Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Actor known for a successful play, a repeated television series, and a film on release.
On the island
Eight records
Benny Goodman and His Orchestra
I chose this because I mentioned nostalgia. It has great memories of my youth, and I think it's such a a witty number and a very, very reverend sort of comment on the Master himself.
Serenade No. 13 in G major, K. 525, "Eine kleine Nachtmusik": I. Allegro
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Herbert von Karajan
the proper title is a serenade thirteen in G major, but it's known to everybody and certainly to me in my youth as Eine Kleinen Nachtmusik.
When I first became aw aware of of Schwarzkopf, I don't think I had ever heard or ever hoped to hear a voice as so clear, so limpid, is that the word? Beautifully uh simple and uh such amazing technical control.
Cantata No. 208, "Was mir behagt, ist nur die muntre Jagd!": Sheep May Safely Graze
Cyril Smith and Phyllis Sellick
I think on a desert island you would want a bit of solace from time to time, and I think this would probably give it to you. Something pastoral.
Live at the Metropolitan, Edgware RoadFavourite
Miller was probably the most extraordinary uh musical comedian. What a extraordinary personality.
here we hear a razor-sharp voice of Robert Preston in a musical which had an enormous success many years ago, The Music Man.
Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67: I. Allegro con brio
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt
It's a very well-known piece, but great writing of course. Extraordinary stuff.
I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face
the demon Rex Harrison has made me cry every time he has turned at the point where he says I've grown accustomed to her face and just about to put the key in the door. And I think it's there in Robert Preston, this extraordinary economy and style and wit, but I think this is it at its perfection.
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:53What were your best subjects at school?
Languages. I was quite good at French and German. In fact, I intended to take a French and German degree. And in those days, the height of one's ambition was to go back to another secondary school and teach French and German as one was being taught oneself. And in fact, that's what my mother intended me to do, and I did myself. But my father was killed in an air raid in Liverpool in 1942, so my mother was on her own, so he really couldn't afford for me not only to be not earning money but actually requiring extra to eke out the grant I would have got. So I looked for a job and I went to work for an insurance company in Liverpool
Presenter asks
6:27How did your interest in amateur theatricals come about?
principally because of a girlfriend. Uh it was a girl I I went out with quite a bit at the time and she belonged to an amateur group in Liverpool and I used to wait outside the church hall where she rehearsed. And uh one particular night it was probably a bit cold or something, I was a bit fed up, so I went inside and watched from the back. And when she finished I passed some comment to the effect that if I couldn't do better than that I'd give up. And she challenged me. ... she challenged me to do better and I joined uh that society.
Presenter asks
7:23Was it playing any particular part that made you decide that you were going to do this professionally?
The keepsakes
The book
The Little Nugget / Sam the Sudden / The Girl on the Boat
P. G. Wodehouse
No hesitation. What I was reading when I was twelve and I should have been reading school books.
The luxury
A case of white wine (preferably Meursault)
apart from my squash activities, I am very keen on uh on drinking, particularly particularly wine.
No. I can't remember in my amateur days any particular part. But all I n remember was that Everybody obviously thought I was quite good. And I realized that I was quite good myself, amongst amateurs that is. Consequently, I decided to write around in 1954 to various repertory companies and try and get a job.
Presenter asks
15:11Did you find it very daunting to hold the stage on your own for two hours [in the one-man show]?
Oh, well what I found about it I didn't realize until I'd done it a couple of nights is nobody go and have a drink with us afterwards, which is dreadful. I mean, you only realize then how much the uh social life in the theatre means to you when it's not there.
Presenter asks
20:45How early in your career did television impinge?
When I was working for Reggie's cousin at Wolverhampton, we were asked one day, 95, we all went along to Gusta Green Studios in Birmingham to do a half-hour play. We were given this play and we rehearsed for a few weeks. And such are the conditions in those days, it was live. It was not a proper studio, it was a converted cinema. Ten minutes into the play, a drunk wandered along the side of the um the side of the cinema door ... And this drunk beat on this door. That's my first clear memories of television.
“There's nothing in life I I would really like to get away from. Like any other human being, at times you're bored and at times you're elated. They balance each other out though, I think, over the years.”
“I am the last person who should ever be put on a desert island. I'm very gregarious and I will probably pine away within a week.”
“I think possibly I would choose uh Max Miller for one very specific reason. I think you want to hear a voice. I think that would be a great comfort on the island. But not only did you hear his voice, you hear a lot of people laughing as well, and I think that might be nice company.”