Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
An iconic hairdresser who became the father of modern crimping and king of the five point cut in the sixties.
On the island
Eight records
I met my wife Ronnie 22 years ago in Cincinnati where she's from and uh What a difference a day made!
I must have been about sixteen and we used to go down Petticoat Lane, and uh it was pro it was the first record I ever bought.
Bruckner I've always liked.
this is to honour all the people I've worked with, homosexual or straight as they like to call them, and all the talent that came out of both groups.
Because I met her on a T V show, and I thought this is the most gracious, charming lady I'd ever met.
Well, I got threatened by a very beautiful lady, Ronny, who said if you don't play Brian Ferriers the way you look tonight, we won't be speaking this evening.
Symphony No. 8Favourite
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
I got to know him. You know, Simon Rattle, that is, you know, through Zubin.
I walk into the Beverley Wilshire Hotel. It's my fiftieth birthday, and there's Count Bazy on stage playing piano with that whole marvellous band.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:02Why do we tell our hairdressers our secrets?
Because after the shampoo, if it's a good massage. You're totally relaxed. And some people Verbalize it. … That relaxation, others of course stay very quiet.
Presenter asks
6:01How did you feel when [your father] left?
Um well, he just left. … Mother had a great style. She was She and Katy, my auntie Katy, stayed in one room and the five children, because Katy had three, her husband had died, and we were on mattresses in the other room. And when my mother went to the Jewish authorities and said The girls are getting big. There's Katie's girls. I'd like to put uh Vidal in uh The orphanage, is that okay? Well, eventually, yes, they they got me in, and a year and a half later, my brother.
Presenter asks
7:26How often did you see your mother in that period that you were in the [orphanage]?
They are allowed to come once a month. They felt that if a weekly visit would make it very awkward for everybody, it was a monthly visit.
The keepsakes
The luxury
Presenter asks
What character do you think [the orphanage] formed in you?
I don't regret the experience. I think it strengthened me. I really do. Uh we came back and we slept in shelters. Obviously they were the Le Frois were bombing every night. And I got a job on a bicycle carrying messages from the city to the docks. And it was pretty gruesome because at that time of the morning they were taking the bodies out from the night before. So we saw some pretty ugly sights. But, you know, when you're 14, everything's an adventure in a way.
Presenter asks
18:13How did [fighting fascists in the streets] come about for you?
Well, at seventeen, I think it was. Moseley was let out of he was house arrest. But many of his thugs were let out of prison just after the war. and they started marching around the streets of London. Uh we've got to get rid of the yids and all that kind of nonsense, you know. Uh after the Holocaust, no one was going to put up with it. You know, never again was the theme, never again.
Presenter asks
23:43Are you one of those people who likes company, needs to be married?
Well, I was so ambitious. that I ruined so many marriages. … They never saw me. I was either out doing shows, training, creating a team because I felt we could do something very special in the craft and neglected marriages. And I guess I learnt my lesson with Ronnie.
“I started with nothing, in a sense, from the point of view of education. The thing that I had was vision. And that was vision in my own craft.”
“I don't regret the experience. I think it strengthened me. I really do.”
“I woke up one night smiling. I swear, and I thought I've had the best adventure you could possibly have. For a kid that started from nowhere. And uh you've been very, very lucky. So if you have to go now. I'm ready. Really.”