Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Actress.
On the island
Eight records
Sir John Barbirolli conducting the Hallé Orchestra
It's because the first time I heard it when I was a girl. It made an extraordinary impression on me. I was a teenager. There was a strange painting on my bedroom wall ... and this picture reminded me a little bit of that too. Of the music. They tied up together. I used to dream a lot to that piece of music.
Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68 'Pastoral'Favourite
Otto Klemperer conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra
It took me a long time to choose between the fifth and the sixth. They were the first I heard when we were taken out to hear our concerts in Lincolnshire, in Leeds actually. But I would rather have the sixth to live with for a long time.
Anatole Fistoulari conducting the Royal Opera House Orchestra
He is a friend, and he'll be very cross that I don't choose something weightier. and his later work, but I have a special sort of feeling about facade. And I'd rather have it without. The speaking, because I shall do the speaking to it myself on the island. I'd like the orchestral.
It's very good to move from Robert Morley to Peter Sellars, because my next one is a little bit of light comic relief from Peter Sellars. It's also rather indicative of an attitude at the royal court at that time.
It was the play in which we met. B It was a great part for him. Indeed. Uh He himself adored it. Dynan said Osborne had written one of the greatest parts of this century. I believe it was too. And um I know it may seem wrong to choose that instead of Henry the Fifth, but it does have a particular special appeal for me.
I wanted to choose a a modern musical and the one That made the deepest impression on me was Westside Story. It was on when I first went to America. to play on Broadway, and that was an exciting time, and the musical, I'm afraid, was the version of Romeo and Juliet that made me cry the most.
I have got a very Great liking for the soundtrack music of The Graduate, the film The Graduate by Simon and Garfunkel, and it's the sort of record I can put on. when people are coming in to dinner or I can sit and read with All Write while it's on. I just love it.
Carmen Suite No. 2: Danse Bohème
Leonard Bernstein conducting the New York Philharmonic Orchestra
My last one is uh to do with something we talked about earlier, actually, because it's the dance I did in Roots. The scene in Roots where Beattie is trying to explain the value of classical music to her mother, or the better things in life. And she plays This record, Bise, and dances finally to it. Now, I haven't actually chosen that particular dance because. I'm also very fond of The music of Carmen. And I love the opera. So instead of the Alisienne, which was the dance and roots, I've chosen the dance poem the end of the common suite.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:52How much does music mean in your life?
It's meant a great deal in my life ever since uh I was a child. The house was always full of music. My parents were both very fond of music, though they couldn't play.
Presenter asks
5:30When did you decide you had to be an actress?
I can't remember when. I mean, it's been as long as I've ever known. That I've Loved it. wanted to do it, possibly because my mother did. I used to from being a ... baby I watched my mother in the Amateur Dramatic Society.
Presenter asks
14:39Were you an angry young woman when you went to work with the angry young men [at the Royal Court]?
No, I was not really an angry young woman. I probably became one, mixing with them all. ... It was a link from my training, my student days, with George Devine.
Presenter asks
16:39The keepsakes
The book
Point Counter Point, Crome Yellow and After Many a Summer Dies the Swan
Aldous Huxley
Well, I would like to take all the works of Aldous Huxley.
The luxury
Well, the luxury would be the piano. Then I can play those carols that I haven't been able to include in the programme.
Was it in [The Entertainer] that you met the man who was to become your present husband, Laurence Olivier?
Yes, indeed it was. I was playing in the country wife when he was going to do it. He came to see that. And George s suggested that I should do it.
Presenter asks
23:05You've just had the experience of being in a West End flop [Enjoy]. Has that shaken you very much?
No, it's quite wrong to say Mantakri has been associated with successes. I used to do lots of very avant garde plays at the Royal Court, where people upped their seats and left the theatre ... As actors we don't mind that, you see. To us it's an experience to get an exhilarating original script which is fascinating to work on.
Presenter asks
25:40Why did you turn down a seven-year film contract in the fifties?
My agent was also very clever, I think, saying You start off in films like that, you will Most likely be typecast, as that. In the theatre you need not be typecast. There is that willing suspension of disbelief. You can play many, many things on stage and across the footlights to an audience that you cannot play on the screen. You can impersonate on the stage, you have to just exist on the screen.
“Every night when you go on, step on to a stage. There will be a certain percentage in the audience who do not go for your chemistry. He said, If they don't go for your chemistry, make sure they admire your skill.”
“In the theatre you need not be typecast. There is that willing suspension of disbelief. You can play many, many things on stage and across the footlights to an audience that you cannot play on the screen. You can impersonate on the stage, you have to just exist on the screen.”
“I can't think of anything that would make me completely self-sufficient on an island I should have to trust in my wit.”