No-one tells a story like Jackanory
Biographies and interviews
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Sir Ben Kingsley narrates The Magician Of Samarkand
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The stellar career of Academy Award-winning actor and producer, Sir Ben Kingsley, spans over 40 years.
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Some of his best-known film appearances include Bugsy, Oliver Twist, Schindler's List and, of course, Gandhi.
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He also has a track record playing himself, most recently in a 2006 edition of The Sopranos.
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Sir Ben Kingsley was delighted to have been asked to be a part of Jackanory, but was a little taken aback when he realised he would be playing all the characters!
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He says: "I've worked with Nick Willing twice before, on Photographing Fairies in the late Nineties and then shortly after on Alice In Wonderland.
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"I really enjoyed both of them because he allows the actor to be eccentric. He casts his films very well, because he brings the oddness and the quirkiness out of the actor rather than diverting it or suppressing it.
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"That makes him very good with English actors, as our highest currency is our eccentricity. So I knew that Nick would bring something exotic and eccentric to the story.
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"But I didn't realise until I arrived that I was playing all the characters! I'd read the script and read the role of the narrator. I said to Nick, "There's not a mountain of work to do, is there?' and he said, 'Well, you are playing all of them!'
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"So I'm the narrator, but I'm also Anahita, the magician, mum and dad… I'm everybody!
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"I do like changing my voice so actually, when you see Anahita speaking, you do a little take to wonder if that's a girl's voice or whether it is my voice.
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"Nick encourages the actor to be diverse, to be eccentric and to use different kinds of voices which personally I love doing."
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Sir Ben strongly believes in the power of storytelling and the effect it can on the human spirit.
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He says: "I love storytelling, it's essential. It's a very healing thing, it's one of the last self-healing mechanisms that we have as human beings.
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"Storytelling is at the heart of civilisation –
everything has its basis in storytelling, including the concepts of good and evil. Storytelling helps to put things in a pattern, in an order that people can listen to.
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"It exposes the mind to danger without actually endangering it. Whenever you read to children, the bit they ask you to read again –
as they pull the blankets up to their noses –
is the scary bit.
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"They look delighted because they are experiencing two things: they are experiencing fear in a very, very safe place. The fear is modulated, put into a comprehensible form, coming from the mouth of the safest person in the room.
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"And, hopefully, that has migrated to my craft of acting when you're in a theatre or cinema and the safest person in the room is the person who is telling the story.
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"You are in the presence of someone who simply wishes to impart information in a way that delights you –
it's very simple.
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"So for an actor to have an opportunity to return to the simple basic building blocks of "once upon a time" and to go right back to the very beginning of the evolution of the whole of your craft, to just say "once upon a time", it's very refreshing."
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Sir Ben also reflects on how Jackanory has been a part of his own and his children's lives.
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He says: "It's a fabulous institution and it's been a part of my children's lives and, of course, I occasionally used to watch it with them on television.
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"They are really beautiful programmes, well crafted and there is enormous consideration for the narrative, the style of storytelling and for the content.
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"A storyteller is what I am, that's how I perceive myself, as a storyteller. I create portraits of people and in this in a sense I'm creating a portrait of several people with Nick Willing's enormous collaboration –
his visuals are amazing."
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For Sir Ben, playing a narrator comes as easily as taking on a role in a film.
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"There isn't any difference because the common source is storytelling - you are telling a story to people in order to enhance their lives.
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"No-one says once-upon-a-time you're going to hate this story, once-upon-a-time you're going to love this story, that's what I do with my characters, absolutely."
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And he isn't daunted by the fact that Jackanory is aimed at children because he takes the same approach as he would with any other role.
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"The adjustment has already been made by the designer, the costumier and the writer. It will already be in a tried and tested format that is appropriate for children –
therefore all I do is behave completely normally and openly within the role."
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Despite enjoying narrating Jackanory, Sir Ben admits he was a late reader.
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He says: "I had a block about reading so I think that is part of my being a storyteller. It wasn't until I was about seven years old that I sensed that I was seriously missing something.
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"Then I read avidly. I don't remember individual books –
I think Treasure Island was one of them. I read quite weighty books. I think my early lack of connection with the written word has been compensated by my later and therefore profound connection with the written word."
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Of the story he narrates, Sir Ben says: "The Magician of Samarkand is a story about power and nepotism. The magician insists on having the world comply with his specific needs.
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"He's greedy, unsympathetic, non-empathetic, very isolated and probably very lonely. He's just grabbing at things. Then we follow the heroine Anahita's journey and see her struggles as she is jettisoned into old age and then reverses back to her youth.
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"It's classic mythology –
once upon a time there was a magician who fell in love with a young maiden, and because he couldn't have her he destroyed the world.
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"Anahita is not a victim by nature, she's an optimistic creature. The moment when she looks at her hands and says, if I stay in the mountains another winter I'll die, is a terrific statement.
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"She decides to take action against a seemingly omnipotent terrifying power. That's very good for children to focus on that, the message that you can take action, you can do something."
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Sir Ben believes that such stories, which are set in exotic locations, are important for broadening a child's mind.
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"It's great to broaden the base of storytelling. There may have been loads of stories on Jackanory that took place in cultures that are not specifically North European.
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"It's a good idea –
perhaps next time it will be about a Chinese Prince or a little boy in Calcutta. It's good to have universal themes which encourage that extra bit of empathy in a child's mind."
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Exotic locations may help to broaden the mind but at the same time, Sir Ben appreciates the beauty of his surroundings whenever he is in England.
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He says: "I love Oxfordshire. It's important for me to stay in the area where I live. It's Tolkien country and CS Lewis also worked here and I can understand why.
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"It seems to nourish that appreciation for our own island mythology. And we are a mythological folk. It's a lovely quality to have as a culture, to have your own ancient mythology.
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"I would miss it terribly if I was in a culture which didn't have a truly ancient mythology that connected with the first stories and the first ways to reasons what's good and what's bad through stories.
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"The Magician Of Samarkand shows what's evil –
the magician; and what is good –
the girl, Anahita.
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"I'll show you why and I'll show you what I think the difference between good and evil is."
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John Sessions
narrates Muddle Earth
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Actor, comedian and writer, John Sessions, is well-known for his many and varied appearances on film, TV and the stage.
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His film credits include roles in The Merchant Of Venice, Gangs Of New York and Henry V.
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His television work includes Stella Street, Judge John Deed, Gormenghast and Porterhouse Blues.
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John has also performed numerous one-man shows and his talent for improvisation landed him a spot as the first regular contestant on Whose Line Is It Anyway?
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Taking part in this series of Jackanory was a bit like going back in time for John, as he narrated on the programme when he was a young actor.
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However, first time around, there were rather less computer graphics!
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He says: "I did Jackanory a thousand years ago, telling the story when I was young and talented –
but now I'm old and past it! I also recorded the book Muddle Earth an age ago so when I was asked to do it again, I didn't hesitate. And it was with director Nick Willing who is extraordinary."
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John admits, though, that it was very different this time around.
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"This was like a one man Star Wars because it involved CGI. There was a wee lad in it and a dog, but it was 90 per cent me yabbering away and talking to myself and being myself as well as being all the other characters, which was quite strange.
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"But Nick kept control of the technicalities of it. Working with cutting-edge, computer-generated technology is very technical but it doesn't mean to say it's not fun.
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"Before, Jackanory was conventional, shall we say classic Ö÷²¥´óÐã, which of course old middle-aged people like me still think of as a good thing!
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"But I always think you should let children make their own minds up about what is interesting, rather than say 'Oh, we'd better do this or this because this is what they find interesting'.
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"Kids find things interesting when they are different, I think. This is a very different experience because it was high-tech but you are still telling a story."
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Despite John having to play so many different characters, he took it totally in his stride.
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"It is perfectly normal for me, I'm afraid –
I'm not that well in the head really, I like to be diverse," he jokes.
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The way he got round playing so many roles was by making the voices distinguishable and basing them on people he knew.
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"That just helps you keep the voices clear in your head, you know?"
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John is very aware that children can be a tough audience and that if you get it wrong they let you know about it.
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He says: "I think a lot of kids do like stories. I don't have children myself but I have read bedtime stories to about 5,000 godchildren and friends' kids and, believe me, they let you know when you get it wrong.
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"I remember telling a story to Hugh Laurie's kids –
I was doing it from memory around the kitchen table, telling them the Jungle Book, and one of them just yawned and leant over and went to sleep! Obviously, I wasn't doing it for him at all!"
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He also thinks part of the power of storytelling is that children can get involved.
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"The thing about story-telling is that you try not to do it all for them as it were. Kids like to fill in the blanks, they like the story but they like their version of it.
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"They maybe want to take Cinderella to Mars or something like that. They want to be part of the creative process, as the Americans would say!"
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He is acutely aware of how easy it is to lose a young audience when narrating a tale.
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"It is like every other thing you do as an actor; it's about being clear. It sounds very obvious I know, but you sometimes have to give markers to people and make it very clear in your voice distinction and your changes in character, otherwise the kids get lost and if they get lost, you have lost them –
that's it. The kids say to hell with it, let's go play Lego or something."
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Playing characters which appeal to children, rather than adults, wasn't a big problem for John, who says it is about becoming that character.
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"I remember when I was a younger actor hearing older actors saying this isn't a job for a grown-up and you go, 'Yeah, you know, it isn't' because sometimes you think basically you are playing cowboys and Indians.
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"Some wee kid was asked in an interview I read recently that acting is just pretending to be someone else and that's it, that's all it is.
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"It isn't easy, but whether you try to be Hamlet or Clint Eastwood or Muddle Earth you are just trying to be someone else.
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"If you really believe you are that person when you are playing it, what tends to happen is that the kids or the audience will believe you are too."
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The worse thing you can do, according to John, is patronise children.
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"Kids should not be talked down to. Kids can't bear what I call that awful dungaree stuff, you know yellow dungaree, shouty people.
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"One of the best things you can ever do in children's television is just do stories and kids will come to it. All the stuff I grew up on was basically people saying, 'Look, we are doing the story, come along with us'.
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"Obviously, you are aware you are talking to children but the current fascination for yelling in kids' faces stuff… well, I can't stand it. They will come to you because they are curious –
someone just yelling the obvious at them will cause them to switch off.
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"It's not about it being simple, it's about it being clear. They have got to know who the characters are, who is this guy, who is this woman, who is this kid, what's his problem, who is this animal, what's it about? As long as the person isn't over spelling it out to them."
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John, who has just finished a film with Robert De Niro, is himself an avid reader of books.
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Preferring classics –
even as a child –
to modern tales, he says: "I'm very square and I was a very square little kid. I used to love old-fashioned Victorian stuff and I liked the Billy Bunter books.
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"King Solomon's Mines was my favourite story and still is. I like old-fashioned stuff –
Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island and Kidnapped.
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"I don't like those trendy, 'pandering' books and I never liked them as a kid. You know, where they say, 'Look, this is what kids are interested in now, let's have them in tracksuits and talking about the Beatles!'. Well, I didn't want to know about that."
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