Richard Griffiths

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 8 January 2006

⏱️ 35 minutes

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Summary

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is one of this country's leading character actors - Richard Griffiths. Most recently, he won three Best Actor awards for playing the English master in Alan Bennett's play 'The History Boys' but he has cross-generational appeal - perpetual adolescents revere his performance as gay Uncle Monty in the film Withnail and I while the younger generation know him as beastly Uncle Vernon from the Harry Potter films.

He's had to work hard for his achievements: both his parents were profoundly deaf and, from a young age, he was their ears and their translator. He studied drama against his father's wishes - he had hoped his son would go to art college. However, he says his father was an expert in reading body language and he learned from him how people's physical behaviour reveals their inner thoughts. He is currently in the West End in Tom Stoppard's play Heroes; he's working on a film version of The History Boys, directed by Nicholas Hytner and is preparing to tour with The History Boys around the world.

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

Favourite track: Träumerei by Vladimir Horowitz Book: Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray Luxury: Velasquez's Las Meninas

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello I'm Kirsty 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 2006, and the presenter was Sue Lolly. My cast away this week is an actor as gay Uncle Monte in the film Withnall and I
0:34.8	he won a whole generation of fans as beastly Uncle Vernon in the Harry Potter films
0:39.7	he's won an entirely new one. He's famous for many other roles too as the detective
0:44.0	chef hero of the BBC series Pie in the Sky and most recently as the English
0:48.8	master in Alan Bennett's hugely successful play The History Boys. He's had to work hard for his achievements.
0:54.9	Both his parents were profoundly deaf and couldn't speak. Throughout his childhood
0:59.9	he was their ears and voice. He disappointed his father by deserting art college for the performing arts
1:06.2	and then worked his way up slowly through the RSC and finally into television and films too.
1:12.3	He won three Best Actor Awards for the History Boys
1:15.2	and the Big Screen version is currently in post-production while he stars in the West End
1:19.7	hit Heroes. All proof, if it were needed, that he's one of this country's leading character
1:25.3	actors he is Richard Griffiths you've really cornered the market Richard in in
1:30.0	large avuncular figures haven't you?
1:32.8	Gay or beastly or whatever.
1:35.0	Which one offers you greatest recognition
1:37.4	you know when people see you in the street?
1:39.0	What do they say?
1:40.9	Amongst the kids it has to be Uncle Vernon.
1:43.0	The guy came at 11 o'clock in Tescos one night.
1:46.0	He said, would you come and tell my son that you are Uncle Vernon?
	...

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