FIRST IMPRESSIONS: SIMON CALLOW
What are you working on at the moment?
Presenting Tasting Notes on Classic FM, and I’m doing A Christmas Carol at the Arts Theatre. I did it last year. I love Dickens deeply.
When were you at your happiest?
I was very, very happy at my drama school because I found what I was going to do with my life. It was a great school, it was visionary. I had a feeling that absolutely everything was possible. We were very much trained to believe that we were going to change the world. We were like the SAS of drama students.
What is your greatest fear?
I’m very claustrophobic and I have an absolute dread of being trapped in a lift or the Tube, or going into space.
What is your earliest memory?
I was very close to my grandmother and we spent hours together dressing up. I used to wear her clothes. We used to lark around and make plays up. It was fantastic.
Who has been your greatest influence?
There’s a writer, in his late 90s now, called Eric Bentley, who wrote a number of great books about the theatre, such as The Life Of The Drama. It was from him I formed my idea of why we do plays at all.
What do you dislike about yourself?
My left foot.
What is your most treasured possession?
My ring. It was designed by a famous Irish actor called Micheál MacLiammóir. I was his dresser when I was 19, at university. He left it to his partner and his partner left it to a man called Patrick, who gave it to me when I wrote about MacLiammóir in my first book, Being An Actor. It was like Cinderella – it absolutely fitted. MacLiammóir represented a very close link to the theatrical past.
What trait do you most deplore in others?
Self-centredness.
Do you have a fantasy address?
I’d love to live in a place just outside Florence, called Giogoli. It’s a tiny village and there is an estate called Il Milione. It was owned and run by a man called Brandimarte, a silversmith of genius. He was an extraordinary man and had about 27 children from different women. You could stay there and whatever you had – wine, olive oil, vegetables, pork, even the fish – came from the estate. That’s a dream place to me.
What do you most dislike about your appearance?
I don’t think about my appearance because I feel I look completely different to the way I do, until I see myself in the mirror and I can’t understand why I’m so short, because I feel so tall.
What is your all-time favourite book?
Mr Norris Changes Trains by Christopher Isherwood.
What is your favourite film?
La Règle Du Jeu directed by Jean Renoir. It’s a masterpiece, astonishingly shot, scripted, acted.
What is your favourite record or piece of music?
Mozart’s G Minor String Quintet. It’s one of the most overpowering, intense, astonishing pieces of music.
Your favourite meal?
At The Ivy, they have a rather fabulous dish called Roast Devonshire Chicken. They stuff the skin with truffles. And then they make this extraordinary jus, which is just so rich and there’s a lot of cognac in it. It is simply phenomenal.
Who would you most like to come to dinner?
I’m afraid it has to be Charles Dickens.
What historical character do you most admire?
A man called Jiddu Krishnamurti. He was groomed to be the Messiah in the early part of the 20th century by the Theosophists. He renounced the high rank and told them to forget religion, forget all this claptrap and all these formalities and just go home and listen to your heart and your mind. It was such a heroic thing to do because hundreds of thousands of people wanted to acclaim him as the Messiah. He just told them quietly to go home.
What is the nastiest thing anyone has ever said to you?
The critic James Fenton, when I appeared in a play called Total Eclipse, said: ‘Mr Callow’s stomach is a terrible warning to all of the rest of us.’
What is your secret vice?
Liquorice.
Do you write thank-you notes?
Yes.
What phrase do you most overuse?
I don’t know that I do. I try so hard not to overuse phrases.
What single thing would improve the quality of your life?
A much, much larger house.
What would you like your epitaph to say?
I’d like it to say: ‘He made a contribution’.
Tasting Notes With Laithwaite’s Wine is on Sundays at 3pm on Classic FM.
A Christmas Carol is at The Arts Theatre, Great Newport Street, London WC2, until 6 January: 020-7836 8463, www.artstheatrewestend.com
Presenting Tasting Notes on Classic FM, and I’m doing A Christmas Carol at the Arts Theatre. I did it last year. I love Dickens deeply.
When were you at your happiest?
I was very, very happy at my drama school because I found what I was going to do with my life. It was a great school, it was visionary. I had a feeling that absolutely everything was possible. We were very much trained to believe that we were going to change the world. We were like the SAS of drama students.
What is your greatest fear?
I’m very claustrophobic and I have an absolute dread of being trapped in a lift or the Tube, or going into space.
What is your earliest memory?
I was very close to my grandmother and we spent hours together dressing up. I used to wear her clothes. We used to lark around and make plays up. It was fantastic.
Who has been your greatest influence?
There’s a writer, in his late 90s now, called Eric Bentley, who wrote a number of great books about the theatre, such as The Life Of The Drama. It was from him I formed my idea of why we do plays at all.
What do you dislike about yourself?
My left foot.
What is your most treasured possession?
My ring. It was designed by a famous Irish actor called Micheál MacLiammóir. I was his dresser when I was 19, at university. He left it to his partner and his partner left it to a man called Patrick, who gave it to me when I wrote about MacLiammóir in my first book, Being An Actor. It was like Cinderella – it absolutely fitted. MacLiammóir represented a very close link to the theatrical past.
What trait do you most deplore in others?
Self-centredness.
Do you have a fantasy address?
I’d love to live in a place just outside Florence, called Giogoli. It’s a tiny village and there is an estate called Il Milione. It was owned and run by a man called Brandimarte, a silversmith of genius. He was an extraordinary man and had about 27 children from different women. You could stay there and whatever you had – wine, olive oil, vegetables, pork, even the fish – came from the estate. That’s a dream place to me.
What do you most dislike about your appearance?
I don’t think about my appearance because I feel I look completely different to the way I do, until I see myself in the mirror and I can’t understand why I’m so short, because I feel so tall.
What is your all-time favourite book?
Mr Norris Changes Trains by Christopher Isherwood.
What is your favourite film?
La Règle Du Jeu directed by Jean Renoir. It’s a masterpiece, astonishingly shot, scripted, acted.
What is your favourite record or piece of music?
Mozart’s G Minor String Quintet. It’s one of the most overpowering, intense, astonishing pieces of music.
Your favourite meal?
At The Ivy, they have a rather fabulous dish called Roast Devonshire Chicken. They stuff the skin with truffles. And then they make this extraordinary jus, which is just so rich and there’s a lot of cognac in it. It is simply phenomenal.
Who would you most like to come to dinner?
I’m afraid it has to be Charles Dickens.
What historical character do you most admire?
A man called Jiddu Krishnamurti. He was groomed to be the Messiah in the early part of the 20th century by the Theosophists. He renounced the high rank and told them to forget religion, forget all this claptrap and all these formalities and just go home and listen to your heart and your mind. It was such a heroic thing to do because hundreds of thousands of people wanted to acclaim him as the Messiah. He just told them quietly to go home.
What is the nastiest thing anyone has ever said to you?
The critic James Fenton, when I appeared in a play called Total Eclipse, said: ‘Mr Callow’s stomach is a terrible warning to all of the rest of us.’
What is your secret vice?
Liquorice.
Do you write thank-you notes?
Yes.
What phrase do you most overuse?
I don’t know that I do. I try so hard not to overuse phrases.
What single thing would improve the quality of your life?
A much, much larger house.
What would you like your epitaph to say?
I’d like it to say: ‘He made a contribution’.
Tasting Notes With Laithwaite’s Wine is on Sundays at 3pm on Classic FM.
A Christmas Carol is at The Arts Theatre, Great Newport Street, London WC2, until 6 January: 020-7836 8463, www.artstheatrewestend.com