An interview with
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| Radio Collection: Martin, what defines the essence of Richmal Crompton's stories? Martin Jarvis: Throughout her long writing career, she continually expressed both the blessedness and ludicrousness of life. Her sense of comedy is timeless and, through the character of the imaginative, lateral-thinking William, we can see her own genius peeping through as she conveys a true picture of English village life (and beyond) from the 1920s right up to the end of the Sixties. If a Martian landed and wanted a swift rundown on aspects of life in the twentieth century, we could do a lot worse than present him with the William books (or perhaps tapes) and say 'It's all in there."
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| RC: You've described yourself as a conduit between the stories and the audience. Is there a character you particularly enjoy portraying - or one which you had difficulty in arriving at? MJ: Crompton in fact makes it fairly easy for the performer. Like Dickens, or Wodehouse, the characters are so perfectly imagined and described that one only has to follow her 'directions'. The Outlaws – Ginger, Henry, Douglas and William himself – initially caused me a little trouble. Four boys, all the same age, all from the same background. How to differentiate between them? If you listen to the recordings, I hope you will find that that they do sound sufficiently different from each other, each with their own defining characteristics. Ginger has a kind of loyal brightness in his voice, appropriate to the character of William's trusty lieutenant. Henry, the 'historian' of the group, sounds more 'boffinous'. Douglas is a little slower, almost gloomy, looking as he does on the dark side and often expecting that their exploits will 'end in death.' William himself - well, I really don't do a voice for him. It's just his attitude, his glorious invention, "doin' good, ritin' rongs and persuin' happiness". I am always hoping that the listener will project him or herself into the heart of the tale, and that what they hear when they follow William in their mind's eye is - almost - themselves. RC: Does reading the stories in front of an audience affect "the way you tell 'em"? MJ: As we discovered when we recorded RC: March sees the Radio Collection's 'Highway Code', as read by yourself and your wife Rosalind Ayres. Can you tell us a little about this? MJ: Very simply, a year ago the Radio 4 Sunday morning programme Broadcasting House asked me to read some small items from The Highway Code. This was just a bit of fun. But it struck me that a straightforward recording of the entire Code might be a useful adjunct to the booklet itself. It has certainly come out very well and, with two voices instead of one, the sometimes quite complex information is conveyed to the listener relatively painlessly. There's music, too! RC: What other projects do you have on the anvil? MJ: Quite a few. I'm producing Modem Gal for Radio 4's Afternoon Play, which Ros Ayres is directing. And we have just completed an audio recording of selections from both the Old and New Testaments (the King James version.) This is for CSA Telltapes and is released in March/April 2001. I'm currently in America, playing Jeeves in By Jeeves, the Ayckbourn/Lloyd Webber musical play, directed by Alan Ayckbourn (he's a great Just William fan, by the way!). I've also recently completed playing the 'baddie' in a new British film, Mrs Caldicot's Cabbage War. RC: Unusually, you've had success in all four acting mediums - theatre, television, film and radio. If you had to choose one and stick to it, which would it be and why? MJ: I'd hate to be confronted with such a choice. Also, I have never believed that one medium is so different from another. Radio, for instance, is really a way of shooting a movie in your head and projecting it to the listener. I like moving around. You keep learning new things that way. And what's that old adage about it being harder to hit a moving target? RC: You starred with Diane Keen in the late Seventies BBC1 sitcom Rings On Their Fingers. In your opinion, what's the state of sitcom's health these days? MJ: I loved doing Rings. It was written
by the late Richard Waring who, like Ayckbourn, had a great ear
for middle-class domestic dialogue. Times are always changing
and sit-com has correctly broadened out from the 'Darling, I'm
home/Hello darling, the Vicar's coming to tea' situations. But,
as long as there are still writers around like Bernadette Davis
(co-writer of BBC2 sitcom Game On), Andy Hamilton, Guy
Jenkin and RC: Another immensely popular Radio Collection series is Doctor Who - which you appeared in three times, over the course of twenty years. How did each experience compare, and what was each Doctor like to work with? MJ: Playing a giant butterfly opposite William Hartnell in The Web Planet (1964) was an interesting tv debut. My main problem was trying not to get my wings caught in the lift doors when we went up to lunch. I was a weird scientist in Invasion of the Dinosaurs (1974). Jon Pertwee was witty and charming, but the dinosaurs were somewhat wooden. Or rubbery. In 1985 I graduated to perhaps my most interesting Doctor Who role, The Governor in Vengeance on Varos.This was very well written, a remarkable satire on a television-dominated society. The Doctor was Colin Baker, who had previously played Laertes to my Hamlet. Martin Jarvis, thank you. Just William – Live on Stage is available from all good book and music retailers. Single CD, 1 hour approx. £8.99 ISBN
0563535091 For more details, see our new releases page.
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