Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
An actor best known for playing Jack Regan in The Sweeney and Inspector Morse.
On the island
Eight records
Symphony No. 5 in E flat major
I conduct the last bit of it when I'm on my own.
In questa Reggia (from Turandot)
I just sat transfixed by this piece, just the power of it and and her wonderful voice and presence.
Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85
I love dearly, and I would have to have Elgar with me on that island. And what better than uh Jacqueline Dupre as well, a supreme musician.
Quintet in C major, Op. 163 (D. 956) – Adagio
Isaac Stern, Alexander Schneider, Milton Katims, Pablo Casals, Paul Tortelier
Tommy Courtenay got me on to Schubert, and as it were, I took over from him. But this I love, and it's got [Pablo Casals] playing cello, who I love dearly. I love the cello. And I don't think there's possibly not a nicer piece of music I know.
I'd like to take to my island my my dear wife. Sheila Hancock doing Little Girls from Annie, which was a musical a few years back and which I love. I loved the musical. I I used to be in tears every time I saw it. And I thought Sheila was brilliant.
I went and I was totally knocked out by it. It was a lovely evening.
Beim Schlafengehen (from Four Last Songs)
She and I have a joke that uh if I ever fell in love with another lady would have to be [Elisabeth Schwarzkopf]. She's the only threat to to Sheila that I know.
Erbarme dich, mein Gott (from St Matthew Passion)Favourite
I think it's a great piece of music. And it makes you cry.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:23Do you have a preference for one of those characters over the other?
Well, at this stage of my life, most certainly Morse, because it's less energetic than doing a steely Jack Regan, you know.
Presenter asks
2:22What about your own love of classical music? Where and when did that begin?
That began when I was at Rada. I was a great friend and indeed later shared a flat with [Tom Courtenay]. We were doing Goethe's Faust. Tom was playing Faust, I was playing Mephistopheles. … And Tom said, Why don't you listen to this? and he put on [Sibelius's] first symphony. … And I thought a lot of nonsense. Anyway, I sat down and Tom put this record on. And it I was just transfixed. It all [slotted] into place. … No. I mean, I was of an age where you listen to family favourites and you might hear a bit of Enigma variations or something or or [Kathleen Ferrier], but no, it didn't mean anything until that point and it it was almost it just changed my life that day, really.
Presenter asks
9:12Your mother left home when you were quite small, didn't she?
Yeah, she did. Yeah. She never came back. No, she didn't well, she came back once once or twice and left again, so I don't count those times.
The keepsakes
The book
Kenneth Grahame
The very first book I ever remember hearing being read to on radio was The Wind in the Willows, and I've read it to my daughters over the years, and I've even picked it up and looked at it myself when I haven't had to read it. And I think it's a charming, lovely book, and I would love to look to take that with me.
Presenter asks
10:24Do you think of your childhood as being tough or deprived, or do you regret it?
No, I don't, because what we did have was a lot of love from my father and people like the Bells and my dad's family. So we felt wanted and loved, which I think is the most important thing. And I know that there were people with whole families, for want of a better word, who were far unhappier than I was.
Presenter asks
19:37Did you blame yourself at all? Did you feel that you were less than supportive in that situation?
Well, uh don't forget, uh doing doing Morse where I wo and I I was doing Morse at that time. Well, you work long hours, they're not regular hours by any means. And then one has to do a certain amount of work when you get home for the next day. Of course I wasn't as supportive as uh as I would have liked to have been, but uh that was the situation at that time. Therefore the for Sheila the only answer was to to be on her own and and sort it out herself, you know.
Presenter asks
31:51What will you look back on as your best piece of professional work?
I think If I'm totally objective about it, it would have to be more s because it's a quality product. for want of a better word. And I acted. pretty well, and we get good scripts, and yet it is also very popular w with the public. So all those things coming together, I would I would say would give me the most pleasure.
“And it I was just transfixed. It all [slotted] into place.”
“I have always looked I was born old, I think, really, or born looking old.”
“I don't know what it means really, but uh yes, I've heard it. They might as well be talking about somebody else. I really don't know how it applies to me.”
“It's something, to be honest, I could do without. I could live very happily without it.”
“It would have to be the the Matthew Passion.”