Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Actor known for revue performances and directing the feature film 'What Happened at the Gables?'
On the island
Eight records
Venus, the Bringer of Peace (from The Planets)
Venus from the Planets by Holst, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Herbert von Karian.
Theme for Murder on the Orient Express
The Overture to the Film Murder on the Orient Express from the soundtrack.
Waltz in C-sharp minor, Op. 64 No. 2
Chopin's Waltz in C Sharp minor, played by Rubenstein, only the beginning of it, alas.
Adagio of SpartacusFavourite
The Adagio from Spartacus. Cacciodian, the composer, conducting the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.
Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra
On the Alamo, Tommy Dorsey and his orchestra.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:36As a consolation for being dumped on this island, what would you be happiest to have got away from?
Civilization, I think. All of it? Well, what is loosely known as civilization today. … I think for the first few days I would sit back and relish the solitude. … But initially I think I could relish getting away from it all, all the noise and the hustle and bustle and the pollution.
Presenter asks
1:04We often used to hear you sing in review. Does that mean you had a musical training?
I have none. … I did start to learn the piano once, but I found it too difficult to look at so many notes, you know, notes for eight fingers and two thumbs … I abandoned that in favour of the E-flat alto saxophone, where I only had to look at one note at a time.
Presenter asks
4:48What was your first professional appearance?
As a robot in a play called R-U-R, non-speaking role, at the People's Palace Mile End Road in Stepney.
The keepsakes
The book
Leo Tolstoy
I've been promising myself to read that for years and years and years. And uh now's my chance.
The luxury
I think the most practical thing that one could take really would be something with which to cut. ... A luxury, right? Paper and pen.
Presenter asks
6:45You were in the Royal Armoured Corps, Normandy landing, crossing of the Rhine. Any theatre work at all while you were in uniform?
We spent two very long years in a wood near Helmsley in Yorkshire, in a Nissan hutted camp. And Nigel Patrick was also one of the officers in the brigade. And we gave a performance of Springtime for Henry … in a newly built garrison theatre there.
Presenter asks
7:48Did you find things very tough after the war getting back [into acting] again?
Oh, yes, I had to start absolutely from scratch. I mean, what I had done before was a truncated course at RADA … Herbert Farjeon … died tragically … so I really had no connections at all.
Presenter asks
9:22What was your big break — the event that made things happen?
I think the Lyric Revue was the first thing that made it in 1951, Festival of Britain year. It was expected to run four weeks at Hammersmith on a shoestring. And we ran twenty weeks at Hammersmith and over a year in the West End. And it was followed by the Globe Revue. And that, I think, was the big one.
“I find that my taste in music has altered considerably as I've got older. And my present feeling about it, whereas way back I used to like a lot of vocal stuff, now I find I like to listen to music and I find the voice an intrusion.”
“I remember my father once saying to me, Don't you think it'd be more modest, Ian, if you called it Ian Carmichael's band? And I said, Under no circumstances, you have Lew Stone and his Band, Harry Roy and his Band, so it's got to be Ian Carmichael and his Band.”
“I wanted to become I wanted to play one part throughout the evening instead of eight, really. And I was running out of moustaches and ideas and it was a very wearing business revue. … It's exhausting when you're not on, you're doing quick changes and charging up and down stairs to your dressing room.”
“I always wanted to do The Whimsey. I it was my own idea. I was very anxious to play. I loved the character. And I the story really is that I touted it round many, many television stations and nobody wanted to do it. And it took about five or six years before eventually the BBC said go.”
“I'm terrified of water. … I'm hoping somebody will find me where I am. I'd be frightened stiff of drowning. I'm very frightened of water.”