Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Bristol-born actor who trained at Bradford drama school.
On the island
Eight records
GUEST: Because my two favourite films in the world are Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon. Also, I associate myself with the image that Humphrey Bogart created. I mean, he wasn't like that as a man. But it's the man who was against the bad guys. And in the two pictures, he never gets the girl.
GUEST: He's an old mate of yours, isn't he? Yes, he is. And he's singing on the on the stage. I am not a very jealous person, but when I saw him do this Merry Widow on television. I mean, I felt terribly jealous of Jerry,'cause I thought, Why can't I play Danny Lewin the Map? But I can't.
Hamlet's advice to the players speechFavourite
GUEST: because I think that he is the greatest actor in the world. I also think he's one of the bravest and most courageous men I've ever known in my life.
Science Fiction/Double Feature
GUEST: A dear friend of mine said I've got to take you to see something. It's a play. It's a musical. And if you don't like it, I won't be your friend any more. So he took me to the Chelsea Classic to see The Rocky Horror Show. I loved it. I just loved it. But I fell in love with the girl who sings this first number. And what's her name? Patricia Quinn.
GUEST: Must be no card. Must be no card, right? And what's he going to sing? I'll see you again.
Harry Carroll/Ballard MacDonald
GUEST: Because I think they are the greatest comedians. and they have given me so much pleasure.
Cavalleria Rusticana: Intermezzo
GUEST: It's the overture to Cavallero's Tacana... When I saw that opera, what I thought was marvellous in in the overture was you saw the man's love for his country,'cause you saw a little Sicilian town at dawn suddenly waking up. I thought it was it's one of the most magical moments I am a sonnet.
Girls Were Made to Love and Kiss
GUEST: is that if I was on a desert island by myself, The thing that I would miss most. Is Girls. So my last record would be Richard Tower singing Girls Were Meant to Love.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:04How did you get hooked on the theatre?
because it's the only thing I can do. I can't do anything else. I couldn't be a plumber.
Presenter asks
1:17How did that [going to drama school in Bradford rather than Bristol] come about?
Because the man I worked with, a man called Anthony Thomas, encouraged me to be an actor. And he said there are two schools you can go to, the Bristol Ilvix School or the Drama School in Bradford. Those he thought were the best? Yes. But Bradford was cheaper. ... And I got three pounds ten a week from the Education Committee. And that's where I went.
Presenter asks
5:44What sort of parts did you play [in weekly rep]? Any really unsuitable ones, you remember?
They were mostly unsuitable, but what I learned about that was it's best to be miscast, which I was most of the time, because that's, I think, what stretches you. The good thing about acting in repertory is it w did teach me a certain sense of responsibility about being an actor... what happened every Monday evening was you had to get on there and do it, good, bad or indifferent. I think nowadays with the advent of television, that young actors don't have that stretch put upon them. But I think it's very impo well to me it was very important because it it teaches you about [responsibility].
The keepsakes
The luxury
Presenter asks
17:29How did it feel to be part of a double act [with Maggie Smith], as it were, in the straight theatre?
Everybody felt that Maggie and I could be to the theatre what Richard Burton and Liz Taylor were to the movies. But you can't it's not possible to spend twenty-four hours a day with somebody at that's why it went wrong. And at one point Maggie said to me, You just have got to get out of the house and go and live somewhere else, because I can't bear to live with you twenty-four hours a day. So I got out. ... I certainly picked up an awful lot of hers and I'm very grateful to her for the mannerisms she taught me, because she's quick. But then she picked them up from Kenneth Williams, and there was a review once which said about private lives, Robert Stevens has picked up all the bad mannerisms that Maggie Smith picked up from Kenneth Williams.
Presenter asks
19:04Tell me about [the film] Pirates of Tortuga, if you remember that.
It's the worst film that was ever made, ever. ... I play Sir Henry Morgan. ... It was the first time I ever went to Hollywood, and I was picked up by the publicity man from the 20th Century Fox. And I said how long is the schedule on this picture? ... He said three weeks. So you can't you can't think of pirate picture ... Can't do it. He said, Well, they have a lot of clips from a picture called Anne of the Indies, and all they're gonna do is shoot some seas to stick into the gun. ... Ten days I was on. All the battles had already been done. ... It was when I finished this dreadful picture, the director said to me, ... Robert, I have to thank you for adding stature to this motion picture. I've never done a worse picture. I was never more shadowy.
Presenter asks
22:54How do you think the new National Theatre works?
I think it will take some little time for it to find out how to work itself. And there has been a lot of criticism of Sir Peter Hall, which I don't agree with, because it's a very difficult place to run, because you have three theatres in one house. You also have a restaurant, you have three bars to run, you have music playing in the fue. But I think he will figure it out. He is the best person to run it. ... I th I think it will sort itself out. It has to. Otherwise it will become an embarrassment to us, and it can't be an embarrass,'cause it's the Nationals here of Great Britain.
“But what I learned about that was it's best to be miscast, which I was most of the time, because that's, I think, what stretches you.”
“Everybody felt that Maggie and I could be to the theatre what Richard Burton and Liz Taylor were to the movies. But you can't it's not possible to spend twenty-four hours a day with somebody at that's why it went wrong.”
“I play Sir Henry Morgan. It was the first time I ever went to Hollywood, and I was picked up by the publicity man from the 20th Century Fox... He said three weeks. So you can't you can't think of pirate picture... Can't do it... It was when I finished this dreadful picture, the director said to me, ... Robert, I have to thank you for adding stature to this motion picture. I've never done a worse picture. I was never more shadowy.”
“I think it will take some little time for it to find out how to work itself. And there has been a lot of criticism of Sir Peter Hall, which I don't agree with, because it's a very difficult place to run... I think it will sort itself out. It has to. Otherwise it will become an embarrassment to us, and it can't be an embarrass,'cause it's the Nationals here of Great Britain.”
“When I saw that opera, what I thought was marvellous in in the overture was you saw the man's love for his country,'cause you saw a little Sicilian town at dawn suddenly waking up. I thought it was it's one of the most magical moments I am a sonnet.”