David Niven interview | Denis Norden | Looks Familiar | 1976
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- čas přidán 28. 06. 2024
- Some extracts from Thames Televisions 'Looks familiar' in these extracts Denis Norden chats to legendary actor David Niven.
First shown: 23/09/1976
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This man encapsulates what’s missing in society today. I’m sure those who are watching this know what I mean.
We know sonny..... oh hell we know!
Class and talent although Sir.David Niven excelled in excess in excessive levels all of those, such a legendary actor!
@@topsyturvyy4558 Never a Sir bc he lived in tax exile. Noel Coward was passed over for years for the same reason.
Too true!
Yes. Him and Sir John Mills.
As a chat show guest, actor and author, David Niven, was a raffish raconteur who didn't take himself, or his abilities, too seriously. But, he was a better actor than he admitted to and a much braver man in war time than he ever publicly discussed.
His type of Englishman doesn't exist today. Watching and listening to this, we are all of us poorer for that.
More the pity that this type of Englishman has disappeared to be replaced by lack of style everywhere. Many people however, in England were envious of this so called product of the class system. They have got their wish with the consequent vulgar facade of our society in almost every aspect-in other words there is very little inherent class exhibited in most areas of life. Yes, vastly more money around but very little true class.
When Niven passed away the porters at London’s Heathrow airport sent a wreath saying “The finest gentleman who passed through this airport “that say’s about the man
❤❤❤True! I posted it on Facebook and got a ton of hits! Adorable and massively talented!
True !!!!🤗
As a proper gentleman I'm sure he treated the porters as gentlemen and made them proud of themselves. He knew that respect is earned, not demanded.
Ah yes, when actors had class. David Niven was a gentleman.
Denis Norden writes about this interview in his autobiography. He mentions that before the filming David Niven met all the staff. The tea ladies, the best boy, the cleaners etc. Being a real pro he knew the importance of the people behind the scenes. Then filming stopped and the audience went home. Then David Niven went back behind the scenes and thanked everybody. Not only that, writes Norden, he had remembered all of their names and thanked them all personally. The ladies who dusted and cleaned loved him for it.
What a guy. They don't make men like him any more.
I read in the biography, "Niv", that the largest floral arrangement at David Niven's funeral was from the porters at Heathrow Airport because of how much they admired how nice he was to everyone.
A genuine gentleman.
R. I. P. David Niven.
@@debiemerson175 What a fantastic insight. How a star behaves off the camera tells a lot...clearly an elegant, urbane and charming officer and gentleman.
A class act.
That would not surprise me!
The fabulous Dennis Norden and the great David Niven - true British gentlemen from the days when television interviews were a joy to watch. This was a real treat to watch - thank you!
Niven's two volumes of memoirs are very funny, in a way that sums up Niven himself. Hilarious, but never malicious or at anyone's expense. Any man who would abandon his Hollywood career instantly to go running round muddy fields dodging German shellfire, as David did, has my respect.
Niven was in my old regiment. To this day the old and bold still tell tales of knowing older and bolder who knew Niven when he served.
The guy is everything a man should aspire to be.
David Niven, what a character. A marvellous actor, loved his movies. A witty, wonderful gentleman. Still watch his movies. His books were brilliant. Miss him. xx
Narelle Cox He was an excellent person.
In his wonderful memoir, “Bring On the Empty Horses,” Niven recounts endless anecdotes about the Hollywood greats - always with humor and affection, never being mean spirited. Watching this interview, witnessing his charm and his encyclopedic knowledge not of just the stars but also the little people in the industry, it is easy to understand how Hollywood was won over by this young British actor.
I always loved him I don’t think there’s one movie of his I didn’t love. Never read anything bad or scandalous about him and we just don’t have such talent anymore
I've read "The Moon's a Balloon" and
"Bring on the empty horses" more times than I would admit. Probably, the two most riveting auto biographies I've ever read.
David Niven (1910-983) was a class act - they really don’t make them like they used to...Requiescat In Pace.
David Niven, Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Dirk Bogarde, John Le Mesurier...all a certain kind of English Gentleman. Growing up as a kid in the UK during the 70's these men all seemed so exotic. A different breed of man. Lovely talking voiced, impeccabley dressed always and over flowing with fascinating annecdotes.
That matching shirt and tie were naff even in the 1970s Iwas in my early 30s at the time and they looked awful
@@elephantsmemory3142 Niven rocks his look. Ha ha
@@AnthonyMonaghan Is fearr liom an éadaí le Niven ná aon aisteoir eile. (Not really)
@@elephantsmemory3142 Really.
@@AnthonyMonaghan O K
He served in the War when many in Hollywood stayed put. A brave man. I have a very rare book....'Go slowly, Come back quickly' - took me ages to find it. A tragic life, in the end.
I wish David Niven was still alive he is sorely missed.
R.I.P., Denis Norden, CBE (6 February, 1922 - 19 September, 2018).
David Niven - Champion and Legend
great actor, writer, soldier, man.
Niven was a great actor, a raconteur and very unlike the Hollywood film star mould. He did a lot of clandestine work during WW2 but sought no recognition nor discussed it.
His stories are a joy to listen to. A lovely man.
@Will Derby ??? Continue
Utter class , funniest autobiography ever
David Niven was so spot on with people and places going back decades an absolute memory machine and a very nice chap too boot
I love how in his anecdotes Niven always includes the names of fellow actors who never achieved stardom, but nevertheless were given their moment of fame by this kind-hearted raconteur.
@@johntechwriter I love it too. It's one of the things about him that show he was a genuinely classy individual.
He was a wonderful man.
Just wonderful.
PLEASE NOTE: At 5:44 there is a cut. I wondered what happened but he is suddenly talking about the movie African Queen. In the original screenplay, the lead was meant to be a cockney and it was to star Betty Davis and Niven. He obviously explains they cancelled it and years later Bogart was cast but could not do a Cockney accent and so they changed the character to a Canadian and of course it was a massive hit for Bogart.
Just for those who wondered why he was talking about 'The Lost Horizon' and then Bogart without it making any sense.
What a superb actor
David Niven isn't just supurb, he is an awesome fantastic fabulous Actor.
Loved this man. My favourite movie and the one he fully deserved the Oscar for, is Separate Tables. What a legend.🥰
What a great voice great story teller
A couple of classy humorous Brits, who sadly have disappeared for ever.
david niven, one of the greats
Back in time when actors were Gentlemen.His army career probably gave him that.
He's so much fun to listen to. 😊
A true gentleman
I can't remember what I did last year, never mind with whom.
What a fabulous memory, lucky man.
My mother was infatuated with Errol and David as a schoolgirl. She and I would watch "Dawn Patrol" every time it was on the TV late show. I read in one of his books that he met "a man named Pope" during WW II. He had been shot down in WW I while wearing polka-dot pajamas, as was Niven's character (Scotty) in "The Dawn Patrol."
This is a tremendous interview only spoiled by injudicious editing. Please post this in full like the Parkinson programmes.
Such class. Amazing actor, but he always looked old.
RIP Denis Norden
I adore David Niven. He reminds me of my father. I deeply miss this sort of man. They’ve disappeared and the world is much the worse for it.
A wonderful raconteur. The last of an era. He was one of my Mum's favourites for obvious reasons. 🙂🙂
HE WAS GREAT MAN.
he was very good as B J Bruno( edit ;happy go lovely 1951 . i saw the movie yesterday in lockdown )
Class act.
Here I am, 45 years later, and both are long departed their mortal coils but live on forever on digital medium.
Niv is an excellent biography by Graham Lord (2003) revealing this wonderfully complex enigmatic Englishman whose many stories in his autobiographies were true, they just weren’t his own...
A stepfather he loathed only for it to be revealed in fact he was his real biological father, a dark troubled second marriage, his WW2 service but the overview is balanced and a true insight into someone who stays with us still.
Just finished it last night. Hated to finish it. Laughed and cried. The death of his beloved first wife in such a tragic accident was heartbreaking! I don’t think he ever got over it. His second wife was a piece of work but he never ever said anything negative about her. Such a gentleman!
He was a true gentleman.
Great raconteur, funny without being boastful yet he was in the thick of it in the golden age of Hollywood.
Read his autobiography. Quite a full life Niven had including a Commando Officer tho he glosses over his wartime.
Great guy thanks enjoyed tgat
A Gentleman. A true Gentleman.
Crazy to think Denis was still doing TV up to about 2015-16, sharp as a tack but he would have been in his mid-90s by then, surely?
He was still a welcome interviewee on radio right up to the time he passed; his formal retirement from telly came in 2006, as he was diagnosed with macular degeneration. Still so grateful we had him for another dozen years; he was 96 when he passed in 2018. x
Niven has a strange quality..a wonderful strange quality.
CLASS
Fabulous raconteur... played the piano with 2 fingers, but his pal Errol Flynn did it with his eleventh!
Imaging having a 12" third hand,
Errol didn't have to imagine it!
Flynn's stunt obviously inspired Pres. Zelensky.
For a long time I did a programme in which I met a lot of people who had worked with Al Jolson..
The weird thing is Norden was the lifetime writing partner, alongside Marty Feldman, of Fwank Muir whose character and appearance mighty have been a caricature of Niven’s cut glass manners. Dennis must be thinking, _”At last I’ve met the real thing!”_ I wish this interview hadn’t been cut between the points when Niv mentions the films he was in with Flynn and the story of nail biting. _The Dawn Patrol (1938)_ remains a mighty flick to this day.
I remember these were shown at lunch time in the Tyne Tees area. Lunch was 12.00 to 1.15 at my primary school and I was one of the few kids able to go home for lunch.
So sit down, have a bowl of Heinz soup and a slice of bread, then watch the children's programmes followed by Looks Familiar (or something similar), catch the news headlines and then back to school.
I remember in my primary school lunch hour (in the Grampian TV area) watching the ITN News at One with Leonard Parkin followed by something like Crown Court or Paint Along with Nancy Kominski. Suddenly I can taste my mother's home-made sponge pudding again!
postscript67..I remember finding out Elvis had died from News at one with Leonard Parkin. I was only six and had no idea who Elvis was but it was sausage beans and chips for lunch. You sparked off a blast from the past and I’m thinking about my Gran now. 😂
Wonderful Clip as always - Have you got a clip from an episode featuring Spike Milligan in a fit of laughter at a story Bernard Miles tells about a Landlady?
That hilarious clip was shown on an ITV Denis Norden tribute this week - presumably it's on catchup
That is where I first watched it the other night! It appeared to be cut short, so I'm wondering what else is mentioned..
Loved David Niven ...my grandson is named Niven after him ....
good grief, Thames. post the whole interview!
Adore The Bishops Wife😍😍
Read an article about him written by his son. If true, he died of ALS disease.
Niven was a great raconteur, he reminds me of an upper-class Michael Caine.
Not a lot of people know that...🙂
@@steveellis9004 Hahaha. Love it.
Shouldn't that have been the rumor that he was in the hopping not the running for the role?
lol
I have got movie DVDS of
David Niven with Gregory Peck Anthony Quinn Anthony Quayle James Darren Stanley Baker
and James Robertsons Justice in
The Guns Of Naverone
with Telly Savalas Elliott Gould
Stephanie Powers
Anthony Valentine
and Roger Moore
are both German Officers in
Escape To Athena
and I am dedicating these movie DVDS to my old school friends who are both sisters as I hope to see them both again very soon to Chris and Hester from Billyxxxxx
I thought this man’s name was Dennis Norton. Not Norton. I may be wrong.
Norden.
1:12 THAT'S where Seinfeld got it....... "NEWMAN!!!!!"
Such a shame this clip is so overly edited. I wonder why.
i think he was the greatest colonel race in agatha christie
Denis Norden was always so painful to watch. Glad to see David Niven though.
I wrote and narrated the "Lost Horizon" Blu-Ray documentary on the making of the film and I found this Niven interview to be simply fascinating....because Niven is lying about not being tested for "Lost Horizon": he WAS tested and I have the camera log and a diary entry from the soundman to prove it. Niven was simply too effete during his screen test and everyone present felt his performance was poor....Watch Niven look down as he claims he wasn't tested....you can see he KNOWS he's not telling the truth...
Irritatingly edited....
Niv, the best ever ....