Stanley McMurtry

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 23 March 2008

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the cartoonist Mac. He's been the Daily Mail's cartoonist for the past 38 years - and it's his job, he says, to make the "dreary news copy of the daily paper brighter, by putting in a laugh". Since he was a child he was always drawing - inventing strip cartoons in his spare time and sketching figures in the margins of his school books. Yet despite his obvious talent, there was scant nurturing of his ambitions at home. His father told him he'd never make the grade and, instead, he should concentrate on finding a proper job.

But Mac says that all the way through, he's been lucky. Whenever he's found himself stuck, he's come across someone who would encourage him to take the next step. Life has, he says, been a series of lucky coincidences.

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

Favourite track: The Adagio from Bruch's Violin Concerto in G Minor by Bruch Book: The collected works by John Steinbeck Luxury: Tenor saxophone.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello I'm Krestey 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 2008. My castaway this week is the cartoonist Mac. For 38 years he's worked at the daily mail,
0:32.0	in his own words making the dreary news copy of the
0:35.2	daily paper brighter by putting in a laugh.
0:38.2	He's been successful in spite of his beginnings.
0:40.8	He had to quit art school because his family couldn't afford the fees and his
0:44.2	father continually told him he was wasting his time drawing and would never make the grade.
0:49.5	Well he did and his work has been enjoyed over the decades not only by the Hoy Paloy but by Prime Ministers and State. And his
0:55.0	work has been enjoyed over the decades, not only by the Hoy Poloy, but by Prime Ministers and Superstars.
0:56.0	Frank Sinatra got in touch personally to voice his appreciation.
0:59.0	What was all that about?
1:00.0	What did old Blue Eyes want you for?
1:01.0	Well, I was all a bit of a surprise because Frank Sinatra had been in the newspapers
1:06.0	and been accused of being part of the mafia.
1:09.0	And I decided I would do a cartoon about it.
1:12.0	I can't remember what the cartoon was about, but it was a funny one, Lightheart, and it wasn't being accusative in any way.
1:18.0	And a month went by and I got a letter from his agent. And his agent said that Frank had asked for the cartoon.
1:26.6	So I sent it off, I was really pleased about that and I thought no more about it, but maybe
1:30.5	six months later I got a letter from him thanking me and saying that he'd been going through a terrible time
1:36.6	and it was really nice to know that he had some support in Britain
1:39.7	so I've kept the letter my daughter's got it in her autograph book still.
	...

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