Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
An actor and star of very many films in Britain and abroad.
On the island
Eight records
Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 23
Arthur Rubinstein, Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Erich Leinsdorf
The very first job I had was in the Hull Rep. And I was in a play called The Shining Hour. And I had to play the piano, and I had to play this... Tchaikovsky concerto. And I got so carried away because they play they played this record off stage and I was miming it, you see. I used to get carried away and forget to say the lines I'm supposed to say
Shariapin was the great bass of so I think he probably... Had a voice very like my great-great-grandfather.
Elspeth, my wife, my first wife... swears that was where Jamie, my son, my firstborn, was conceived. So it's very close to my heart, this concerto
Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major, Op. 6
Yehudi Menuhin, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
I played Paganini... in the magic bow... I'm gonna play the... Paglini Concerto, played by Yuri Menuen that we used in the film.
I loved a lot of them the Beatles stuff, but the one I thought was absolutely sensational, and the lyrics are sensational, which is called Yesterday.
Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73 ('Emperor')Favourite
Arthur Rubinstein, London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Daniel Barenboim
Let's have that one I had thirty-four years ago. Because I still love it, it's the Beethoven.
Édith Piaf and Les Compagnons de la chanson
I remember taking Gene once too... to Entibes. And this lady was singing, whom we'll hear next, um Edit Piaf. And this record reminds me of that whole period.
Claude François, Jacques Revaux, Paul Anka
it was funny because I I wanted to play my way because it it sort of... Slightly indicative of my life, this the words of my way.
In conversation
Presenter asks
6:14What was your ambition as a boy?
I was a rebel from very young and I didn't want to go in the army... But a doctor I really wanted to be a doctor... Anyway, my father lost a lot of money and and and he said he couldn't afford to... send me to... university and college... So I... said, I I'll I'll bum around and that's how I sort of fell into being an actor.
Presenter asks
7:11How did [your acting career] start?
I sort of ran into somebody who said, um, you know, do you have a good wardrobe?... become a film extra He said, You get a guinea a day and you meet fabulous girls... I became a film extra... and that's how I got the whole rep.
Presenter asks
11:06What was your first London appearance in the theater?
The Sun never sets, and it's set in three weeks. It was a big smash at Drury Lane... directed by Basildean... with Leslie Banks and Edna Best.
Presenter asks
13:19What was the very first film you did?
The keepsakes
The book
The Collected Works of Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway
I was mad about a man called Hemingway, Ernest Hemingway. Right. And there is a book called called The Collected Works of Ernest Hemingway, and I think I'd probably take that.
The luxury
Gold miniature of Winston Churchill
I bought one of gold of this little model of this lovely man Churchill. And I've travelled everywhere. Wherever I go, he goes in the bag with me. I think probably I'd take him.
So this is London with a girl called... Carla Lehman... We were the juveniles and Alfred Drayton and Robertson Hare were in it... I don't think I was a great su su success. Nobody asked me to be in a film after that. So the f the I always consider the first film I made was Man in Grey.
Presenter asks
15:28Did you want a long-term contract?
Much against my will... the point was, if they made films in those days, like they make today, they wouldn't go. People wanted escapism. They had enough horror and enough reality and the bombs coming down... they wanted complete escapism and this is what we gave them.
Presenter asks
29:07Was there any opposition to [writing your autobiography yourself]?
I had a ghostwriter'cause you see I wrote it because I thought it was easy money... But he doesn't write the way I speak. He doesn't it's not me... So I wrote in longhand what I thought this chapter should be... and I wrote it and it was fairly traumatic.
“People come to me and say... My daughter or my son wants to go into the movie business or the theater, how do I advise them? How do I advise them? It's luck. Yes. It's timing. Luck. A lot of application, a little bit of talent, timing and luck.”
“It wasn't really sort of belligerent or ar uh it it was guilt. You see, I came out in forty beginning of forty three and I'd been in the Gordon Highlanders as a private... and I was commissioned to the Black Watch... And just when I was invalided out, my battalion... was sent to North Africa and they had received 100% casualties. They were wiped out. And I felt a kind of a guilt thing that I should have been with them, you see.”
“I more or less saw the writing on the wall. That uh I wasn't being offered the best part. I I really had sort of cut my own throat because in in Europe when I had this divorce I was very unhappy. And I just took anything, I did anything because it was tax-free... and then you can't do that. You've got to protect your career. So I said, Well, that's it. I hung up. I hung up my gloves, right, and didn't do any more films, really.”