Hello, I'm Kirsty Young and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music. The programme was originally broadcast in 1992 and the presenter was Sue Lawley. My castaway this week is an actor. On in Derbyshire 42 years ago, he is recognised today as one of Britain's most versatile performers. He learned his craft at... And in rep, coming to prominence as the star of a BBC sitcom, Citizen Smith, in the 70s. The mid-eighties found him an overnight success on Broadway in Me and My Girl and he's recently won the Best Actor award at BAFTA for his portrayal of a left-wing counselor in the television play GBH.

He's just taken the West End by storm in the role of Henry II in Arnaud's Becket. It's an impressive variety, appropriate perhaps for the man who, as a boy, was first attracted to acting by the schoolteacher who invented for his pupils the Grand Order of Thespians. He is Robert Lindsay. So is that how it all started with this teacher at school, Bob? I guess it was, John Lally. I was at this very tough secondary modern school. I should have passed my 11 plus. I never know why. Maybe I wasn't paying attention. I don't know. Have you remained ashamed of not passing your 11 plus? Yes. It lives with me. You. So you went to a rough secondary mark did you? It was rough, oh it was rough. Gladstone and right in the middle of town. And if you didn't wear a leather jacket, you were not accepted, you know, and if you didn't smoke cigarettes, and it was... I was frightened. I remember the day walking into the gates. I had never been so frightened in my life. I mean, because I'd heard all these terrible stories.

But in fact, it turned out for me, a very lucky experience, because all the teachers there were really cared. Genuinely cared. And they dealt with the boys as boys. And you felt if... Actually, the only way of succeeding for that school was to go into sciences or engineering or industry or whatever. But John Malley, this art master, who eventually became the headmaster, introduced to the school this, this, this group the granddaughter of thespians and the kids took it on, they really did. Didn't they think it was sissy? Yeah, of course they did for a while. But he was very clever because he... He got everyone involved. He got the maths department doing the accounts, he got the metalwork and the woodwork building the sets. So suddenly everyone was putting on a play. But you took to it immediately, did you? I mean, you were a natural on the stage from the start. Dr. Water. Dr. Water. I just loved it and I loved showing off. And do you think that Mr. Lally was aware that he'd...

Come across a rather remarkable talent? - No, I think even he got frightened when I started saying I really want to be an actor, 'cause I don't think even he envisaged that there was a career for anyone wanting to be an actor. - Let's have your first record, what is it? - Well, it's Sparky's Magic Echo. And contrary to your research, it's not Sparky's Magic Piano. I'm glad you found it because it wasn't the first thing I remembered. It was a real story. I remember listening to it with Uncle Mac when I was a kid. Everyone did. And it was a story, it had a through line. And it was a boy in search of his echo, he loses his echo and goes to find it. One day as usual, Sparky stood in front of his house where he could see the-

in the distance and he began to sing his song. Sparky's magic echo So you were an Uncle Mac child, you're a pink toothbrush and a blue toothbrush and champion the Wonder Horse. Yeah, champion the Wonder Horse, that's the one I don't remember. I do. That was a TV show. No, I was with Uncle Mac every Saturday morning. Home was a council estate in Derbyshire. Council estate in Ilkeston in Derbyshire. And your dad was a carpenter. Dad was a carpenter. Or joiner, we should say. Yeah. I never would have thought of that. Work out the difference. Well join us at posher, join us at cleverer. I think, well, maybe carpenters are more religious. They do their dovetails better. Yes, okay. And your mum, did she go out to work?

Yeah, Mum's had a variety of jobs working at Raleigh and Players, the factory in Nottingham. She was always working in factories on the factory floor and then later she's always worked as a cleaner. Tough times my family, I never realised as a kid it was such a good upbringing. I was an only child when I was eleven and it was very protective. Very causative, very lonely. I mean I didn't have many kid friends so I imagined a lot and played a lot and I was very protected. I always remember long summers and plenty of food and Christmas presents and I was really It's interesting though that you made your name as a player of kind of cockney characters that you never really exploited the Derbyshire accent. Happened. When I came to London I suppose I really tried to cling on to my northern roots and my

accent, but I knew I wasn't getting anywhere. I had to sort of open out as it were, and then she gave in. And I think what happened was, as a self-defence mechanism, I developed another working class accent, which was Cockney, because I was living in London and started talking like the cab drivers, and you know, just to sort of be accepted. But it's strange you've never... Been offered a kind of DH Lawrence here you'd make a wonderful Paul Morel in Sons and Sons. Oh, I'd love to do a DH Lawrence play and I've always think they've been very abused I've never seen yet a DH Lawrence play or production or film or whatever that I thought was right. So what did your parents think when you said you wanted to be an actor? I... Really confused. I think they tried to put on a brave face, but even they were really confused. It wasn't a proper job. No, it wasn't a proper job.

And frighteningly they were being told horror stories and so on, but I really made up my mind and got the bug. Although I fooled everyone that I was going to be a teacher of drama. That's why I went to Clarendon College, take A levels and go down to one of the training schools like Rose-Bruford or Guildhall or something. And then once I'd set up that deceit, that web of deceit, I went round everyone's back and borrowed a few quid from some friends at Clarendon and went to RADA and got in first time. There's pause there for your second record. Well this is another reminder of childhood really. It's the beginning of my, I don't know, comic side. All those radio shows I could have chosen. Goons, Hancock, whatever. I'm really plump for roundabout. The horn because I remember those Sunday dinners. Call it lunch now don't we Sue?

Sunday dinner as a lad with Yorkshire pudding and roast beef listening to this great show and laughing at the pauses because you were imagining people in silence sitting around the table eating and listening to this show and really getting involved In it brings back great memories Recently, I was asked to organize a cabaret for the director general of the BBC. They said they wanted something different So I popped down to a little agency in the chairing committee Road that I'd heard of it was called Boner Performers. Hello anybody there? Hello I'm Julian this is my friend Sandy. We're your Boner Performers. Boner Performers we are. Oh it's Miss Rawn. Oh how nice to bow to you. Dolly O'Deak again. Oh, well what brings you trolling in here? Well, I've been asked to organise a cabaret for the BBC on the 15th. Now, I was wondering if you could fix me up.

Yes, ducky. Oh, BBC, is it? Oh, well, you want something a bit risqué for that knob. How about Queenie? I think she is at Liberty, isn't she? Queenie? Well, what does Queenie do? Oh, she does striptease with a difference. Normally, she's the bearded lady. She's got a long beard right down to her ankles. Right down. Yes, and instead of stripping, she just comes on and shaves. Kenneth Horne and Hugh Paddock and Kenneth Williams as Julian and Sandy from Round the Horn and memories of... It's that smell of roast beef that goes by every time you hear Kenneth Horne's voice. Yeah, but Kenneth Horne is representative of everything that's BBC, isn't he? Yeah, yeah. And that madness going around him, and him still trying to retain the BBC voice. Tell me about being auditioned for Radha then. How old were you when you went? I'd be 18. Yeah 18 to 20 that's right. What did you perform? A James Baldwin play Blues for Mr. Charlie. Plain black would you believe. And Launts from Two Dances.

I was more shocked at being in London really, it was the first time in London, with the suitcase. And standing outside RADA for hours staring at it and knowing I was going to get in. That was the crazy thing. And the lines and cues of people. How did you know you just knew it was fate somehow? I just... I don't know. I just had this weird... Notion I was going to get in. Did they snap you up immediately? Yeah. The letter came? I mean literally within two days. So your mum came round to the idea, did she? Yeah. You know that story as well, do you? It is absolutely true. I mean, anything with royal on it, you know, in Ilkeston has got to be on, you know, because they're great royal lovers up there and that was it for everyone. I mean, I was a local hero right from that point. Go on, tell me about your mum. Oh right. She literally rapped down the street saying... He's got into the Royal Academy, you know, and the Queen lives there. That was the famous line

She thought she actually lived there or she popped in? No, well, goes there. The Queen pops in there. Well, that's why it had to be with the royal. It had to be. But it turned out to be a bit of a mixed-bessing, didn't it? Because you weren't entirely at ease there. Well, it's sparky again, I guess, you know, going out. And looking in search of the echo and then finding it's not there and then growing up and finding out reality. I mean, I suppose it's working-class chips first developed at RADA. But why? I mean, why? Well, suddenly finding out you had to live on a grant of £130 a turn and fend for yourself, cook for yourself and grow up. It was like going to university, same thing. But it must also have been to do with the sort of people you were mixing with. Yeah, rich, wealthy people. I mean, rather at that point I think it was parts of finishing school as well, had that element to it and there were a lot of... Debutantes there and people, actually people arriving in Rolls Royces. I could, it was another world. Did it make a difference to you though, Ant Rada, that you were not as privileged as many of the people there you mixed with?

Did it make you more determined to succeed in any way? Yes it did, but you see that this business... This is a great leveller. One thing about this business is it's not class structured. It really isn't. I've always reveled in that. I mean, I've always felt comfortable with other actors, whatever background they come from, 'cause we taught one language. And I suddenly felt very comfortable once I'd realized that. - Record number three. - Oh, The Beatles. If I had my choice, I'd play every single Beatles, but I've got to choose one. So I'm going to choose I'm a loser. That's a terrible title really. I've just realised how poignant and how wrong. No, the Beatles represent everything to me of growing up and they gave me such confidence and I remember buying all their albums the moment they came out, literally queuing up at the record shop.

'cause they were telling a story. I was, and I identified with them so much. They gave me the confidence, and they'll never know, thousands of people the confidence and we went on the whole journey with them and we all ended up in the same situation in various ways you know with Sergeant Pepper and splitting up and wherever they went it was a trip through the sixties and seventies I'm a loser and I'm not what I am. And I'm a loser. It was through television though Robert Lindsay wasn't it that you first made your name?

Citizen Smith, you played Wolfie Smith, the leader of the tooting popular front, what, late 70s? How else do you make your name put on TV? I mean, you know, you can go on in theatre for adding for an item and never be... Known. TV's the one thing that brings you to recognition, I guess, in this country, certainly. So you made three series of that and you ended up hating it, hating him? Well, I guess yes, I did but I you know, I look back now with with great affection Why did you hate him at the time? I was so Famous, I guess I couldn't go anywhere I mean literally I was mobbed I mean they go shopping and the place would stop. Once in Manchester, some builders screaming power to the people from this building. And one of them fell off, he was so excited, he was like, wait, wait, he kept sharing. Wait, wait, I want to autograph or whatever he wanted. And in his anxiety, he fell off the roof and threw an awning into the street below. And he got up and ran across the street.

Survived the fall through the audience. It was so exciting. - It still came for you. - That kind of hysteria that was going on. - But why didn't you like that? A lot of people would. - It was just the fear of not being able to be myself and I, 'cause it was very much a character that I played. then. Although I didn't, you see, this is a mistake I made. I started playing Wolfie Off and started playing the... You know with the Levi's and the because it was part me part John Sullivan part what I wanted it me to be there was a bit of fantasy there because he was the Rebel. That's where the danger lies then because you begin to be typecast. That's right and I saw the danger and fortunately I was surrounded by people who saw the danger must get out. But you went on and did other television series. Although I didn't because then I got involved with the Royal Exchange in Manchester and people like Michael Elliott and Brian Murray and Caspar Rader who ran it. Saw this other side to me and fortunately what I did, I combined work at the Royal Exchange and then went down and earned a few Bob.

It's the usual story, is it? The television finance the ability to do the theatre. But meanwhile you were doing what was for you I think quite a memorable Hamlet. At the time of the Royal Exchange. My work at the Royal Exchange culminated in Hamlet. I'd already done a production with Olivier on screen of King Lear for Granada and then during that time I was talking about doing Hamlet and I little realised that we'd end up doing it in a tent which is a marquee, it was seated 900 people and we took it to sports halls all over the north of England and it culminated at the roof of the Barbican in London and I say on the roof, it was on the roof of the Barbican

open to the elements except the audience were fine, the actors had to brave the elements. We complained to Equity about the cold on the roof, management didn't really see our point of view and they supplied us with these baco foil sheets that athletes use to wrap around you to insulate you and I decided to go off and have a pee one night, went up the 18th floor and got lost in my baco foil with my, oh I always had my skull with me and my dagger and my Bible and met two cleaners and I asked them where the roof was, like completely lost and the thought was completely insane reported me the long and the short of it was I was literally arrested as I found the tent again by this guard, security guard. Hamlet never appeared again. No, Hamlet appeared, yes. He threatened the security guard with a dagger. So who do you think I am? Let's have your next record. Where are we? We're back in a northern town again.

Further. Probably this is leaving home in a way. I first heard this record when I was in Me and My Girl on Broadway. I was so homesick, ridiculously homesick. And I guess that when I heard this song it sort of captured everything that was nostalgic about being in the north of England. *Music* ♪ Turn away ♪ The Dream Academy and life in a northern town and memories of homesickness in the States. It was the musical Me and My Girl, as you said, that took you there. How did you come to do that? I mean, it was...

Strange and obviously in the end an original idea because it was an obscure 30s musical that that was I running around the Barbican roof in a bake or fall sheet and a man Richard Armitage was sent to see me, who was the head of Noel Gay, who I know you know very well, who I think became... Eventually became my mentor. I mean, he was such a powerful influence on that part of my life. And when I met him, I loathed him. I thought he was everything that an agent shouldn't be, you know, cigar smoking, 10 phone calls at the same time, not concentrating on. And he became like a father figure. I miss him greatly. When the show opened on Broadway. But it was his father, Noel Gay was his father. Noel Gay who wrote the whole thing, yeah absolutely. It was a great hit here and then a year later you took it to Broadway. It was an over, it was a fairy tale. Success really wasn't it? It really was yeah. Did you expect it to be a hit in the States? No of course not. A little English musical. It came from left field as they say in the States.

You know, I mean, there was the huge shows, Le Miserable and Phantom of the Opera, that were big hype shows and great budgets. And Richard put this on for 250,000 quid at Leicester. But what was it like? I mean it's not something you kind of expected to happen to be, the toast of Broadway. What's it like that experience, having all these great and the good...

Coming back as you say in the business? You can't really explain it to anyone. I mean, you start literally one day anonymous and the next huge star. That's how it happens. I mean, you go to ball games and your name is put up in lights and the Times Square puts your reviews up and you go to restaurants and people stand up and applaud and you don't pay for anything. And everything's just done for you. But then you get on this rather frightening treadmill where everyone's controlling your life for you. And not because you're an Englishman and just refuses to say no. You say yes to everything. You're doing every chat show, every newspaper and there's millions of them. The States is a huge country. Let's have your next record, the Me and My Girl one. Which one is it? It's Hold My Hand and it's me singing. I shouldn't do this really. Ego gone mad here. And Marianne Plunkett who was my leading lady in New York. And I've chosen it because it...

Balmatych wanted this song and it reminds me of him. You require a lot of looking after. That's one job in which I take a pride. *music* ♪ Keep me always at your side to guide you ♪ ♪ I'll guide you ♪ I cast away Robert Lindsay and Marianne Plunkett with Hold My Hand from Me and My Girl. At home you discovered that your friend Alan Bleasdale had written this hugely long script for television called GBH with you in mind as the central character. Yes, well Alan wasn't my friend. I knew who he was, he knew who I was. The only time I knew that...

We were destined to work together was a phone call I had with Julie Walters about maybe two years before I went to Broadway. One of these rather drunken conversations you have very late at night and she said, Alan Bleasdale's a great fan of yours and wants to meet you one day. That's the only contact I'd ever had with a man. But he'd spotted you, that's what he does. Oh yes, Alan spotted me, yes. But he'd written this part for you of Michael Murray which, you know, is something of a monster. I mean it's quite a dark character that. Were you flattered or were you worried that he'd written this bit for you? No, very flattered because I knew there was this very dark scene. To me anyway. I had explored it out of the public limelight I guess, places like the Royal Exchange, various things I'd done and Alan, of course he's a watcher, you know a great observer, new and I'm delighted. And there was this a dark side to your acting ability or are you saying

to you too? Oh inevitably there's a dark side to me. I mean I think my whole family have a dark side. You know, I think where you come from and how you're brought up doesn't have an effect, although it's very secure and very lovely, you still, there's something about that upbringing that makes you tough and also angry sometimes about certain situations. Yes, there is a dark side. But of course what happens to... Michael Murray is the character who gradually disintegrates and he develops this, I don't know quite how you do it, cheek on the radio but he closes. Do people do this too? You're rather like they shouted 'power to the people'... In a way. Slightly less frenetic, but I guess people do it all the time. In fact, there was a wonderful story, we were shopping down a high street a couple of weeks ago and saw two blokes describing this character. They didn't know I was behind them. Both hands shooting up in the air describing it, what this fella did on GBH.

It also at the same time bordered on the comic, didn't it? Yes, well it was. It was a very fine line you had to tread. I think that's the joy of it, of playing it. Because I knew it was this savage, ambitious, angry man with this bitterness. There was this great madness that led into comedy. And there was Alan who just let me go. There were whole scenes where I could do comic scenes. And that, of course, is me. I think, essentially, I'd love to be a comedian. I'd like to be funny. I love being funny with other people's lines. - Record number six. - Well, I mean, Nat King Cole's the king, isn't he? And I had a real problem with this because in so much that there's a whole list of people from Sinatra and Crosby and Ella Fitzgerald. But in the end, Nat King Cole's voice has to win. Just listening to that voice makes you feel good, makes you feel comfortable and secure. And let there be love.

*Music* ♪ Let there be cuckoos ♪ ♪ A lark and a dove ♪ ♪ But first of all please ♪ ♪ Let there be love ♪ - Nat King Cole and Let There Be Love. You're said, thinking of your portrayal of Henry and Beckett, you're said to have no nerves on the stage, to be a bit dangerous. I mean, how much do you like to test yourself on the lives? I think that's what keeps me going in the business. I never had that experience anywhere else. and it's... I'm not, I am fearless on stage and I have no, I'm not, I don't even pretend to be humble about it. I...

It doesn't, I'm not worried at all. I remember Derek Jacoby saying to me, I do you never get nervous? And I get that tingle, but I. I don't get frightened. So what is it you're on the line about? You're testing yourself. Yes. And the audience's reaction to it and how far I can go. There's a lot goes on before you do that. It's not exactly wing and a prayer, is it? You do a lot of homework. Yes, I mean preparation-wise a lot of Beckett was wasted I have to say I did awful lot of research on Henry and to find out that really ennui was writing about the The occupation of France and was using the story Purely for that as an allegory But in the meantime you'd swallowed every history book you could find? Yeah, absolutely. It was a complete waste of time because in fact the character of on we had there's no resemblance to the real king and in fact was a very nice fella and a very good leader and a good king. And I think the director Elijah Myshinsky Accused you of bringing too much baggage to the class? Yes, that's right, he did. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yes, I think you can do. You can bring in too much baggage. Uh, it's a very good note, I think.

What you're like you carry a lot of baggage. Thank you. It's obviously the way you do I mean you are actually very serious and very diligent aren't you behind your may I say Charming little maker front, there's quite a lot of hard work goes on isn't there? Well I mean I think it's a career you know that I take very seriously and Well, here he goes. - No, but I'm saying more than that. I mean, you're a worrier, aren't you? - Yeah. - You're a very ordered, neat and tidy, diligent fellow. I have done research. Yes, I- it's okay. Yes, I am. But I don't think Di would agree with you about it at home. I'm a complete mess. Hence the fact that it took me so long to prepare this thing. I imagine going off to a desert island and what I try and pack. I'd never go. I'm useless. I mean I... But when you got there, your island would be quite a little picture, wouldn't it, by the time you'd finished?

Organising it. Yes, it's very organised. I've been busy trying to get off it. I am one of these, because of my profession and my newfound wealth, I guess, I've managed to go to desert islands and it's not what it's like. Cracked up to be, I can tell you. I remember going once to one in the Caribbean, actually an atoll with one little tree on it. And I'm staying there for an hour and a half and wanting to get off that place so badly. Were you by yourself? Mm-hmm. Are you any good by yourself? Are you completely hopeless? No, I don't see the point of being hopeless. On your own very much. I think thinking about yourself for too long does... it's very dangerous. I think as part of the symptom of today, I think we all think too much about ourselves. And one of the worrying things about doing programs like this is actually talking about yourself for too long. The whole joy of being in this business and being an actor and doing your job, doing any media job, is communication.

Knowing about people, understanding people, what makes them tick. How can you do that on your own on a desert island? Got out of that very well, didn't I? Go on, then. Record number seven. Oh, well, this is... this is a bit of classic. Here. I'd chosen a whole lot of classical songs but I suddenly thought that might be a bit pretentious. I chose this because it labo em. It's my first opera I ever went to see with Elijah Myshinsky, the man who told me to drop all the baggage. And in fact he took me because I had a real chip about opera and he directed a lot of opera and I was working with him on a production of Cymbeline for the BBC, one of the BBC Shakespeare side. He said, I'm going to take you to see an opera, and I bet I can change your mind. And I said, No way. I said, Just rich people, fur coats, jewellery dripping everywhere. I can't bear it. It's dreadful. The whole thing. It's just for very, very rich and...

And pampered people. I've never been so blown away in my life. I have never seen anything so beautiful. I wept from start to finish. I was a gibbering wreck when I left that theatre. Yes, and there were a lot of rich people there as well. And the particular piece I've chosen, because I like... I had to tell me the story and they're running commentary as well which is brilliant because the director was there You know, this is a bit the two men sing about love and I thought oh really two men talking because men don't That. Men, I've always amazed how women talk to each other. I was once party to a conversation of women in a toilet and I've never had... A conversation like that in my life and I thought men never talk to each other like that. Ever. And erm, I, so this piece is quite poignant.

- Yussi Bjorling and Robert Merrill singing part of the Aria o Mimi tu piu non toni from the final act of Puccini's Labuem with the RCA Victor Orchestra conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham. - So glad you had to say that. - Does it become more difficult? you become more successful in that whatever you do now it will be high profile, it will be talked about and it will be criticised if it's not very good. So it's got to be right. I think if your heart's in the right place, if you really do want to do something and that's, then you can only be right. It may be wrong for the public, but if it's right for you then that's all that matters. It really is. That's my philosophy now.

- And I'm sticking with it. - So the money doesn't matter as much as it did, obviously. No, but you have to maintain the same rules, you have to survive, so you've got to combine the two still. Michael Morais don't come around every week, but there are lots of classical roles I have to play. I mean, there's Serana de Bergerac, which I'm toying with at the moment, and Elijah Mashinsky wants to direct that, and we've worked together well before, so we may do that end of this year or the beginning of next. But is that part of you, the performer in you in that song and dance sense, that one feels there's still more of a... To come. There was a wonderful review, I think Michael Ratcliffe in The Observer wrote that your performance in Me and My Girl was a gorgeous, unselfish, endlessly inventive... Display of pleasure in your own gifts, smashing with you. But do you still feel like, would you still love just to... Get out there and move and sing and wow them. But, you know, like Bill Snipsons don't come around every...

You know, you have to find, I mean, I was offered every single musical, you know, from West Side Story to Man of La Mancha when I left, um, Broadway. I know if it comes along it'll be right and I I will I'd love to do another musical I've got to I mean well I can still move last record Well I should go on to Mozart or something or something rather insane I guess or reflective, but I've chosen this and this goes going back again when I was a kid I remember going on summer holidays, you know, they're always raining wandering around promenade somewhere And that's it. And I found Cinerama. Remember Cinerama when it used to go around in tents? - Just the most amazing experience, I went to see 2001 Space Odyssey like many other kids. I was 16 and I've since seen the film 20 times.

I think it was the beginning of a new generation, and it always leaves me with a cold tingling sensation every time I hear it. So I'm going to get one now, aren't I?

The London Symphony Orchestra playing Richard Strauss's Alzo Sprach Zarathustra from the film. 2001. So which is the one record that's most important to you, Bill? Oh of course, I've got to go through this now, haven't I? You know what, this is quite dreadful really, I need to ch-

There's eight pieces now I've got it. Choose one. Yeah well I think it's gonna have to be that because I think if I'm on a desert island and I'm looking at the night sky I think I'd find that quite stirring I get very bored of it eventually but knowing me I'd be off that island very quickly so probably. What about your book? That's also been difficult but it always is isn't it? Isn't life difficult? I've had a major choice and I've got rid of my Charles Dickens which I really want to be. To take and I was going to take the Prophet by Carl Hill Gibron but I've now gone for D H Lawrence and I'm sure there must be a collected work of D H Lawrence, there must But even if there is, you can't have it because you've got to choose one. No more collect. You've got the whole of Shakespeare.

A whole Shakespeare. That's good. That'll keep me busy. And the Bible. That won't be too much use to me. Maybe on a desert island, maybe it will. All right. I'm going to choose Sons and Lovers. - And rehearse the part of Paul Morel, perhaps? - Paul Morel. Isn't that funny? - And your luxury? - My chess set. My computer chess set. It's not practical, is it? No, it's not. Now you say computer, I understand. - I was wondering how you were going to play chess. - I don't know how the batteries are running. I'll run out eventually, but I can have a solar-powered system or something. Great chess player. I love playing chess. Although once did play with Stephen Fry and have never recovered. - He's a bit good, is he? - Rather good. Right. A computer chess set, it is. And let me say, Robert Lindsay, thank you very much indeed - for letting us hear your desert island discs. - Thank you.

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