Michael Bogdanov

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 19 April 1987

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Michael Bogdanov's colourful, and sometimes controversial, career has included running a pub, a prosecution for his interpretation of Howard Brenton's Romans in Britain, associate directorship of the National Theatre since 1980 and the founding, last year, of the English Shakespeare Company. In conversation with Michael Parkinson, he talks about his views on the theatre and also chooses the eight records he would take to the mythical island.

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

Favourite track: Rocky Road To Dublin by The Dubliners Book: Pocket Wine Book 1987 by Hugh Johnson Luxury: 50-pound jar of Marmite

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello I'm Krusty 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 1987 and the presenter was Michael Parkinson. A Castaway is one of the theatre's most controversial talents. To some he's a brilliant innovator, a bold explorer.
0:36.5	To others he's a desecrator of works of art.
0:39.5	Any way you look at him, he's different from the rest. Not many people I know have directed an
0:43.7	opera at Comant Garden and run a pub in Wales. No have many directors been
0:47.8	required to explain their work before a judge at the old Bailey as our castaway
0:52.1	was when the Mary White House Brigade took exception
0:54.8	to his work at the National Theatre.
0:57.3	He was, I'm glad to say, acquitted, and his stint in solitude on our Desert Island
1:01.6	will be entirely voluntary.
1:03.8	He is Michael Bogdanov.
1:05.8	Michael, welcome.
1:06.8	Another unusual thing about you, of course, is you've chosen this moment in time to form a new
1:10.5	touring theatre company, the English Shakespeare Company,
1:13.6	unusually because it's a time when other companies are cutting back
1:16.6	because of costs and things like that.
1:18.4	Why did you choose this moment?
1:20.6	Well, it was partly accident and partly design.
1:22.8	A few years ago I decided I'd take a bit of a sabbatical from the National Theater.
1:27.5	And at the point where I did go and leave, I was going to form a touring company for the National
1:32.0	and it was going to have links with
	...

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.