Lesley Manville, actor

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 5 March 2023

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Lesley Manville made her debut on the West End stage as a teenager in 1972, and since then has taken on a wide range of roles on stage and screen, including an Oscar-nominated performance in the film Phantom Thread. She was born in Brighton and first enjoyed performing as a singer, winning competitions with her sister. When she was 15, she commuted daily to the Italia Conti stage school in London. Her first professional role was in a West End musical, and in 1974 she joined the cast of the ITV soap opera Emmerdale Farm. After two years she decided to leave, even though the work was well paid, and return to the stage. At the Royal Court in London she appeared in some of the most critically acclaimed new plays of the 1980s including Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls, and Andrea Dunbar’s Rita, Sue and Bob Too. She has also enjoyed a long collaboration with the film director Mike Leigh, memorably playing the alcoholic Mary in Another Year. Her recent TV roles include starring as Cathy in the popular BBC Two sitcom Mum, for which she won a Royal Television Society Award in 2019. She has also played Princess Margaret in The Crown, including a scene in which Margaret shares her favourite records on a BBC radio progamme. She was appointed a CBE in 2021. DISC ONE: Over The Rainbow - Eva Cassidy DISC TWO: My Brother Jake - Free DISC THREE: O Soave Fanciulla, composed by Giacomo Puccini, performed by Jose Carreras, Richard Stilwell and Teresa Stratas and Metropolitan Opera Chorus, conducted by James Levine DISC FOUR: Sugar on the Floor - Etta James DISC FIVE: You Don't Have To Say You Love Me - Dusty Springfield DISC SIX: Not While I’m Around - Barbra Streisand DISC SEVEN: Make You Feel My Love - Adele DISC EIGHT: Phantom Thread III - Jonny Greenwood BOOK CHOICE: A Botanical Encyclopedia LUXURY ITEM: A bed with linen, duvet and pillows CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Over The Rainbow - Eva Cassidy 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 with them
0:13.9	if they were cast away to a desert island.
0:16.5	And for right reasons, the music is shorter than the original broadcast.
0:21.2	I hope you enjoy listening.
0:30.0	Music Radio
0:43.2	My cast away this week is the actress Leslie Manville.
0:46.4	She's one of the standout talents of her generation, the kind of performer who's present scarities
0:51.6	that whatever it is you're settling down to watch you are in great hands.
0:56.2	Hollywood has caught on to her brilliance in recent years with an Oscar nomination in 2018
1:00.9	for the Phantom Thread but at home in the UK her star has been shining brightly for decades.
1:06.8	It was singing that first revealed her skill in front of an audience and at the age of 15 she
1:11.6	headed to stage school in London. There she discovered a gift for improvisation that would come
1:16.7	in handy later, working with the director might lay their success together made her name and
1:22.2	all the actors in his stable she is his most frequent collaborator.
1:26.9	Some people start to slow down in their 60s, not she.
1:30.0	In the last few years alone she's played the titular maitreoc in the beloved BBC sitcom Mom,
1:35.4	the cleaner who sets her sights on a couture dress in the hit film Mrs Harris goes to Paris
1:40.5	and Princess Margaret in the crown. Very different roles though they do share a pragmatism that
1:46.4	resonates with her. She says on my gravestone it should be written she just got on with it.
1:51.8	Leslie Manuel welcome to does island discs. Thank you Lauren thank you. So Leslie you have the
	...

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