Jeremy Irons

[Tiger Lil']

I missed most of it - but he chose Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen - so it must have been ok.

Knots though?

[Lawrence Jones]

tigerlily said:

I missed most of it - but he chose Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen - so it must have been ok.

Knots though?

Thought this was a repeat TL, but didn’t really enjoy it. I don’t like smoking and kept thinking of the damage this must have done to his skin and voice. Also the references to being a ‘project manager’ on the castle restoration made me think of Adam Macey in The Archers and I don’t like him. I wondered why Mr. Irons felt the need to offer an explanation in respect of his ‘A’ level failure (spent too much time concentrating on acting).

On the music issue, I never get on with people who like Barb Jungr (very Woman’s Hour and Loose Ends), so I concluded that we’d argue if stuck on the island together. The other mystery was how he’d had this great exposure - and supposed love of music - when employed as a busker, yet he wasn’t aware of John Martyn’s music. This didn’t make any sense!

P.S. It sounded silly when Ms. Lawley called Rugby ‘Rugga’.

[in defence of Jeremy]

Lawrence said:

The other mystery was how he’d had this great exposure - and supposed love of music - when employed as a busker, yet he wasn’t aware of John Martyn’s music. This didn’t make any sense!

Mr Jones you are nit-picking!

I first saw Mr Irons performing live as John the Baptist in Godspell - I was only 11 - but I was on the ball enough to think, what a tosser! The DID program did nothing to change my view of the man.

Yet I defend his right to claim a love of music without having come across John Martyn in particular, or anyone else for that matter....

[Crusoe]

Lawrence said:

Thought this was a repeat TL, but didn’t really enjoy it.

I thought it was a repeat, too, L (although I’m often wrong in these matters).

I have to admit that for someone who claimed to be “dirty” and have a darker side to the workings of his mind, both his responses and his musical choices seemed quite anodyne, although the fact that the interview was a bit bland could easily have been Ms Lawley’s fault. As with some interviews in the past, I wondered if certain subjects were put “off limits”.

I was also surprised by the fact that Ms Lawley referred to his upbringing as “conventional”. It’s not that common for people to go to fee-paying boarding schools.

As I say, I found the musical choices a bit bland although not untypical of a man “of a certain age”, albeit one without a particularly deep interest in music. I quite enjoyed the first track but that was about it. Was he telling showbiz tales about being chums with Eric Clapton? It doesn’t surprise me if he was but my attention had begun to wander a bit by then, I’m afraid.

[Lawrence Jones]

in said:

Mr Jones you are nit-picking!

Sorry I can't address you with your title. Nit-picking suggests a lengthy period was spent analysing the broadcast; the opposite was true and the review was a transient response to the programme.

Generosity and honesty are always important when either reading or listening to the profile of an individual. I’d just finished reading Miss. Dora Bryan’s profile (1) in Fame and Fortune, prior to the commencement of DID and it was a sheer delight to read her honesty, detailing the peaks and troughs within her life. One of the questions asked during this interview relates to the individual’s annual income. This to me is the key to the person’s character and if an interviewee refuses to disclose it – which members of the BBC always do – then I’d be unlikely to trust them or take much interest in their thoughts and views. I hasten to add that I forget the figure very quickly, irrespective of whether it’s £5000 or £500,000. It was Mr. Christopher Evans’s honesty over the issue of money, together with his genuine and profound love of the radio, that made him so appealing when he was a DID guest.

I’ve no doubt that Mr. Irons is a brilliant actor (and I’d certainly never refer to someone as a ‘tosser’), but I was unable to detect any listener generosity (look at his sharp response to Ms. Lawley apropos the Lolita issue) contained within his broadcast and I remain unconvinced that music has been important within his life. Radio is often very important within an actor’s life because they’re exposed to long periods of unemployment. Bob Harris was playing John Martyn’s music way back before 1969, so how come Mr Irons never heard any of this? If he does like dancing, then where does he dance and what records does he like to dancing to? Why no Soul choices? His age is such that he must have been exposed to plenty of this.

P.S. I also found it strange that somone's kids should ask to be sent away to a boarding school.

Reference

(1) Graham, N ‘Fame and Fortune’ The Sunday Times (money section) p14 February 5th 2006

[Lux]

webb said:

I have to admit that for someone who claimed to be “dirty” and have a darker side to the workings of his mind, both his responses and his musical choices seemed quite anodyne

I've just heard the Friday repeat and have to agree.

As I say, I found the musical choices a bit bland although not untypical of a man “of a certain age”, albeit one without a particularly deep interest in music. I quite enjoyed the first track but that was about it. Was he telling showbiz tales about being chums with Eric Clapton? It doesn’t surprise me if he was but my attention had begun to wander a bit by then, I’m afraid.

I thought it curious that two of his choices were cover versions of well-known songs (not very good cover versions imo) - perhaps the influence of his busking background? The Eric Clapton was also not the most often-heard version, and the Bob Dylan was not a "straightforward" choice such as Bob's own version of "I Want You" might have been. I smiled though at the thought that the version of "Let it Be" was introduced by Mr Irons' saying that he had become interested in Irish music since going to live there.

The musical choices (apart from the first) did seem to be restrained on the whole, lacking in passion, like the interview.

What he said about Eric Clapton was that on the occasions when they had met, they liked each other. I found it more amusing to hear that he had met someone at Getty's. If he meant John Paul Getty's house, that's a bit more like name-dropping!

[Lux]

Forgot to mention - surely he shouldn't have been allowed a book of knots, since he seemed to specifically say he wanted to use the knowledge to build a raft.

Isn't anything of practical use - in particular, of use in helping the castaway to escape from the island - against the rules?

[renegade]

rules are made to be broken

[Guest]

Does anyone have a recording of the programme in any format?

[another guest]

you should be able to listen again

[rosalie]

you can't 'listen again' to Desert Island Discs

[returning guest]

How annoying is that.