Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Actress hailed as Britain's answer to Marilyn Munro, known for The Entertainer, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, My Beautiful Laundrette.
On the island
Eight records
Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18
Vladimir Ashkenazy, London Symphony Orchestra
something with some substance, something that I can keep finding new things in and something that will console me when I'm feeling lonely
memories of your father, I think. Oh, absolutely. My father used to sing it to me in the pub, aged fifteen
Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74 'Pathétique'
I used to dance to this when I was a little girl, and make up stories
I love her voice. She had um a strange life. She died of anorexia
Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram
It's optimistic and it's dreamy. I just love it
José Carreras, Plácido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti
I'm going to have chance to learn about it
Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major, Op. 15Favourite
Vladimir Ashkenazy, Chicago Symphony Orchestra
It has all sorts of sad moments and all sorts of happy moments. I think it would remind me of all the good things that have happened in my life, and all the good things yet to come
it's particularly apt for me because I count them, and also it's from the film I did, Hear My Song
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:19Did you have to think twice before taking the role of Mrs Bolton in Lady Chatterley's Lover?
I wanted to work with Ken Russell. I had to think twice about looking at myself in my costume and my make-up because it was quite a different look for me, and it took some time to get ready. But it gave me a great insight into how people react to women who don't physically, immediately, excite them … People never noticed me unless I spoke.
Presenter asks
4:13What was it like acting with Laurence Olivier in The Entertainer?
Very strange at first, very, very cool and aloof, Sir Laurence, in those days. To me, and I was young and sparky and cocky and difficult … I'd talk too much, shout, carry on, you know, and I was excited and excitable.
Presenter asks
4:56How did they choose you for that part?
Everybody auditioned for it … I went into this room and we all looked identical … I sat down, aged nineteen, and I thought, Oh my goodness, we all look alike. So I went to the cloakroom. I brushed my hair down, I wiped my make-off as much as possible, and I took the hoop out of my petticoat … I better try and look … stand out a little … And then Tony said to me, 'Can you talk in a northern accent?' Now I said, 'I've just spent four years learning how not to talk like that.' That was in the children's home.
The keepsakes
The book
Reader's Digest (jumbo version, all the short stories)
various
My book I'm going to take a great jumbo version of the Reader's Digest, all the short stories shoved together, and I'll write in the other bits myself that have been squashed out.
The luxury
Completely useless, except to me, because I can make a lovely room with it in my little glen and I can look in it when I'm lonely and pretend I'm somebody else.
Presenter asks
13:28What happened when you were sent to the children's home? What was the atmosphere like?
I thought that's the way it was at school, you know. They chopped off your hair … I was quite the exception because everybody was in these sort of clothes that had been washed so many times they all looked like sort of grey … sandals and plimsolls, and they all had the same short pudding basin haircut … And they kept brushing my hair, all the older girls … But of course that was immediately construed as vanity … I remember when a sister asked me about my hair, I said, 'Well, you see, you can't really cut my hair 'cause my mother says it's my only asset' … and of course that immediately made them furious, and the pudding basin went on my head and my hair was chopped off, and I was very upset.
Presenter asks
27:46How did you feel when your mother finally got in touch with you in 1978, after more than thirty years?
It was the most extraordinary feeling of my whole life, because I didn't just meet my mother. I met my older sister that I hadn't seen since I was six. I met my brother, who I'd been a little bit estranged from. I met my three half sisters, and it was overwhelming … And when I met my mother … she came towards me and said 'Shirley, do you remember me?' and I said, 'Yes, I do, mummy,' and I burst into tears and stood in the corner, this mature woman, nearer forty than I was thirty … and I just stood there and I couldn't stop crying.
Presenter asks
29:32Has meeting your mother solved things for you? Do you feel differently about life now than you used to?
I'm better a lot better than I was. There's not the anger. My work is a great balance to me. My daughter is a great balance. It'd be nice if I could find a partner that I could love equally and he could love me equally, and that if I didn't have to keep struggling and keep working.
“I needed something with some substance. I need something that I can keep finding new things in and something that will console me when I'm feeling lonely.”
“I always felt very, very sorry for my mother. I don't know why I didn't feel sorry for me, but I felt very sorry for my mother.”
“I've been angry for many years and been very fiery and lost my temper and not done the things I should have done often because I've got this buried anger.”
“If I could work constantly, yes, I'd like all of that, but who wouldn't?”
“I don't regret, how can I regret the long gaps? Because through those long gaps I found reality, because I had to, because my life wasn't all magic and stardom and in lights. And that's why I can give the kind of reality to performances that I do now, which if I'd become a great big song king star, I couldn't have done Mrs. Bolton the way I did.”