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Desert Island Discs

Joan Collins

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.413.7K Ratings

🗓️ 25 June 1989

⏱️ 37 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The castaway in this week's Desert Island Discs is someone who, over the last seven years, has become a superstar of the small screen, playing the venomous Alexis Carrington in the television soap opera Dynasty. She is, of course, Joan Collins, and she'll be talking to Sue Lawley about Alexis, as well as her many other roles, working with such great names as Jack Hawkins, Bette Davis, Bob Hope and Bing Crosby. That's Joan Collins, discussing Hollywood, husbands and the pursuit of happiness.

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

Favourite track: Intermezzo (from Manon Lescaut) by Giacomo Puccini Book: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde Luxury: Large bottle of sun tan oil and moisturiser

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 1989,

0:11.0

and the presenter was Sue Lolly. My castaway this week is a superstar of the small screen. She has always been famous, chosen as a starlet by the rank film organisation in the 50s.

0:37.0

She went on to Hollywood where in a succession of seductive and voluptuous roles, she worked alongside actors such as Gregory Peck,

0:44.8

Jack Hawkins and Richard Burton.

0:47.1

And then seven years ago she was cast as the arch villainess of soap, Alexis Carrington in dynasty, a role which has brought her worldwide fame.

0:56.9

She says she's a born survivor, and indeed Alexis may or may not be dead but Joan Collins goes on.

1:04.8

How is life after Alexis Joan? Do you miss her?

1:08.4

I don't miss those early morning calls I must say but it's like a person who is a sort of long lost cousin or something

1:17.8

you sort of miss her when you think about it but you don't want she's not around.

1:21.2

Has it also meant an end to all that traveling backwards and forwards across the Atlantic or are you still doing that?

1:25.5

Well I do have a slight touch of travel mania. I'm a born gypsy and I've always been told that I must have lived in 40 or 50 different houses and flats.

1:37.0

And I always make wherever I am a sort of home kind of nesting instinct, even if it's only a motel room for one night or a

1:45.6

suite at a hotel for three or four I make I bring my own things I have lots of

1:51.4

books and photographs and records obviously.

1:55.0

And you unpack everything and put it all away in the drawers even if you're only staying for the night?

1:59.0

Not quite. I hate unbacking and packing. I usually get somebody to do it.

2:04.0

You see, it's quite terrible.

2:05.0

So what sort of home are you going to make on the desert island do you think?

2:09.0

Well, since I'm absolutely hopeless with my hands, I have a feeling I won't survive for very long until some sort

2:14.7

of Robinson Crusoe type comes along to rescue me.

...

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