Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
An actor.
On the island
Eight records
Symphony No. 1 in A-flat majorFavourite
London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Georg Solti
I think this might make me a bit tearful, because it is so very, very English, and it would make me very homesick. But it is also very beautiful music, especially, I think, in Scholte's performance.
I would like to have a religious record. But I think I especially like it because it's so full of hit tunes. It's one long procession of hit tunes.
Variations on a Theme by Paganini
The Paganini variations, I think, are absolutely beautiful.
Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, 'Eroica' (Third Movement)
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Rudolf Kempe
And I love the opening of the third movement after the funereal, long second movement, when everything suddenly seems to come to vibrant life all over again.
Der Rosenkavalier (Closing Scene)
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Christa Ludwig and Teresa Stich-Randall
My favourite opera is De Rosen Cavalier. I know that I'm not allowed to take the whole thing. ... So I've I've chosen sides seven and eight so that I can hear as often as I like, which will be very often the glorious closing scene.
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, conducted by John Lanchbury
My favorite ballet Is Lafima Garde? I think it's the most perfect ballet imaginable.
My favourite musical. I saw it three times, A Chorus Line. I think it is uh the most wonderful show that I have ever seen, apart from opera and ballet, which I prefer to musicals.
String Quintet in C major (Slow Movement)
For me, Schubert's quintet is the quintessence of peace, and I think in order to enjoy oneself on the desert island you'd have to have quite a lot of peace floating around.
In conversation
Presenter asks
4:00How did you manage to study at RADA when your father was struggling financially?
I got a scholarship for Arda, but it didn't cover any of the maintenance that I needed. My father had become a Christian scientist, and had given up smoking and drinking, and he thought ... that if he had gone on smoking and drinking, he would have spent an additional two pounds fifteen shillings a week on them. So he knocked on my bedroom door. Very early one morning ... And he said, Peter, I think you can go to Rada after all, now that you've got a scholarship. Provided you think that you would live on £2.15 a week. Do you think you can do that? So I said, oh yes, I'm sure I can. Of course I can. It was quite hard though, because that two pounds fifteen shillings a week ... had to cover digs, it had to cover all traveling, it had to cover going to the theatre, it had to cover all meals.
Presenter asks
8:46What was your first appearance in London like?
My first appearance was in a play by Dodie Smith called Letter from Paris. It was um an adaptation of a story by Henry James, and it opened at the Aldwych to booze. The stalls applauded, the gods booed. ... That was my introduction to London, and it was pretty shaking. ... The play lasted three weeks. ... But I suppose I was glad that it did last only three weeks, because very few people came to see it.
Presenter asks
11:18The keepsakes
The luxury
A beautifully bound book of blank paper with ballpoint pens
I would need to have something to do. And if I could keep my diary going, write about what it was like being on a desert island, it might make it feel a little more worthwhile.
What was the first play in which you feel that you made an impact?
I had a declining time, actually, during the fifties. And it was only when I started teaching at Rada that I seemed to get back some of the confidence. ... In nineteen fifty seven, I was in a play called Raw Like a Dove. It lasted for three years at the Phoenix Theatre, and I had a very funny and very short part. ... So combining teaching during the day and doing this short and funny part at night constituted really one of the happiest times of my life. And I think it was the first time that I got reviews in the newspapers uh that I've kept.
Presenter asks
12:34How did you feel about returning to the theatre for Crown Matrimonial?
I was a bit worried about going back into the theatre, because it had been seven years since I'd last appeared in the theatre. ... Yes, and I had accepted and I liked the label a television actor. I was in two minds whether or not to take the part of Edward VIII in crown matrimonial. I'm so pleased I did because it was one of the high spots of my theatrical life.
Presenter asks
16:07What was your experience of acting in the Tom Stoppard play Professional Foul?
I think it was a masterpiece. It's probably the the best play I've ever been in. It was so beautifully written. ... What I did not think when I read it, nor when I was doing it, was that it was actually rather touching and moving. I had never been particularly moved by it, but I was when I saw it. And so to be in something the result of which is better than you thought it could possibly be when you're doing it, is an unnervingly Wonderful experience.
Presenter asks
18:41Why did you want to base a television series [Telford's Change] on a bank?
Because I thought it would yield a lot of stories. I had seen where I live, a lot of people whose lives were greatly altered by their financial situation. Little shops having to go out of business because there's a new supermarket round the corner. And so I thought there could be many stories connected with a provincial bank.
“I really could say that I that I've never ever been ambitious. I just taken what comes and never dreamed of the future at all.”
“I do think it's very good for actors to do very different things whenever they can, and I do think it's very good for actors to have quite a lot of practice at comedy.”
“Oh, yes. You see, the thing is, about being an actor, one has to be gregarious. It's all shouting. It's all talking. It's a very noisy profession. And as an antidote for that. I like a considerable amount of silence. I like living alone too.”