Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
An actress best known for Upstairs Downstairs and her acclaimed portrayal of Shirley Valentine on stage and screen.
On the island
Eight records
it reminds me tremendously of my family, of in the time when I was growing up, in my late teens and early twenties, when my uncle Frank used to bring lots of records from America and he was the one who introduced us to Erroll Garner. And it reminds me of family gatherings and happy evenings and parties.
In my youth it used to be played by my music master, mister Buckley, on the school organ, and it was something which really uplifts the soul.
I love this because it reminds me of the first time I took John on holiday to Ireland … uh which is the most wonderful country and he'd never experienced it and he had this tape which was playing in his old Ford Zodiac while we were tootling land.
And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going
I first saw her performing on The Tonies. She's a huge black singer … from Dream Girls by Henry Krieger … while I was in New York … there was a wonderful pianist there, and I said, Oh, who's he? and they said, Oh, that's the man who wrote Dream Girls so I wrote him a note saying how much I admired it, and he wrote me one back, saying he loved Shirley Valentine.
I first heard her in France when I was fifteen. Her voice is rather like my grandmother's. She's a very high coloratura, and she was never trained at all … whenever I'm feeling tired in the dressing room I always put on Madu Robin, and somehow she energizes me.
Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35
I love this piece of music because I love all Russian composers … There's something about the Russians which really gets me at it.
Clair de luneFavourite
This takes me back a hundred years, really … Probably one of the first pieces of music that I ever heard in my life … Just rang through my very early childhood.
I love tenor voices … this man's voice breaks my heart.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:11Pauline, how much difference have you found between being a well known actress and an international star?
Not a lot yet. I don't really think of myself as being an international star. The the one lovely thing is that um I've got to move around a lot more … because the film company, you know, pushed me round the world and there's more to come yet. There's Japan and Australia in the New Year to sell the film. Um w the difference I suppose from a career point of view is that I've had lots of stuff sent to me that obviously would never have come my way … That started while I was on Broadway, in fact, of American Films, and and nobody had heard of me, of course, before, so the likelihood of my getting even a coffinous bit in the American film was extremely remote, so that's the difference that it's made. But I'm not yet mobbed in my Hampstead abode.
Presenter asks
4:33Was it a big [family]? [Where did you all come from?]
Well, um, I suppose it it was big in in one sense in that my mother and father bought a house with my aunt and two uncles, so there are a lot of us in the family, yes, it was quite a big family … originally everybody came from Liverpool and Wallasey, my dad from Liverpool, my mother from Wallasey, but the house that they bought eventually was down in Worthing, where where all good northerners land up … all my grandparents are Irish … All all the blood is Irish, but they made it to Liverpool.
Presenter asks
The keepsakes
The book
(a book which would teach me) the meaning of the universe
preferably written by a metaphysician
The luxury
I'm going to choose a boring paper and pencil to record all the wonderful things that happened to me on this island.
You didn't set out to be a comedy actress, did you?
No, I set out to be an actress, um of of any kind, really. I suppose it's partly to do with the fact that I have a round face that I ended up playing comedy … People don't tend to take you seriously, do they? … I like playing comedy, I really enjoy it, but it would be wonderful to play the odd murderess, you know … I have no desire to play massive classics … I work from the gut, really, and and and make mistakes often. Um but I find that's the only way I can work really, is to leap in.
Presenter asks
13:06Do you enjoy working [with your husband John] together or is it really difficult?
We do enjoy working together very much. And we've done lots of stage plays together. But in fact, before Forever Green, we decided to call a moratorium on that partnership for nine years. In fact, we didn't work together, because we thought it was getting a bit twee, you know … No, it's I find it very easy, and so does John, because there are shortcuts. You don't have to mess about … The only trouble is that you might perhaps always get the same stimulus and therefore it becomes dull. And also, I mean, you've got to take it home with you together. But you don't, you see, you just can't take it home with you because life has to go on at home. So you go home and put the kettle on and make the food and forget about all that.
Presenter asks
16:57Did you know [Shirley Valentine] was for you the minute you read it?
Oh, yes, I did. I knew it was by Willie Russell, whom I admired tremendously. I also knew that he wasn't sure about whether he wanted me for it, because he in fact auditioned eight of us. But as soon as I read it, the whole piece felt completely familiar to me. The language he uses and the characters that he drew were completely [familiar] … I first of all auditioned for Simon and Bob Swash, the producer, and they obviously they liked what I did very much, but they said, oh, we have to let Willie listen. And so another day I did it for Willie. And he's very uh non-committal Willie, you know, so I thought, well, I don't know if he wants me to do it or not, so I I went I left quite quickly and he always holds that against me, that that I just said, Oh, well, okay, right, I've done it now, goodbye and what that really meant was you were desperate about it, you wanted it badly, did you? I'm never desperate about anything. I'm a terrible fatalist. And I always feel that if you're meant to do something, you will. So I'm not a person who claws their way up in the old-fashioned style for parts.
Presenter asks
23:10How much would you mind, Pauline, if you never appeared in another film?
If any Nevers came into my life, I wouldn't mind … I would find something else to do … Work of some kind is very important to me. I'm not sure that it is only this work that is important to me, but I would always like to be doing something. Um, I I have to say that as I'm growing a little older, the necessity to work all the year round seems to be growing less. But maybe that's the natural fall off of middle age.
“I love the idea of just, I mean, I love the sun … And I love just looking at the sky.”
“I work from the gut, really, and and and make mistakes often. Um but I find that's the only way I can work really, is to leap in.”
“I'm never desperate about anything. I'm a terrible fatalist. And I always feel that if you're meant to do something, you will.”
“Probably my father … the main thing he taught me was to be at ease with all men … He was at home with Prince and Pauper, my Dad, and I think that was a wonderful lesson that he taught me.”
“It [giving up a child for adoption] really is like having a piece of your heart actually ripped out and I think that it flaws you for the rest of your life.”