Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Actress and comedian, known for her work in comedy and acting.
On the island
Eight records
I love May West because she's so outrageous and for her time was extremely shocking and everyone got terribly upset about her and they jailed her for writing her own play, Sex, which apparently was as dirty as hell and and still would be, I suppose, to day. But she she laughed at herself. She was laughing at the whole business of sex and and being a sex symbol. She never took herself seriously, I think. I think she was wonderful.
Well, I've only recently heard Peter Sellers' recordings. I found an old record at home called The Best of Sellers, and I genuinely thought that I'd discovered something that no one else had ever heard. I heard BALHAM GAY to the South and I thought this is great, no one ever talks about this, I've got to convert everybody.
Well Roy, this is the most tasteless thing I've ever heard in my life, and that's why I'm offering it to you. ... I suppose it's not the most tasteless thing, but it's sort of so unexpectedly tasteless that it makes me laugh every time I hear it.
Ian said to me, I'll give you the record of the greatest singer that there's ever been. And because you're a great mimic, you might be able to copy her voice, and and and you'd be wonderful if you could do that. And I said, Great, um who is she? and he said, Louisa Tetrazzini.
Randy Newman, it's either got to be tickle-me or lonely at the top. And I'm waving my finger now and it's tickle me.
Steve Martin I I like very much also, and I've seen him perform live, like him very much, and and this piece is called Cat Handcuffs.
Legong KratonFavourite
The Gamelan Orchestra of Pliatan
I told you I was living in Bali. And um I had a lovely time there and I got to really like hearing the sound of the Gamelan orchestra.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:36Are you a gregarious girl? Could you endure loneliness?
I think so. I spend a lot of time when I'm at home, just being sort of solitary, because I I like that. It's very relaxing somehow.
Presenter asks
2:37What were you best at at school?
Being bad. ... I suppose I was quite good at English. Um but I hated school and and I misbehaved most of the time. I was good at drama. I used to spend a lot of time trying to do plays.
Presenter asks
3:26Did your parents approve of [your going to drama school], and did they support you?
They did eventually, I think. Early on they felt that uh I ought to get a degree. Something to fall back on in case I bombed out.
Presenter asks
6:42Why did you decide to travel a long way for a long time?
I think I was experiencing something that a lot of Australians feel, a kind of geographical isolation. You feel you're a long way, especially in the theatre, that you're you're doing European plays or American plays and you've never really seen those things being performed as they're performed in the original countries. So I thought, well, I I should take off and see these things for myself
The keepsakes
The book
Buddha
It's full of very simple truths ... it would be very comforting on a desert island.
The luxury
Television set with satellite link and solar batteries
I fancy a television set, but with a satellite link up, so I could get television from anywhere in the world.
Presenter asks
22:51How do you react to having a vast amount of publicity?
Well, it's really a threefold thing. ... I am actually quite an outgoing sort of person and and I and I do show off from time to time and and I like having fun and if I do outrageous things in public places I know at the back of my mind that it's going to be written about but it's very hard for me and I don't want to change my personality ... I have a very ambiguous attitude to it, and and I I I I can understand that people must be very baffled about what exactly I really am. But I I don't like being accused just of being a shallow publicity seeker, because that that's that's not true.
“I became more gregarious as I was travelling because I felt that I had to be brave enough to sort of go up to people and say, Look, I've just seen your play, I'm an Australian actress, I don't speak Turkish, could you tell me what it was about? and people would be wonderful.”
“I had to work on [my accent], Roy, because after all no one was going to give me a job sounding like that, particularly since I kept steaming into offices of B B C people and suggesting they gave me a job as an English rose. I thought I was perfectly suitable, but they just laughed.”
“I love [Richard Pryor] because he tells the truth and he laughs about very serious events that happened to him, something I try to do all the time and find rather difficult.”