Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Dancer and entertainer, best known for his ballet and tap dancing.
On the island
Eight records
Alfred Brendel, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Bernard Haitink
I've chosen it for no other reason than I love the music and it reminds me of days going about a hundred miles an hour through little country lanes in Italy, don't tell the Italian police and letting the m music blare out and uh just watching the sky and the scenery go whizzing by.
Because I grew up with them really, I suppose. And I remember having long hair when we weren't meant to have long hair and that it was very anti-establishment. And it was the sixties, you know, of Hate Ashbury and the Hippies and uh I was in San Francisco at the time and I had a marvellous time then and uh it's an era that's ended and it was really all about love and I suppose it's very sentimental but uh it's uh the period in which I grew up.
Messiah: O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion
James Bowman, Choir of King's College, Cambridge
Well, I love the music and um James Bowman I think is the most marvellous singer and I have actually worked with him before. I did um Benjamin Britton's Midsummer Night's Dream at the Opera House and he was my Oberon and I played Puck in the production.
Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Igor Stravinsky
I love Stravinsky's music and uh there's no real reason for it except that it's my favourite Stravinsky piece.
Well, Harry is a great friend of mine. We did a musical called The Point at The Mermaid last Christmas, and it was he who said that I should sing and get away from the ballet a bit and um do a musical and I said, but I can't sing and he said, Yes, you can. And so then I opened my mouth and started singing. So he's been very important to me, really. And also I'm the godfather to his latest child.
Philharmonia Chorus & Orchestra, Carlo Maria Giulini
I love the music and I was in France a couple of years ago and I was in the Dordogne in a tiny little village and when I looked on the posters outside a church it said there will be tonight a performance of the Requiem Mass with Rita Hunter singing in it and I was so amazed. I got a seat and it was one of the most fantastic live performances I've ever been to in my life and I'm just sad there isn't a recording with her singing on it.
La Belle Histoire d'amourFavourite
Well, um she was the first person I'd ever heard on a record that really made me think uh this is greatness and I was about fourteen and I thought now there's a person who I've just discovered who is already dead, you know, and I will never have the opportunity of ever seeing her in my lifetime. And it made me uh just think about life a little more and how short one's time is and what a lot you've got to cram in.
Well, if you've put up with it for thirty-five years, I think I could manage a few years on a desert island with it.
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:37Do you come from a family with a particular interest in the art?
Well, my mum always did because she could have been a great singer and uh she'd never had any training as such and so she was too scared when the BBC offered her a contract to sing on radio uh to follow it through because of her lack of training. And I suppose in a way that's why she helped me... When I was young and wanted to go on the stage.
Presenter asks
3:02What inspired you to dance?
Well, it was the only place you could go that was slightly theatrically orientated, your local dance class, and so they put me there when I was five, just to get it out of my system, and I'm afraid it remained with me.
Presenter asks
5:49Were you happy [at the Royal Ballet School in Richmond Park]?
Uh yes, I think so, because I was doing what I wanted to do, which was dance.
Presenter asks
The keepsakes
The book
It was going to be Robinson Crusoe'cause I thought I'd be able to pick up a few tips, you know, while while waiting for Man Friday to appear. But, um, I think, uh, to be practical, I'd choose an Atlas of the Stars.
The luxury
Because I think they're very beautiful to look at and uh they're a very serviceable flower.
Is it sometimes confusing working for different choreographers with different ideas and different ways of working?
No, it's not confusing, it's just a different attitude of mind. With Sir Frederick, you walk into the studio and he'll have an idea of what he wants and then make you do some steps and leave you alone with it for a while. He'll just watch you because he likes to choose steps that come out of you... Whereas another choreographer will come along with it all worked out, completely set, and you just have to really copy them or mimic them as just a body, as a dancer. [It is] less interesting for me because I like to find a role for myself and, you know, unless I believe in it, I don't think I'm giving a genuine performance in it.
Presenter asks
18:01How did your acting career start?
Well, it started when I was offered a part in a film called The Virgin Soldiers. John Dexter, who was also, besides being a great director, I think, a ballet fanatic at the time. He used to come to the ballet and he spotted me in Jazz Calendar and thought, Well, it's worth a try and they were looking for all different types of people. And I got the part, which was very nice, and I went out to Singapore and Malaya to shoot it, which was even nicer still. And it gave me a taste for the acting world.
“I'm only five foot three and um I couldn't go straight into the Corder Ballet because I didn't really fit, so I had to be of a soloist standard before they would accept me. And, you know, it was very touch and go whether I would get in the company at all.”
“I looked around and I realised that the best thing was to do nothing. And so I made a point of doing nothing and that I think it worked quite well.”
“I love Stravinsky's music and uh there's no real reason for it except that it's my favourite Stravinsky piece.”