David Frost's Hollywood Legends, BBC Radio 2

Saturday 15 September 2012

A few hours after Sean Connery gatecrashed Andy Murray's US Open press conference, his old mucker from The Man Who Would Be King, Michael Caine, right, was taking a more dignified approach to remaining in the public eye – or public ear, at least.

Custom byline text:

Alan Morrison

Buffing up well-polished tales from his early life and career on David Frost's Hollywood Legends (BBC Radio 2, Tuesday, 10pm), the Londoner was visited at his home on the River Thames, which gave the conversation between these two knights of the realm an old-school intimacy.

There were glimpses here of an earlier era when the celebrity interview was an artform in itself. Where today we typically get Keith Lemon plugging his putrid product in front of a fawning Jonathan Ross, here we were treated to a couple of class acts who recognise that a good anecdote works all the better in the hands of a craftsman. Caine followed a straight path through his formative years – drama classes, the Blitz, National Service, the name change, his big-screen break with Zulu, Terence Stamp, Henry Fonda, The Italian Job, his wife Shakira – and while it's true that several of these stories have been narrated before in magazine articles, biographies and the actor's own memoirs, it's a richer experience to hear them retold in that distinctive voice.Rather bizarrely, the flow was all too frequently broken by musical inserts. I didn't have a problem with the up-top use of a DJ remix of Roy Budd's theme from Get Carter – it proved that the man who plays Batman's butler in the Dark Knight movies retains a relevance for 21st-century audiences even though he's old-school in his essence. But too many music clips (from The White Cliffs Of Dover, through John Barry's score for The Ipcress File, to Cilla Black singing Alfie) were used to soundtrack Frost's biographical links.In the end, despite the show's title, Hollywood was barely touched on. Caine did, however, have the final word on the Tinseltown stars of his era ("more isolated, better looking and worse actors") compared to those of today. More entertaining with an anecdote too, I'd guess.

Contextual targeting label:

Arts and Entertainment

Commenting & Moderation

We moderate all comments on HeraldScotland on either a pre-moderated or post-moderated basis. If you're a relatively new user then your comments will be reviewed before publication and if we know you well then your comments will be subject to moderation only if other users or the moderators believe you've broken the rules, which are available here.

Moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours. Please be patient if your posts are not approved instantly.

David Frost's Hollywood Legends, BBC Radio 2

Commenting & Moderation

MOST READ

SPONSORED LINKS

MOST COMMENTED