Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Children's illustrator and author, best known for We're Going on a Bear Hunt and creating board books for babies.
On the island
Eight records
Original Broadway Cast of West Side Story
Leonard Bernstein (music), Stephen Sondheim (lyrics)
GUEST: "I loved musicals as a teenager and longed to do tap dancing... Westside's story absolutely took musicals to another level."
I Feel So Wonderful (Mir ist so wunderbar)
Lisa Milne, Anya Kampe, Andrew Kennedy, Brindley Sherratt, London Philharmonic Orchestra
GUEST: "Sebastian Walker was a dear friend of ours and he started Walker Books and he used to invite John and I to Glyndebourne to the opera... We went to see Fidelio." (followed by anecdote about a sneeze/fart)
GUEST: "In our house in Felixstowe, We had a a wind-up gramophone... The one that my brother and I played and played... It's called Tubby the Tuber by Danny Kay. And we loved it."
GUEST: "While I was in Israel, I stayed in a flat and I was introduced to the music of Errol Garner. I was absolutely enthralled with it. I thought it was the best thing ever."
Life in a Scotch Sitting Room, Volume 2, Episode 1
GUEST: "He was definitely a one-off, Ivor Cutler was... And he used to come round always on New Year's Eve. But instead of celebrating New Year's Eve at midnight with us, he would insist on going at ten to twelve."
Impromptu No. 3 in G-flat major, D. 899
GUEST: "Oh, it's just so lovely. And I used to come back from work and open the front door, and more often than not John would have some sort of piano music playing down in his studio. It was just lovely to open the door and hear it."
GUEST: "The musical that I really loved and influenced me enormously was Singing in the Rain. And I've seen every one of Gene Kelly's and Fred Astaire's musicals many, many times over."
Je crois entendre encore (from The Pearl Fishers)Favourite
GUEST: "John and I bought a a house in France... John collected seventy-eights and um... I used to work on the balcony and listen to this horn grammophone. The sound was extraordinary."
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:16How much of yourself ends up in the illustrations you create?
Uh, well, I doubt about myself, but certainly my family, my children. And um friends' children. I think I think it's inevitable that you're influenced by your children and the way they look. I could stare at them for hours. They're so lovely, and so sort of innocent and hopeless... charming.
Presenter asks
5:09You once said the great challenge of illustration is how to convey emotion economically. So, how do you deal with the complexity of human emotion in just a few lines? Where do you start?
I thi I think I can sort of understand little children. Uh a bit. I know what they're going through, either shyness or bullying or, I don't know, happiness and all those things. And it's just the the the the gestures they make. When they are expressing these, they may not be able to do it with words, you see. Yes. So it is their um body language, I suppose.
Presenter asks
6:38When you arrived on the publishing scene in the 60s, publishers were just beginning to grasp the potential of illustrated books for children... What was it like to be part of that? It must have been an exciting time.
The keepsakes
The book
The Empire Trilogy (Troubles, The Siege of Krishnapur, The Singapore Grip)
J. G. Farrell
I read J. G. Farrell some time ago. I think they have brought out a trilogy, three of his books, and it's sort of about the downfall of the British Empire.
The luxury
If possible, I'd love to take an unlimited supply of white, crisp linen sheets. ... Just a slip in between linen sheets, it would be lovely.
It was getting over the war years, wasn't it? It was a sort of a like a a new a new beginning. Did you discuss art and ideas? I mean, what we used to discuss mostly, if if we discussed it at all, was about was publishers and editors and and art. And we used to we used to tear them to shreds. But, um We didn't sort of talk about art particularly. I think um It's a very personal thing and you can't really talk about it. I didn't want to talk about it anyway.
Presenter asks
9:38You were born in Ipswich... You suffered from asthma and were confined to bed quite a lot. That must have been difficult for you.
Well I didn't sort of know anything else, but my... I was supplied with a lot of paper and pencils and marbles and all sorts of things to play with in bed. So I did a lot of drawing then.
Presenter asks
10:44I know that your mother Muriel was a huge influence on you. Tell me a little bit about your relationship.
Yes, she was. I mean I again you have to remember the the um when it was and fathers sort of didn't really play much part in in my life. My father didn't. He he was a jolly good father. He was always there, kind, gentleman. Um he was absolutely so involved with his work, though. But um my mother was the main influence. She enjoyed us without being too possessive. She let us run free.
Presenter asks
14:00I know that you had a happy primary school experience, but you didn't enjoy secondary school as much. Why not?
I think I just had such a great time at home. I mean, I wasn't I wasn't s sitting and watching television. I I was doing things all the time. And um it was much more interesting and inspiring than than school for me. I mean, I didn't like it, and I don't think it liked me. The art teacher said she thought I should go to art school, but I think it was because there was absolutely no hope about anything else. It was art or nothing.
“I could stare at them for hours. They're so lovely, and so sort of innocent and hopeless, and charming.”
“I think I can sort of understand little children. Uh a bit. I know what they're going through, either shyness or bullying or, I don't know, happiness and all those things. And it's just the the the the gestures they make.”
“I really need somebody who'll come and snatch it away because I often go on and on and and ruin it and have to start again.”
“There's something about that landscape. Now it sort of got under my skin and when I go there now, and I do because I've got a we've got a boathouse there, it's absolute I sort of could feel I can breathe again and looking out to sea and those skies.”
“I'm so critical that I could almost say, oh. I just can't do this any more. I I'm never I'm n honestly never really happy when I've done something. I've never quite got what I've imagined in my head.”