What does Stephen Tennant sound like? We've all heard that it was bass, or baritone, "affected" or "ultra-refined" (Siegfried's words). I had trouble visualizing it in my head, especially when a deep voice is the last thing you'd expect from someone with such a youthful face. I was curious to know if anyone living or dead had a similar voice to his as a reference point.
So, I asked Hugo Vickers, Cecil Beaton's biographer, what Stephen Tennant's voice sounded like!
He responded: "How interesting. I remember Stephen's voice very well - surprisingly deep so yes very bass baritone - with a rather poetical intonation. You might be able to hear him as he was filmed a few times in old age - would he be on YouTube? Very hard to describe his voice. Maybe Stephen Fry a little close to it? I did once impersonate him on the telephone to a friend and took him in! Years ago." As a side note.. Ever since this discussion, I've been wanting to beg him to do his impression of Stephen, but I just couldn't gather the courage to ask. It's such an awkward thing to ask of someone, and it's been so long now since this discussion that it would be on the verge of ridiculous.
Hugo continued: "He appears in a 1984 Beaton film by Adam Low (The Beaton Image). Also Lord Pembroke filmed him."
RESEARCH ON "THE BEATON IMAGE"
I have traced BBC's "The Beaton Image" to this archival site at the BFI Archive. For the DVD, the BFI Identifier is C-1600432 and the Can ID is VB111771 and it rerecorded onto DVD in 2011.
From the looks of it, supposedly you go to the BFI National Archives building with this printed page of information..
..and ask to see it by number? I really don't know the details since I don't live in England or anywhere near it. So, it's up to you, my little detectives, to seek it out. lol
The site says: For help with BFI National Archive moving image collections, please email the Archive Access team at [email protected] In the past, "The Beaton Image" was brought out of hiding and screened once at an event in 2014 "Beaton At Brook Street" which celebrated the release of Hugo Vicker's new book Cecil Beaton: Portraits and Profiles. Since then, it seems to have remained hidden as far as we know. If anyone recorded this event or has a recording of "The Beaton Image", please let us know!
RESEARCH ON LORD PEMBROKES INTERVIEW
Henry Herbert (Lord Pembroke) has an IMdB page, and in his Trivia area it states "Directed a film in which Stephen Tennant (famous, but reclusive, aesthete) was interviewed by Nicky Haslam (the designer). So far, this film has not been shown publicly."
As far as we know, this film has no title. One can only assume that Nicky and Henry's video is locked away in a closet somewhere, never to be seen. We don't know the whereabouts of it. But in "Serious Pleasures" it was mentioned that Stephen felt the most comfortable and gave his best performance for Nicky and Henry due to them being friends/family. It's a shame that no one will ever see it.