Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
2 appearances
Celebrated costume designer, winner of three Academy Awards, known for costumes in Shakespeare in Love, Gangs of New York, and Mary Poppins.
On the island
Eight records
Gracie Fields and Sandy Powell
it would remind me of a lot of very dear friends, Gracie herself, of course. Then we had uh Charlie Coons, Jay Wilbur's band. Larry Adler and it would bring back many happy memories.
I've never met the boys. I'd love to meet them one of these days, but their comedy to me is perfect.
which was the first album I ever bought. I'd saved up my pocket money in 1971 when I was eleven. ... I dressed like Mark Boland and listened to Mark Boland.
Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia conducted by Franco Mannino
which is a significant part of Death in Venice. It brings back those days of punking off school and going to see Death in Venice and the beauty of it all.
Life on MarsFavourite
This song made me feel like I could do anything. And I don't know why, but this was the song I used to sing to myself, sitting on my bed in my little bedroom, thinking, one day I'm going to be doing something I really want to do.
this is the piece of music that Lindsay, as Notre Dame des Fleurs in Flowers, made his entrance onto the stage. This really sums up the first time I ever saw him and that show and the effect that whole experience had on me.
I used to listen to a radio show on Sundays called Pick of the Pops with a DJ called Alan Freeman, and my mother, being a secretary, knew how to do shorthand and I would make her write the lyrics to the songs, to my favourite songs, so that I could then learn all the lyrics. And I have such a vivid memory of sitting in our kitchen, in our flat in Clapham, at a table with her and her her pad and pencil and and listening to Bobby Gentry sing I'll Never Fall in Love Again.
It reminds me and it really brings up all the fabulous memories of working on Velvet Goldmine. We kind of lived the life we worked on the film and we parted hard and we were all in the film.
reminds me of Sunday afternoons, day after a big night out, at friends of mine, John and Tim. ... It was also a period where I met my partner Alfie, and this reminds me of the four of us lying around John and Tim's living room in Brixton, drinking red wine and eating roast potatoes and listening to this song.
I Left My Heart in San Francisco
This song I really associate with my dad, and we played it at his funeral. And it makes me very emotional every time I hear it.
In conversation
Presenter asks
4:35What do you look back on as your first break, your first opportunity?
Uh well, I think. It was about 1915. My mother and I working at the Old City Varieties, we did a a double term called Lily and Sandy. And a few miles away at Dewsbury, the Empire Dewsbury, we Georgie Wood was top of the bill, a great star of course. He was off one night and they invited us to deputize for him. And there happened to be a London agent in front. The Montague it was, and he came round. And he said, I'd like you to try a single turn. And he got me two trial weeks, one at the Shepherd's Bush Empire, you know, the television theatre now. and the other one at the Ardwick Green Empire in Manchester. And that was really, I suppose, the first good break, you know.
Presenter asks
7:33Will you remind us of your famous catchphrase?
I'll tell you exactly what happened. I was broadcasting a sketch called Sandy at the North Pole. I was supposed to be broadcasting from the North Pole, you know, to home. I asked him if they would get my mother so that I could speak to her. And Can You Hear Me Mother was a line in the sketch and it was mentioned several times, you know, a little bit of pattern in there, Can You Hear Me, Mother a bit. And in the middle of the sketch, I dropped my script on the floor, all the pages all over the place. Picking them up I had to add Leb fill in and I said, Can you hear me, Mother? again two or three times and uh And it caught on. It was never meant to be a catchphrase. The people just... Made it like that, thank goodness.
The keepsakes
The book
Josef Koudelka
And this was one of the first books that Derek recommended I use, and it was a major influence on Caravaggio. And it's a book I use to this day.
The luxury
I have to have a slice of lemon in hot water in the morning before I can function.
Presenter asks
How did [the decline of the music halls] affect your career?
Well, when I saw the red light for the music halls, my agent very wisely uh suggested I should do a summer season, you know, concert party at the seaside and he booked me at uh Eastbourne. ... And I've been connected with that theater ever since. ... I played 15 seasons myself there, and now I put the show in every summer. ... I think I've appeared in over 50 pantomimes. ... And this Christmas, I'm going to the new theatre, Cardiff.
Presenter asks
15:48Could you endure loneliness?
Not really. No. ... No, I wouldn't like. ... Definitely, no. ... Yes, now that's a bit tricky. I like fruit. ... Well, I don't like killing anything now. I suppose I'd have to, but I wouldn't like it. ... Oh, no. No. ... Yeah, I'd just be on the beach, thumbing a lift, you know. A permanent address at last. I'm afraid so, yes.
Presenter asks
19:00If you could take just one of the eight records you've chosen, which would it be?
I think it would be Bing Crosby, Silent Night.
Presenter asks
0:44How do you make actors feel comfortable and safe in the fitting room?
It absolutely does all happen in the fitting room. That is where the design takes place. And you have to make them believe that you're there to help them find their character. You're not there to force them into wearing uncomfortable clothes or things they don't want to wear.
Presenter asks
2:05How did you come up with a look for Daniel Day-Lewis's character, Bill the Butcher, in Gangs of New York?
What happened with him was I'd started with a meeting with Martin Scorsese, and he said he saw Bill the Butcher as a dandy. ... I then met Daniel Day-Lewis in Ireland a little bit later and had never met him before, and I was a little bit nervous about meeting him, and talked to him about how he thought his character. And it was the complete opposite. ... And so what happened was I went away and then we created prototypes along the lines of what Marty was asking for. And then in our first fitting, put the sample shapes on him. And he was sold. I mean, he said, okay, this is it. I understand where you're coming from. ... The silhouette was I exaggerated his own silhouette in a way. I wanted to make him really long and lean. ... It was just sort of exaggerating the silhouette. I mean, he's a bit of a caricature.
Presenter asks
4:47What was the first film that made a big impression on you?
I remember for being taken to see Cabaret by my mum, and I know I was underaged. ... the green nail polish really stuck with me. A little bit later on when I was thirteen or fourteen in seventy three or seventy four I went to see Death in Venice. ... It was just the most gorgeous thing I'd ever seen. And it it was the costumes. Dirt Burgard sitting on the beach at the Ledo in white with his hair dye running down his face.
Presenter asks
8:31How did she inspire you?
I guess she was just always encouraging. She was the person that sort of made me believe that I could do whatever I wanted.
Presenter asks
13:29What did you make of it?
I had never seen anything like it, and I was just transfixed. It was glam rock on stage and I thought this is the world I want to be part of.
“It was never meant to be a catchphrase. The people just... Made it like that, thank goodness.”
“I've always keep the comedy clean. That's always been my idea.”
“I think I've appeared in over 50 pantomimes.”
“I'd just be on the beach, thumbing a lift, you know. A permanent address at last.”
“This song made me feel like I could do anything. And I don't know why, but this was the song I used to sing to myself, sitting on my bed in my little bedroom, thinking, one day I'm going to be doing something I really want to do.”
“I had never seen anything like it, and I was just transfixed. It was glam rock on stage and I thought this is the world I want to be part of.”
“I have no idea. At the beginning of every job, I think I can't do it. I think I've forgotten how to do it. And I don't know how to do it until I'm in the middle of it.”
“I dress myself for comfort. I mean, really, I just wear what I feel comfortable in. I wear what's easy. And quite often I wear the same thing every day. Quite often I'm picking it off the floor at the bottom of the bed.”