Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Actor, star of 'Citizen Smith', BAFTA winner for 'GBH', and Henry II in 'Announce Beckett'.
On the island
Eight records
I remember listening to it on with Uncle Mac when I was a kid. Everyone did. And it was a it was a story, it had a through line, and it was a a boy in search of his echo, he loses his echo and goes to find it.
Kenneth Horne, Hugh Paddick, Kenneth Williams
I remember those Sunday dinners. Call it lunch now, don't we, Sue? Sunday dinner as a lad, with Yorkshire pudding and roast beef, listening to this great show. And laughing at the pauses,'cause you were imagining people in silence sitting around the table eating and listening to this show and really getting involved in it brings back great memories.
The Beatles represent everything to me of of growing up and of say and and they gave me such confidence. And I I remember buying all their albums the moment they came out, literally queuing up at the record shop. Because they were they were telling a story. I I was and I identified with them so much. They gave me the confidence, and they'll never know, and they gave thousands of people the confidence, and we went on the whole journey with them.
I first heard this record when I was in me and my girl on Broadway. I was so homesick. Ridiculously homesick. And I guess that when I heard this song, it sort of captured everything that was. Nostalgic about being in the north of England.
Robert Lindsay and Marianne Plunkett
It's me singing. Shouldn't do this really. Ego gone mad here. And Marianne Plunkett, uh who was my leading lady in New York. And I've chosen it because it Richard Armitage wanted this song and it reminds me of him.
Nat King Cole's the king, isn't he? And I I had a real problem with this'cause in in so much that There's a whole list of people that from Sinatra and Crosby and Ella Fitzgerald. But in the end, Nat King Cole's voice has to win. You know, just listening to that voice makes you feel good, makes you feel comfortable and secure.
Jussi Björling and Robert Merrill
I have never been so blown away in my life. I have never seen anything so beautiful. I wept from start to finish. I was a gibbering wreck when I left that theatre. Yes, and there were a lot of rich people there as well. And the particular piece I've chosen Because Elijah had to tell me the story and a running commentary as well, which is brilliant because the director was there. You know, it's a th this is the bit when the the two men sing about love. And I thought, oh, really? Two men talking'cause men don't do that.
Also sprach ZarathustraFavourite
I remember going on summer holidays, you know, or they were always raining, wandering around, promenades somewhere. And I found Cinner Armour. Remember Cinerama when it used to go round in tents? And it was just the most amazing experience I went to see Two Thousand and One Space Odyssey, like many other. Kids, I I was sixteen. And I si I've since seen the film twenty times. I think it it was the beginning of a new generation. And it it always leaves me with a a a a cold tingling sensation every time I hear it.
In conversation
Presenter asks
5:54So what did your parents think when you said you wanted to be an actor?
Really confused. I think they tried to put on a brave face, but even they were really confused. No, it wasn't a proper job. And frightening, they were being told horror stories and so on, but I'd really made up my mind and got the bug. Although I fooled everyone that I was going to be a teacher of drama. That's why I went to Clarendon College, take A levels and go down to one of the training schools like Rose Bruford or Guildhall or something. And then once I'd set up that deceit, that web of deceit, I went round everyone's back and borrowed a few quid from some friends at Clarendon and went to [RADA] and got in first time.
Presenter asks
8:25Tell me about being auditioned for RADA and how old were you when you went?
Yeah, eighteen to twenty, that's right. A James Baldwin play blues for Mr. Charlie. Plain black, would you believe? And launch from [Two Gentlemen of Verona]. Hmm. I was more more shocked at being in London really, it's the first time in London, you know, with a the suitcase and the And standing outside [RADA] for hours staring at it, j and knowing I was going to get in. That was the crazy thing. And the lines and queues of people. How did you know you just knew it was fate somehow? I just I don't know. I just had this weird notion I was going to get in. The letter came? I mean, literally within two days. Yeah, I'll let a little bit of a message.
The keepsakes
Presenter asks
How did you come to do Me and My Girl? It was an obscure thirties musical.
Well that was a and a man called Richard Armitage was sent to see me, who who was the head of Knoll Gay, who I know you know very well. who I think became eventually became my mentor. I mean, he was such a powerful influence on that part of my life. And when I met him I loathed him. I thought he was everything that an agent shouldn't be, you know, cigar smoking on ten phone calls at the same time, not concentrating on And he became like a father figure. I miss him greatly. He's he's since died whi when the show opened on Broadway. But it was his father, of course. Noel Gay. Noel Gay who wrote the whole thing. Yeah, absolutely.
Presenter asks
17:50What was it like becoming the toast of Broadway overnight?
You can't really explain to anyone. I mean, it it you start literally one day anonymous and the next huge star. It just that's how it happens. I mean, you go to ball games and your name's put up in lights and you g the Times Squares puts your reviews up and You go to restaurants and people stand up and applaud and y you don't pay for anything and everything's just done for you. But then you get on this rather frightening treadmill where everyone's com controlling your life for you. You know, and not because you're an Englishman and just refuses to say no, you say yes to everything. You're doing Every chat show, every newspaper, and there's millions of them. The States is a huge country.
Presenter asks
20:11Were you flattered or worried that Alan Bleasdale wrote that dark part for you?
Out of the public limelight, I guess, at places like the Royal Exchange. Various things I've done, and Alan,'cause he's a watcher. you know, a great observer, new, and uh I I'm delighted. … Oh, inevitably there's a dark side to me. I mean, I I'm I think my whole family have a have a dark side, you know, they I think where you come from and where you and how you're brought up doesn't have an effect. Although it's very secure and very lovely, you still there's something about that upbringing that makes you. Tough. And also angry sometimes about certain situations. Yes, there is a dark side.
Presenter asks
28:50Does it become more difficult as you become more successful?
Yeah. … Uh that's my philosophy now. And I'm so the money doesn't matter as much as it did, obviously. No, but but you have to s maintain the same rules, you have to survive, so you've got to combine the two still.
“I was frightened. I remember the day walking into the gates. I had never been so frightened in my life.”
“There was a bit of fantasy there because he was the the rebel. That's when the dang where the danger lies.”
“I remember Derek Jacobi saying to me, Do you never get f nervous? And I I get that tingle, but I I don't get frightened.”
“I think thinking about yourself for too long does. It's very it's very dangerous. And I think that's part of the s symptom of today. I think we all think too much about ourselves.”
“I have never been so blown away in my life. I have never seen anything so beautiful. I wept from start to finish. I was a gibbering wreck when I left that theatre.”