Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
An actress.
On the island
Eight records
Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 47
Conducted by Maxim Shostakovich (as identified from context: Maxime Shostakovich).
chosen because she comes from Lancashire and is 'one of the greatest female artists' who sums up 'the northern quality as I know it'.
Nessun dormaFavourite
from Turandot; chosen for 'a really, really great voice'.
Pavane pour une infante défunte
Conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini.
Ben Vereen and the Cast of Pippin
chosen because she is 'very much associated with musicals' and 'they really know how to make a musical'; also wanted something 'modern, something of 1974'.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:30Polly, have you ever experienced loneliness?
Yes, I have. Um I think I did as a child. I have vague memories of not knowing at all where I was going. And since I've been older I find London a very lonely place, especially if you're living on your own. Yes, I did.
Presenter asks
0:54What would you be happiest to have got away from in leaving London, in leaving civilization?
Well um I would be happiest and I'd also ironically be shafted in some ways to leave the telephone. I mean aspects of the telephone I would be happiest to leave. Yes.
Presenter asks
1:38What do you want music to do for you on the island?
Well, I mean apart from the practical things like building me somewhere to sleep, it would really do everything for me. I mean it would be a substitute for people, um places, uh times that have passed, memory. I also I want it to keep me going, I want it to um it's gotta get me up in the morning.
Presenter asks
The keepsakes
The luxury
a panoramic photograph of everyone I know
I'd like to take a photograph. That's everybody I know.
What was your first ambition?
Um I don't remember ever having had any.
Presenter asks
5:49What did you do when you left school?
When I left school I went to uh domestic science college. Yes, it leads. Yeah, I mean… I did all my teaching practice in the last year, which amounts to quite a good deal of teaching, but I never actually went out and got a job as a teacher, no, because in fact what happened was spurred on by a lecturer in the college and friend and being a member of the university drama group, surrounded by people who were going down to RADA to try for scholarships, I suddenly found myself one day going down with them.
Presenter asks
12:13You had a season at Stratford on Avon three years ago. What did you play?
I played Narissa in The Merchant of Venice. I played Margaret in Much Ado About Nothing and I played I had a most wonderful experience in Henry V. I played uh The Princess Catherine and I doubled it with The Boy, the young boy that goes through [the battle]. Yes, Henry V.
“I find London a very lonely place, especially if you're living on your own.”
“She comes from Lancashire and because she is, I think, one of the greatest female artists. And because she does sum up everything that I think the northern quality as I know it is about.”
“I was anxious that the cameraman got on with his camera and his equipment and the sound and everything. And in fact, the boat sailed off without me. It did, it did, and I was left on the quayside standing there, and they were actually they'd gone out to film me and Larry, film us both, on the boat, and there I was standing there. I think it's probably funnier than anything we ever did in any episode.”
“This is what is in a way so sad and yet so wonderful about the theatre. I mean this was a sad event in my theatrical experience. But at the same time it was one I wouldn't have missed.”
“I couldn't I found I there was nothing else I could give to it. I could do nothing more with the part.”
“I'd like to take a photograph. That's everybody I know. … I want one of those long school photographs. With a camera that goes around on its own, and then I can pin it to one end of a tree and the other to another.”