but i saw two long—playing records, as they were, one was the ages of man by sirjohn gielgud.ase �*ages of man�* orjohn gielgud, and the other was laurence olivier, extracts from shakespeare films with music by sir william walton, and i asked our head of english if i could borrow them. i liked the bright, shiny nature of them. i think i half heard in some distant part of my memory this name, "olivier". anyway, i took them home and i was bowled over. already aware of sort of two extremes. in the olivier excerpts, which were from the soundtracks of the films, things like his account of hamlet�*s to be or not to be soliloquy which, in his brilliant film, has him atop a rocky outcrop, looking down onto the wild sea crashing against the rocks while he contemplate suicide. so he begins to be or not to be and goes through it, and william walton's music is soaring, shouting and trilling and supporting and the sound effects of the water and the wind and the waves. i mean, it's shakespeare plus a lot of bells and whistles in addition to olivier�*s beautiful voice. olivier: to be. or not