Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Comedian whose twenty-year TV show with Hattie Jakes epitomised the naive bumbling Englishman; also a scriptwriter and silent film director.
On the island
Eight records
I used to do him doing uh When the Blue of the Night into a bucket in the cotton mill where I worked.
Detroit Symphony Orchestra conducted by Paul Paray
I think this is probably one of the most descriptive pieces of music I've ever heard anyway.
I love close harmony and I was actually quite good at it.
It's got to be my w o great friend lovely John Williams.
We took a lot of the Mills Rudder stuff and all we did was got the grammophone record and dissected all the harmonies...
John Edmond and the Rhodesian African Rifles Regimental Marching Band
We spent a lot of time with the King's African Rifles and they brought their band to to play actually for us.
Ted Heath and His Music with Jack Parnell
Jack Farnell was a drummer in that, and he's a really great guy.
Hallelujah Chorus (from Messiah)Favourite
London Symphony Chorus and London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Adrian Boult
I think sometimes during the nights on this desert island it'd get a bit uh lonely. So I'd like something to lift my spirit.
In conversation
Presenter asks
4:34How early in your life did you hear the call [to comedy]?
When I say uh one doesn't decide to be a comic, the audience decides whether you're going to be a comic. They're the ones.
Presenter asks
7:28Can you remember what you felt at that moment [when you joined up in 1941]?
In those days we were always taught to uh stiff upper lip and boys so men didn't cry. And I think uh uh I probably have only cried about five times in my life. And uh but one of them was the night that I arrived at Padgate and had to get up on my bunk and sleep. And I and I just cried out of sheer homesickness... And to be amongst all this lot, uh you know, I knew the first time in my life I'd had a bed to myself, so it wasn't too bad. And I must say that uh having been in the war, It was the making of me.
Presenter asks
11:34How did it come about [that you began to write and perform comedy in Schleswig-Holstein]?
Well he came about because the Stlazek Holstein war was over then, peace had been signed, and a notice was up on the board, all those with theatrical experience, put your name down. And well, of course, I put my name down because it was either that or the cookhouse. And I went for this audition, which was given by Bill Fraser, who gave me my first break.
The keepsakes
The book
Robert Ripley
I was thinking that Ripley's, believe it or not, he used to write all facts of things like a fack here in India who'd gone around with his arm up in the air... these are the sort of facts that were fascinating as a boy, and I'd like Ripley's, believe it or not.
The luxury
a sandwich and a crateful of golf balls
I could stick a palm tree up there and put a flag on it, a bit of my shirt on it for a flag, and try to hole out from what I would call a large bunker. But I'd have to have my guru, this is Tony Fisher, who's an old pro who takes me out twice a week to play golf and he he looks where the ball goes and everything.
Presenter asks
14:31Can you explain that [how your mother, who died giving birth to you, was a guiding light]?
Yes, because nobody ever really talked about my mother. She was a bit of a taboo subject at home, because I had a brother two years older than me who was idolized by that side of the family, my mother's side. And then my father married again, and I have a younger brother, John, who was two years younger. So I was right in the middle... And there were times when I felt almost like a lodger in my own house, you know, and you know the feeling you get when you say somebody's walked over my grave? I used to get that feeling. And not long after that I would write something good, or I would write something I was pleased with, or something. But I always had that little shiver before it happened, and I used to wait for it happening. And then the the the the the thoughts would come into my head.
Presenter asks
22:03Why was that [that you were a bit apart as a father of young children]?
Uh well, I'd always been a loner and uh I had my work to do. I was very busy then, I was one of the busiest uh writers because I was one of the first writers. And so the children came, they were all like little miracles in themselves, each one, and uh but I I I almost didn't know how to approach them because they were so wonderful.
Presenter asks
25:36Do you feel resentful? Do you think you have more than your fair share of disabilities?
Oh, I don't. I always think it's it's there to test me. It's uh, you know, can he get over this one? Well, I I figure out now I can get over everything except death. And uh, you know, I I'll I'll have a serious goal at that.
“I lived in my head, I lived in dreams, I lived in an abstract world.”
“I put it down to my mother. I put it down to a miracle. I put it down to there are more things in heaven and earth than I dreamt of syndrome.”
“We're all a bit silly at one time or another in our lives, aren't we? ... Right, next time you're silly, make sure you're well paid for it.”
“The sun is always shining and there's a pot of gold just round the corner. That's what it's all based on. And wouldn't it be nice if the world was like that?”