Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Actress who plays Doris Archer in the long-running radio soap The Archers.
On the island
Eight records
Trumpet VoluntaryFavourite
Henry Purcell (often attributed to Jeremiah Clarke)
If I were thrown up onto a desert island, I'd be jolly glad to be alive, but I think I'd be a bit depressed all the same, and I'd love to have the trumpet voluntary to... fuck me up a bit.
I Know That My Redeemer Liveth
Her mother and I studied together at the Academy and we were great friends then, and I've known Elizabeth all her life.
Letter Duet (from The Marriage of Figaro, Act 3)
I'm choosing because I think it is most beautifully graceful singing and I think it is really a lovely thing, that letter duet.
The keepsakes
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:44How well do you think you could stand up to loneliness?
Well, I could stand up to it if I had records that reminded me of people that I'd known here at home.
Presenter asks
1:07What would you be happiest to have got away from?
Oh, the noise of the present day world, and especially pop music in lifts. That annoys me beyond words.
Presenter asks
1:19Was it hard to narrow your choice down to eight records?
Well, I think I could have done it easily with twelve records, but I it hasn't been too difficult to choose eight of them.
Presenter asks
4:17Was there a lot of theatre or music in your family?
Well, my father was a musician. Was he? And my mother also played the piano.
Well now this is very difficult because the Bible and Shakespeare would take up the whole of the time I had to read, I'm sure. So I've decided that I would like a cookery book with most delicious pictures of food. And then when I was eating the plant of that breadfruit tree, I'd have lovely thoughts of those luscious dishes. I'm very greedy, you know.
The luxury
Lots and lots of uh writing materials. Could you get them all into one thing so that I can write somebody's memoirs and my own as well.
Presenter asks
5:24Was work easy to find when you had graduated?
Oh, no, certainly not. When I'd been at the Academy for three years and I'd taken all the prizes and things that I could do, you know … I hoped that I would be able to sing, and when I went along to an agent, she said, Oh, come back when you're twenty eight. You'll be old enough then. You're too young to sing now. Well, I was twenty three, and I'd got to live until I was twenty eight.
Presenter asks
15:33Do you find many people believing that you are, indeed, Doris Archer?
Yes, I think the um the truth of the matter is that they're not sure and they really think I am a countrywoman and have all the characteristics and I think they very often make a mistake. … They feel that I would be a countrywoman. I suppose I'm very unsophisticated, let's say.
“I could stand up to it if I had records that reminded me of people that I'd known here at home.”
“I was actually called Margarita, you know, after Margarita in Faust. Because on the day I was born my father was playing in the orchestra for Faust.”
“I think that's what's kept us fresh all the time we've been doing it, is that the the script is a surprise to us as well as to the audience.”
“They have become my family. I really feel that they have become my family. And not just the characters of the programme, but the people, the technicians and the helpers in all ways from the BBC have really been marvellous to me.”
“I think it would have to be the trumpet voluntary because that would dispel any despair that I had or felt. And I really think it it's so lively, isn't it? It's so uplifting altogether.”