Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
An actress and revue performer, best known as a member of the Cambridge Footlights.
On the island
Eight records
The keepsakes
The book
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:28What did you want to be [as a schoolgirl]?
Well, I wanted to be an actress. I wanted to be in review and I went for a little while to a a tiny drama school, but I was persuaded not to carry on with it. They said that uh an education is what a girl should have… And uh all little girls want to be actually, as they said, you're just stage stuck. And I, who believe what I'm told, believed it and was persuaded to go to university. And I don't really regret that.
Presenter asks
1:17Who were the leading lights in [Cambridge] Footlights in your years?
Oh, John Bird directed it, And Peter Cook was in it. Timothy Birdsaw. So died.
Presenter asks
1:35What did you do [when you came down from Cambridge]?
I hoped to be offered a grand and wonderful job, but in fact uh I was misled about having a university degree. I didn't think it's all that useful… So I looked about in some despair, and didn't really find anything. I had then had to go into hospital for a while and had a an operation on my spine, which meant lying there for four months. Which was quite interesting… And then I came out and looked for a job and took a job with a large, highly diversified group of companies in the personnel department.
George Eliot
The luxury
Presenter asks
2:47How do you see your career shaping?
Yes, well I suppose by dint of turning things down I I it becomes very depressing if you go on turning things down. I begin to think perhaps I I shouldn't be doing this at all. Because uh there's nothing I want to do, I should abandon it all. But I do want to learn to act. I think that's the only a reason to go on and also to write perhaps.
Presenter asks
3:50Do you have a religious faith that would sustain you?
No, not of that sort. I I think I'm in some sense as a religious person. In other words, I do think a lot about life and, uh I seem to think there is some higher motive that should be going on in one's life… I was listening to two people playing [a Freudian] game and The questioner put the last question, um, you've come to a wall, what's behind what's on the other side of the wall? And I interrupted rather rudely and said, Oh, don't be ridiculous, there's nothing on the other side of the wall. And then my stomach turned over and I realized that this was my verdict on life and I didn't think there's anything on the other side.
“Are you a Londoner?”
“I wanted to be an actress. I wanted to be in review and I went for a little while to a a tiny drama school, but I was persuaded not to carry on with it. They said that uh an education is what a girl should have… And I, who believe what I'm told, believed it.”
“I achieved a great ambition, um, which was to be in the footlights.”
“I didn't read Proust, which is what I thought I would do.”
“I cook an awful lot, it seems. I must stop doing that.”
“I interrupted rather rudely and said, Oh, don't be ridiculous, there's nothing on the other side of the wall. And then my stomach turned over and I realized that this was my verdict on life and I didn't think there's anything on the other side.”