Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Actor who became a cinematic symbol of a certain type of Englishman after roles in 'Four Weddings and a Funeral'.
On the island
Eight records
from The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies
The Reel of the 51st Highland Division
invented by his grandfather in a POW camp
Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves (Va, pensiero) from Nabucco
conducted by Lamberto Gardelli
We're Called Gondolieri (from The Gondoliers)
Richard Lewis and John Cameron
Arthur Sullivan / W.S. Gilbert
from his Nottingham Playhouse days performing the operetta
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:05Are you happy with that kind of description — a cinematic symbol of a certain type of Englishman, a curious cross between Tigger and Lord Byron?
Yeah, uh tigger certainly. Um the um quintessential Englishman is slightly annoying. I'm not going to get annoyed, but it's just it's slightly annoying because uh I like to think that my uh range is sensationally wide and um I'm extraordinarily versatile.
Presenter asks
6:49What did the boys think of you at school?
Well, I I think I think I mean I think I had friends. They slightly despised me for for being a bit small, I think. And I think I went through one or two rather posy phases. I certainly had a communist phase, which was deeply embarrassing to everyone concerned. But I I think on the whole I had friends and I and I had an extraordinarily nice time and perhaps it's uh uncool but a a lot of my best friends are still my friends from from Latimer.
Presenter asks
11:39Why is your favorite game to do yourself down? Self-deprecation is kind of your style, isn't it?
Well, I don't know. I mean, it's very difficult when you know when when you're doing interviews, what are you supposed to say, you know? Um it's very difficult to uh blow your own trumpet. I'm not saying I'm a naturally modest person, it's but it it's just a good uh interview gambit, I think.
The keepsakes
The book
I'm gonna have to go for King [Ottokar's] Scepter, which is my favourite [Tintin] book.
The luxury
I have a terrible nose-blowing problem, and especially when I wake up. I think it would just be so miserable to have a runny nose and nothing to blow it on, apart from leaves.
Presenter asks
19:40Where does the acting end and reality begin? Are you these people [the characters you play] or is part of you these people?
I mean, because there was something like uh seven years between those two parts and in between there were an awful lot of other things, you know, not at all sort of um upper class or quintessentially English or or particularly charming. And um so I think th that's to answer that bit. And I d uh as far as am I like that, um, yes, up to a point, but I think there's also a sort of darker side and um sort of perhaps colder side.
Presenter asks
20:42What form does the darker side take, then?
Uh just I'm pretty irritable and I can um if I think people are being dim, um I'm quite ready to put them down.
Presenter asks
29:28You made a very enigmatic remark recently. You said 'I have a few more cards to play than people think.' What did you mean by that?
Um I don't know. I I can't remember making it, but uh uh perhaps sometimes uh I'm a little you know I f or I feel a little patronized, you know, people think I'm just sort of a fluffy, charming, fluffy haired hugh. And uh I I I you know, I like to think there's a bit more to me than that.
“the theatrical [Hollywood] agents um are very good at making me almost giggle when they mention figures now.”
“I did actually have a one percent of the net profits, but uh I I'm no accountant. I mean the film was made for five million dollars and has since then made nearly three hundred million, but I'm told by the uh the backers that we haven't actually made a profit yet.”
“I do remember that, you know, at the end of a days writing commercials for Red Striped Lager or Dog Food, I somehow felt a bit more of a man than at the end of a days filming on even a big Hollywood film.”
“I think I'm quite kind actually, but um uh it's the maybe the suffering fools is true.”
“at this precise moment if I was getting on the boat, it would be nothing but complete and utter pleasure. You know, I I can't think of anything I'd I'd like to do more. As long as I had some sun cream, I think I'd be the happiest man alive.”