Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A playwright best known for his play "The Dresser", inspired by his experience as Sir Donald Wolfit's dresser; also wrote about South Africa, Furtwängler, and S
On the island
Eight records
Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73 "Emperor"Favourite
I think it was the very first piece of important music I heard in concert. The the the sight of a pianist and an orchestra playing together absolutely dazzled me.
Ungeduld (from Die schöne Müllerin, D. 795)
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Gerald Moore
My wife introduced me to it. I was never very good at the human voice raised in song, but she loved it and she said this was a marvellous thing, and we listened to it a lot.
"O, that this too too solid flesh would melt" (from Hamlet)
Laurence Olivier's film of Hamlet was shown. My sister gave me a set of seventy-eight records of the film of Hamlet, bits of, you know, the extracts. And I listened every day when I came back from school.
Violin Sonata No. 7 in C minor, Op. 30 No. 2
Itzhak Perlman and Vladimir Ashkenazy
I'm devoted to Beethoven, and it always puzzled me that he was deaf. I could when I was a child and I heard he was deaf, I couldn't imagine how he he would hear sounds like this
Serenade No. 10 in B-flat major, K. 361 "Gran Partita"
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler
I came to this very recently, this uh piece of music. It was some friends of ours had their Golden Wedding and it was played in their honour... and I thought it would be a lovely thing to take a piece of music I didn't know very well on my desert island so I could get to know it.
Symphony No. 36 in C major, K. 425 "Linz" (Rehearsal)
Columbia Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Bruno Walter
Record number six is again about a conductor, a fabulous, fabulous conductor called Bruno Walter... and then you hear him conduct it, but it's the rehearsal that's quite wonderful.
"Bella figlia dell'amore" (from Rigoletto)
Luciano Pavarotti, Shirley Verrett, June Anderson, and Leo Nucci
I've always loved the opera rigoletto, and I think the quartet is one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever written.
Bob Thiele and George David Weiss
My last record is combines two things that I think are in my play which I hope are in my plays. One is uh that the world is unbearably funny and unbearably sad. And in choosing Louis Armstrong singing Wonderful World, I think the lyrics are almost banal in their happiness, and his voice is so tragic that the combination's irresistible.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:35Does writing out your anxieties work them out for you?
But no, if they're really serious, they keep coming back. That's why one seems to write the same play over and over again. One hasn't got rid of that particular problem.
Presenter asks
4:11Is there anything in your life that you wouldn't write about?
Except things that are private to me, you see. Precisely. Well, you wouldn't hurt yourself. No.
Presenter asks
7:42Did Donald Wolfit ever stop being the great actor and return to his roots as a man?
Well the most human moment I remember of him is the day of his knighthood... Donald lay on his back on the lawn and suddenly kicked his legs in the air and peddled like a peddle peddling exercise. And he said in a broad Nottinghamshire accent, Oh, if only my mum and dad could see me now And it was so touching.
Presenter asks
10:39The keepsakes
The book
Evelyn Waugh
I think it's one of the most marvellous books. I think Even War was the greatest prose writer of the twentieth century in English.
The luxury
My bathroom (with nail scissors in the cabinet)
It's a lovely bathroom and I like bathrooms and I always think they're the very important part of the house. And I'm sneaking something in, because in the bathroom cabinet there'll be nail scissors, which I think would be also frightfully important.
How involved were you in those arguments [between your parents] at the time?
I was a spectator, but I then carried messages between them when they didn't speak. For days they didn't speak, and they'd be in the same room, and my mother would say,'Ask your father if he wants a cup of tea.' I'd say,'Dad, do you want a cup of tea?' He'd say,'Yes, you have shown' and that went on and on.
Presenter asks
18:01Why suddenly in 1959 did you start to write?
I've never really examined it, and I'm not sure I should in detail. But what happened the events were these. I was married, my wife was pregnant with our first child, I was out of work on the Dole... And my father-in-law gave me a typewriter... and because I had nothing to do, I wrote a novel.
Presenter asks
19:14Why don't you want to explore that [creative process] too much?
Because you know, a creative process, whether it be for acting or writing music or painting or writing books and plays, is a very delicate thing, and I don't think it should be disturbed. It shouldn't be analysed too much by the person who has to employ it. It's quite superstitious, of you. Oh, yes. Oh, well, of course. I'm Jewish.
“I was a terrific servant because I didn't feel it demeaning.”
“I am a show-off. Oh, God, yes. That's why I wanted to be an actor.”
“I don't trust my intelligence, if any, because I really often No, no, it isn't. I often don't know what to think. And I think uncertainty to be a very human characteristic.”
“I am to DIY what Thora Hird is to sumo wrestling.”