Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Actor who began his career at the Old Vic, making his debut as Jack Rugby in 'The Merry Wives of Windsor', and spent years touring with Shakespearean repertory
On the island
Eight records
I remember the audience used to sit spellbound scratching like this. You could hear them. It was wonderful.
a lovely play written originally for broadcasting, strange enough, by Reggie Barclay, The White Shadow
Finishing up, I joined Gladys Cooper. In a play of Somerset Maugham's called The Painted Veil
The keepsakes
No book or luxury recorded for this episode.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:08Where were you born?
I was born in Chelsea.
Presenter asks
0:11Did you see a lot of theatre as a child?
Oh yes, quite a lot. My father and mother were both very keen theatre goers. I started seeing Shakespeare at a very early age with the Benson Company. And of course a lot of uh Gilbert and Sullivan.
Presenter asks
2:09What was your first professional appearance?
My first professional appearance was as Jack Rugby and the Merry Wives of Windsor at the Old Vic.
Presenter asks
5:03What was the next excitement in your career?
Well, I suppose um… Two really… Fairly shortly after I came back to England. I started broadcasting quite seriously. In fact, um one of the nice things happened on the way home. We came uh across the Pacific and at Panama there were three BBC contracts waiting for me. Um which was very pleasant.
Presenter asks
7:34Which parts do you like to remember best from your long career?
Oh, I love Dennis, of course. Toy Town is fantastic. You see, I first played in Toy Town thirty years ago, I think, just after I came back from Australia. … Beloved Pooh.
“I was going to start in the drawing office of de Havilland's. … But that didn't happen. … Well, for a very pleasant reason, the interminable years of the 1418 war ended on November 11th, 1918, and with it my job.”
“I had realized that if I went on as I was going in the theatre, I was likely to be condemned to be playing just nothing but old men, parts almost exactly identical, and I didn't think that was what I was an actor for. And that I liked the microphone, and the microphone liked me.”
“I managed to escape after about a year and a half for the simple reason that I was determined that I was not going to be cheated of flying in the Second World War. They wouldn't let me fly because I was too young in 1418. I went to them, I said, now you can't throw me out this time, because um I have six hundred hours as a pilot now and at least if I may be over a military age I you I can instruct and they said would you mind looking at your grey hairs and off.”