Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Film star expelled from school, chosen by Olivier at 18 for Term of Trial, later in The Servant and Ryan's Daughter.
On the island
Eight records
A Negro Spiritual (Swing Low, Sweet Chariot)Favourite
The first memory really is my father at at the piano… my father singing at his piano.
My dear brother, my eldest brother, Christopher, always had Noel Coward playing… I do consider myself to be a mad dog.
I heard this song of Johnny Ray's, and I didn't know what it meant. It says L sight of her lips sexed me on fire and I couldn't think what he meant by that, but it got me all wiggly in my tummy.
I lost my virginity to this one, and it's always stuck with me before and since.
Violin Concerto No. 5 in A major, K. 219
Anne-Sophie Mutter (violin), Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Herbert von Karajan
This is a very lovely piece, this is always in my car.
You Can Get It If You Really Want
When everything went wrong between me and my husband the first time around, I went to live in America… I did like the feeling when I got out there of the optimism… it goes terribly with the feeling of hopefulness.
CWS (Manchester) Band, conducted by Alex Mortimer
Robert and I used to sing this a lot together when uh before his stroke and we're now practicing again. I like to do the washing up, or sweep the floors, or do my spring cleaning to this particular little number.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:17Is [rebelliousness] something you've consciously striven to be?
I don't see myself as rebellious, you see. This is my big problem, so.
Presenter asks
5:09Was [your father] difficult to live up to, or could you do no wrong in his eye?
No, he really was truly one for everybody uh living up to th their potential. And and I think in this respect, I think he was fairly angry with with me in lots of ways because I didn't live up to what he thought I could be. He didn't really understand that I couldn't because I was stupid. And he he thought that I wasn't stupid and that I should very well get my, you know, act together.
Presenter asks
6:12Was your childhood very relaxed and easy?
Until I was nine I think I was one of the most blessed. It was a dilly. Um I was allowed to be free. I was allowed to live in the stables, which I did, with my pig and my pony and the cocks and the hens and the all the things that I loved, and the trees. Until then everything was just bliss.
The keepsakes
The book
I will take the Ai Ching, because the Ai Ching is unfashionable and because it's slightly flowery, but if you look beneath the floweriness, there is a truth there that is quite quite unique and um I would not want to be without the IT.
The luxury
I can't make up my mind between my word processor that's taken me three and a half years to learn or my hot water bottle. 'Cause I do always have a water bottle wherever I go, I take it with me as my comforter. To lose my comforter. Well, maybe my word processor will become my comforter, so I'll take my word processor.
Presenter asks
Where and how did you meet [Robert Bolt]?
Well, this recluse business was getting on my agent's nerves… he came to my home and barged in… and that was the beginning for us, really. That was it.
Presenter asks
20:00What are the qualities that qualify [Robert Bolt] as being right for you?
He's a wizard, you see. He's as near as I've ever found to amuse. The spirit just pours out of him without any guile or manipulation. It's just a pure flow. There is a purity and an innocence. And I put innocence at the top of all the qualities of human nature.
Presenter asks
24:16Do you think you're the sort of woman for whom men fall very easily and become very desperate?
I have had a few suicides around me. Um And I don't quite know why that is, but but I haven't had any lately, so I think I've got a handle on what that is. People seem to think I have a certain strength. That they think they can cling on to. And what I'm trying to let them know nowadays is that it it isn't a strength at all.
“I don't see myself as rebellious, you see. This is my big problem, so.”
“Until I was nine I think I was one of the most blessed. It was a dilly.”
“I lost my virginity to this one, and it's always stuck with me before and since.”
“He's a wizard, you see. He's as near as I've ever found to amuse. The spirit just pours out of him without any guile or manipulation.”
“I have had a few suicides around me. … People seem to think I have a certain strength. That they think they can cling on to. And what I'm trying to let them know nowadays is that it it isn't a strength at all.”
“I'll take Daddy singing. Bloody hell to hell with it I'm sentimental, Oli idiot, yes, I will.”