Hello I'm Kirstie Young and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive.

For Wright's reasons, we've had to shorten the music.

The program was originally broadcast in 1983 and the presenter was Roy Plumley. On our Desert Island this week is the actor and comedian Arthur English.

Welcome ashore, Arthur. Have you ever daydreamed about being a Robinson Crusoe?

Not really, although my first wife when she was alive, we always spoke about finding a desert

island and a paradise island where we could just go and forget everything and live together.

We always used to say that. How much does music mean in your life?

Quite a bit really, although I don't sit listening to music too much.

Now at this moment in time, with my young babe of of course I don't get a

great deal of time she makes her own sort of music but music's always been

through our family and more particular now that I'm married to a young lady who is

interested in a ballet and of course she had an awful lot of record she's brought into the house.

I don't remember ever having heard you sing.

No, no. I have a voice that would clear anything, any room at all, no voice at all.

You never sang in your act on the music hall?

No, no, that's the reason why in my act I always did that, what we call Jumble Talk, just mad talk in the end because I find that not so

much now but in those days so many otherwise good comedians sportler acts

by trying to sing there There are very few Harry C.

Alfred Marx, Dick Emory. They were able to sing at the end of the acts, but otherwise I

thought it was pathetic to finish their act with a good laugh and then finish up with some dreadfully song.

No, I can't sing, I'm never going to try to.

What's the first of these eight records you've chosen?

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