Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
He is a playwright and knight.
On the island
Eight records
Forty Years OnFavourite
Performed on Speech Day 1928; Rattigan sang in it and recognises his voice.
O soave fanciulla (duet from Act I)
It was the first opera I saw.
Duke Ellington and His Orchestra
The great sort of uh well, I don't know, just He hit us at that particular time, as played by Duke Ellington.
Suisse Romande Orchestra conducted by Ernest Ansermet
Because I love the ballet. And uh Particularly because Margot Fontaine is one of my best friends.
scene from The Importance of Being Earnest
Probably my favourite comedy of all time.
Saturday Night at the Rose and Crown
An artist to my adore, always have made an enormous success in it.
Leslie Bricusse (lyrics and music)
From the film musical Goodbye, Mr. Chips.
From Tosca; chosen because one of the two plays under the collective title 'In Praise of Love' is a skit on Tosca, and Vissi d'arte is sung offstage in that play.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:31How well could you take extended loneliness?
Well, I think I could take it very well indeed, the old rager. I would rather look forward to a desert island. Really? If it was an agreeable one.
Presenter asks
0:54What would be the worst thing about [being on a desert island] apart from the lack of human companionship?
The feeling that one had no one to write for, no one to work for. There'll be no purpose in existing.
Presenter asks
5:24After Harrow, you went up to Trinity College, Oxford. What did you read?
Uh, history.
Presenter asks
5:36You became involved in the Ouds, the dramatic society?
Very fervently, yes.
The keepsakes
The book
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Edward Gibbon
There was no difficulty about that. I I would take given. Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. In my version it's twelve, but I think it's now been done in in one in the paperback. In what could be called a good long read. A good long read. A very rewarding one, too.
The luxury
Say a case of Dom Perignon. ... Why not? Why stick at one case? ... An adequate supply.
Presenter asks
6:23What happened when you were sent down?
Well, I was sent down to giving a party after ours in my digs, and it was a theatrical party. And it was in fact given to celebrate that fiftieth performance of a play that I had written with another undergraduate.
Presenter asks
16:25Out of all your plays, which one would you like to be remembered by?
Well, I think one always likes to be remembered by one's last. I would like I think actually in praise of love I since I'm sincere about this I think it is my best. It's the best I can at the moment do, anyway. But if it's not that, well then I suppose the Browning version.
“I was able to say I was going to be a dramatist and not a diplomat.”
“I would like stormy weather, which was the great sort of uh well, I don't know, just He hit us at that particular time, as played by Duke Ellington. Bogen was to us an entirely new name and a great name.”
“It not only gave me great joy played a great deal because I loved it, but it also gave me great joy to play it at home because it annoyed my father so much.”
“There it is, one's always gotta try something one can't do.”
“I've told you I'd be only happy when I was. I didn't even try to escape. But I'd obviously have to do something. I couldn't starve to death, so I'd uh I think fishing is the thing.”