Clare Balding

Presenter0:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young. Thank you for downloading this podcast of Desert Island Discs from BBC Radio 4. For rights reasons the music choices are shorter than in the radio broadcast.

Presenter0:10

For more information about the programme, please visit bbc.co.uk/slash radio four.

Presenter0:33

My castaway this week is the broadcaster Claire Balding.

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The BBC T V coverage of London's twenty twelve Olympics was her triumph, and, much like Team G B, she'd been in training for her big moment for quite a while.

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She's worked in total on five Olympic Games, four Paralympics, three Winter Olympics, and lots and lots of horse racing.

Presenter0:54

Indeed, it's on the turf that she's most at home.

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Her father was a champion racehorse trainer, and for a number of years she herself was a leading amateur flat jockey.

Presenter1:03

The first pony she ever rode as a toddler was a gift from the Queen. She went to public school in Cambridge. So privileged, yes but you'd be wrong to think she's had an entirely easy ride. She has coped with thyroid cancer, being forcibly outed by the tabloid press, and curiously in her own words being

Presenter1:21

A disappointment from the moment she was born. However, she says.

Presenter1:26

This may sound nauseating, but I am a very happy person. I love my work.

Presenter1:30

I love my life, and I'm told by those who know and love me that it's a bit like living with Tigger. Well, Tiggers are wonderful things, as we know, Claire Balding, but flesh that out a bit for me. What are you like? You're irrepressible, full of energy, always on the go.

Clare Balding1:42

Yeah, I do have this extraordinary amount of energy and I have a very peripatetic brain. You know, it needs to move, it needs to keep going to different places, so I need constant stimulation. And I've found a job where I can get that, which is fantastic. And a bit like you, you know, you get to really delve into people's lives. Don't you think it's just great? You become this best thing. Yes, it's like being a spy.

Presenter2:06

But sharing your information. Um part of your success is you are entirely across your brief. You do it in a very, very smart way, which is you're never the know-it-all. You're never the pain in the neck who's reeling off the statistics. It's clever.

Clare Balding2:17

Yeah.

Clare Balding2:18

But I came to that realization, and this is going to sound like a horrible name drop, but I was at the Art de Triomphe and I was interviewing Omar Sharif, because he loves his racing.

Presenter2:27

Uh

Speaker 42:27

Right?

Clare Balding2:29

And halfway through the interview, I started to say things to let him know that I knew about racing, and I then thought.

Clare Balding2:37

Don't do that. He doesn't need to know that you know about racing. The audience know you know about racing. They want to know about him. Just ask him the questions.

Presenter2:45

I think the other part of your success might well be that in a sea and I'm talking now about television more than radio that in a sea of uniformity of of women with hair extensions and body con dresses, you are not that person. As far as I know, you're not wearing hair extensions today, and you're certainly not in a body con dress.

Clare Balding2:58

Yeah.

Clare Balding3:01

Well, I love wearing jeans and I'm wearing my jeans today and I'd be quite happy doing a job where I could wear jeans every day.

Presenter3:03

And I'd be quite

Clare Balding3:06

But I am a bit body conscious. I'm not that confident. But when I start broadcasting, I sort of forget about.

Presenter3:08

And I

Clare Balding3:12

What my body looks like.

Clare Balding3:13

And the Olympics was a really good case in point. I dressed the way I would dress if I was going to watch an event, like the crowd. The nice thing is now that girls who are like me, they're not excluded. And I think that's quite important.

Presenter3:27

with a sort of national cheer for women.

Presenter3:30

For you Claire Boulding being on television because it is real.

Clare Balding3:32

No, it's real. I'm conscious of trying not to let people down. I'm not flattered by flattery and that helps. In t and I'm forty two. You know, this didn't happen to me when I was twenty. You know, I've been through a lot. And, you know, what's lovely is people are genuinely warm and kids come up to me and they talk to me all the time and then the Paralympics made a massive impact on on children in this country. And it's kind of this big language now that everybody understands and they want to talk about and I'm part of it and that's lovely.

Presenter4:02

Time for the music, Claire Balding. Tell me about the first one we're going to hear this morning. What's this?

Clare Balding4:05

Alice, my partner and I were in America on holiday and driving through South Carolina and there was a song that kept being played on the radio and it really made us laugh. And I think on my desert island I need something that's going to make me feel really happy'cause I'm not great on my own. And this will cheer me up. And it's Bare Naked Ladies and it's called If I Had a Million Dollars.

Speaker 44:25

If I had a million dollars If I had a million dollars Well I'd buy you a house I would buy you a house And if I had a million dollars If I had a million dollars Buy you furniture for your house Maybe a nice Chesterfield or an Ottoman And if I had a million dollars If I had a million dollars

Presenter4:55

Dare Naked Ladies and If I Had a Million Dollars. So, Claire Balding, on the topic of disappointment, which is what you say your family felt the day you were born, in the last year alone you've won a special BAFTA, an OBE. You've had a a best selling biography. They can't be disappointed now, surely.

Clare Balding5:11

That's sort of hopelessly overachieving now, aren't I? Yes, it's embarrassing.

Presenter5:13

Yeah.

Presenter5:14

Are they mentioning that to you, the hopeless overachievement?

Clare Balding5:16

Oh, they c they're quite funny with me, my parents. Dad is m much better now at saying, you know, I'm really proud of what you're doing. But mum's very good at you know, she kind of she follows everything online. She knows everything I'm doing and everything I've said and

Clare Balding5:32

It's extraordinary. Yeah.

Presenter5:33

Yeah. You said of your mother once that her idea of a public display of affection was a wave from a distance.

Clare Balding5:41

My parents are fantastic grandparents, and they're really affectionate with my nephews and my niece. But yes, mum mum's just not.

Presenter5:47

Yes, mum mum

Clare Balding5:49

Comfortable with being.

Clare Balding5:51

Yes, she she wouldn't envelop you in a hug and give you a big kiss.

Presenter5:54

So your mother met your father then when he was appointed assistant trainer at your grandparents' stables. That was in Berkshire. Tell me a little bit about them. What sort of characters are they both?

Clare Balding6:04

My father would have been the sort of all-round action man hero, did every kind of sport, had got to Cambridge with no A-levels and was taken on board because they thought he'd get a blue in rugby, which he did, and then started training racehorses because my mother's father died and women weren't allowed to hold the licence, uh training licence then, so my grandmother couldn't take over. So this young half American, gorgeous looking, took over the licence and he got on with my grandmother incredibly well. I mean she would have been 15 years older than him.

Clare Balding6:35

and my mother was ten years younger than him.

Clare Balding6:38

And when mum was twenty he rang his mother to say, I'm getting married.

Clare Balding6:43

And his mother said which one you marry.

Clare Balding6:45

The mother or the daughter?

Clare Balding6:47

How is that?

Presenter6:48

Uh your grandmother, I've seen a photograph of her, Indomitable. Would that be a kind interpretation?

Clare Balding6:52

Be a kind.

Clare Balding6:54

Pretty strong.

Presenter6:54

Fearsome?

Clare Balding6:55

Very, very sort of think the Dowager Duchess, you know, Maggie Smith in Danton. Yeah. But bigger. Six foot strong. Six foot. Yeah, yeah. Very old school. From a very English aristocratic.

Presenter7:00

Yeah.

Clare Balding7:07

upbringing. When she died I did quite a lot of homework on her because my brother and I were doing the address. I'd always been terrified of her most of my life. And then the last kind of eight years she'd had a stroke and so she was sort of she was very much housebound and she loved my dog.

Clare Balding7:22

So I'd send Archie in, and of course she'd respond to Archie, and then she was quite pleased to see me, because I was with him.

Clare Balding7:28

What did she say when you were born?

Clare Balding7:30

Well she sort of said, Oh well, bad luck, keep trying. Essentially, you've had a girl, that's a bit disappointing. I think she quite liked me on television mainly'cause she could turn over or turn me down or turn me off. But she loved rugby league. I rang up to find out how she was and she said, Where are you? and I said, Oh, I'm I'm in Huddersfield or something. She said, What are you doing there? I said, I'm doing rugby league and she said, Well done, a proper sport at last My grandmother who'd only ever talked to me about racing and I I thought oh I've made her proud, that's excellent.

Presenter7:58

Time for some music, Claire. Tell me about disc two of the day. What are we going to hear?

Clare Balding8:03

The theme track of my childhood. As soon as you hear the opening chords of this, you will see what I see, which is a horse galloping across a massive open field, in my case at home on the Downs.

Clare Balding8:15

And it is the theme tune from Black Beauty.

Presenter8:48

The New Adventures of Black Beauty, composed by Dennis King and played by the Southbank Orchestra. There is Claire Balding in your autobiography a picture of the late Queen Mother at Sunday lunch around the table at your home. The Queen, I understand, preferred to come for breakfast.

Clare Balding9:03

My father trained for the Queen for his whole career, and my grandfather had done, and my brother does now. And the Queen mother had horses with us as well, and they would as owners do, you want to see your horses, and you want to see them up close, and you want to talk to the people who look after them.

Presenter9:16

Wonderful.

Clare Balding9:18

everything would be spotless, and the horses would be gleaming and they'd be all ready for morning gallops or evening stables. I used to go and get Valkyrie, who's the Shetland pony that that we learned to ride on, that that had been a present from the Queen and that Prince Andrew and Prince Edward had learned to ride on, and bring her down from her yard.

Clare Balding9:36

to line up so you'd line up the race horses for the Queen to look at her horses and then there'd be Valkyrie on the end with me holding that.

Clare Balding9:44

And I always thought that was really fun. And it's much easier if you've got a pony with you or a dog with you. I think it's much easier to be relaxed.

Presenter9:51

I mentioned that your father was a champion racehorse trainer. Um his big, big win was in nineteen seventy one at the Derby Mill Reef. It was his horse that won. When did you first sit on a horse?

Clare Balding10:02

Well

Clare Balding10:03

Mill Reef would have been one of the first horses I ever sat on, certainly the first racehorse, because when I was little and he so he's standing there with his leg in plaster, they put me on him.

Clare Balding10:12

And there's a brilliant photo because I'm sitting on Mill Reef but nobody's holding him, nobody's holding me, there's no one around, there's just me on the most valuable racehorse in Europe, probably in the world, at the age of one and a half, sitting on him looking proud as punch of myself.

Presenter10:28

How was you well? You see, I was going to use the phrase parenting skills. That wasn't around in 1971 or 72 or 73.

Clare Balding10:34

Oh, but obviously that's great parenting. I really do. I mean, we had a really feral childhood and we spent a lot of time outside and we spent a lot of time with puppies and

Presenter10:44

Did your father take you riding when you were babe at

Clare Balding10:46

Well, his taking me riding wasn't very successful because mum told him to take me back on Valkyrie up to the Lynches where we lived on the little

Presenter10:52

The little pony, little son.

Clare Balding10:53

The little fat chatland pony, yeah. And he was busy and he just handed me to one of the lads in the yard. He was quite young and didn't know that you had to hold a toddler in the saddle. So just goes leading along and starts trotting, and I've fallen off, and I don't think he'd even notice.

Presenter11:07

An identity.

Clare Balding11:08

And I broke my collarbone. I was probably two and a half. But your bones are very soft then and they mend quite quickly. Um so I broke my collarbone and after that mum wouldn't let him take us rather.

Presenter11:18

The the abiding impression that comes from reading everything you've written about your childhood is that you you were in a family that honestly far preferred animals to children.

Clare Balding11:29

I think

Clare Balding11:30

Yes, that's probably true, but also I don't think that's that weird. I mean, really, I don't. And I think my childhood was idyllic. I do you really? I really, really do. I loved my childhood. When I went back to school after the summer holidays, I promise you, girls were saying, Oh, I couldn't wait to get back to school. I got so bored. I'm thinking, how could you have got bored?

Presenter11:39

Do you really?

Clare Balding11:50

I wasn't bored because I was busy every day. So I was riding two or three ponies in the morning. We'd go to pony club camp, which I loved. And I had this theory when I was quite young that we lined up in heaven and we said to God, I want a family with this, that or the other, and this is where I want to go. And of course, I'd said, I want a family with dogs and horses. And please, can I be in the country? So I'd got landed in the family I asked for. That's how good I thought my childhood was. So more music, Claire Balding. Why have you chosen this? This takes me straight back to the early 80s. I love Alison Moyer's voice. I love her. And this was one of the first hits that she had as part of Yazoo. And it's called Only You.

Speaker 412:29

Looking from a window above, It's like a story of love.

Speaker 412:36

Can you hear me? Came back only yesterday. Moving farther away.

Speaker 412:45

Much indeed.

Speaker 412:48

All I needed was the love you gave.

Speaker 412:52

All I need is for another day.

Speaker 412:57

And all I ever knew

Speaker 413:00

Oh yeah.

Presenter13:02

That was Yazoo and only you. Claire Balding, is it true that the charming sports presenter, when she was at school, did punch a boy on the nose?

Clare Balding13:10

Um, I was probably a bit rough and tumble, yes, at primary school. I think I was a very yes, troublesome child. And then I got suspended at boarding school for shoplifting. I know. Awful. I know you know, Kirsty, and that makes it feel even worse,'cause then you look at me like that and I think, Oh, no, I've let you down. Well, tell it I mean

Presenter13:20

I know you

Presenter13:25

Here's the thing, it's that nice woman, Claire Balding's one to tell you. That nice shoplifting, punching on the

Clare Balding13:31

That was a woman Claire Baldings on the tailor. But I think it'd be really boring just to be nice. I think you've got to be have been a bit naughty.

Presenter13:38

Under what circumstances did you shop lift?

Clare Balding13:40

Because everybody was cursed here, and I got into the wrong gang.

Presenter13:43

You want it to be one.

Clare Balding13:44

I wanted to be one of the crowd. You don't want to stand out. Oh no, don't be an individual. Got to be just like everybody else. Wear ev what everyone else wears. Have your hair like everyone else. Pull your sleeves down over your hands like everybody else and make holes in the bottoms of your sleeves and flick your hair. And if they're all stealing, you'll steal too. The trouble is I got caught. The one good thing was I wasn't going to dog them in.

Presenter14:02

Yeah.

Clare Balding14:05

So I was the only one that got suspended, and I was awfully proud of that.

Presenter14:08

What was your parents' response when you were suspended from school?

Clare Balding14:11

Oh God, it was awful.

Clare Balding14:14

Because Uncle Willie was going off to live in Australia, and I remember they were all going to the airport, and suddenly I turned up at the airport, and my grandmother said, Why are you here? I said, Oh, I came especially to say goodbye to Uncle Willie. And she said, You did not. And I thought, Oh, no, she knows.

Clare Balding14:28

It was pretty bad. But then mum went to see the headmistress and I think she explained that she knew that there was this big gang going on and that, you know, but she couldn't get me to give anyone else's names and I think that's why she was actually quite good to me. She didn't expel me, she just put me in a different house. And that worked, did you? Oh, yes. Because you were you were a head girl eventually. Eventually I was. I was the sixty-sixth one outsider, let me tell you, when I was um certainly when I was made out of a house. And all my friends from the house that I ended up in are still friends of mine now.

Presenter14:43

Yeah.

Presenter14:46

Event

Clare Balding14:55

I'm godmother to miss their children.

Presenter14:57

Yeah.

Clare Balding14:57

Yeah.

Presenter14:57

You s you've said that you're a feminist since the age of ten, right?

Clare Balding15:00

Yeah, I think I realized it earlier than that. You know, my brother trains obviously at at Kingsclear, and I would have been about seven, and he was about five when he said that's what he was going to do. And it was so clear that it wasn't an option for me. That seems quite

Presenter15:15

Yeah.

Presenter15:16

Yeah.

Clare Balding15:16

I mean

Presenter15:16

It would really cheese me off.

Presenter15:19

Deep.

Clare Balding15:20

Shit, wait.

Presenter15:20

Has it really the years really? I mean, I know you get on with your brother, you're very close, you love your family, but it goes quite a bit.

Clare Balding15:20

How is it through?

Clare Balding15:24

But I think I've gone through loads of phases. If I did feel anger, which I probably did, and I think part of the reason I was a difficult teenager, I'm sure, was like, well, where do I fit in? What am I meant to do here? But you end up working it out, and I managed to do things academically that I'm not sure that I anyone thought I was capable of. I did three lots of university applications. I got rejected by Cambridge the first time, I got rejected by Bristol, by Exeter, and I just kept trying and ended up reading English at Cambridge. And I just thought, well,

Clare Balding15:56

That's how I'll get on then. I'll just keep bashing.

Presenter16:00

Let's have some more music, Claire Balding, and we're on your fourth. Tell me about why you've chosen this.

Clare Balding16:04

My mum is absolutely mad for Neil Diamond. And I have really clear memories of mum driving, playing Neil Diamond, and my mum doesn't really like anything starry, but a couple of years ago I got invited to an audience with Neil Diamond, and we met him afterwards, and that was a

Clare Balding16:20

Anyway, Mum's favourite track that she played a lot was this, and it's called Beautiful Noise.

Speaker 416:24

It's the Song of the Cost.

Speaker 416:28

On the Furious Flying.

Speaker 416:32

But there's even romance in the way that they dance to the beat of the night.

Speaker 416:39

It's a beautiful night.

Speaker 416:43

And it's a sound that I love.

Speaker 416:47

And it makes me feel good Like a hand in the glove Yes it does, yes it does

Presenter17:00

That was Neil Diamond for your mother really, and beautiful noise. Um before you went to Cambridge, Clearbalding, you had begun flat racing. You were an amateur jockey and you won on just your second race. Being a jockey, of c w you mentioned briefly the idea of sort of being on T V and looking perfect and being the the correct size and so on. How did you manage to keep your weight?

Clare Balding17:14

The idea of

Clare Balding17:20

I sweat it. It's horribly bad for you, and I'm not recommending this to anybody.

Clare Balding17:25

But everything was dependent on what the scales said. It didn't matter what I looked like, what did the scales say. And I'm heavy. I mean, I'm a heavy person. So for me to be anywhere near ten stone was a real struggle, whereas some girls are eight stone and they don't even have to think about it.

Clare Balding17:39

But I'd keep my fluid intake down. I'd have a piece of melon at breakfast, or a sliced grapefruit. I'd ridden before breakfast, I'd ride again after breakfast. Then I'd go running in a sweatsuit, and then I'd come back and sit in the sauna. And Dad had this big set of scales and and he'd say to me every morning, What do you weigh?

Presenter17:54

Your dad would say that.

Clare Balding17:54

Your dad would say that. Yeah, yeah,'cause he you know, he's doing the entries and he needs to know, Can you ride at Tenstone Two next week?

Clare Balding18:01

Uh

Presenter18:01

Why did you want it so much?

Clare Balding18:03

Because he was interested.

Presenter18:04

Yeah.

Clare Balding18:05

And and that was the first time I'd done anything that that he

Clare Balding18:09

was interested.

Presenter18:11

So that was the bit of that that felt good. Yeah.'Cause most of that would not feel good.

Clare Balding18:14

No, but also riding in races is thrillingly exciting. And you're riding at speed and you're

Clare Balding18:20

Making r decisions really quickly, and you've got big crowds. And I just loved putting on silks. I liked, you know, walking out into the paddock and seeing a horse and knowing that they would run for me, and they did.

Presenter18:30

Do you get a lot of the same emotions and feelings stirred when you do live broadcasting?

Clare Balding18:36

I'm listening to you and I think, oh, that's all sort of sounds. And when the red light goes on or you hear the music, and when the old days of Grand Stand, when I heard the Grand Stand music, it was like walking out into the paddock. And your brain just goes somewhere different.

Clare Balding18:49

and when I was riding,

Clare Balding18:52

Everything happened in slow motion and I was so calm. Once I got legged up, I was so calm. And I'm the same when I'm broadcasting. I get very nervous beforehand and I

Clare Balding19:02

You know, do a lot of sort of di actual physical wringing of hands and quite a lot of walking around and talk a lot, quite annoyingly for other presenters, obviously.

Clare Balding19:12

And then when it starts I'm fine.

Presenter19:14

Can you describe to me the moment that you won that race on your second outing as an an amateur jockey? And you presumably your father was there?

Clare Balding19:20

He wasn't actually because he was not. Was he not mum was with me?

Presenter19:21

Was he not?

Presenter19:22

Yeah.

Clare Balding19:23

I think I rang him for the race course. What did he say? Oh, he was re he's a well done girl.

Presenter19:25

Oh, he was

Clare Balding19:27

Well done, girl.

Clare Balding19:28

That's why he yeah.

Presenter19:29

Praise indeed.

Clare Balding19:30

But, you know, he's written me a few letters over the years, and he always writes darling daughter and he writes fantastic letters.

Presenter19:37

To go back

Clare Balding19:37

And read them. Yeah.

Presenter19:39

Mm.

Presenter19:40

Let's take some time and have some music then, Claire Balding. We're on your oh, tell me about this disc five. I think I can guess why you've chosen this one.

Clare Balding19:47

Well this takes us to the summer of 2012 and my favourite track of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. The lights had gone down in the stadium and the young runners came in to have their torches lit by their mentors and to light the cauldron and this was the beginning. There's so much hope in this and so much positivity and it's underworld and you'll hear lots of voices on here but it's Caliban's dream.

Speaker 420:24

Trusted by the single God in all the world.

Speaker 420:30

But a flame arrives to guide us past the gold between the embers of the stars. What you all

Presenter20:43

That was Underworld, along with the Dockhead Choir and Caliban's dream. You've said, not surprisingly, Claire Balding, that the highlight of your broadcasting career so far has been the London twenty twelve Olympics. We all have a I was telling people I was going to

Clare Balding20:54

Olympics and Paralympics.

Presenter20:55

And Paralympics, of course. I was telling people I was coming to speak to you today, and they was like, oh, I love that bit when she. Do you know when she, what was your favourite bit?

Clare Balding20:58

Yeah.

Clare Balding21:03

I think the whole Chad's Dad bit was quite special because actually I I

Presenter21:06

And the Chad's Dad is the kind of my beautiful boy, my beautiful boy.

Clare Balding21:07

Um

Clare Balding21:08

Chat stack is the kind of

Clare Balding21:10

Yeah, my beautiful boy. Oh, look at my boy, look at my boy, don't look at me, are we live? That bit. And he was a gift, and he was so warm, and he was full of that paternal pride that I think lots of people watching connected with. It was a summer

Presenter21:24

When enthusiasm was back in. And I include in that enthusiasm in presenting sport. I mean, you're there, you're waving the flag, you're jumping in the air.

Clare Balding21:25

Yeah.

Clare Balding21:29

Yeah

Clare Balding21:32

Well, I think lots of things combined that you know, it was my fifth Olympic Games, so I kind of knew the practicalities of how to get about and where you can do your prep, and what you should try and see and and actually how much sleep you should make sure you get,'cause it's a long haul.

Clare Balding21:46

But also, you're right, my style is very upbeat. Yes, it's full of facts, but it's full of just joy and love of sport. And I think that had gone a little out of fashion. And I think London

Clare Balding21:59

was different because we all felt like that.

Presenter22:01

2014 then, of course, we're going to see the Winter Olympics. It's in Sochi, the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi.

Clare Balding22:05

Good.

Presenter22:07

Russia, as you'll be well aware and many people are, is under fire for the new laws that they've got that are seen by many people to be anti-gay. You're going there as a a gay woman presenter. Do you go with a clear conscience? Yeah.

Clare Balding22:21

Absolutely, because I think it's hugely important that I do go. I mean, you've only got one. Wh w what would be the sense of me not going? I would feel that we'd just caved in to to what Russia thinks and that would be silly.

Clare Balding22:33

So I'm looking forward to the sports side of it, but I also think as a statement of intent, I absolutely should go. And I would love the BBC to be doing something on

Clare Balding22:44

the state of affairs in Russia and finding out exactly how people, how families and how individuals are affected by it and shine a spotlight on it, because I'm not sure many people were that aware that Russia was so homophobic.

Presenter22:55

It would shine a huge spotlight on it if you said, I am not going because. I mean, that would be front-page news, Claire.

Clare Balding23:00

in this country for about a week.

Clare Balding23:03

And it would make absolutely no difference at all to anyone in Russia, would it?

Clare Balding23:07

I mean, I didn't do the open golf at Muirfield last summer. I didn't make a big song and dance about it, but I felt morally

Clare Balding23:13

I couldn't go to an all-male club and sell this great golf event when I knew I wouldn't be allowed there on any day of the week.

Clare Balding23:22

I will make a moral stand on things, but in this instance I think the right thing to do is to go.

Presenter23:28

Let's have some music, Claire. Tell me about the next one.

Clare Balding23:31

This is a song, again, um upbeat um track, as I'm thinking I'm going to do quite a lot of exercise on my island and I need to run around things. Um but also has quite a clear message about time and when for all of us, I think, you know, and anyone.

Clare Balding23:44

Time is so precious and sometimes you just want it to slow down or in this instance you want the world to stop and it's by Bellen Sebastian.

Speaker 423:54

Tinsil Tan has followed me from Tinsutan To create a terrible city by the top

Speaker 424:03

Girls are walking, moving at the sunlight's low The girls don't care as they bake themselves at us

Speaker 424:21

I want to rough the sky

Speaker 424:24

Slim

Presenter24:26

That was Belle and Sebastian and I Want the World to Stop. Uh Claire, you were diagnosed uh with thyroid cancer in I think it was two thousand nine. How did you deal with that diagnosis?

Clare Balding24:36

Um

Clare Balding24:37

I pretended it wasn't happening.

Clare Balding24:39

I was terrible. And actually Alice kept saying to me, What did the doctor say? what you know, and I couldn't remember, so she ended up having to come to every

Clare Balding24:46

Consultation with me because I just couldn't remember, I couldn't take it in. And she and my mum actually talked a lot during that and and became very close because I was pretty hopeless. And

Clare Balding24:59

I couldn't really take it in and and it was right at the same time when Toothgate happened at the Grand National. I stupidly, stupidly said to Liam Treadwell, who'd won the Grand National, give us a smile and I thought he'd had his teeth knocked out. What you said

Presenter25:11

It was the winning

Clare Balding25:11

You could

Presenter25:11

Do you

Clare Balding25:12

So I said, oh don't worry, you've won the National, you can afford to get your teeth done.

Presenter25:12

So I said, oh, don't worry.

Clare Balding25:15

I think I was just trying to be one of the boys. Yeah, let's just use a bit of

Clare Balding25:19

casual humour and um not very clever.

Clare Balding25:23

Anyway, the next day I was doing rugby league in Leeds, I think, and then on the Monday I was going into hospital for the first operation.

Clare Balding25:30

So I was at a really low ebb because the press after toothcape was not not nice.

Presenter25:36

There was a huge storm about it.

Clare Balding25:37

Yeah, there were two and a half thousand complaints. And the thing is.

Clare Balding25:41

If you make people feel uncomfortable, and I did,

Clare Balding25:44

They will become offended.

Clare Balding25:47

So actually the fact that Liam wasn't

Clare Balding25:50

You know, the funny thing is now, you know, he got a whole new set of teeth because two dentists offered him free treatment. So we.

Presenter25:56

So he did he has said to you, it didn't offend me at all.

Clare Balding25:57

That didn't offend me at all. No, no, no, no. But we laugh about it a lot, but I made a bigger audience feel really uncomfortable.

Clare Balding26:05

And you kind of have to reboot the system when that happens. You have to say, what can I do to make sure I don't do that again?

Clare Balding26:12

But because I was then

Clare Balding26:14

Going into hospital straight after, the difficulty was I gave Alice my phone, which never stopped. You know, Five Live are ringing once you be on the phone in, Radio Four are ringing'cause of the feedback want to do it. You know, everybody's ringing and then the papers are ringing, and she's not I'cause I didn't want anybody to know that I was um that I was ill, she's not able to say to them, Would you just leave her alone? She's being wheeled down to anesthetic.

Clare Balding26:36

Because also, I didn't want to use that as an excuse or a kind of get out, so it wasn't great.

Presenter26:41

And you you said to your friends that you wanted them to pretend it wasn't happening as well.

Clare Balding26:45

I did, I know. Isn't that awful? I couldn't deal with everybody else's fear.

Clare Balding26:51

I could deal with mine, but I couldn't look in somebody else's eyes. And you know how people's voices change. Are you alright? The head goes to the side. Yes, I couldn't do that.

Presenter26:58

Yeah.

Clare Balding27:00

And it wasn't, you know, there are a lot of cancers you can get.

Clare Balding27:04

Thiral cancer, luckily for me, was one that's very treatable.

Presenter27:09

Uh you said that uh your mother and your partner Alice spoke to each other a lot. Did you and Alice speak to each other a lot? Did you let her in?

Clare Balding27:13

Long to do

Clare Balding27:16

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, she knew, yeah.

Presenter27:19

I know she knew, but did you let her were you did you let yourself be vulnerable? Because I don't think vulnerability would come particularly easily to you.

Clare Balding27:26

And we sat outside and cried.

Presenter27:28

Right.

Presenter27:31

And so the prognosis is very good.

Clare Balding27:34

Yeah.

Presenter27:35

Your health is very good now.

Clare Balding27:36

Fantastic.

Presenter27:39

You have mentioned all the way through talking, and it's lovely your partner Alice. You've been together for ten years, you had a civil partnership. Eleven years. Eleven years, I beg your pardon.

Clare Balding27:42

Yeah.

Clare Balding27:44

Eleven years.

Presenter27:47

Alice, we should tell people who don't know, is Alice Arnold, who was such a familiar voice for so many years on Radio Four. Um w would it matter to you if you could marry would you want the same word to apply to you as a couple?

Clare Balding27:56

Would you want the s

Clare Balding27:58

I would because like my nephew said to me, Are you married? and I just said yes,'cause it was easier. But generally speaking you say yes, but we're in a civil partnership. And put it this way, our civil partnership ceremony

Clare Balding28:10

There were only four friends there, and then we had a big party the next day, to which all my family and everybody else came. I didn't want anyone looking at me with even a hint of a look in their eyes to say this isn't the same.

Presenter28:23

Right.

Clare Balding28:24

And we had we played because you can play a bit of music then we played four tracks and one of them is the next one.

Speaker 428:29

She's got a way about her

Speaker 428:35

I don't know what it is.

Speaker 428:37

But I know that I can't live without her.

Speaker 428:42

She's got a way pleasing

Speaker 428:48

Or why it is, but there doesn't have to be a reason anyway.

Presenter28:51

Uh

Clare Balding28:51

Have to

Presenter28:59

That was Billy Joel and She's Got Away.

Presenter29:02

Like many people, Claire Balding, you did, I imagine, expect that your private life pretty much was your private life and it was between you and the people who loved you. Um the Mail on Sunday decided that that should not be the case and they outed you. Um

Clare Balding29:13

Yeah.

Presenter29:16

In two thousand three, I think it was. What did that feel like?

Clare Balding29:17

Oops.

Clare Balding29:19

Kind of weird. We went to a premiere of Sea Biscuit, a racing film. And I think I'm just a bit naïve. I didn't.

Clare Balding29:28

Realize that if I went with my parents, my brother, my sister-in-law, and my partner.

Clare Balding29:33

That that would be a big deal. Uh but clearly it was. Obviously my parents knew, but my grandmother didn't know.

Clare Balding29:40

So I went over to grandma and I said, um

Clare Balding29:43

Grandma, I need to talk to you. And she said, Yes, I think you do. And um I said, Have you seen the paper? She said, Yes, and I think it's disgusting.

Clare Balding29:51

And I said, What, the invasion of my privacy or or my lifestyle choice? And she said, Both.

Clare Balding29:57

And I didn't talk to her for about six months after that and that was pretty difficult. But then then Archie obviously broke the ice for me and that was fine.

Presenter30:04

We've talked a bit about you you know, your relationship with your father. Um how is your relationship with your father now?

Clare Balding30:11

All's really good, and you know, I wrote a book that he doesn't come out of brilliantly, but it is an arc and it is true, and he loved the book, so that's great. And

Clare Balding30:21

He absolutely adores Alice, and it's really sweet, actually. And he is, he's a different guy now because he's not in the job. You know, he's retired.

Clare Balding30:31

It is a very high pressure job, and he didn't have time for us, and now he has time for his grandchildren, and it's very sweet. But also he has time for me.

Presenter30:39

And Claire, how would you be on this uh imaginary island all on your own? Hopeless. Would you?

Clare Balding30:44

Would you? I just don't really

Clare Balding30:48

Find my own company that exciting. I'm just not really designed to be on my own.

Presenter30:53

So I would struggle.

Clare Balding30:55

No, exactly. And I need to bounce on people. So I would

Clare Balding30:59

Try and learn about the

Clare Balding31:01

bird life and the sea life and, you know, be hunting and gathering and doing exercises and dancing around to my music and trying to find people on the island to make friends with. None of them.

Presenter31:12

There is music, though, of course, and it's time now for your final piece. Tell me about this.

Clare Balding31:16

This is a song that I think is a beautiful version of a very, very well known hymn, and it when I listen to it it makes me think of all the ramblings programmes that I've done and all the places that I have walked.

Clare Balding31:29

Around the United Kingdom, and I think it is just the most lovely version of I Vow to Thee, My Country, and it's by Beck Goldsmith.

Speaker 331:36

I found

Speaker 331:38

To thee, my country.

Speaker 331:41

All earthly things above

Speaker 331:45

Bentile

Speaker 331:47

I'm the whole, I'm perfect, the service of my love.

Speaker 332:02

The love that asks no questions

Presenter32:06

I vow to thee, my country, sung by Beck Goldsmith there. I'm going to give you the books now, Claire. You get uh the Bible, the complete works of Shakespeare, and you get to take another book along. What are you going to take to

Clare Balding32:16

I'm going to take like a big encyclopedia of nature. I would like to just for a very short space of time be a bird watcher and then I'd know what they are.

Clare Balding32:26

My luxury is my

Clare Balding32:29

I've got it here in my hand. It's my Thermos mug.

Clare Balding32:32

Whenever I leave the house I take a Thermos mug of tea and I always say to Alice, Can you make me the tea? because her tea's better than my tea. I kind of feel like you walk out of home with a bit of home. So I want proper tea with proper milk and sugar in my thermos mug. That's f

Presenter32:46

Fine. I'm going to do that.

Clare Balding32:46

I'm gonna do that.

Presenter32:47

And a track that you would save from the waves. Which one would it be?

Clare Balding32:50

It would either be the Billy Joel she's got away.

Clare Balding32:54

Or it would be Caliban's dream.

Presenter32:56

You got a p

Clare Balding32:56

Pick the one. I know. Well, that's that's that's you saying, do you pick your career and everything that represents your career? Or do you pick?

Clare Balding33:02

Your partner, okay. And we will judge you by your choice. I know. Alice will go, go on, pick Caliban's dream. Go on, go on. Take the pressure off. I'll pick Billy Joel. She's got away.

Presenter33:03

And we will judge it

Presenter33:09

Take the press

Clare Balding33:12

Yeah.

Presenter33:12

You sure? Okay, Claire Balding, thank you very much for letting us hear your desert island discs. Thank you.

Presenter33:35

You've been listening to a download from the BBC. You'll find more information on the Radio 4 website: bbc.co.uk slash Radio Four.