Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Stage and screen star, best known for his distinctive singing style and early career at the Liverpool Repertory Company.
On the island
Eight records
Lull at DawnFavourite
Barney Bigard and His Orchestra
Well, it's Barney Biggard, who was a clarinetist who played with Ellington. And it's uh it's called Lal at Dawn.
Benny Goodman and His Orchestra
Ah now this is Goodman, another great favourite of mine, great clarinetist, and he is playing Carronade
Barney Bigard with the Duke Ellington Orchestra
Ah, now I think we have another'cause the Tarinade was good, when we now go back again to Barney Biggard. In a marvellous piece, one of my favourite carinet sellers in the world Called Clarionet Lament.
Oh, slipped disc, which Goodman made in nineteen forty-five, which has always appealed to me very much.
Yes, now the next one is uh another old favorite of mine called My Melancholy Baby, which was recorded in nineteen thirty six by the famous quartet. It was Goodman, Teddy Wilson on the piano, Cruper on the drums and Lionel Hampton on the vibes.
Benny Goodman and His Orchestra
Ah, now we're going towards the classical. I've met some people may be delighted to hear this, but it's a creeping into the classical work of Benny Goodman, and it's one he played called Bach Goes to Town.
Clarinet Concerto No. 1 in F minor, Op. 73: III. Rondo (Allegretto)
Benny Goodman with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Yes, we are. And also strange enough, my love for McGoodman continues, but in a more classical style, because he played Weber concerto number one in F minor, and here he is.
Clarinet Concerto in A major, K. 622: III. Rondo (Allegro)
Benny Goodman with the Boston Symphony Orchestra
But now he's playing Mozart, which is uh rather interesting to people. who think that Eddie Goodman is really the king of swing, king of jazz, but he actually was rather serious. He loved classical music, and he here he is playing Mozart's clarinet concerto in A major, the beginning of the last movement.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:37Do you have any musical skill yourself? Do you play an instrument?
No. I've tried, because clarinet was my favorite instrument in the world … Sid Phillips, who was a friend of mine … gave me a couple of lessons, and I did try, but the noises that came out were really horrendous, and it's a very difficult one to master with a reed, and I never really had time to play properly.
Presenter asks
2:27When did you first get hooked by the theatre?
Well, I was sixteen. I've been acting since I was sixteen. I went as a student to the Liverpool Rep. Yes. Well, because my family moved from Hyton … To Liverpool and uh Sefton Park outside Liverpool, and I acted at school. I went to school at the Liverpool College and I was [doing] plays there.
Presenter asks
3:25What was the very first time that you trod the boards at the Playhouse?
Nineteen twenty five. Yes. … it was a curtain raiser called Thirty Minutes in a Street … and I was a supposed to play a young distraught husband who had to run on and just saying, Fetch a doctor, baby … And when the moment to come on, I came on and I said, Fetch a baby, doctor, and ran off the other side. And I thought that was the end of my career.
The keepsakes
The luxury
painting equipment (oils, watercolours, canvases, pastels)
I think the more you paint the object, the more intriguing it becomes. ... So you would become really absorbed in your artistic creations and life wouldn't be too bad.
Presenter asks
13:36How much of the score [of My Fair Lady] was written when you were first [approached]?
Not all of it. In fact, it was not even called My Fair Lady then. It was called Lady Liza. And uh there was a sort of show tune called Lady Liza … and I very nearly didn't do it. I mean, I demurred for about six weeks, and then I went to try to sing.
Presenter asks
18:01Did you find it very hard to adjust a performance you'd played so often on the stage to bring it down for a film studio?
Yes, that was uh one thing that did worry me, that it might be a s uh a performance that could possibly be um a little overboard, because in the projection of a stage performance is very different to the thought of a film performance. However … with George Kukor's help … it turned out I hope it's a film performance, not a stage performance.
“I came on and I said, Fetch a baby, doctor, and ran off the other side. And I thought that was the end of my career. That's it. Finished. Gone.”
“I dislike my own autobiography so intensely that I would like to have it withdrawn from the market. … I don't think anybody should be allowed to write their biographies and flow on their deathbed.”
“I dedicated this anthology to my beloved wife, from whom I have learnt the art of living and loving at long last.”