Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Actress, best known for her extensive stage, film, and television work.
On the island
Eight records
I played it and played it and played it when I was young, and I admired her more than I can say.
June Whitfield and Dick Bentley
I've always been a great admirer of June Whitfield and Dick Bentley in the these two characters that they created, Ron and F.
I had to get used to listening to a lot of pop, you know, naturally with a young family growing up. And it took me quite a time. to have any discretion about what was good and what wasn't until the Beatles came along. And then even to my really unpractised ear, I could tell at once that they were. Something special.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:31Do you think you could endure loneliness for a long time?
In one way, I wouldn't be able to endure it. And that is if there was anything frightening. Because that's the part of it that I don't like the thought of, being alone and being in danger.
Presenter asks
1:14What would you be happiest you got away from?
I think I would be happiest to have got away from uh time pressure. I call it time pressure. Uh I'm very happy any day when I haven't got anything specific to do, such as even a meal at a certain time. My idea of a holiday is to drift through the days.
Presenter asks
3:51Do you come from a theatrical family?
No, though my mother was stage struck, she longed to be an actress, and because she wasn't allowed to have anything to do with it, she was determined that all her children there were three of us she wanted us all to go on the stage. And uh I was the first. And my brother, Brian, he eventually became an actor. My sister became an actress also, but she gave it up when she got married.
The keepsakes
The book
Sigrid Undset
I would reread this book and I would plan out a beautiful scenario and offer it to BBC television when I was rescued.
Presenter asks
You had your first West End success. Did that change your lifestyle?
Well, it did really, because I chucked it all away and got married and went to live abroad because in a curious way having reached that kind of peak of success. I was not really satisfied by it. I didn't feel that I'd really achieved anything. And so When it was a question of If we get married, you'll have to chuck the career for the time being and live abroad. I said, yes. And I went to live in Luxembourg, where my husband had a job.
Presenter asks
13:01Edna the Inebriate Woman must have been a grim show to do. Did you research it by going to hostels where these poor characters live?
We did. We went to the hospitals and we met quite a lot of down and outs. You know, they were. around when we made the picture. Um Some of them worked in the picture, I believe. Well, they were used in the background, you see. I think that Ted Kotchev, and I think he was right too, he felt that they should be among us. So even if they weren't being used, when we were filming in this derelict old house at Hackney, in which we filmed a lot of it. Some of them would say things like, Can I sit on your lap, pet? Give me a cuddle, pet, let me sit on your lap. Quite a big grown woman would want to sit on my lap or on somebody else's lap, and they would put their arm round your neck and suck their thumb. Yes. This is because of the complete, absolute rejection that they felt. That's it. They are people who have been rejected in infancy, and that seems to leave a damage that can never be put right.
Presenter asks
14:58How big a part have films played in your career?
Not very big. I have done some films, but I've never had what you really need in films. You need to be a a success in a success. I've had some rather good parts in films that weren't all that successful.
“My idea of a holiday is to drift through the days.”
“I'm a great one for living now. That's the one thing that life has taught me, is enjoy now, because this is the one thing you have got. The future's pretty uncertain.”
“They are people who have been rejected in infancy, and that seems to leave a damage that can never be put right.”
“I think almost any actress who's had large unsuccessful periods in her life knows what it is to be rejected.”
“I would be much more frightened of the sea than the land.”