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Desert Island Discs

Brian Cox, actor

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.413.7K Ratings

🗓️ 29 March 2020

⏱️ 34 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Brian Cox CBE is a Scottish actor whose career spans almost 60 years, from his early days sweeping the stage at his local theatre in Dundee to his current Golden Globe-winning role as the media patriarch Logan Roy in the HBO series Succession. He has appeared in more than 100 films, many television series, and has won two Olivier awards for his work on stage. Brian Cox was born in 1946, the youngest of five children, and grew up in a working-class household in Dundee. His father died of cancer when he was eight and his mother, who was receiving regular psychiatric treatment, was unable to take care of him. He moved in with his sister Betty and her family. He left school aged 14 with no qualifications, and started out as a stage hand and stage cleaner at Dundee Rep, before winning a place at drama school. Years of theatre work followed, alongside actors such as Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud and Albert Finney. His later stage roles include acclaimed performances as King Lear at the National Theatre, and Titus Andronicus for the Royal Shakespeare Company. On film, his work includes the first screen portrayal of Hannibal Lecter - renamed Lecktor - in Manhunter, and blockbusters such as The Bourne Identity, X-Men 2, Braveheart and Troy. He received a CBE in 2002, and lives in New York City with his second wife Nicole Ansari. DISC ONE: Bridge Over Troubled Water by Johnny Cash DISC TWO: Saturday Night at the Movies by The Drifters DISC THREE: The Air That I Breathe by KD Lang DISC FOUR: Get Back by The Beatles DISC FIVE: La quête by Jacques Brel DISC SIX: Both Sides Now by Joni Mitchell DISC SEVEN: God Only Knows by The Beach Boys DISC EIGHT: Don’t Get Me Wrong by The Pretenders BOOK CHOICE: In Search of the Miraculous by P.D. Ouspensky LUXURY ITEM: A sewing kit CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: God Only Knows by The Beach Boys Presenter: Lauren Laverne Producer: Sarah Taylor

Transcript

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0:00.0

BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts

0:04.9

Hello, I'm Lauren LeVern and this is the Desert Island Disks Podcast.

0:08.6

Every week I ask my guests to choose the eight tracks, book and luxury they'd want to take

0:13.3

with them if they were cast away to a desert island.

0:16.6

For right reasons, the music is shorter than the original broadcast.

0:20.8

I hope you enjoy listening.

0:30.0

Music Radio Music

0:44.2

My cast away this week is Brian Cox.

0:46.6

He's one of the UK's most successful and experienced actors.

0:50.1

He recently celebrated his 60th year in the business by collecting a golden globe for his

0:54.9

two-deforce performance as billionaire patriarch Logan Roy in HBO's acclaimed series Succession.

1:01.4

Lorde de Kralief for his performances on stage and screened he won an Olivier for his

1:05.6

Titus Andronicus, played King Lear at the National and has over a hundred film roles

1:10.2

to his name, including the born identity Brave Heart and Manhunter in which he played

1:15.4

the first on-screen incarnation of Hannibal Lecter.

1:19.7

Perhaps fittingly his appetite for both film and theatre started at home in Dundee, where

1:24.5

he grew up going to his local picture house four times a week and working in the local

1:28.5

rep when he was still a teenager.

1:30.3

Though in those days he had to clean the stage rather than perform on it.

1:33.6

He says, I've done it my own way.

1:36.0

You can't sit back and say I have arrived.

1:38.4

The only way you arrive is when you're dead.

...

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