Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
An actor who holds the world record for the most performances in a one-man show, Brief Lives.
On the island
Eight records
I became acquainted with the works of Darland during Brief Lives because we use it as background music. I think it's typically English and very evocative of that particular period in English history.
I like it simply because I've played a lot of old men in my time, and I often roam the streets of London myself looking for new characters.
The Benedictine Monks of Clervaux
a record I find extremely restful and I think would be immeasurably useful to me on a on a desert island, not only from a restful point of view, but to remind me a little about religion and things.
I hate loneliness, and on this desert island, I would really indulge myself on occasion. I think there's the most marvellous emotion for a human being to go through is self-indulgence and really self-pitying.
Symphony No. 8 (Symphony of a Thousand)
Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Georg Solti
I think the m my most favorite musical instrument is the human voice, and th there's quite a lot of choral work in this. I I enjoy it very much. It's very theatrical too. It's very uplifting I think.
Air on a G String (from Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major, BWV 1068)
it sounded strange because it's quite jazzy really. It's a it's a Bach piece, but played by this quartet. It it was quite breathtaking in this cathedral.
Academy of St Martin in the Fields, conducted by Sir Neville Marriner
I've recently been recording for for Decker The Hole of Warship Down and uh we use this Butterworth music as background music and I think it's tremendously evocative.
Do not go gentle into that good nightFavourite
I would like, as I've talked about uh my favorite musical instrument being the human voice, I would like a Dylan Thomas recording of one of his own poems.
In conversation
Presenter asks
3:06What did you want to be as a boy?
I really hadn't made up my mind … simply because uh th th the the war happened rather quickly for me. I was a schoolboy at the age of fifteen when the Germans invaded and uh I didn't much like the idea, and because I used to muck around in boats and go fishing and things, uh a few of us got a boat out one night and and pushed across to England.
Presenter asks
3:38It was in that prisoner of war camp where you had your first contact with the theatre, I believe.
Yes. Uh in indeed it was. I'cause I was so young and I hadn't started shaving and all that sort of thing. I I I got roped in actually to play female parts. Comedies and straight plays and musicals but nearly always playing female parts. I was fantastic as Winnie Clugston in the Rutters.
Presenter asks
8:17When did you decide to try your luck in London?
Well, it was when the Guernsey season literally folded on me.
Presenter asks
The keepsakes
The book
Izaak Walton
Well, there's one book I've always been threatening to read and and and I need uh Sort of dipped into it, and I would like to read it properly, and that's Isaac Walton's Complete Angler.
The luxury
Well, I think probably a a suit, uh a rather splendid possibly dinner dress. Yes, that would be it. I that would be the one luxury I would indulge in. As I was sitting there at night eating my barbecued sea bass.
What was the first chance they gave you [at Stratford]?
I I sort of made my own in a way, um simply by playing old men. When I got one line like The carriage awaits my lord. If you come on and set straight, it means very little, you know. If somebody blinks, they've missed you. So I used to come tottering on with a long white beard and and and hump on my back or one leg or something and say, Yeah, the the the carriage um awaits my my my my lord or whatever it was.
Presenter asks
12:43Now, how did [Brief Lives] start?
Roy, it started in the most peculiar way. It was in nineteen sixty four, during the quatto centenary celebrations at Stratford-on-Avon, Shakespeare's four hundredth birthday, and we wanted a programme. uh which would commemorate his birthday and honour him. And Patrick Garland, who later directed Brief Lives, devised a programme which was an attempt to trace something of the background of Shakespeare.
Presenter asks
22:02Would you try to escape from this island?
Oh, yes. I think I'm rather sort of good do it yourself man. I'd I'd I'd build a ship very quickly, I'm sure. I don't know whether it would float, but uh
“I think the whole process of doing a one man show is a very lonely process.”
“I spent my seventeenth birthday in a prisoner of war camp.”
“I think there's the most marvellous emotion for a human being to go through is self-indulgence and really self-pitying.”