Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
An entertainer who brought camp to mainstream TV, known for Channel 4's 'Sticky Moments', drag artistry, and reaching the Strictly Come Dancing final.
On the island
Eight records
Big Fat Mamas Are Back in Style Again
This is a song that I play a lot and it's um as I think I'm right in saying the the song they used to play in the in the old Bordellos, uh while the if the ladies were all occupied to keep the the gentlemen busy while they were waiting their turn to go upstairs for a good seeing to, they'd they'd play something like this on the piano to get them in the mood.
Aretha Franklin of Course Can Do No Wrong, and that's not the name of the song, but Aretha Franklin Can Do No Wrong, and I've been listening to her forever. And this is from I think it was her last album, or the one before last. It's the title track called So Damn Happy.
Oh, this is Mark Bolan, the aforementioned lovely Mark Bolan. I play this nearly every morning, um, either this or yodeling. This is what wakes me up and puts me in a good mood for the day.
I'm a huge fan of Mary Schneider and yodeling in general. It it makes me laugh and it's it's much cleverer than you might think. Here she is yodling uh the William Tell overture.
I got a pianist, Russell, and I got a a backing singer, Barb Younger, to carry the tune. And Barb is a very dear friend and a very wonderful singer, and here is Barb's version of Peace in the Valley.
Ah, this is a very dreamy song produced by Andrew Thomas Wilson, and uh if I were on a desert island this is probably how I'd pass the time just staring out at the horizon, listening to an alternative rendition of Ness and Dorma.
I was in the Boy George musical Taboo for a while, playing the part of Lee Barry, and without giving the plot away I had to die on a nightly basis and I would lay on my death bed a very sort of sad part of the show and uh Gail McKinnon would sing this song, this beautiful song, Ila Dor.
Guru Nanaka Jiki JaikaFavourite
I was imagining being on this desert island and needing to keep my spirits up really, and th this is a devotional Indian song that you might hear in in any temple if you went there.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:03I can't believe, Julian, that you could do without an audience. I mean, it's what you do, isn't it?
I quite like it, but I I think when I said that I was responding to um someone else who'd said that, you know, they could absolutely wither and die if they if they didn't appear on stage, that it was the meaning of life to them. It's not the most important thing in my life, you know, I I would get by.
Presenter asks
1:46What used to be important was shocking people, but you're not so shocking now. Now we've moved into mainstream, as it were, huh?
No, I'm not so bothered about that. I mean, things evolved. You kind of grow out of it. I mean, I n I never set out to shock at all. I I wasn't shocking to myself.
Presenter asks
9:10When did it all go horribly wrong [at school] and how?
I was suddenly disillusioned by... this favourite monk of mine, because he he he used to beat naughty boys... I one day forgot my swimming things... he beat me very hard um with his strap and uh I was terribly shocked by the the violence of it really and and The humiliation and the transformation of of this rather holy man into into something strap wielding.
The keepsakes
The book
Richard Carlson
it's all about my mental health, using my mental well-being. A book I'm always banging on about, but it's Stop Thinking and Start Living by Richard Carlson. And it's ... if I'm seriously stuck on an island by myself, I'll need to look after myself and this is this is stops you thinking negatively.
The luxury
A prosthetic arm with multipurpose tool
I did a show recently and the soundman had a prosthetic arm and and and instead of a hand he had this sort of multipurpose tool thing which I thought would be very useful for cracking open shell fish and um things to do with trees that you might want to do. Peeling the bark off. Building things and it would glint in the sunshine if a passing ship might come and rescue me.
Presenter asks
17:22How does what you did then differ from, let's say, Larry Grayson before you, who was also obviously gay and could be outrageous, or Kenneth Williams, or what was different about your act?
Well, I just transferred my my comedy club act to television, I didn't I didn't think, Oh, I better toned this down or anything. I suppose what had changed is that I was allowed to be an out gay man and Larry Grayson wasn't, you know.
Presenter asks
24:01I read somewhere that you did contemplate suicide, is that right?
Oh, yes, I did, but um, you know, I didn't follow through... I'm very fickle, you know, and I th I think depression doesn't last very long. I get very depressed for sort of 20 minutes, and then I think, oh, I've over that now, I feel fine.
“I wanted yes, I wanted to demystify gay sex and and be very specific.”
“I am the product of a probation officer and a policeman, um, which is s sounds very staid and um it was very proper, very moral upbringing, but um they did have a laugh.”
“I'm not really. I'm quite introverted. I mean, I if if I'm on stage and I'm being paid to be uh, you know, an exhibitionist, as you call it, then that's that's fine. But I'm lo most comedians are actually qu quite uh introspective and um Busy observing people.”