Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Actor, known for Thoroughly Modern Millie and The Miniver Story, and for being one of the acting Fox brothers.
On the island
Eight records
Jelly Roll Morton and his Red Hot Peppers
Well, in the nineteen fifties there was a revival of traditional jazz, and it was the time when I was young. growing up, and this was the first musical influence I would say which had a real influence in my life.
Nocturne No. 3 in B major, Op. 9 No. 3
It's connected with Harrow, really. I met a at Harrow, one of the senior masters, who was called mister EV C. Plumtree, who was a a musician himself. And he introduced me really.
Well, it's irresistible. I mean, it's one of the great stories, I think, and wonderfully told.
And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going
Dream Girls is a Broadway musical based loosely on the singing group The Supremes and how they rose to success in the 1960s. It's a backstage story. And uh it would remind me on the desert island of everything to do with show business.
Well, next I would like to take with me the Birds recording of Mr. Tambourine Man, because Bob Dylan was the A favorite recording artist of the sixties in California when I was working, and in fact, he influenced me tremendously.
reminds me of my days in the north of England, and in Sheffield particularly, a little village near it, called Ootybridge, where I lived for a couple of years with a family, and its the Bolsterstone Male Voice Choir.
Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68 ('Pastoral')
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Karl Böhm
Well, to me it's the Greatest piece of classical music ever written, if you have to. Make A dogmatic statement like that.
I Believe in YouFavourite
Well, I mentioned earlier I think that of all living artists Bob Dylan's my favorite, and of course he's gone through a a pilgrimage himself, coming to faith in Christ, which he has. And this was his first album as a as a believer, and on it there's this terribly moving track.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:34How well do you think you could endure loneliness for quite a long time?
Well, I quite enjoy being alone. And Although I think it'd be a bit rash to say I would enjoy enduring loneliness. I don't think that I would be too upset at the thought, because I don't mind my own company and I think I should en enjoy that.
Presenter asks
3:54How far back does the theatre tradition go [in your family]?
Well, it certainly goes back beyond my parents. But going back to them, my mother was an actress, and my father was a theatrical agent. My mother's father was a writer, Freddie Lonsdale... My father's mother was an actress Hilda Hanbury. And my father's grandfather was a patron of the arts...
Presenter asks
5:09There's a story about your father taking you on to a film set when you were [nine or ten]... [how did you get the part in The Miniver Story]?
We went on the set and we met Hank Potter, who was the director... And they were looking for a boy to play the part of Toby... Edward was first of all asked if he'd like to test for the part, and he got very shy and didn't want to do it, and then they asked me, and I said yes. I didn't hesitate at all. So I did test with Greg Arsen that that afternoon and I got the part.
The keepsakes
The luxury
a drawing pad and some watercolours
Well, I would like to take a drawing pad and some watercolours, because I should like to paint. I've often got started and tried and done bits and pieces, but I should have the leisure time. And I should enjoy just trying to develop creatively as a painter.
Presenter asks
12:56What brought you back to the theatre [after your time in advertising]?
It was really. I was going out with my girlfriend at the time, was Sarah Miles, and... that brought me back in touch again with the whole student crowd... And it was through the offer of a job by Tony Richardson in a film called The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner... He had a small part for a public schoolboy runner... and offered me four days' work for £120. And I had to weigh up whether I was going to leave my advertising firm... and I didn't have any difficulty deciding what I was going to do.
Presenter asks
27:48Why did you change your mind and come back to your first vocation [acting, after ten years away]?
After six years in um student Christian work, I had to decide is my calling to go on as a Christian worker... or are there other avenues that I should go down. And of course, having been trained and brought up in the theatre, this was the obvious choice... I recognised it was something I enjoyed and something I was good at. and I thought that by that time, too, I had resolved some of the difficulties about being a Christian and being an actor, and the timing seemed right.
“In Thoroughly Modern Millie, the film I made with Julie Andrews, I sang, but then I was cut out. I thought it was an awful shame, because um I practised with a disc. It was terribly off putting really.”
“I unexpectedly met someone who was a committed Christian, a real Christian, and he asked me if I'd be interested in discussing and discovering what a real Christian is... and I was most interested and made many spiritual discoveries at that time in Blackpool of all places.”
“I thought God wanted me to devote time, if you like, to to my Christianity time which I couldn't share with the theatre being an an evening activity and requiring so much of my time at that period of my life.”