Hello, I'm Kirstie Young and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive for rights reasons

We've had to shorten the music. The program was originally broadcast in

1999 and the presenter was Sue Lolley

My costume this week is an entertainer. His versatility he can sing, dance, act and perform acrobatics have made him an international star.

The child of a war widow from the Isle of Shepi, he's come a long way since he adopted his professional name off the side of a biscuit fan.

He was playing leading roles in the West End and British films and had appeared alongside Barbara Streisand in Hello Dolly by the time he was 30

and then as the hapless Frank Spencer and some mothers do have him on BBC television he endeared himself to the whole nation

and he went on in shows such as Billy, Barnum and Phantom of the Opera to demonstrate his dedication to his art of which he says

I am in the paradoxical position of being in a profession I love but which forces me to confront my worst nightmare

making a fool of myself in public. He is Michael Crawford, Michael I can't believe that you're worried about making a fool of yourself in public.

Well I think there's always the possibility of it happening every time you stand in front of an audience and I prefer to work in the theatre than I do to work on film

because it's the interaction between an artist and their audience is so exciting, it's so thrilling, it's organic.

So you like putting yourself on the line but what you're saying when you say you don't like making a fool of yourself

what you mean is you want to make a fool of yourself properly, you want to do it to perfection.

It has to be organised and not crazy about the word perfection because it's always spat out and it's not a terrible word

to try and do one's best is what I was always taught and so I've always tried very hard.

It's funny you flinched so because it has been used against you, hasn't it?

It has kind of a pejorative sense.

Somehow your attention to detail, your demands of everybody that it be absolutely right was never a joke and never easy.

No, I mean comedy isn't funny. It's a very serious business.

But do you think you've taken it more than many? I mean there are stories and they are legion of your dancing on bleeding toes

so to be getting out of your hospital bed because the show must go on.

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