Colin Firth

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 4 December 2005

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the actor Colin Firth. He created an iconic moment in British television history when, as Jane Austen's hero Mr Darcy, he emerged wet-shirted from his stately lake. To his surprise, he became a sex symbol, was dubbed the 'male Ursula Andress' and was voted Britain's Most Popular Actor in a BBC poll. He went on to send up the role on the big screen - as the ironically-named Mark Darcy, the brooding boyfriend of Bridget Jones.

He always knew he wanted to act - from the moment when, as a five year old boy, he took on the role of Jack Frost at a school panto. He studied at the Drama Centre in London's Chalk Farm - where one of his teachers, Christopher Fettes, said he was by nature a poet and compared his acting to that of Paul Schofield. Married to an Italian woman and with two young sons, he now divides his time between life in London and in Italy.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Opening of the Kyrie from Mass in C Minor by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: Stories by Woody Allen Luxury: His guitar

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello, I'm Krestey Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive.
0:05.0	For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.
0:08.0	The program was originally broadcast in 2005, and the presenter was Sue Lawley. My castaway this week is an actor. He's never been out of work since he left drama school 25 years ago. A familiar figure
0:35.6	on television in the theatre and in film, he was popular with producers and audiences alike for
0:41.2	his ability to play character parts with distinction and care. and as the reticent hero Mr Darcy in the BBC's adaptation of Jane Austin's pride and prejudice.
0:55.4	All I did, he says, was put on a costume and act.
0:58.4	But whatever he did, he's now a sex symbol as well as an actor.
1:02.0	He played Renézel Weggers' lover, ironically called
1:04.6	Mark Darcy in the Bridget Jones films and we can see him next in a Hollywood
1:08.7	murder mystery called Where the Truth Lies. I've always been a chameleon, he says. The more problems a character
1:15.7	has, the more I like it. He is Colin Firth. If it's problems you like then Colin, Vince Collins, I mean the affable Englishman out front,
1:26.4	but I mean a dark and mysterious character underneath, I mean he was music to your ears when he came
1:31.4	along was he?
1:32.4	Well yes and it was also an opportunity to play with the perception of me that I tend to carry around which is the buttoned up
1:39.9	Englishman well educated, formerly charming sort of chap.
1:45.0	None of which you are.
1:46.2	Not at all.
1:47.2	No, no, no, come.
1:48.3	I'm a rather sort of ropy shabby individual.
1:50.9	Yeah, but this guy's what, he's violent, he's sex obsessed, he pops pills.
1:55.2	What you see on stage, because I'm a stage entertainer, is what you might expect to see, which is that
1:59.4	educated Englishman.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.