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

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

The program was originally broadcast in 1989,

and the presenter was Sue Lolly. My castaway this week is an actress, an Oxford graduate from a distinguished family.

She might have chosen a number of careers.

Indeed, she hasn't confined herself to acting.

She's written books and articles, directed plays,

taught and doubled as a chat show hostess, but it is her abilities on stage which have

given her fame, versatile but recognised more and more as a witty and stylish interpreter of Noel Coward's leading ladies.

She is, of course, Maria Aiken.

Having said that, Marai, you've also recently been one of John Cleese's leading ladies

in a fish called Wanda, his bossy,

prigish wife, was that as much fun as it looked?

Well, it was, it was another very articulate comedy, which I do enjoy, but he, um, I think he may

be narrowing my career down to much easier description which is I may be

going to specialise in bitches.

Is he easy to work with?

He's absolutely marvelous to work with.

I'm not very secure about filming because theatre is my medium and one is much

more in control of that. But with John you rehearse so meticulously that it's like flying and I

really felt that it was you know my character and I was in control and I could do anything.

There are two names that constantly crop up when one reads about you and that is Gertrude Lawrence and K Kendall.

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