Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Actor best known for playing devious civil servant Sir Humphrey Appleby in the television programme Yes Minister.
On the island
Eight records
Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters
Well, I suppose the first choice would be something that I would have remembered as a child in the years when I was growing up in South Africa. And we had one of those old radiograms that we play with the the arm used to come down very heavily and practically split the record in a two and one of the records that we always played was Accentuate the Positive which was Bing Crosby and the Andrew Sisters.
Richard Tauber came to South Africa, I think, on one of those world tours, and he became ill and my father went to attend him. and came back and had all these stories about this extraordinary man.
Number three. Yes, I would really like to choose something that has an association, certainly because in those days in South Africa, La Vien Rose was one of the songs we always used to sing. The recording that I would like is the one made by Edith Piaf.
Well, from What a Lovely War, I'd like to have Mivanwi Jen singing Keep the Home Fires Burning because um Mervanwy and I did a subsequent production for Joan Littlewood, and it was my first political satirical role when I played Roy Jenkins in misses Wilson's Diary and she was misses Wilson.
Wherever we went, on all the jukeboxes it was John Denver singing Rocky Mountain High.
Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen (Queen of the Night Aria)Favourite
There was a wonderful lady called Florence Foster Jenkins who used to sing almost as badly as I do. She used to take the Carnegie Hall in America and uh pack it out with people. She was tone deaf. And whenever I hear her sing anything I become absolutely helpless with laughter.
Requiem
Well, I was thinking that perhaps if I saw a steamer, would I possibly see a steamer? Yes, you're allowed to see a steamer. I would see a steamer going by, and I'd need to attract attention. And if I lit a fire and all that, and um that didn't do it, I thought I'd choose Verdi's Requiem and turn it up full.
Something that's always moved me very much about Africa has been African people singing. They have a natural sense of harmony, rhythm. So I've chosen a black group who call themselves, I don't know if I'm pronouncing it correctly, the Ladysmith Black Mambazzo Choir. And they're singing an African song, which I know that if I was on a desert island, I would certainly play over and over and over and over again.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:55Did you ever imagine, when you read the script of Yes Minister for the first time, that it would so transform your life?
No, I don't think so, because I think when I read the script and we we did one to start with, it it was a pilot I was very aware of the quality of the writing. I never thought it would go, and certainly Paul and I when we discussed it thought it was just a one-off anyway... So I certainly didn't think that. It did transform my life, but because it's been done so gradually... it hasn't really taken over my life as such
Presenter asks
4:19What kind of a child were you?
I think fairly horrid... I was quite a knowing child. I'm talking about a young child. I think I did change in puberty very dramatically... my mother told me that I used to cry a lot in my pram... But I had a habit of leaning down and looking at people through my legs, you know, so you could see them upside down. And it used to get very cheap laughs.
Presenter asks
5:21What was your father's ambition [for you]?
My dad wanted me to be in the diplomatic corps. I mean he had sort of grand ideas. If I could have been king, I think he would have quite liked that.
The keepsakes
The book
because I was brought up in Africa, I never learned French. So, I think teach yourself French. I'd like to learn it.
The luxury
Because I'd like to make an inventory while I was on the island. I'm very interested in plants and wildlife. And I think I'd probably make an an inventory of all the plants that I could discover, probably uh establish some sort of nursery, give myself something to do.
Presenter asks
8:31What do you make of [South Africa when you go back]?
Well, it's very sad uh for me, because one can see the way things are are going. I have a huge love for the physical side of the country, and I love my family, of course. When I go back I argue with them. We have the most dreadful arguments about politics. And so I know now, really, to keep my mouth shut. What they say when you go back is you can see how things have changed and how they've improved. And what is very sad to see is that things haven't. You know, the attitude is exactly the same.
Presenter asks
20:21Did [auditioning for the RSC and getting nothing] make you resentful?
It made me wonder whether I was in the right job. Uh no, it didn't make me resentful. I don't I hope it didn't. I thought that there was probably something in me that wasn't right, obviously. I think it's very easy to be resentful of other people. I think I did get resentful of people who were sons and daughters of famous actors that seemed to have an in that way. But people with talent who was as anonymous as I was, I didn't resent at all. No, I don't think so.
“I always thought that uh on looking back that that was probably where it started... finding that um a good way out of any sort of serious involvement in anything was to get a laugh, and so that I didn't have to commit myself to anything particularly.”
“I didn't want to be poor, and I didn't want to be scrambling around after work as I was, and I just went on like that for rather too long, you know, and became very unhappy”
“playing comedy is very very close to playing tragedy. And I think it's quite sad that people devalue comedy. They think, oh, well, comedy's not really as important as playing the great tragedies and everything. And I think it's equally important, and I think that the nearer one can get to tragedy and comedy. The funnier one is.”