Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Television writer and producer best known for creating classic British sitcoms including Dad's Army, It Ain't Half Hot Mum, Hi-de-Hi!, and 'Allo 'Allo!.
On the island
Eight records
I think [Barbara Cook] is one of the most beautiful and pure voices in the musical theatre.
my next record is My Hero sung by [Joan] Sutherland.
Bobby Howes singing She Is My Lovely, he was a lovely artist.
London Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra
It's Parry's Blessed Pair of Sirens... I've always been a great favourite of mine and is not very often heard.
we wrote a song called Friends for Jack Halbert... along came Billy Cotton who said I'll record this for you.
Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth
I sang a song called When We Are Married... this one's Anne [Ziegler] and Webster Booth singing when we are married.
I Couldn't Do a Thing Like That
Arthur Lowe singing I Couldn't Do a Thing Like That from Ann Veronica.
Not While I'm AroundFavourite
It's called Not While I'm Around by Stephen Sondheim. I like it because it makes my wife cry.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:14Do you have a favourite among your shows or are you always in love with your latest creation?
I'm usually in love with the latest creation. Um I think uh w they're all favourites in their own way. Dad's army, of course, obviously was a great pleasure to do and uh I think it r represented a sort of a very important time when we were all very brave and behaved very well. I loved it, Ain't Half Hot Mum. That um was a representative of a very important time in our imperial history and a time when I was in the army as well uh in India, and so was Jimmy Perry, my co-author in that one. In their own way, they're all terrific favourites. Heidi High was enormous fun because we used to have a a huge huge amount of fun when we did that.
Presenter asks
2:18When writing a show, which comes first – the character or the actor? Do you create a character for a specific actor?
Well, it increasingly it has worked out far more like that than l latterly. I think with um Dad's Army, naturally it was our first show and we took some pretty well established actors. Once you get together, uh particularly on a pilot, uh you can start writing for their own particular idiosyncrasies and their the the things that they're good at. So so that once Arthur Lowe has given flesh and blood to Captain Mannering, as it were, you you almost begin to know what he would say in a given situation. Absolutely. Absolutely like that. And and Arthur became more and more like Captain Mannering as as the series progressed really.
The keepsakes
The book
Collected Poems of Tom Betcherman
Tom Betcherman
whose marvellous Englishman with great humour, I shall shout them at the waves.
The luxury
Well, I thought maybe it should be a typewriter or a pen and paper, but ... I plumped ... for a piano. ... I have an admirable opportunity to practise a great deal.
Presenter asks
2:59Have you ever had an actor argue with you about what their character would say or want to add lib?
I very rarely suffer from that actually. Um I think the actor is happiest when he's interpreting really. Uh it isn't any part of his job to make funny lines and if if he does he's usually remembering rather than creating. So we had very little conflict about that sort of thing. We wrote the part and they played it. They were well behaved.
Presenter asks
4:40Do you not like writing alone? How does collaboration work with someone like Jeremy Lloyd?
Uh no, we sit opposite each other rather than side by side and and shoot it off, line for line really. And it's it's hilarious and great fun. I'll write'em down in long hand, as Jeremy does. U usually um we take it in turns. Uh you each write one'cause it's um hard work just writing it and you can't be quite so creative when you're doing the actual physical writing down. You know, you sort of get behind hand, as it were,'cause you're doing your writing. And you're thinking ahead and trying to think of the next year. In a way, yes, yes. Not going to be deal with jokes, but anyway, the funny bits.
Presenter asks
5:59How did Jimmy Perry come up with the idea for Dad's Army?
I think um legend has it that Jimmy was going actually past Buckingham Palace and uh the Home Guard were on guard there. It was a sort of great honour that they should guard Buckingham Palace. And uh he thought what a good idea this would be the Home Guard for a comedy show and uh of course he was in the Home Guard and he was working for me at the time actually on a Judge of Arnie's show and uh my wife was his agent. And so he said to her in great trepidation, Do you think David would mind if I sort of gave him a script? and she said, Well, try it out, you know And uh he did and I was uh I was lucky enough to be able to get the thing through into the B B C and they suggested collaboration'cause Jimmy hadn't done any television by then and uh That's how it all happened.
“I think all comedy falls apart if you try to play it for laughs. If you go on thinking you're funny, that doesn't work.”
“God bless the BBC, they've always allowed me to do that.”
“I'm a very calm person, I'm told obviously I must seethe inside.”
“I don't think I shall try to escape, because I'm a terrible sailor.”