Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Comedian, scriptwriter and emu owner, best known for his comedy work with Emu.
On the island
Eight records
Sir Adrian Boult conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra
It's a rather rousing piece actually. It's by my favourite composer.
English Dances, Set 1, Op. 27: No. 5
Malcolm Arnold conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra
It's another piece of music which to me is very descriptive and it's also very English.
Dickens has long been a favourite author of mine because I think he really captured a certain part of English life and I think it's been captured even more by people like Lionel Bart and Carol Reed when they put Oliver onto the stage and in fact onto the screen.
Symphony No. 5 in D Major: III. Romanza
Sir Adrian Boult conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra
I know of no other piece of music that conjures up this to me more than the third movement of Vaughan Williams's Symphony No. Five.
nothing would endear me more to Kent, which is where I was born and which is where I now live, than to hear the sound of a skylark.
Chanson de Matin, Op. 15 No. 2
Edward Elgar (conductor, 1927 recording)
It's my first introduction to serious music... it's just very pleasant to listen to.
I thought if I was gonna go to a desert island I'd like to take something of the moment. And one particular record, which means a lot, is Minnie Ripperton's version of Loving You.
Pro Arte Orchestra conducted by Barry Rose
Victor Hely-Hutchinson (from Carol Symphony)
I spent many Christmases in the tropics and it's never quite the same. You always think of an English Christmas.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:23Is music a big thing in your life?
Yes, it is. It is indeed.
Presenter asks
5:59What part of the country do you come from?
I come from Kent.
Presenter asks
6:11What did you do when you left school?
When I left school I became an engineer. I really wanted to be in show business, but that wasn't sort of on.
Presenter asks
7:54How did you find yourself in front of the cameras [in Australia]?
Well I fell out the grid. Quite true. ... I began to see that the script was needed for this particular programme or that one, so I began writing and I said well I'm not really a lighting engineer at all, in fact I'm a script writer. Which was a lie. But that gave me a job and gave me a start in the business.
The keepsakes
The luxury
Presenter asks
9:08Did you write for anyone we know [in Australia]?
Yes, I did. Um, people like Willie Rushton, Frankie Howerd, I wrote for Norman Wisdom. And then Warren Mitchell as Alf Garnett came over, mm and we struck it off quite well.
Presenter asks
15:11When did you come back from Australia, and why?
I came back in about nineteen seventy. ... We were doing very well and we were known all over the place. But you tend to wonder how, you know, what the value is, and plus the fact I was missing Kent. And the cricket and the football. So I decided to wrap it all up and come back home.
“Well actually I began to choose them when I was twelve ... I thought, well, that wouldn't be lovely to be on that programme. It's long been an ambition of mine to be on Desert Island Disc, and I'm so pleased to be here.”
“I began as an idiot policeman who never did anything right, caught the wrong man, and turned round and walked into the door and fell down steps if there were steps to fall down, and and that led to me being Constable Clot.”
“I played the whole programme as if nobody was watching. I was the caretaker. And I used to pick up the milk outside the front gates and bring it in and switch on the cameras and whistle to myself and cook eggs and bacon, but really on the set every morning for my breakfast.”
“I can remember the very day he was born ... I was sent an egg actually. An emu's egg, yes, that's right. And somebody sent it to me and thought it would be of educational interest to the viewers. ... It hatched over a period of about three weeks. It got bigger and bigger. In fact, I got the props people to make the egg a bit bigger every day. When it got about the size of a large chair, I shoved it into my bed and covered it up with bedclothes. And the next thing it was hatched and he was out.”
“I thought I'd take Emu with me because I've never taken Emu before to any of these do's. So I sat in the waiting room with Emu. ... I went into the loo and I sort of got Emu out the suitcase and walked in and conducted the whole interview as if I had to bring Emu with me because I had nowhere else to leave him. And he wrecked, didn't you? You wrecked the place from start to finish. The desk was upturned and papers were flown out the window and vases of flowers tipped up and phones ripped off the wall and poor Miss Ralms was on the floor saying oh I think we can use you — that's where it started.”