Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Singer-songwriter and actor who wrote and sang many hit songs and starred in musicals including his own, also played Jesus, Lord Byron, and Che Guevara on stage
On the island
Eight records
Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity from The Planets, Op. 32
I vow to thee, my country and then I found out later it came from the Planet Suite, which I'm very fond of. The whole scrope and it's the Jupiter, the good bit.
Bud Flanagan and Chesney Allen
this I suppose really epitomizes the East End for me because the East End, you know, lots of people say, Oh, you know, poor background and all the rest of it, but it w it w it was paradise for me when I was a little boy. And um Flannagan and Allen is a is a record I've chosen. And for me it sums up the East End and that kind of quality and feeling when I when I was very young, and it's called Down Forget Me Not Lane.
having um a record like In My Life by the Beatles on a on a desert island would help me focus and think of certain things that have gone on and the people I've met because as you probably know, you meet so many people and and you work so closely together on on on a particular project you're on. And then you don't see him for ten years. And I would think something like In My Life would uh would focus all those people and and all those happenings.
I think it conjures up, um, California. I'm not not a big fan of California, but I would think the island would be a bit like that, with the sea and all that, and I could make a bit of a surfboard out of um some trunk or something.'Cause I used to be a sixer in the Cubs, you know. and I could do a bit of surfing with this turned up on the radio.
Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1Favourite
London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sir Adrian Boult
I'll be sitting on this island and I'll be thinking, Well, it's nice here, but I think there'll be times when I wake up and think I can't be bothered to do this, or I can't be bothered to do that, and I'll be. I'll need something really to spur me on, you know, something that's full of of England, all the great things of Britain and England that uh That have happened all through the ages, that that kind of courage and and strength. So I went for the big one, Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1.
Reri Grist (original Broadway production)
Leonard Bernstein (music), Stephen Sondheim (lyrics)
I like musical theatre a lot. Uh for me it encompasses drama and music, so it's perfect for me. And I think probably my favorite score is West Side Story.
every time I go there it seems that this record's on the radio and and for me it it kind of conjures up New York.
Little Richard and Dorothy LaBostrie
he's one of my favorite sings of all time, this gentleman, and I've uh I've met a lot of people, you know, I've met uh the Queen and um They were all very important folk, but I've only really been nervous once. I was in New York when when I went round to uh to meet little Richard for the first time and uh I I was really nervous and he was bi he's a total nutcase, you know, and uh but marvellous singer and and such a unique style and a big influence on on a lot of musicians that started in the sixties.
In conversation
Presenter asks
7:45So what, David Essex, was your salvation? What got you out of all of that?
Well, I it I knew, um, I wanted to do something that that involved a certain amount of what I felt was freedom, you know, uh the the idea of of working nine to five never really appealed to me. But I didn't know what, and I used to go on these adventures to Soho with a friend of mine who later became a milkman, who was um, my old mate, and we'd we'd walk along and uh I think it was only about thirteen. and we were walking down Wardore Street, which is in Soho, in London. And this this kind of music came out of the basement and it it It was incredible and I thought, Well, come on, Jim, we'll go down there So we we got in. And inside it was a club called the Flamingo, and inside it was just full of American GI s, mainly black, and uh and this band on stage that turned out to be Rufus Thomas. And it was like the star over Bethlehem, in a way. And I just knew I had to be a musician and I had to play blues music on R or R and B.
Presenter asks
20:19What was it like performing to a hall full, a stadium full of screaming girls?
But to be honest, I sort of missed it, um, because I I was so bewildered and bemused by it. that I didn't I wasn't quite it was like a a strange dream. I wish I'd enjoyed it more. It was like an electric shock of love, but uh for me the music was so important and I used to get quite uh irritated.
The keepsakes
The book
I'd like to take the Guinness Book of Records, please, because um th then I can refer to all these wonderful things people have done, and and then I th that'll spur me on to do great things and make this island special.
The luxury
a set of cricket stuff with a cricket net
a set of cricket stuff with a cricket net please, and then what I would do is I would practise very hard and become as good a bowler as Malcolm Marshall, and because of the sun I'd probably have a very dark complexion, and then Viv Richards would call me up to play for the West Indies when I get back.
Presenter asks
21:27Are you one person when you're out, bubbly and giggly and nice and fun, and another person when you're at home, quite withdrawn and monosyllabic and difficult to live with?
Um I'm not sure'cause I I'm living alone, so there's only there's the dog and I, George, and he seems to quite like me. But uh I think I I think I'm uh basically funnily I do think I'm an introvert and I think that I I do what I do to relate to people um uh through the music and through performance. Although I enjoy performing, I I I'm not really, I don't think, a natural performer. I'm not a show off. I mean uh I'm the the one in the kitchen at parties. That probably goes back to the fact that I'm an only child, so you do spend a a fair whack of time by yourself, you know.
Presenter asks
22:19Obviously it's made you very sad that your marriage didn't work out in the end.
It's sad, but in many ways it it it's worked out rather well because we're great friends, Maureen and I. And uh I know if we were under the same roof, you know, we the old uh plates would start flying again. So w we get on great now and I see the kids more or less every day and and sometimes we go away together on holidays. So although it's not ideal, it's really not that bad.
Presenter asks
25:05You've got a new album and a new single. But what more is there in you? What more do you want to do? Is there something there yet?
I think so. I mean, I still feel that I've said it before, I still feel I'm on page one, you know. and um. I've made up a a film idea,'cause I always hate that when people say I've written a film. You know, I I make up tunes and I I did a made up show, Mutiny, and now I've made up uh a film. And I you know when you get the feeling you you what you're really good at you've not quite done yet. And I I just for some reason get the f the feeling I I I could be a rather good director. And I don't even like saying it,'cause every actor says I want to direct. I don't particularly want to direct, but I actually think I I'd be Re you know, quite good at it. So I might do that.
Presenter asks
28:29Professional things apart, what really matters to you in life more than anything else? What are you going to miss most when we cast you away?
I think probably um probably all all the small things of of of England. Um plus of course friends and the children, that would be tricky. Hopefully I uh A letter had come in a bottle from Danny and Verity, you know. saying that she's got three A levels and Danny's just about to play for Surrey Colts or something at cricket. stuff like that. So if I get the the letter in the bottle that won't be so bad.
“It was like the star over Bethlehem, in a way.”
“I wish I'd enjoyed it more. It was like an electric shock of love, but for me the music was so important.”
“I do think I'm an introvert and I think that I I do what I do to relate to people um uh through the music and through performance.”
“I still feel I'm on page one, you know.”
“You know, what really matters i is the being able to see the sun come up, the sun go down, and the natural things in life.”
“I've only really been nervous once... when I went round to uh to meet little Richard for the first time.”