THEATRE ARCHIVE PROJECT http://sounds.bl.uk Gale, Peter – interview transcript Interviewer: Halima Memoniat 3 February 2012 Peter Gale, actor, on: Frith Banbury, Ingrid Bergman, Dorothea Brooking, Byre Theatre, Fay Compton, Sir Noël Coward, Cowardy Custard, Fringe theatre, Drury Lane, Gay Hamilton, Lionel and Clarissa, Look Back in Anger; Chris Luscombe, Kenneth Moore, Albery Theatre, John Osborne, Sir Terence Rattigan, Sir Michael Redgrave; repertory theatre, Samson Agonistes, Southwark Playhouse Theatre, television, The Winslow Boy, Yvonne Arnaud Theatre. PG: Here we go…yes, I just had to sign my name, and I always have to think twice because my real name is Richard, but there was already a Richard Gale in the business who I worked with later – Ricky Gale, very nice actor; so I chose Peter, because I’m Richard Lionel Peter Gale, and I thought Peter Gale was alright. It’s a very common name, Peter…but anyway, but that’s immaterial. HM: Ok, I just wanted to know how you first became involved with the theatre, as you were telling me before. PG: Yes. Well its quite interesting because as I said, it’s as if those upstairs are watching over us all (not that I’m particularly religious) but it’s as if they always shoved me in that direction because when I was a kid I used to put on little puppet shows for children, very poor, very poor background. I was born in Slough, in terraced housing with no inside loo, an outside lavatory, no bathroom etc. But I always – it was the early days of television and I watched something called Muffin the Mule and I was enchanted by this as a child to see a lady called Annette Mills playing the piano and these little marionettes coming onto the top of her piano and she’d talk to them. And I thought ‘oh this is wonderful’ because I know these creatures aren’t really alive but somehow the way she spoke to these little creatures – little muffin, he was a mule and there was a kangaroo and all sorts; she bought them to life. And I thought this is just bewitchingly gorgeous and entertaining and fun. And I was given a muffin the mule puppet for my birthday. HM: Aw. PG: And, oh well, I just fell in love with him, he was my darling. I used to make a little bed for him and look after him...And so I then, emboldened by that, I started to sort of put on – oh yes my brother - he was at grammar school which was just amazing in those days. The Labour government helped a lot of poor people, you know, gave them a leg up in the world and Bob went to Bristol University which was like going to the moon to us; it was amazing. And he went to the grammar school earlier and in his carpentry class they made a marionette theatre. By sheer chance he said one day, ‘we’re going to chuck it out because it’s just wood and we’ve made it and that’s the end of the lesson, do you want it?’ and I said ‘oh yeah could you bring it home?’ he says ‘it’s a bit heavy’. This great big crate he bought it home; I think a friend of his helped him http://sounds.bl.uk Page 1 of 12 Theatre Archive Project through the streets of Slough and then every Sunday I used to put on a little puppet show I just made it up as I went along; it was a load of rubbish really. And then every Christmas or birthday I would be given a puppet, another string puppet, and that would become my little cast of characters. And it taught me at a young age the importance of a story and how...I wasn’t very good at making up...I used to look at it on television and think ‘oh that’s easy!’ it’s not easy at all. That’s why all actors need writers; anyway that’s another story. But that’s what really started me off and then my dad was a shoe shine in a hotel in London and one of the customers was an ex-film star called Ben Lyon and he was – my dad was a friendly kind of guy and he chatted to everybody – and Ben said, ‘how’re the boys? How’s your son doing who likes puppets and all that?’ and he said ‘well he failed the eleven-plus’ – I failed the eleven-plus and I was sent to a secondary modern school. And he said, ‘well if he likes theatre and puppets and things why don’t you just send him to a stage school?’ and Dad said, ‘we can’t afford that, its way out of our means.’ and he said ‘no, what they do, is they do classes in the morning and then in the afternoon they do singing and dancing and acting and all sorts.’ and he said, ‘they get them professional work and the fees that they’re paid go towards paying the…’. So I didn’t get any of that money but it went straight to the school. And I did. I went there - Arts Educational it was called. I did Peter Pan; I was one of the lost boys in Peter Pan. I was in a play called The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker and in those days I called myself Richard Peters, I think, as far as I can remember, I don’t know why I did that. Anyway, I did television. I worked with Dorothea Brooking who was a very important TV director and producer. She did a massive amount, the - what is it called? – The Secret Garden, she did; The Railway Children; I was also in the railway children... HM: Oh you were? PG: I was the little boy...Well they did it several times, I wasn’t in the Jenny Agutter [ph] – marvellous film – I was the boy who broke his leg in the tunnel and A Little Store, a children’s TV paly about David and Goliath, in which I was David, pretending to play a harp as I sang, while Maria Korchinska played a huge harp beautifully – off camera! It went out live. Twice! But after that I got five O-levels at that school, at Arts Educational. In fact, ironically enough that was enough to get me to my local grammar school, which I’d failed to get to when I failed the eleven-plus. So I went to the grammar school but even though I got two A- levels they weren’t the right ones to go to university. You know, in those days you had to have a language and a science or something. So somebody said that I should try for a drama college and I did – and cut a long story short – I got into Central School of Speech and Drama, which was a three year course, and I came out of that in 1962 with the gold Medal and the Ibsen Prize and I went straight into rep at St. Andrews right at the far end of the country, right up north in Scotland and it was real rep. In those days every two weeks we did a different play. We made the sets ourselves, we made the costumes sometimes, we used to go round to local houses and ask them if they had any kind of old fashioned clothes up in the attic, if it needed a ball gown or something for a girl, you know, they would come – in fact yes the evening suits for the men – I was Charles Condomine in Blithe Spirit by Noël Coward. There was a suit there, an evening suit, a gentleman’s 1930s, and I remember I spent quite a while stitching up the inside of the leg to make the trousers smaller because they were huge; so it was quite fun. I mean it was damned hard work; I couldn’t do it now, every two weeks a different show. During the summer – it was a whole year – during the summer we did several weeks of Billy Liar, a comedy, a very popular comedy then. I played Billy and a girl came over from the college in Glasgow I think it was – Glasgow. She played Liz my girlfriend and my grandmother in the same play. HM: Oh! How did that work? PG: She was brilliant. She put on the grey wig for the Gran and so it was twice a day, so she had to, you know, do that twice a day, two different characters. And I’m still in touch with her, Gay Hamilton her name http://sounds.bl.uk Page 2 of 12 Theatre Archive Project is. When she finished her course at Glasgow she went on to work with Stanley Kubrick; she was in Barry Lyndon. She played the girl who seduces Barry Lyndon in that wonderful scene with the cards I think they play cards together – have you ever seen it? HM: No I haven’t. PG: It’s quite a film. It’s an amazing film. It’s a costume drama. HM: Okay. PG: Ryan O’Neal plays the young man, you probably don’t know him...you’re young. But in those days he was a big star in movies. So that’s what really launched me into the theatre. But before that I’d also – when I was at drama school I could always sing – and I’d done a bit of tap-dancing as a kid.