Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
3 appearances
Versatile entertainer known for the role of Frank Spencer in 'Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em' and starring in 'Phantom of the Opera'.
On the island
Eight records
Gloria (from Missa Luba)Favourite
Les Troubadours du Roi Baudouin
The drums on this record would certainly scare the hell out of them.
One of my favorite numbers that she sang was 'For All We Know'.
It has such a lovely sound and lots of lovely memories of nice people.
I was living on my own and feeling a little sorry for myself.
Whenever I get depressed, I think one of the loveliest things from any musical must be 'Singin' in the Rain'.
She said, 'Never turn your back on success. Never leave success. When it's there, enjoy it and savour it and drink it up.'
One of the most magical moments I've ever spent in a theatre.
Gloria (from Missa Luba)Favourite
Les Troubadours du Roi Baudouin
The first, I think for a little uh n necessary spiritual help, the missaluba, the African Mass, which uh I heard years and years ago, Westminster Cathedral for the first time, live. And I think if there were any unfriendly cannibals, the the the drums on this record would certainly s scare the hell out of them.
at that point in my life I think I was very much into jazz and and very lovely music things like Billy Holliday was one of my and still is one of my very favorite singers
John Williams' Cavatina has such a a lovely sound to it, and it has lots and lots of lovely memories of nice people.
this all happened at the time I I was living on my own and feeling a little sorry for myself in my first bed sit in West Kensington.
whenever I wu would get depressed, or whenever I do get depressed, I think one of the loveliest things that have ever come out of any musical surely must have been singing in the rain.
Never turn your back on success, never leave success. When it when it's there, enjoy it and savour it and drink it up, no matter how hard, just drink it up, because it may not always be there.
I Hope I Get It (from A Chorus Line)
the opening night I went to a chorus line and I sat there in the third row as these marvellous dancers turned away, as you hear in the opening sounds of this record.
I adored the tone of her voice, the mellowness that that she brought forth. It was rather like a a wonderful saxophonist. There's this air, and it to me had great passion, and it had a I'm sure it had a great influence on me when I started singing myself.
Well, it it's really going back to where I started, my roots as a boy soprano and working with uh Benjamin Britton. I made a recording with him, the second job I ever did.
Au fond du temple saint (from The Pearl Fishers)
Edmund Barham, Anthony Michaels-Moore, English Northern Philharmonia and Paul Daniel
the next record I I think is just the the love of uh of harmony and and uh the legacy of working, I suppose, with with Benjamin Britton. I did appreciate good voices when I heard them and and wonderful pieces of harmony.
Broadway Melody Ballet (from Singin' in the Rain)
on a lighter note, the wonderful influence in my life uh when I met mister Gene Kelly, he was very dear uh and a a tremendous enthusiast uh and a hero.
The the great Frank Sinatra, another terrific influence when I was growing up. And um whoever said he wasn't a good actor, try learning the uh soliloquy from Roger Rogers and Haverstein's uh Carousel.
Bess, You Is My Woman Now (from Porgy and Bess)
Dorothy Dandridge and Robert McFerrin
I d I have to take something with me that was was to d was something to do with the musical, and one of the most impressive musicals uh that I ever saw, and I I must say it was it was the uh film version, was uh Gershwin's Porgy and Beth.
Michael Crawford and the American Boychoir
Number seven is a beautiful piece that I heard and just offers hope and optimism about maybe if I'm on this island and it's nearly time to go, I would think this would be the piece that I would like to carry me across the waves possibly.
Mass in B minor (Credo)Favourite
Munich Bach Choir, Munich Bach Orchestra and Karl Richter
Bach's Mass in B minor is particularly Lovely peace.
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:50You had a musical upbringing as a boy soprano. Tell me about that.
Yes, I did. I actually cheated a little. I had a little round, chubby face with very skinny legs. I looked like a very fair advert for Oxfam when I was about six. And I went to a choir school and the voice hadn't really developed too well and I think that the choir master liked the look of my face and said that you look sort of angelic. Of course I wasn't. But I was allowed to stand up front of the choir and carry the cross but was forbidden to sing only to mine because I sometimes went out of tune or forgot the words. and or chewed gum.
Presenter asks
3:38Did you do any acting at school?
Yes, I did, but never at the right time. I think I was a sort of clown in class... I did have one opportunity and that was to play The Little Sweep in Let's Make an Opera... I appeared at Lambeth Town Hall... it was my first accident... I played this little boy in rags... they rip my shirt off... they ripped my trousers off and I'd forgotten to put the ragged pants on and it was the first frontal nudity that had ever been seen in Lambeth Town Hall.
Presenter asks
5:54It was your singing that brought you into the profession, wasn't it?
Yes, yes, yes it was. Then I was sort of answering advertisements in The Telegraph for boy sopranos... I went along for my first musical audition... I sang through the number and I could hear laughter... I said, 'yes, yes, of course I do' and I whispered to the pianist and I said, 'would you please stand up?' And they stood. And I sang God Save the Queen and I walked out.
The keepsakes
The book
The Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency
John Seymour
So when the side of me that's not as adequate as the other side comes out, I've got pictures to show me how to dig holes and grow things. And when I find seeds I'll know what to do with them.
The luxury
Otherwise I could have a pen and write on leaves or something. But I really now have a love for writing and I didn't think I ever would after being wrapped over the knuckles for using my left hand when I was a child. I felt it was inadequate, but it isn't inadequate. You can write if you're left-handed as well, I've just found out.
Presenter asks
14:59Your New York success led to some American films, didn't it?
Yes, a lot of people fly over from Los Angeles... a gentleman, the late Roger Eden... came to New York and came to see black comedy and thought that I might be right for the part of Cornelius Hackle in the movie of Hello Dolly... I had to fly over to San Francisco to meet him... I kept having a bath... I was the cleanest actor in San Francisco... he said, 'Can you dance?' I said, 'Well, I did learn, I had two lessons to learn to dance in Tooting... I was fired after the second lesson because she had very large chest and I used to like looking at my feet when I was dancing and she thought I was looking at something else...' anyway, he said about my singing and said, 'My wife thinks you're attractive. And I think you're an idiot.'
Presenter asks
18:49Then you had a bad patch, didn't you? What broke the spell?
I spent about 18 months out of work. And making cushions and stuffing cushions... A farce, to say the least, called No Sex Please We're British, which I was offered and I changed a lot of it around and they allowed me to do certain things with it and I made it very physical and in the end I created the characterization that I later was to use as Frank Spencer.
Presenter asks
21:41In Billy, were you ever offstage?
No, I wasn't. It was about three hours long and I had two very quick changes and I was off the stage for a total of about a minute and a half. I played for two years. It was the most exciting two years I've ever spent in the theater.
Presenter asks
0:31Do you think you could look after yourself on a desert island?
Well, yes, I think I I think I could. Um I tend to live when I'm not working, a little uh uh as though I'm on a desert island. I n l l live by myself, although I do have a sort of Girl Friday in my ninety three year old grandmother who lives next door, but she's not too keen on running around getting the firewood.
Presenter asks
0:56Could you build a shelter?
Um, yes, yes, I could. I'm I'm I'm I I'm good at that sort of thing. Done any fishing? Uh no, I haven't. No. I I'm I'm loath to b bang things like that on the head, I must say. I don't I don't mind getting them out the water, but I'm I'm not too it it's like keeping chickens. I'm I'm great, but I'll end up with a hundred and fifty chickens and I haven't got the courage to what is known as ring their necks.
Presenter asks
4:08Did you do any acting at school?
Yes, I did, but uh never at the right time. I think I was the sort of clown in class who who th you have um lots of friends, you make everyone laugh until authority comes in the room and then you have no friends at all. Um but no, I did have one opportunity and that was to play The Little Sweep uh in Let's Make an Opera by Benjamin Britton. … and they drag me on stage and that the first verse they rip my shirt off and the second verse they they rip my trousers off and I'm left in these ragged little pants. I'm then f pushed up the chimney on the third verse. … I'd forgotten to put the ragged pants on. And it was the first frontal nudity that that had ever been seen in Lambeth Town Hall. And I must say it got rather a good round of applause.
Presenter asks
6:24It was your singing that brought you into the profession, wasn't it?
Uh yes, yes, yes it was. Um then I was sort of answering advertisements in The Telegraph for boy sopranos which introduced me to the English opera group who were looking for boy sopranos for Let's Make an Opera. And we w we played um the the old uh Scala Theatre in London and did six months touring England and it was a terrific introduction to music.
Presenter asks
15:58Now your New York success led to some American films, didn't it?
Yes, a lot of people fly over from Los Angeles, film people, and see what's going on on the the New York stage and by pure chance I had a movie on there at the time called The Jokers, and that was very, very successful in New York. … Well, a a gentleman, most wonderful gentleman, the late Roger Edens, who found and encouraged such people as Judy Garland and Ethel Merman … he came to New York and came to see black comedy and thought that I might be right for the part of Cornelius Hackle in the movie of Hello Dolly. … He said, 'My wife thinks you're attractive. And I think you're an idiot.' And I came back to England and I did a test, and I very luckily got the path.
Presenter asks
19:46Then you had a bad patch, didn't you?
I spent about eighteen months out of work. And making cushions and and uh sort of uh literally stuffing cushions and selling cushions. But it it it kept me off the streets and I was Happily occupied.
Presenter asks
7:00How much did Frank Spencer borrow from Michael Crawford himself?
I think one puts oneself into into a role in in varying degrees, and also you borrow from friends and also you exaggerate.
Presenter asks
12:00When did you eventually discover [that your mother's first husband] wasn't your father?
Well, it it so slowly revealed itself, I I suppose, through my teenage years. And again, going back to the the the more the working class side, it it's something that one never spoke about and it w there was a certain kind of shame there within the family. [Because I was illegitimate] ... was a word you couldn't possibly utter. And really, I I found I I couldn't say that either, uh unt maybe until a few years ago.
Presenter asks
16:14Do you remember your first laugh on the West End stage?
I was twenty and I w I d I got the role and w we were it was a very large role. Um but this boy, he was leaving home and he went to live with his brother who was a Playboy and I played guess what, The Innocent. And uh I I turned up and he said, Buddy, he said, Y you've left home. I said Yes, he said, permanently? I said, I took eight pairs of socks. For me that's pretty permanent. That was my first laugh.
Presenter asks
19:51Auditioning to sing and to dance for Gene Kelly must have been terrifying.
Yes. Imagine yourself. You arrive in a hotel, your jet lagged ... and the next morning. The doorbell went and I opened it and he said, Uh uh hi, I'm Gene Kelly ... and he said uh let's cut the small talk, can you dance? I said, Well, no, no, I'm really quite new to this business ... He said, what we need, he said, is an attractive idiot. My wife thinks you're attractive, and I think you're an idiot.
Presenter asks
24:12How long did it take to learn to walk a high wire [for Barnum], and how difficult was it?
Oh, uh it was. Jolly difficult. You start at about two feet with the wire two feet off the ground and um and about twenty feet across, and you've got to just keep going until you can do it. Uh day after day after day and hour after hour after hour.
Presenter asks
31:26Has it been a lonely business, being a star?
Oh no, no. I mean I'm never I'm v virtually never alone. I'm I'm always I'm always with other people.
“the first frontal nudity that had ever been seen in Lambeth Town Hall”
“I sang God Save the Queen and I walked out.”
“My wife thinks you're attractive. And I think you're an idiot.”
“Never turn your back on success. Never leave success. When it's there, enjoy it and savour it and drink it up.”
“that was just one of the most magical moments I've ever spent in a theatre.”
“I had a little round, chubby face with very skinny legs. I looked like a sort of very fair advert for Oxfam when I was about six. And and I went to a choir school and the voice hadn't really developed too well, and I think that the choir master liked the look of my face and and said that you look sort of angelic. Of course I wasn't, but I was allowed to stand up front of of the choir and carry the cross, but was forbidden to sing only to mime.”
“and they drag me on stage and that the first verse they rip my shirt off and the second verse they they rip my trousers off and I'm left in these ragged little pants. I'm then f pushed up the chimney on the third verse. … I'd forgotten to put the ragged pants on. And it was the first frontal nudity that that had ever been seen in Lambeth Town Hall. And I must say it got rather a good round of applause.”
“He said, 'My wife thinks you're attractive. And I think you're an idiot.' And I came back to England and I did a test, and I very luckily got the path.”
“Never turn your back on success, never leave success. When it when it's there, enjoy it and savour it and drink it up, no matter how hard, just drink it up, because it may not always be there.”
“I am in the paradoxical position of being in a profession I love, but which forces me to confront my worst nightmare, making a fool of myself in public.”
“comedy isn't funny. Uh It's a very serious business.”
“I had the solo to open the service at Dulwich College Chapel every year, and it was the first time in my life that I felt I had done something right, and it was it was very satisfying.”
“I really now have a a love for writing and I didn't think I ever would after being wrapped over the knuckles for using my left hand when I was a child.”