Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Principal comedian with the Doily Cart Opera Company.
On the island
Eight records
Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18Favourite
Vladimir Ashkenazy with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra
The closing passage of the Rachmaninoff Second Piano Concerto
Traditional / Friedrich von Flotow (arr.)
Ada Althorpe The Last Rose of Summer
Philadelphia Orchestra Strings, Eugene Ormandy
Samuel Barber's a Dachio for strings, played by the strings of the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormondy
Charles Mackerras, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
The opening of the Pineapple Pal Ballet Suite, Charles McKeires conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Little Cloud (from La Vie Parisienne)
Cynthia Moray and Eric Schilling with the Sadler's Wells Opera Company
Cynthia Moray and Eric Schilling in the song from Offenbach's La Pie Parisienne
David Rose and his orchestra the stripper
The Impossible Dream (The Quest)
Richard Kiley and Irving Jacobson
Richard Kiley and Irving Jacobson in the New York production of Man of La Mancha
Stelios Zafiru and his Bouzoukia
Come Dance the Sertake played by Stelios Zafiru and his Buzukia
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:33John, how well do you think you could endure loneliness?
I could endure it. I I wouldn't like it, I don't think.
Presenter asks
4:06What was your ambition as a child? What did you want to do?
The only sort of thing I could do well, I think, was paint or anything on the artistic side. I wanted to be a a commercial artist. I remember my mother taking me down and they said, Yes, they would take us, all right, you see, but uh of course when I came out there wouldn't be any work there, so that was squashed.
Presenter asks
5:01And when did the theatre come into your life?
The theatre didn't come into my life until after the war, or or or the tail end of the war actually. And that happened because um [when] I got home as a a girlfriend I knew … She was going along to a play reading, and I went along as a sort of a spectator, and they asked me to read in for this part. From that, I got the lead in this sort of semi-professional company. And I played the part, and from then on, it went.
The keepsakes
The book
a large book on do-it-yourself
(do-it-yourself manual)
I don't think I read very many books twice. I would get bored. I think I would like a large book on do it yourself.
The luxury
Canvases, oil paints, and brushes
Lots and lots of canvases and lots and lots of oil paints and loads of brushes. I go through those very fast.
Presenter asks
You're successor to a long tradition in Gilbert and Sullivan. How much originality can you bring to it?
I think quite a lot actually. I think you do it rather slyly, but I think I think you can do it quite a lot. I think uh one slips things in here and there, you know, and then suddenly it it's it's accepted as tradition.
Presenter asks
10:06Hotels are terribly expensive and digs are practically non-existent. How do you manage touring now?
While it [is difficult] … Of course, the old days, you know, there were wonderful old days with the old landladies. I mean, I could write a book about that. … they were such characters, you know. … now I I do have a caravan. There are about twelve of us in the company have caravans, as a matter of fact, simply because this is the easier way. It's like taking a little bit of your home with you.
Presenter asks
14:04What are your personal plans? Are you going to stay with the D'Oyly Carte?
Oh yes, I'm going to stay with them, I think. I've been very, very happy with them for twenty-one years now. You don't get a feeling somehow that you're you're buried and and you're forgotten by large sections of the theatre. … Oh, I think large sections of the theatre don't know anything about me at all. I'm quite sure of that. I think I'm only known to my Gilbert and Sullivan fan.
“Oh, but definitely. I've got so much to remember, you know, at my age.”
“I'll arrange an audition for you. They're looking for an understudy for Peter Pratt, who was playing the principal roles in those days. And I learnt the Nightmare song and went up to Glasgow for my first audition. And they said, thank you very much. We'll let you know. I thought, well, that's that. It was only an experiment anyway.”
“I don't know Gilbert and Sullivan. He said, Well, we prefer that. He said we can we can sort of start you off the way we mean you to go.”
“This is my mood music. This is what I would sit a long time and think about and remember by.”
“But painting I will never ever perfect.”