Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Actor best known for TV comedies Episodes and Greenwing, plus a Tony-nominated Broadway run, hosting, and children's books.
On the island
Eight records
it just reminds me… of those hours and days and weeks and months that you spend with your siblings, being stupid with each other, being silly, making each other laugh, playing records and this was the one I remember the most, especially because of I ain't got no cigarette.
It's become a sort of family anthem… it just reminds me of sitting in a car late at night, going through the Mayo countryside with my family, feeling part of a family and loving it.
I've always been conscious of time passing… that longing… that's very much in me.
Stayin' AliveFavourite
Whenever I hear this song, it takes me back to those glorious days of working on Greenwing.
Adagio from Piano Concerto in G major
Martha Argerich with Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Claudio Abbado
When Dad and I were alone, we would listen to this next track a lot. I think he found it quite relaxing… there's something about this piece of music it feels like a musical embodiment of that state.
New York Philharmonic conducted by Zubin Mehta
I used to play this a lot when I was in America… it would be great on the island, partly because that first glissando is one of the most uplifting and joyful things in all of music.
This is our song… it's for her because none of anything I've done could have been done without her.
In conversation
Presenter asks
3:07One of your big TV breaks was playing Adrian Moll in the 2001 series The Cappuccino Years. The character's creator Sue Townsend had the final say on casting. What do you remember about meeting her?
She was a hero of mine. I thought she was the most fantastic woman. She was so encouraging and welcoming. But when I auditioned for the part, she was starting to lose her sight. And eventually she lost it completely. But at that point, she could just still see, but not very well. And she explained to me in the audition that Adrian is just not a good-looking man. The actor who played him cannot be handsome. Adrian is a geek. He's pretentious. He's all sorts of things, but he's not good looking. And then she asked if she could have a good look at my face. She pulled out a huge magnifying glass. She came up to within six inches of my face and she scanned me from top to bottom and said, you're perfect.
Presenter asks
13:10And so at thirteen, you went to a different school to your siblings. You won a scholarship to quite a prestigious boarding school, Haileybury College in Hertfordshire. And it had been your idea to apply, I think? What were you expecting?
I think I'd read too many Enid Blyton books. I thought it was going to be fun and excitement and adventure. My parents didn't want me to go. It was so alien to the way that they'd been brought up. The idea of sending your child away just seemed weird and unnatural. But I was adamant that I wanted to go and then because I won a scholarship I could and I hated it. I hated the first two years. I was really bullied. I was homesick. I felt I couldn't tell my parents because I knew how upset they were that I was going in the first place and I didn't want to make them more upset by any… So I sort of double down and… It was horrible. Boarding schools I'm sure have changed a lot, but the problem is, you know, it's why shows like Big Brother work, because you're never off camera, as it were, and eventually you crack and you know you can't escape. And it's the same's true at boarding school. You're there twenty four hours a day, seven days a week.
The keepsakes
The book
Collected Poems of Seamus Heaney
Seamus Heaney
I don't have enough time to sit and read poetry and I love poetry, so I'm going to have the time and I'm going to choose some Irish poetry. I'm going to take the collective works of Seamus Heaney.
The luxury
I play the piano and the guitar, but I never get enough time to do that either, so I've got to bring a piano. ... I could have been a better piano player, and I want to be a better piano player, so this is my chance.
Presenter asks
18:40Obviously, a very prestigious course to take. I'm wondering if there was a sense that, you know, it was for your mum and dad.
I think that's a huge part of it. And I think as well my parents, having not had the chance to get any education, valued it hugely. They were very proud and I think they also thought if you go to university, do something practical, something useful, because that's just the way they thought. They look at that's the way they look especially Dad would look at the world. And I think I knew within the first three weeks that it just wasn't for me.
Presenter asks
21:09You did complete your law degree and I saw a lovely picture of you and your mum on Graduation Day. When you see that photo, what do you think of?
I think how incredibly different my life was from hers. It's really astonishing to think of the change in one generation. She was brought up in a one bedroom house. Five brothers and a sister. Dad away in England working on the building sites. It was a one room that had basically room for two double beds and a fireplace. There was no running water, no electricity, no plumbing, nothing. And to go from that to have a child that has the opportunity to end up getting a law degree is an incredible leap. I'd love for her to have had that chance. I also look at that photo and she got ill shortly afterwards, so I look at that photo and I can see that she's not well. At the time we didn't realize that. In September of that year we realized how ill she was, and the whole world changed.
Presenter asks
26:17So, Stephen, after your mum died you decided to go back to university. At this time, though, it was RADA. What did your dad make of your decision?
My mum died at forty five. Her mum had died at forty seven. So things didn't look good, you know, for longevity and I think he just understood, you know, everything gets thrown up in the air when something like that happens. And I think the fact that I'd got a degree from a good university and taken that as far as I wanted to, and the fact I think I got into Rada as well was a kind of seal of official approval that actually this wasn't just a pipe dream. I just thought I can't if I really have twenty years left I want to be an actor. I'm going to do it.
Presenter asks
38:40You lost both your parents very young, that must have shaped your own outlook and who you've become.
Yeah, I think… Having the parents that I have shape me more. They were bright. Life-loving, warm. Delightful people. But I can't get away from the fact that, yeah, I never got to know my mum as an adult and that hurts. Mum never met Louise, she didn't meet my kids. You know, and it's her loss. The loss for her has stuck with me. But I'm grateful to have had them as parents. I lucked out, and I think I look at it that way. Rather than have parents who live to be a hundred and ten who you don't get on with or you don't like.
“She was a hero of mine. I thought she was the most fantastic woman. She was so encouraging and welcoming. But when I auditioned for the part, she was starting to lose her sight. And eventually she lost it completely. But at that point, she could just still see, but not very well. And she explained to me in the audition that Adrian is just not a good-looking man. The actor who played him cannot be handsome. Adrian is a geek. He's pretentious. He's all sorts of things, but he's not good looking. And then she asked if she could have a good look at my face. She pulled out a huge magnifying glass. She came up to within six inches of my face and she scanned me from top to bottom and said, you're perfect.”
“I think I'd read too many Enid Blyton books. I thought it was going to be fun and excitement and adventure. My parents didn't want me to go. It was so alien to the way that they'd been brought up. The idea of sending your child away just seemed weird and unnatural. But I was adamant that I wanted to go and then because I won a scholarship I could and I hated it. I hated the first two years. I was really bullied. I was homesick. I felt I couldn't tell my parents because I knew how upset they were that I was going in the first place and I didn't want to make them more upset by any… So I sort of double down and… It was horrible.”
“I think how incredibly different my life was from hers. It's really astonishing to think of the change in one generation. She was brought up in a one bedroom house. Five brothers and a sister. Dad away in England working on the building sites. It was a one room that had basically room for two double beds and a fireplace. There was no running water, no electricity, no plumbing, nothing. And to go from that to have a child that has the opportunity to end up getting a law degree is an incredible leap. I'd love for her to have had that chance.”
“The person who brought you up and looked after you all your life. And to be there with them, part more than anything else. To be next to them and to be there as a family… Mum was young, she was forty-five. So there's all sorts of people have a big family that people were coming over every evening, friends were coming over to see her. There'd be always dinners and laughter and stuff going on in the house. And I'm glad I got that opportunity. It's horrendous to be in that position that she was in and know that you're that ill and you don't have long left. And we didn't talk about it explicitly. But for the family who left behind to have that chance to do something and to start that process of grieving and to say goodbye… it's kind of priceless.”
“I found it very hard to tell everyone how great I was because that's what you kind of need to do. If you're diffident and British about it and they say you're amazing and you say, oh, well, I'm not that, they'll just move on to the next person who does think they're amazing. I met a manager who said, I've seen everything you've ever done. I said, oh, thanks very much. He said, I'm your biggest fan, Simon. Stephen. Stephen. All that sort of nonsense, I can't take seriously. It's sort of death by encouragement. I've had agents asking me to come and move out and managers saying please move out here. It just doesn't suit my personality. I'm sure I could have earned a lot more money, but the idea of sitting in a house and not working, but waiting for that one massive job, I'd rather be doing what I'm doing, which is all the little bits and pieces that I do. That makes me much happier.”