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

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

The program was originally broadcast in 1980, and the presenter was Roy Plumley. A few weeks ago I went down to Broadchalk in Wiltshire and recorded a program with Sir

Cecil beaten in his lovely 17th century house.

As you'll know, Sir Cecil has died and it's with the approval of his family and friends that we're broadcasting this last

interview. He'd suffered a stroke five or six years ago which deprived him of the use of

his right hand but he had taught himself to use his left and was continuing

to travel and carry on with his work as designer and photographer.

I knew he had sung in Gilbert and Sullivan at school and I began by asking him if he played an instrument.

No, I don't think I do. I played very many parts in my time as a school boy and during my terms at

St Cyprians.

St Cyprians was your prep school at Eastbourne and you were in the school

theatricals there. What did you play? Well I played a part I don't think was very suited to me. I was just a sweet little butter cup.

And later I did sing as a prince in the Macado.

But it wasn't really very good.

Did you hear a lot of music in your home?

Were your parents musically inclined? I think so, yes. I think they

rather objected to my having such an easy time of it because I got all sorts of records. But I think the reason why I've had such

an upbringing in music or comedy was the fact that I first heard the Merry Widow

when I was five years old and living in a house in Hampstead. I heard it being played by the

Hurley man in the street and I used to listen to hear if pennies were dropped, which they always were.

That gave me a tremendous feeling for the Mary Widow itself.

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