Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Actress.
On the island
Eight records
Claude Bolling and Jean-Pierre Rampal
I think one of the important things about music is is whatever it should delight in some way, and I find this a very delightful, light, enjoyable piece and quite simple.
It's Peggy Sue, which makes me laugh. And uh I really enjoy rock and roll and and Buddy Holly to me really is the beginning of of rock and roll and this song I particularly like, so.
Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68 'Pastoral'
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Herbert von Karajan
The third record is a piece of classical music that I really love. It reminds me very much of the English countryside. In fact, it's the pastoral Beethoven's sixth. Symphony. And there's a particular passage in it which is very grand and one of the things, again, with with music, it's l it's lovely to feel the grandeur of something and and to be moved in the way that Beethoven can move one.
Someone that I've always enjoyed all the way through my life in various stages. He seems to begin with to have been the sort of. revolutionary young figure or whatever. And I love listening to the words of his song. which often have wonderful poetry in them, even though sometimes the singing seems relentless in going through them, I must say it. Some of his songs I enjoy being sung by other people, but this one I love which he sang himself, and this is I Want You.
Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas TallisFavourite
Sinfonia of London conducted by Sir John Barbirolli
This is a piece of music that really brings Pictures into my mind. There are some pieces of classical music that one loves to listen to because you see vivid. Scenes, almost like films running before your eyes. And this is Vaughan Williams. Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tannis.
Jethro Tull, a group that I very much enjoy. particularly there's a piece that delights me, which is called Boure. And it's all it it basically guitar and Flute Flute seems to be a preoccupation with me all the way through the reflute instrument. It it seems much more emotional than other instruments because it's like the breath, it's almost like someone breathing. And uh As I say I love this piece called Burray because it's very delightful.
Someone who's a favourite of mine is Stevie Wonder, and there's a song on the Songs in the Key of Life album called As. Which is rather romantic and I like this one. I think I'd like to take it to the desert island.
The last one is a Beetle's number, actually Paul McCartney's Blackbird. which I love again. It reminds me of the countryside. I don't know why I keep on of English countryside. There's actually a blackbird singing through it, and it's a very pretty song.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:30How important is music in your life?
Very. I think one of the first things I do on arrival anywhere is to make sure that I have a fairly good sound system in the house, because I don't feel settled really without that. and then I carry around cassettes and things with me. I enjoy listening to it because I find it very relaxing.
Presenter asks
1:56Could you endure loneliness?
In my imagination very easily. Yes, I enjoy being on my own.
Presenter asks
3:44Did you and the rest of the family go with [your father on his tours]?
When we were in Cyprus we used to see the shows there, but no, we didn't travel because they only have a short tours and things, so we didn't um go to the shows later on. But in Cyprus I do remember them coming out and we'd go and see them at various army bases. … The shows were were great to watch and uh even though they were often done in army tents and … Odd locations. … It's somewhat different in a way really than obviously the theatre I'm involved in, but it must have given me a taste for some sort of public life, just enjoying these uh figures that that came out.
The keepsakes
The book
The Oxford Book of Modern Verse
W. B. Yeats
I love poetry and I also think that many more images are packed into poetry. And with a collection of verse like that, you've got all sorts of different writers, T. S. Eliot, who I love, and many other people.
The luxury
It actually has a practical use, but it also delights one, which is that it will Do up any cave that one finds, or hang in the branches, and I can enjoy looking at it.
Presenter asks
5:51How did you get into films [at ballet school]?
What happened was that um Walt Disney was making a film about the Royal Danish Ballet. and he auditioned girls from various ballet schools. and I was auditioned. And then I was asked if I would screen test, and the school sent a telegram to my parents saying, Do you mind if she screen tests? Don't worry, not Nordic type. … And I actually got that role, but it was two months before I heard anything back from the Disney studios about it. … But whilst I was going up for the part, I was then seen by an agent who handled Anthony Quayle. And Anthony Quayle was making this film called East of Sudan, and they were looking for a young girl to play an Arab. … Audition for that was going and meeting these people and being picked up, and I was found to be the right weight and cast.
Presenter asks
10:24Were you allowed then to go back and finish your education in peace at school?
Well, neither of those two films really interfered very much with my education, which is why I was really allowed to do them. And also it was sort of early on, so it didn't matter. But yes, I went back to school and did films off and on, providing it was always the provisor was that it wasn't going to take too much time away. If I was away from school it would be for three weeks at a time, and then I would have to have a tutor during that time.
Presenter asks
23:20Did you have to learn to sign [for the film Amy]?
I did, yes, but it was more really to understand what was going on with the children, because if you didn't, they were very sort of cheeky and were constantly um sending people up, rotten. … And just because they couldn't hear what was going on didn't mean they were totally they were totally aware of everything that was happening around them and they could lip-read it very well, a lot of them. And um would then sign to one another extremely rude things.
“I went back from Cyprus to a ballet school and I enjoyed dancing. But, you know, it's obviously something extrovert and and it was. stage and I probably was somewhat stage struck. in a very childish way. But in fact it wasn't really what started me in film. I I got into film quite by chance.”
“I think [The Railway Children] is a very special film. I think it's a really wonderful film. And it captures something extraordinary. It captures. that innocence it's like the end of a summer, it's like the you know, the it's the adolescence or whatever. It's the end of childhood.”
“I had one of my first experiences of really Losing concentration and drying on stage, which is when your mind goes completely blank and you don't know what you're doing. I remember looking at the audience and wondering why they were watching me. And then thinking, Oh no, I have to say something, and wondering what it was, and then finally the line came. But the performance was completely frozen, as was my face and my body and everything. I couldn't really do it.”