Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
An entertainer who began as a television impressionist, later became a satirical commentator for Channel 4.
On the island
Eight records
The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards
This reminds me of childhoods going to rugby matches at Murray Field and my childhood in Scotland and going back there various times over my years and also when I got married to Tessa, we played this as she walked up the aisle. So this is to me it's Scotland and it's childhood.
I haven't heard this record for 30 years, but thinking back before this programme, I thought, you know, this might be where all this thing for voices and playing with words and lyrics... began.
The Leg-Glance Commentary (from Test Match Special, 1991)
Brian Johnston and Jonathan Agnew
I would love to have on a desert island an example of a human being completely reduced by laughter to a state of total collapse.
Hildegard Heichele and the Cologne Radio Orchestra
This is the finale of Silver Lake.
I wanted to have a piece of Julie London on the island because she sings this so beautifully and this will remind me of jazz in Paris and of Tina...
Frank Sinatra because again he has the power to give you a kind of positive energy and put a smile on your face. So this is sunny days, an open road, a smile on your face and Sinatra played a little bit too loudly.
Have I Told You LatelyFavourite
I met during this time Graeme Cowdry, the cricketer, and he and his wife Maxine took me under their wing really for a couple of years... And Graham was the best man at my wedding. And he is obsessed with Van Morrison. But it will not only be associated with them, but also with the road via them that led to meeting Tessa. And this is for her.
Carmen: Je dis que rien ne m'épouvante
Kiri Te Kanawa, London Philharmonic Orchestra and Sir Georg Solti
This particular piece is actually one of the best recordings of Carmen...
In conversation
Presenter asks
5:13How do you do it, Rory? Is it the product of close observation?
I think most people can do impressions who have a musical ear. I think it is it's just a musical trick, really. You register different sounds of the voice... And then you had the accents in... what happens as an impressionist is you have a film running in your head of the person that you're being at that particular time. So in your mind's eye, you're watching that person on a screen.
Presenter asks
9:42What did your father do for a living?
Well he I mean he was a soldier originally... And then he took a job as the appeals secretary in Scotland for the cancer research campaign... raising money for cancer research and then ironically he himself got cancer, had the operation and lost the job while he was in hospital. My mother was told you have to tell him that he has lost his job... I just remember how much that upset her... It had a profound effect on all of us I think.
Presenter asks
12:19If you inherited your sense of humour and love of sport from your father, what did you inherit from your mother?
Well, ironically, the music thing, because she was tone deaf, she encouraged me to take up the piano... But she was dedicated. She was also very religious... she held the family together in in every way and she made sort of her own sacrifices.
The keepsakes
The book
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Edward Gibbon
It's a question of whether I wanted to take a book I read already or not. And actually there's so much that I don't know that I'd like to know more. And I think I'd like to know more about the old civilization, so I'd have to take Gibbon's Decline and the Fall.
The luxury
Not so I can speak out, but just so I can hear voices, 'cause I know it's not much of a defence, but rather like Peter Sutcliffe or these other terrible people say, I suppose I can look back on my life and say the voices made me do it.
Presenter asks
16:09What did you think you were going to be and do with your life?
I did one of those sort of like tests... and it came out I think it's a merchant banker, so it was completely wrong... I was pretty certain qui quite early on that I wanted to do sort of radio or television or stage in in some way.
Presenter asks
19:19How alternative were you then [on the cabaret circuit]?
Well, the vehicle wasn't an alternative at all. I mean, doing impressions... I suppose what was different... was on the Cabaret circuit, because the voices became the vehicle for what I wanted to do, and what I wanted to do became commenting and observing. And for the first time I found a way of combining the joy really of doing voices with the academic exercise of trying to understand a subject and coming to terms with it.
Presenter asks
23:30How bad was your depression?
Well, I think I know I think I made a little bit too much of that. I mean, I did have time, so and I did feel very down, but I think they were much more to do with. A sort of restlessness and some rather strange relationships... I became just very nervous. And so I would just be very nervous and shy of food... I knew what I was doing professionally, but I didn't know what I was doing emotionally.
“I don't think I knew who I was until about four years ago, five years ago, really.”
“I've always hated sort of practicing impressions in mirrors, but there is a very much a what happens as an impressionist is you have a film running in your head of the person that you're being at that particular time.”
“I would tend to sort of find the most the strongest person I could and give them a gun and say, Here, off you go.”
“I suppose I can look back on my life and say the voices made me do it.”