some of the plays which which you really want to cut your teeth on as an actor.
“I've always been very sympathetic to people who can't do auditions. I've never passed one, I don't think.”
“He said something very interesting to me one day. He said, You must always go just under the target. Don't hit it. Always make them think you've got something more.”
“I get in front of the camera and I'm like a an aspen leaf. I'm trembling with terror. You know, because if you it it it's you don't know when you're gonna be asked to do it.”