Date: Wednesday, 10 November 1999
Station: Channel 5 (UK mainstream TV channel)
Time: 2.15pm to 3.15pm (GMT)
Programme: Open House with Gloria Hunniford

Transcribed by: Belinda Burnand

I have tried to set the scene and transcribed the interview word for word as much as possible, to enable you to feel that you actually either watched it at home, or were in the studio when it took place.

The setting of this TV chat show is based as taking place in a house, complete with working kitchen, living room, hall etc.

David's interview is some 10/12 minutes long and he looks happy and relaxed. He is wearing dark navy/black trousers and jacket (wide pin stripped), black shoes and a light grey T-shirt. He is also wearing a red "poppy" on one of the lapels of his jacket, which is the symbol of Remembrance Day. This day is in honour of all the men, women and children who gave their lives during the two World Wars and recent conflicts. Codes:
DS: David Soul
GH: Gloria Hunniford

GH: First, to another great debate. Which one did you prefer? Did you prefer the blonde one or the dark one? Well, I'm talking about Starsky and Hutch. Detective Ken Hutchinson rocketed to fame along with the show, with its combination of street smart guys, fast cars and of course, the unforgettable, Huggy Bear. But the other side of him was his very successful musical career. Well, in recent years, he has been appearing in the West End a lot, and he is currently starring in Alan Ayckbourn's comedy, which is called Comic Potential, so will you welcome, actor, singer and West End star, David Soul.

David walks through the door, smiling and looking very happy, to an extremely warm welcome from the audience.

GH: Was the build up all right? (David takes hold of Gloria's hands and whispers:)
DS: Lovely, thank you

They then walk towards the seating area.

GH: I was just passing comment ?.. yes, very nice here.
DS: Hello (to the audience, as he walks around to the sofa). I wanted to see what was in the kitchen. The first place I go to in a house, is the kitchen ?
GH: Well, do you want to go there now?
DS: ? to see what's in the refrigerator.
GH: Do you want to have a look now?
DS: Well, why not.
GH: This is what everyone wants to see. (Gloria takes David's hand and guides him to the kitchen area). Totally unscheduled moment folks - this is live TV!

David is laughing and follows behind her and has a look around the kitchen area.

GH: In here, we have onions and things on the boil (stirring the contents of a pot on the cooker, with David looking into it)
DS: Mmm, all right. I didn't have lunch today, so this is good, this is plenty.
GH: Okay, you can have that (David taking a piece of food out of the pot with his fingers and eating it).
DS: Oh, thanks.
GH: In the fridge ? let's see what we've got in the fridge (Gloria and David bending down, opening the fridge door and looking into it).
DS: Oh the fridge, yeah.
GH: Not much there.
DS: Mmm ? not much there. Some parsley and that's about it ? (David looking around the work surfaces) ? that's about it.
GH: Tell you what, will you come back later and do some cooking?
DS: Yeah, I'll come back later and we'll do that later.
GH: That's fine ? that's great.

Gloria and David walk back to the seating area part of the studio.

DS: Thanks folks! (waving to the audience).

The audience applause and David is laughing.

GH: Marvellous. Now that we've checked that out ?you see, what I do like about a live programme is that it throws cameras and everything into total chaos!
DS: Isn't that wonderful? (laughing)
GH: Ah, an unscheduled moment! Anyway, I was going to pass comment about the beard. Is that all for the play?
DS: Oh, you noticed that.
GH: Sort of, yes.
DS: Well ? erm ? as they say in the trade: "it's for a play I'm doing" (putting on an extremely heavy accent), so ?
GH: Best excuse you could find ?
DS: It is, yes ? it takes me forever to grow one of these things ? it's one of those ? I'm Norwegian decent you know and we don't have much facial hair, so I'm always very proud when I can grow anything on my face!
GH: So, this is sort of months and months of hard work?
DS: Yeah (laughing).
GH: I think a lot of people might be surprised to know that you have been living pretty much in London for the last 4 or 5 years.
DS: Its 4 years. It was a mistake ? as life usually is. I came here to do a play and I was going to be here 3 or 4 months and one thing led to another, and ? I'm here! It's like one of those stories about when you go away for a 6-week vacation and never leave the place.

GH: And, I gather living in a very famous house in London.
DS: Well yeah. Well, we've been living ? I lived on a boat for the first year I was here, which I loved because I lived on a boat in Paris for a year and I wanted to find one so I could live on the cannel and then we moved to Maida Vale for a while and then the people came to take the house back. They had been out of the country and they wanted the house, and then we found a house up in the Highgate area where John Betjeman lived - the great poet laureate, whom I didn't know until I moved in and then the people from whom we are renting the house had left all ? apparently, his works come with the house!
GH: So, all his writings are displayed on the walls.
DS: All his writings are there.
GH: How terrific.
DS: So now I've ? I also discovered he and I share the same birthday!
GH: Wow! You were meant to live in that house.
DS: I think that's probably what it is.
GH: Spooky.
DS: It's a lovely little house and he writes about it in his books and his poetry.
GH: Actually, you know you were coming on the programme, and thinking about it yesterday, it was the 10th anniversary of the Berlin Wall coming down ?
DS: Yes.
GH: ? and I was surprised when I was reading details about you to find out that you lived in Berlin as a child ?
DS: Yes.
GH: ? for quite some time. Now, was that to do with your father's job?
DS: Yes, my Dad worked ? we were there from 1949 until 56, we left for a couple of years in between, but my Dad worked with primarily putting families back together again. The Berlin Wall represented separation of families, probably more so for the ordinary person, and my father's job, was based in Berlin, was to take the fragments of these families that were fleeing the East and put them back together again either in Berlin or relocate them in the West, so our home for all those years were filled with strangers. People from every walk of life - farmers and er, technicians and dramatists and bishops and students and its probably the most indelible experience of my life ?
GH: Because your father was a Pastor, wasn't he?
DS: ? yeah ?
GH: So, a lot of religion involved there?
DS: ? well, religion is only good in so far as it deals with people in their ordinary life, in their day to day life. Dad really related primarily to that. Erm, he is also an historian, a political scientist, backed with a Pastorship, and these people who came through our home were ? some of them were religious leaders, some of them were political leaders, some of them were just ordinary people.
GH: So, overall then, what would you say that period of time that you saw all that go on and having all that breadth of individual people in your home, what affect did that have on your own life and your own thinking?
DS: Well, I think what I've learnt and I reflect on this quite a bit, because it seems kind of strange coming from a guy who has spent most of his life in television, but I think that I've found as I reflect back, I think one can say that the significance of life, is really to be involved in someone else's life.
GH: As you father was.
DS: Yeah, as my father was ? and I think that's the legacy that he left with me, so irrespective of whatever it is that I am involved with, that experience of Berlin and what my father represented and what he was involved with, I have carried that with me.
GH: I mean that at a fairly young stage then, did you want to escape the religious strictness that may be you were under ?
DS: Oh, sure ?
GH: ? did you run away from that?
DS: Yeah, but I think that was more of a structural thing, the Church per say, religion itself can be an imprisoning thing, and it's a lot of dos and don'ts and no's and all that kind of stuff and its not what religion is really all about. Religion is about binding people together ?
GH: Sure.
DS: ? and erm, and I think that as a young guy I just reacted to that, as many young people do, and I fled it. I didn't want to have anything to do with the Church.
GH: Now, a lot of people in our audience today would never forgive me if we didn't talk a little bit about Starsky and Hutch. When you look back, I mean, that was a significant period during the 70's and even around our "house" here, people say, "we grew up with it, I had the poster on the wall" ?
DS: I grew up with it too (laughing).
GH: ? that's true, you were a young boy! How adventurous was that or how ground breaking do you think was the series?
DS: I think in terms of television, I think it was a watershed kind of show, in the sense that it ? prior to that, most television shows of that genre, of that ilk, that franchise, which was the police, were basically cop shows, y'know, "just give me the facts ma'am" and "let's bust this case". This one took a different perspective on it. First of all, we were two guys, two men who happened to be police, and I think that's what made the big difference. So in that, we became involved in each other's feelings, which was another thing that you didn't see that much in cop's ?
GH: As they didn't talk about it much in those days.
DS: ? men still don't, to some degree ? to a large degree. We don't like to talk about how we feel but with Starsky and Hutch, I think there was an opportunity there to get into the feelings of the two guys and I think people eavesdropped on their feelings and I think that's very important and I think it became that kind of watershed television experience.
GH: Well, let's have a quick look at this - the buddies together (David laughing).

Clips of David, Paul and the infamous red Torino from the episode Gillian are shown. The audience applause at the end and David is looking a little confused ?

GH: David's been sitting here going "who's that guy?"
DS: Yeah, but you saw that the star of that show was the red car ? that's where we spent the time ?
GH: Did you do all your own stunts by the way?
DS: No, no, we did er ? we were taught by the best in the business. In the beginning, these guys ? the more arrogant we became of course, the more we wanted to do our own stunts. And we were taught ? it's really interesting because a good stunt man will take an actor as far into a stunt as possible and bring him out as soon after the actual stunt as possible, because what you get on camera then, is the idea ? the audience sees the guy going in as far as he can and then the dangerous part happens and then you get pulled out of it, so we had wonderful teachers.
GH: Now listen, I just want to ask you about the play obviously, before you leave us because ? a comedy?
DS: It's a comedy.
GH: You have done quite a bit actually in the West End of late, but how different is this one for you?
DS: Well, first of all, I'm delighted because I'm working with one of England's great playwrights, Alan Ayckbourn, who also directed this play, and with two wonderful ? well, a wonderful cast, I must say, of people, particularly Janie Dee and Matthew Cottle, both of them are brilliant, and Janie is just magnificent ? its her "tour de force" ?
GH: And you are playing the director are you?
DS: ? yeah, this is a play that is sort of set in like 20 years into the next century. It's a millennium ? it's a kind of dark millennium comedy, but its Alan Ayckbourn humour and he takes advantage of every possible form of comedy to tell this story and I play a director who has been relegated to directing a soap opera in a branch line television studio, somewhere in England ?
GH: Which you obviously think is very much beneath what you are capable of.
DS: ? absolutely! He comes out of a very deep tradition of film making and he's been ? as this television programme is being done now by actoids ?
GH: Actoids?
DS: ? actoids.
GH: Actoids as oppose to actors?
DS: ? as oppose to actors, and its very much beneath him and into this comes the Matthew Cottle character, who wants to learn from me about comedy directing, and he falls in love with one of these actoids, who is Janie Dee.
GH: So, hence the beard and this is the point of walking on ? hence the beard. He is the director type (David laughing). David, it's always lovely to see you. Now, will you come back one day and sing for us, or have you given up singing?
DS: No, no, no - I'll er, try and do that.
GH: Will you come back and do that?
DS: Sure, why not.
GH: (to the audience) You'd like to see him back, wouldn't you? (The audience responds "yes"). David Soul, thank you very much and good luck for the West End.
DS: Come and see Comic Potential.

INTERVIEW ENDS