Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Singer and entertainer from Coventry who began as a boy soprano and later sang in clubs and pubs.
On the island
Eight records
The keepsakes
The luxury
Not recorded.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:17As a youngster, did you come into contact with the entertainment business? Did you go to the local music hall a lot?
Yes, I did. I used to go uh to the local theatre with my with my mother. Coventry Hippodrome was. Coventry Hippodrome. As it was then, yes. So Coventry Theatre now.
Presenter asks
1:23When did you start [singing]?
Uh, I guess when I knew my voice had broken, which was at the age of about sixteen and a half, seventeen. I was a boy soprano up until I was fifteen. My voice was quite late breaking.
Presenter asks
1:58Were you taking lessons?
Oh yes, I was. Um I went every week and uh the lady's name was misses Fitton and she's still around I think and still teaching in College.
Presenter asks
6:25When did you have your first TV show of your own?
I think it was seventy three we did the first series of They Sold a Million. Um which was a marvellous experience for me. I'd never actually been into a situation where I had to present a show like that. I'd presented a lot of things before, but never quite so much, and n and never had I had to learn so much as I did in that particular show, because … [we] had to give a lot of information, or I had to give a lot of information, and it had to be researched and … no cue cards or auto cues or anything. I had to learn it. And it was like I had to make sure I I knew my music … in about three days and then the rest of the week I just had to learn the words of the presentation. And it was like learning a play a week. It was very hard.
Presenter asks
7:46You've been doing a lot of cabaret. You've been at the talk of the town several times. What does that feel like?
Yes, that's always very exciting and uh there's only two places that give me the the real shivers, and one is the palladium, and the other's the talk of the town. And it's perhaps because you know. the history of them when you're there. I don't know, you stand on the side of the stage waiting to go on and you know that before you the greatest people in the world have walked on the very same stage and you're gonna tread the very same boards. It probably sounds old fashioned, but it it does it does get to you. Certainly on the first nights in both places. I I the only two places I know that that happens.
“My first ambition … I just would have been probably the greatest chef in the world if I'd have had my way. I was always in it's a strange thing, but I was always interested in cooking and things I when I was a boy.”
“I loved it'cause it was creative. I like to do anything that's sort of creative. You can start from nothing. Make it, bake it. And see the whole thing and even watch it go on sale. And I love to do that, but it's the the actual job just didn't agree with me and I had to uh get out of it in the end.”
“I had a variety of jobs uh after the uh pastry cook and confectionery didn't work out. And uh I ended up going down the pit, mm down the coal mines. I did that because uh I was just on the tail end of conscription … and my father said, Well, he had the brilliant idea of me going down the coal mines. He said, If you go there you won't have to go in the army, and you can carry on singing. I thought, well, I'll try anything once. But I really hated it. I I stood it for about a year. That's as much as I could stand, and I saw a job advertised of all things in an army band … did the audition, and much to my amazement was accepted.”
“The good thing about it, I guess, was that uh it gave me all kind you know, uh, my experience was a broad as it possibly could be, because we had within the military band um A Danceman section. And at night, inevitably, there would be a gig or two with the dance band and I would get to do that as well and sing whatever was popular, you know, officers' mess or wherever we were or local town halls or wherever the military band happened to be playing. So I got to sing, you know, all kinds of music. Sometimes all kinds of music in a day.”
“I thought that show business would welcome me with open arms. Of course I soon found out that it didn't. I just packed my bags and moved to London and did whatever uh auditions came along. Not very much work, just auditions.”
“there's only two places that give me the the real shivers, and one is the palladium, and the other's the talk of the town. And it's perhaps because you know. the history of them when you're there. I don't know, you stand on the side of the stage waiting to go on and you know that before you the greatest people in the world have walked on the very same stage and you're gonna tread the very same boards.”