Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Novelist and playwright who wrote as M. J. Farrell before re-emerging as Molly Keane, known for 'Good Behaviour' and 'Time after Time'.
On the island
Eight records
Barcarolle in F-sharp major, Op. 60
So something she always called the tune in F played by Arthur Rubenstein.
GreensleevesFavourite
I'd like to have greensleeves because It was a pure recollection of the country home I had left. when I was condemned for Two years to this prison outside Dublin. when nobody loved me and everybody hated me and I suppose the strong sort of romance in it was valuable to me.
Denny Dennis and the Whisperers
Well now that really belonged to a That when I first I had my first It wasn't just terribly innocent sex, but it was a wonderful, wonderful change. ... He taught me to dance, and I thought it was quite wonderful. And I think that was whispering while you cabbled near me.
The Savoyophans playing the Charleston. Well, now that rather belongs to the dancing days when we all learnt that terrible Charleston and ruined our legs. holding on to the dining room chair and practising with it as a partner.
Bob Eberly with Jimmy Dorsey and his orchestra
It just belonged to the period, I think. It belonged to sort of period when the Charleston was beginning, didn't it?
Peggy Ashcroft and John Gielgud
I'd like to hear two of the voices. It pleased me more than any that have ever spoken to me. One is Peggy Ashcrofts, and the other is John Gielgood.
Adela star, whose friend Fredstaire's wonderful sister. It's one of her dancing records, Lady Be Good.
Danny Boy ... It's called the Londonderry Air. I think if I was on that desert island that it would give me such a great breathful of all that it would bring Ireland into my raised netted bed.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:26Do you mind being famous?
I never realized that I am. If I want to know, the one time I realized that I really was famous was when I came home to my fishing village in Ardmore, and the postman came to bring me my letters. He put his arms round me and kissed me to congratulate me.
Presenter asks
7:30Did you feel very loved as a little girl?
No, I didn't. I felt that I was the unattractive and I think rather the unloved child because I was a liar and I was affected and I think that I was very much a Molly Mitty, like Walter Mitty. I grew my families and my excitements in my head. And I'm not at all sure that that wasn't what in a way made me a writer.
Presenter asks
25:42What is it you want to achieve in your writing? Do you ever set out to be cruel when you describe the pathetic love of the governess for the master of the house or the humiliation of the sister who is a kleptomaniac?
Desperately sorry for her. I'm terribly sorry. My heart bleeds. And yet you've created them. Yes. But I think there's got to be a bit of heart's blood, whether it's nasty or nice, in any worth.
The keepsakes
The book
Because I'd be educated in literature, in the theatre, in politics, and I've had no education in my life.
The luxury
I'd have a bed that could be outdoors or indoors. and would be absolutely netted. from snakes and anything that flies.
Presenter asks
29:40Does it frustrate you then, your old age?
I'd only write it more or less as a funny book. The way people talk to each other.
Presenter asks
32:56How important is the sea to you, living high on a cliff above it?
Oh, yes, I do. I love it. I love it specially too when I've got someone to enjoy it with. It's slightly saddening because you've got no one to throw, isn't it wonderful too? But at the same time it eats me up and it probably is better for giving me i ideas.
“I never realized that I am. If I want to know, the one time I realized that I really was famous was when I came home to my fishing village in Ardmore, and the postman came to bring me my letters. He put his arms round me and kissed me to congratulate me.”
“Vulgarity was her unfavourite word, and anything I wrote was incredibly vulgar.”
“I was too shocked and disturbed.”
“I think there's got to be a bit of heart's blood, whether it's nasty or nice, in any worth.”
“I love Ireland. I I I don't think I'd ever leave it.”