Penelope Wilton

Desert Island Discs: Archive 2005-2010

BBC

Society & Culture, Personal Journals

4.4 • 804 Ratings

🗓️ 30 March 2008

⏱️ 38 minutes

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Summary

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the actress Penelope Wilton. Her first love is the theatre and she's been highly acclaimed for her stage work in plays by Ibsen, Shaw, Shakespeare, Beckett - she relishes and shines in the difficult roles. Yet as one of our leading classical actresses she has no qualms about turning her talents to TV and film - Calendar Girls, Shaun of the Dead and Dr Who are among her more recent on screen appearances.

In-spite of being one of our best regarded actresses she is intensely private, intent upon disappearing into the lives of her characters. Penelope says that thing about being an actor is that you turn into other people, you have to hide yourself a bit in order to let that other person come out. People should see the character on the stage, not the actor.

Penelope grew up the middle of three girls and says that her mother was frail and often ill - she says this taught her to be self contained: "I was always worried that I would hurt her by taking a different view so one was sort of being terribly amenable - well of course that’s not in one's nature, I’m quite sharp and rather argumentative."

Favourite track: The 2nd movement of String Quintet in C Major by Franz Schubert Book: An anthology of 20th Century European poetry Luxury: An open-air cinema with a selection of films

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're about to listen to a BBC podcast, but this is about something else you might enjoy.
0:05.4	My name's Katie Lecky and I'm an assistant commissioner for on demand music on BBC Sounds.
0:10.7	The BBC has an incredible musical heritage and culture and as a music lover, I love being part of that.
0:17.4	With music on sounds, we offer collections and mixes for everything, from workouts to helping
0:22.7	you nod off, boogie in your kitchen, or even just a moment of calm. And they're all put together
0:28.7	by people who know their stuff. So if you want some expertly curated music in your life,
0:34.9	check out BBC Sounds. Hello, I'm Krista Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive.
0:41.8	For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.
0:44.9	The program was originally broadcast in 2008.
1:06.6	Music My castaway this week is the actress Penelope Wilton.
1:08.6	Her first love is the theatre.
1:14.7	Ibsen, Shaw, Shakespeare, Beckett, the difficult roles are the ones she relishes and shines in.
1:19.7	Yet as one of our leading classical actresses, she has no qualms about turning her talents to TV and film.
1:25.3	Calendar girls, Sean of the Dead and Doctor Who are among her more recent on-screen appearances.
1:31.3	And in spite of being one of our best-regarded performers, she is intensely private, intent upon disappearing into the lives of her characters.
1:34.3	She says the thing about being an actor is that you turn into other people.
1:38.4	You have to hide yourself a bit in order to let that other person come out.
1:43.1	Hide yourself then because too much knowledge
1:45.7	about you gets in the way of people understanding the part or because you rather prefer this
1:50.3	veil of privacy. Well, I suppose it's a bit of both really, but professionally I think if people
1:57.2	know your inside leg measurement, they're going to say when they see you, say, oh, look, there's Penelope Wilton in that part.
2:04.5	I think it's more interesting if they see the play first rather than me.
	...

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