Freddie Flintoff

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.

Presenter0:34

My castaway this week is the cricketer Andrew Freddie Flintoff.

Presenter0:38

One of the best players of his generation, he was part of the England team that won the Ashes in two thousand and five, a year that marked his sporting coming of age. On the strength of the historic victory he was awarded an MBE for services to the game, and the public voted him B B C Sports Personality of the Year.

Presenter0:56

Barely out of his pram when he picked up a cricket ball, he turned out to bat for an under fourteen match when he was just six years old.

Presenter1:04

His debut was not in crisp cricket whites, but in a second hand Manchester United tracksuit, setting the tone, maybe, for some one who's made a bit of a habit of doing things his way, not least at number ten Downing Street, when at a reception for the famous Ashes Wynne, somewhat the worse for wear, he weaved into the Cabinet room, plonked himself down in the PM's chair, and with his feet on the cabinet table knocked back yet another bottle of beer.

Presenter1:28

Since retiring from the game, he's had a go at heavyweight boxing, he won the bout, TV quiz shows, it got a BAFTA, and being a dad to his three young kids, one area where he hasn't come out on top, his sons apparently never listened to his cricket coaching tips. He says, I'm not actually that massively competitive, I shy away from competition. It really does bring both the best and the very worst out of people. So welcome, Freddie Flintoff. Not being competitive, I'm I'm really very surprised uh that you said that, because surely that is what's at the well, really what's at the very heart of a world-class sports person.

Freddie Flintoff2:06

I think it's a strange one. I'm not sure if I'm not too competitive or I don't want to be competitive because you're saying that where it does bring out the best in me and the worst in me. When I played cricket, for me, I wasn't technically very good. My style in which I played wasn't textbook, but it was like a stubbornness and a a ruthlessness to win, which I think got me through. And that's fine on a cricket field, but in other areas of your life, you don't particularly want it. So now these days I tend to shy away from that competitive element because

Freddie Flintoff2:37

If I do enter something I have to win.

Presenter2:40

And that stubbornness and that ruthlessness, does it surprise you about yourself? Do you think, ooh, where did that come from?

Freddie Flintoff2:45

Yeah, sometimes it's almost like um a different person. And no matter what I did as a cricketer, or probably in in life now, with the exception of my family, he's never quite good enough. I always want to do better.

Presenter2:55

The Ashes series then starts this Wednesday in Cardiff. Will you watch any of it indeed, or are you not really able to watch if you're not playing?

Freddie Flintoff3:03

I went through that when I retired. I retired at thirty one. And for a while after retiring, I shied away from it. I used to watch it thinking I sh I still should be playing. I used to hate it. I used to watch people doing what I thought was my job. Where now as I've got a little bit older,

Freddie Flintoff3:17

I've actually turned back into a cricket fan.

Freddie Flintoff3:19

My two boys are nine and seven call in rocky, they love it.

Freddie Flintoff3:22

So I just sit with them and sit on the side and watch, take them to cricket matches, sit in the crowd. I actually really like it.

Presenter3:28

I was really surprised by the list. You were born in nineteen seventy seven, and looking at your musical list this morning, on that basis I find it quite intriguing. Tell us about the first track that we're going to hear, and tell me why you've chosen it.

Freddie Flintoff3:40

When I left school at sixteen, I'd signed a contract with Lancashire to play cricket, and I'd I'd been paid a little bit that summer.

Freddie Flintoff3:46

And I wanted to go to Australia that winter and play cricket for a club team, but my mum said, No, you're sixteen, you're too young, you've never really been out of Preston, there's no way that you're going to Australia to play cricket So she said get a job.

Freddie Flintoff3:59

And my brother was putting himself through university and working at Woolworths in Preston on the record counter. So I said I'll get us a job on the record counter and I actually loved it. Elvis's Essential Collection was a big C D and it was played on a loop in the shop 24 7 and then after about a week I knew every word to every song and just found myself singing along to everything and I think that's why I got the sack in the end because I got put in charge of Christmas decorations and I think on the Christmas Eve I'd still not finish putting my decorations. I used to sit on the top of a ladder in the store just listening to Elvis all day long watching the world go by.

Speaker 34:39

I just can't help believing when she's whispering her magic

Speaker 34:46

And the tears are shining on this sweet beloved

Speaker 34:57

This time the girl is gonna stay.

Presenter5:04

I just can't help believing Alice Presley. Can you clarify something for me? I mean, we know you, of course, as Freddie Flintoff. Your name, as a lot of people also know, is Andrew Flintoff. People who know you best, what do they call you?

Freddie Flintoff5:15

Andrew. It's strange that when I started with Lancashire I started in the reserve team when I was fifteen and the coach at the time just called me Fred in reference to Flintstone and Flintoff and it's stuck ever since. It's quite strange. When I was playing cricket it was fine around the dressing room, around people, but when you're picking the kids up from school and you're meeting other parents, they don't know what to call me at times. You know, I introduced myself as Andrew and people call me Fred, but

Presenter5:36

Yeah.

Presenter5:39

You introduced yourself to me this morning as Freddie, you put out your hand as you and I thought, oh, okay. Do they feel like different personas?

Freddie Flintoff5:42

Yeah.

Freddie Flintoff5:45

I used to differentiate the two of them, especially when I went out on the field or go out to perform, then that was very much Fred. You know, it was this front, this big axe. But then when I go home, I'm very different. I'm very quiet, just close the door.

Presenter5:55

Smooth.

Freddie Flintoff5:59

And I enjoy that side more now.

Presenter6:01

I mentioned uh that you were born in 1977, the youngest of two brothers. I mean, you're what what height are you?

Freddie Flintoff6:07

Six four.

Presenter6:07

And you're huge. I mean, your hands are massive, your shoulders are massive. You were a big, boisterous, bouncing baby then. What what weight were you when you were born?

Freddie Flintoff6:13

I reckon I was about round about ten pound. Um but as a kid I was tall but I was really, really skinny. I used to wear T shirts under my shirts to try and make myself look a little bit bigger. And then when I got to about eighteen I started putting weight on and I put a lot of weight on.

Presenter6:15

Royal

Freddie Flintoff6:28

And since then it's had been a constant battle.

Presenter6:30

We maybe talk about that later. For now, I'm I'm very interested in your mum and dad. What sort of parents were they when you were little?

Freddie Flintoff6:35

My dad retired um probably about ten years ago. He's a plumber by trade. However, worked for British Sheriff Space on the shop floor, on a machine, for years, doing twelve hour shifts, did like days, nights, all sorts. And my mum, she had a like varied job. She worked in a shoe shop for a while and then she worked in a school. She was a reception teacher. Lived on the edge of probably four estates. The two schools I went to were on council estates. And that was different because cricket was seen very different. Cricket was like the posh sport.

Presenter7:05

Was it played in school?

Freddie Flintoff7:06

I never played at school.

Presenter7:07

Did they have a cricket team at school?

Freddie Flintoff7:09

No, no, no, it's just football all year round,'cause football's easy, just get two jumpers out, put it down, kick a ball around.

Presenter7:15

Where were you playing cricket?

Freddie Flintoff7:16

I was playing on a Saturday afternoon. Um my dad played he was captain of the second team of a local club and me and my brother Chris from Babies went pushed around the boundary, played on the side.

Presenter7:26

So you wouldn't walk back through the the sort of housing estates in your cricket white side. Oh no, never.

Freddie Flintoff7:29

Oh, no, never. Never. I think it stood me in good stead for when I was older, because I go out on a cricket field against Australia or whoever it may be and they'll start mouthing off and they call it sledging when they're trying to get into you.

Presenter7:40

Trying to get

Presenter7:41

Yeah.

Freddie Flintoff7:42

And you think, hang on a minute, you've got no idea what I've done to get here.

Presenter7:45

And did you go and play on the sort of posh cricket fields of England, the schools of England? Did you go to Eton and and rugby?

Freddie Flintoff7:49

Yeah.

Freddie Flintoff7:51

I used to love that. I'd play for Lancashire and we play all the north of England and we'd turn up, we'd play like Harrow against all these kids and they had all the best kit and we just used to smash'em, it was great. I remember my first pair of pads. I bought me Auntie John used to take us down to London once a year, me and my brother and my cousin. And I bought my pads from Hamley's. They're like kids' pads and they're about fifteen quid in a sale. And every time you got hit on'em, it hurt. And it was funny because I got asked to go to most of these private schools on scholarships. The ones around the north west and there's a posh one down in the south west. But I didn't want to because I was playing cricket against professionals from being twelve, thirteen.

Presenter8:30

And your parents didn't want you to to go on a scholarship over

Freddie Flintoff8:33

Yeah, when I went to the interviews and everything, I said, Look, I'm not going there because my school started at twenty to nine. I was back home at three o'clock watching Dallas on UK Gold at three. So it was it was perfect.

Presenter8:44

When you think about that now, as Andrew Flintoff, father of three, you think, you know, I could have had a thirty-six thousand pound-a-year education.

Freddie Flintoff8:52

I've still got nine GCSEs though.

Presenter8:52

Still got nine G

Presenter8:53

And you were an A student uh for a lot of your

Freddie Flintoff8:56

What of your school career?

Presenter8:59

And you are clearly very intelligent.

Freddie Flintoff9:00

I I was all right. I was like my brother was far beyond myself, but

Presenter9:05

More in a second. For now, Freddy Flintoff, let's have your second disc. What are we going to hear?

Freddie Flintoff9:09

I lost my nan about two years ago and used to stay over and she'd sing and we'd sing somewhere over the rainbow together. And when she died I'm quite good in a crisis. And I was like doing the functional things and

Freddie Flintoff9:22

I never really got a chance to mourn her and then went to the funeral and they played Songwhere Over the Rainbow There and then my daughter sang it in a school play and then it was at that point where I si I just started thinking about my nan and thinking about all sorts and now my daughter's singing this song as I'd sung for years before and it was it was beautiful.

Presenter9:45

Over the rainbow.

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Way of part

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There's a land that I heard of once in a long above

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Some way.

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No matter.

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Skies on

Presenter10:17

That was Judy Garland and Over the Rainbow and Memories for You, Freddie Flintoff, of your grandmother. As you say, you were well, I had to force you to say it really, but you were a straight A student up until the point at which cricket really took over in your head and also physically, you know, out there practising a lot. You start to get paid as a youngster.

Freddie Flintoff10:31

What you start

Presenter10:33

You you were in the chess team as well, are you good at chess?

Freddie Flintoff10:35

I loved chess. It was it was a rough school and you had kids from all different backgrounds going there. But they had a chess teacher called Mr Minter who run a chess club. And you'd never have imagined the kids who were going to play chess. We had like the best chess team probably in the country for a school and probably the hardest one as well. And I played for Lancashire, my brother played for England. And even at a young age, that Will to win came out when I was about eleven. I was playing for Lancashire against Staffordshire. And I was playing this poor kid and I'd noticed that after a move he'd not pressed his clock. And the done thing to do would be to say, mate, you've not pressed your clock, but

Presenter11:13

Out of politeness, not the rules. Yes, yes.

Freddie Flintoff11:14

Yes. Yeah, but my desire to win, this is where competition can sometimes bring out the worst in me even as a young lad. I sat there for forty five minutes scratching my head, pretending it was my move, and his little flag dropped and he'd lost. So I stuck my hand out to thank him for the game, at which point he just broke out into hysterical crying and I got hauled up in front of like the Chess Federation for my ungentlemanly like play.

Presenter11:39

You still play chess now for pleasure? You?

Freddie Flintoff11:40

I sometimes play my brother, however, that is frustrating because I just can't beat him. And then my boy Corey, who's nine, I've taught him how to play chess and we play together. But even with him I I find it hard to let him win. I do every now and then.

Presenter11:54

That's good of you. Every now and then.

Freddie Flintoff11:55

I do, but I think you've got to earn things. I'm a big one in earning a victory or earning something.

Presenter12:00

Let's have your next piece of music. We're on your third.

Freddie Flintoff12:02

Big Elton John fan. I met him I think two thousand and two, three. I went to a dinner in Cape Town and I sat on his table, also with Desmond Tutu, which was like the bizarrest but the most brilliant night I have ever had.

Presenter12:15

Right, you're not making that up, are you? That is a matter of table.

Freddie Flintoff12:17

No, I'm positive it happened.

Freddie Flintoff12:20

And in 2005, when we had that great series against Australian won the Ashes.

Freddie Flintoff12:25

In the dressing room we had some new younger players and they bring their iPods and the music in and it's dreadful. I'm not into like this bump, bump music and so I used to put Rocket Man on by Elton John and it became our anthem of that summer.

Presenter12:39

And I think it's gonna be a long, long time To touch down, brings me round and get to find I'm not the man they think I am at home

Presenter12:53

Ah

Speaker 112:57

Good morning

Speaker 112:59

You that fairly long

Presenter13:04

Rocket Man, Elton John, there. And you said, Freddie Flintoff, that that was often played in the dressing room during that Ashley series in 2005. Did they all know the words by the end?

Freddie Flintoff13:13

They did by the end of it, and then after that, I actually got to sing it with Elton.

Freddie Flintoff13:17

I had my testimonial year in 2006 and I phoned him up and said, Look, I've got this function. Is there any chance? He said, Yeah, yeah, fine. And he did ten numbers and it was amazing. But when Rocketman came on, I was sat minding my own business at the table and he said, Oh, I need a bit of help with this one. So I think, all right, who's he got? This would be great. And then he said, Me. So I've gone out to the front and I I like to sing, I like a karaoke song or an Elvis number. But Elton John's songs are a bit chicky. So I was like propped at the end of the piano with a microphone and he nodded to me to start singing. I started. Marzane does that.

Speaker 113:50

Oh, Zane.

Freddie Flintoff13:52

I was so nervous, and I thought, right, you gotta go with this. So I ended up crewing it.

Freddie Flintoff13:58

Like walking around, and then he didn't like that. So he just sent me off. He said, That's enough now.

Presenter14:03

Let's luxuriate in England winning the Ashes in two thousand five. It was, of course, as all uh cricket fans will know a historic uh victory. They hadn't won the Ashes since, was it, nineteen eighty seven?

Freddie Flintoff14:13

Something like that, yeah.

Presenter14:14

Yeah.

Presenter14:15

What was your state of mind when you embarked on the series?

Freddie Flintoff14:19

I didn't prepare myself.

Freddie Flintoff14:21

For how big it was. I remember turning up to Wards for the first test match and.

Freddie Flintoff14:26

It was like making my debut all over again. And I'm terrible at debuts. All my debuts have gone really bad. And this was no exception.

Freddie Flintoff14:33

And I sat back down in the dressing room afterwards and thought, This is not right So I had a week off, we went down to Devon with the family. You know, I turned up at the next Test match at Birmingham.

Freddie Flintoff14:43

Thinking, you know what, I'm just gonna enjoy myself. I've lived to play in this series since I can remember.

Presenter14:50

And it was golden for you. You were awarded the best player of the season, of course, England stormed. Well, when I say stormed to victory, you know, crickets. We storm it more. Yeah, cricket is a bit more complicated than that, a bit more subtle. Let's talk for a moment about those celebrations. There was a tour of London on an open top bus. What do you remember of that journey on the open top bus? Yes.

Freddie Flintoff15:05

On a new

Freddie Flintoff15:08

I have flashbacks.

Presenter15:11

You look pie-eyed on that bus.

Freddie Flintoff15:12

I was oh, I was struggling, yeah. We we got on the bus and they give us champagne. It was like, Why are you giving us champagne? We we've we've had enough but it'd be like rude not to And it went to Trafalgar Square and then the best place to send a group of fourteen drunken books is Ten Downing Street for a bit of a garden party.

Presenter15:31

And you went into the cabinet room. You were what you were looking for the toilet, were you in your

Freddie Flintoff15:36

As a kid I liked Through the Keyhole, so I thought it's a great chance. And then I think I remembered which seat the Prime Minister sat in. And then I put my feet on the table, I had a bottle of beer in my hand, and I started hosting my own meeting. I was like talking to the Home Secretary and the the Chancellor.

Freddie Flintoff15:52

And then the security guard caught me and he abruptly drew the meeting to a close by kicking me out and marching me back to join the rest of the crew.

Presenter16:01

More music, Freddie Flintoff. Tell me about this. You're on your fourth of the morning.

Freddie Flintoff16:05

And this goes back to my England captaincy days. And it's one of the things which annoys me a little bit. I couldn't have done it a little bit better than I did. But there was one occasion I got it right, which was in India. And the series was in the balance on the last day. So I went in the dressing room and rather than give a team talk, I had a shower, I walked out naked with my towel over my shoulder.

Freddie Flintoff16:28

and went to the iPod and found Johnny Cash on the iPod, and Ring of Fire was on, and it starts off

Freddie Flintoff16:37

And naked I started dancing and swinging my towel round my my head. And then one by one the team started getting up and dancing. Bearing in mind we're going back out to field any minute. And I was naked swinging my towel round my head, swinging everything about, while one of the world's best ever players, Sachin Tendulka, poked his head round the dressing room saying, What is going on here? I said, Don't worry about it And we actually went out after Ring of Fire and bowled India out and won a Test match I think in Mumbai the first time in twenty twenty one years, twenty years.

Speaker 317:10

Love is a burning thing.

Speaker 317:15

And it makes a fiery ring.

Speaker 317:22

Bound by wild desire

Speaker 317:28

I fell into a ring of fire.

Speaker 317:32

I filled into a burning ring of fire. Went down, down, down, and the flames went higher. And it burned.

Presenter17:41

Johnny Cash and Ring of Fire and all our listeners, Freddie Frontoff, will be toying with that image for many years or at least days to come, I'm sure.

Freddie Flintoff17:47

Please don't. Please don't.

Presenter17:48

Please don't. You went on to captain England in the Ashes series in two thousand six, two thousand seven in Australia. England, I don't have to remind you, was roundly beaten. How did you deal with that defeat?

Freddie Flintoff17:59

Not great. If you said to like a young lad or a professional, you're gonna get the chance to captain your country, you'd jump at the chance and I did. You know, when I was playing well, it wasn't that bad a job because if I felt if something needed doing, I'd do it myself. But then I started getting injured and my form started dipping and I couldn't do the things on the field I wanted and also the captaincy was like starting to weigh quite heavy on my shoulders. I used to go back to my room and I I used to hide away from things and at times I probably drank a little bit too much, just trying to change the way in which I feel. So you have a few drinks and then it's fine but then the next day you feel absolutely terrible.

Presenter18:37

You do have this historical reputation then as a big boozer, you know, and people talk about all the times when the wheels came off and and it's been, you know, certainly documented in public plenty times, seventy-two hour benders and so on and so on. Was there a time when the drinking I don't want to say took control of you, because I think that probably would be over dramatizing it, but a time when you really had to address a problem?

Freddie Flintoff18:54

Yeah.

Freddie Flintoff18:57

It's not so much the drinking, it's actually the reasons why you're drinking, I think it's the problem. We celebrated in 2005, and that was fantastic. We're celebrating something we'd done well.

Freddie Flintoff19:07

But then when you're drinking because you're trying to get away from something, I think that's when you gotta have a look at it and think, you know what, that's not right. Looking back, I did a documentary for the BBC about depression in sport. I went round speaking to Steve Harmerson, Ricky Hatton, Vinnie Jones, and I started to realize and identify some of the things which they went through through my career and through my life.

Freddie Flintoff19:28

And then that's one of the reasons now which I I probably stopped drinking is the fact that, you know, I am prone to suffer from depression. Drinking does not help that one bit.

Presenter19:37

Don't drink at all.

Freddie Flintoff19:37

No, I don't I don't touch it now. And going back to like the captaincy.

Presenter19:37

Not

Freddie Flintoff19:41

I wish I had done it differently, definitely.

Presenter19:43

And your fluctuating weight obviously has also been greatly commented upon. Was the eating also part of that symptom of kind of, you know, just do that because it quietens the noise inside?

Freddie Flintoff19:53

I was living on my own in Manchester and

Freddie Flintoff19:55

You know, I think I had the Pizza Man on Speak dial. It was bizarre because I'd go in the supermarket and I'd go in things and you felt everyone was watching you all the time. You're going to stand in a field and you're just getting abused from a crowd. And I was I was twenty years of age and I wasn't prepared for that at the time.

Presenter20:07

I don't know.

Freddie Flintoff20:11

And my methods to lose the weight were a little bit different. Being what?

Presenter20:15

The import

Freddie Flintoff20:15

I made myself sick. If I ate something I shouldn't, I felt I shouldn't have had, or been out, I made myself sick. Well, then that started creeping in more and more and more. And then that happened for a while.

Freddie Flintoff20:25

Until I told my wife, which wasn't my wife then, on hold it. And then just telling someone made it so much better.

Presenter20:31

Do you know, I think it's pretty remarkable that you can sit in front of a microphone and talk about it.

Freddie Flintoff20:36

To try and tell somebody who's not experienced it, you know, you just say, Well, to stop doing it and it's it's actually not a case I it's it's quite a bizarre thing to explain to someone who's not experienced it or or done it. So my my heart goes out to anyone out there who's who's struggling now.

Presenter20:51

Let's have some more music, Freddie Frontoff. Your fifth. Tell me about this.

Freddie Flintoff20:55

After 2006-7, when we got beat 5-0 and the World Cup went wrong, and everything, my career was going nowhere. I was injured again, I'd had surgery. I managed to talk my bosses at the ECB into letting me go to America to recover from an injury. And we rented a house in Florida, and it was amazing because it was like getting away from everything. Nobody knew who you were. I think at one point I said to my wife, I said, So just retire. We'll run a cafe here. This is brilliant. But it wasn't real life. But the house had one CD, it was Jack Johnson. And we used to play it over and over. My daughter would be jumping in the pool. My son was about 18 months at the time. And the songs better together. And it's just the perfect title for how we was at that time.

Speaker 121:41

No combination of words I could put on the back of a postcard

Speaker 121:45

No song that I could sing but I can try for your heart

Speaker 121:50

Our dreams and they are made out of real things like a shoebox of photographs or sepia tone loving

Speaker 121:58

Love is the answer at least for most of the questions of my heart

Speaker 122:03

Why are we here and where do we go and knock on us so hard?

Speaker 122:07

It's not always easy and sometimes love.

Presenter22:09

Jack Johnson, Better Together, memories for you, Freddie Flintoff, of very happy times with your family in Florida. At your peak, your bowling speed clock 90 miles per hour. You've surpassed Ian Botham's record for hitting the most sixes for England, and yet you've said, I've actually played on character more than ability. A lot of my game was bravado and front, but with very little really to back it up.

Presenter22:31

What are you on about? I just thought it was a good idea.

Freddie Flintoff22:33

I think that's why my career was very much up and down. That's why I never found that consistency because

Freddie Flintoff22:40

It was all about confidence when I walked out on a field.

Freddie Flintoff22:43

I remember if I was playing well, I'd walk out as a batter and I'd look round and I'd just see the boundary, I'd just see where I was going to hit the ball. If I wasn't playing well, I'd walk out and I'd just see fielders everywhere. It was like, I'm not going to get a run today.

Presenter22:55

Is it just a kind of Lancashire reserve, do you think, in your character that, you know, you don't want to boast about it?

Freddie Flintoff23:00

It might be I'm all my mates and that, if I started saying, Oh yeah, I was all right, they would rinse me, you know, we we're not like that from the north, you know, that's why I moved we lived in Cobham for two years and then moved back north. I was fed up with listening to people's stories and listening to people how good they were and how successful and how beautiful the children are. It's like, turn it up. I wanna go back north where we're normal.

Presenter23:22

Every athlete, every professional sports person has to look retirement in the eye at some point. Was there a single day when you knew today I have learned that I can no longer do this?

Freddie Flintoff23:31

I knew it was happening. We put I played my last series in two thousand and nine against Australia.

Freddie Flintoff23:35

And I was in agony with my knee, I was having injections. My knee surgeon, Andy, he was up in Glasgow seeing a football and he says I says, Look, can I come and see you? He said, I'm in Glasgow. I said, Look, I'll get the train. He says, Fine, Sunday morning, we'll have breakfast and we'll go through it Andy just said, He says, Look, I'll be really honest with you, we could sit here for hours, but he said, It's a time to do something else now

Freddie Flintoff23:58

But until someone tells you that there's no that was like f finality, then that was it, that's it, I'm done with you. What am I gonna do?

Freddie Flintoff24:06

What I had to do was I had to get back on a train for four hours back to London to then film another episode of League of Roan that day.

Freddie Flintoff24:12

And we had this question about the last time you cried, and I'm not really a crier. And I came up with some absolute nonsense answer, but it was only probably two hours previous, on the train back, on my own, from Glasgow.

Freddie Flintoff24:25

thinking it's it's over, that that's it.

Presenter24:28

Tell me about meeting your wife, Rachel. Can you remember the first time you saw her?

Freddie Flintoff24:32

Yeah, I can, yeah. She had a company which supplied promotional staff to events and one of her big clients was one of the sponsors for the cricket.

Freddie Flintoff24:40

And I saw her and I thought, Oh, she's great. On the Sunday, an ex girlfriend told a story in the News of the World, and the headline was Flintoff love making like his bowling hard, fast and straight. But I had to take out this girl that night that I actually really liked, with this hanging over me.

Freddie Flintoff24:59

So I mentioned it like in the first ten minutes. Have you seen any press today? She thought it was a lovely piece about you in the Times. I thought, That's happy days, happy days. And then about half eleven, she said, I've I've seen the news of the world as well. I said, Oh, yeah, but you you can't believe everything you re you can ya But it was probably the perfect start to our relationship.

Freddie Flintoff25:16

I don't think it's any coincidence that my career started getting better, having met her.

Presenter25:21

Tell me about your sick, then.

Freddie Flintoff25:22

This is from my wedding. It was great for me. We had Bill Wyman, he was the band. He's a big cricket fan which was unbelievable. Georgie Fame on keyboard. And but for the first dance we had um Frank Sinatra Fly Me to the Moon. And we started a dance and my brother, who'd had a few, he robbed the microphone and started singing it. I thought I can't have this. So I panicked, so I got the microphone and ended up singing the first dance to my wife.

Speaker 325:48

You are all I long for, all I worship and adore. In other words,

Speaker 325:58

Please be true.

Speaker 326:13

I love you.

Presenter26:20

Frank Sinatra, Fly Me to the Moon. Given that it was physical injuries in the end that meant that you had to retire from professional sport, what on earth possessed you to take up the challenge to become a heavyweight boxer?

Freddie Flintoff26:33

That is bravado. I was doing the the depression documentary and I met Barry McGiggum and I interviewed him and he was on the pads and I said, Can I just hit the pads so I can tell my mates like I've hit the pads with you holding them and he says yeah So I hit him, he says, You've got a good right hand and so thanks Barry And then I saw him a few weeks later and then said oh about this fight I'm gonna have joking and it escalated and it escalated and I realized pretty quick that I wasn't cut out for boxing'cause

Freddie Flintoff27:01

I don't like punching people. Just to punch someone who you don't know is quite a bizarre thing. And I remember I was sparring in Batterson. There's this lovely fella from Barnes turned up. He had the afternoon off work to come and spar.

Freddie Flintoff27:13

I hit him with the right hand and his legs went and then Barry was shouting, Finishing, finishing I put my arms round him and cuddled him and said, Me, are you all right? I'm really sorry about this.

Presenter27:22

You won the boat on a points decision and it

Freddie Flintoff27:26

Yeah, I did, yeah. It was just the most bizarre night I've I've ever experienced. Just uh

Freddie Flintoff27:32

Be in a ring in Manchester and people shouting and screaming and my wife's on the side smacking the canvas, she turned into someone I've never seen in my life before. She was she's quite reserved and she's polite and she's lovely.

Freddie Flintoff27:46

But I look at that, I thought that's not the woman I married. She was that shouting and screaming and all sorts of profanities.

Presenter27:52

Tell me about your seventh disc, then. What are we going to hear now?

Freddie Flintoff27:55

My ring entrance was Roll With It by Oasis. I'm a massive fan. I was still behind this big curtain on Fight Night and.

Freddie Flintoff28:03

There's like ten thousand Manx in this place. It's all going off. They start playing Oasis role with it. And I walked in in my Lancashire shirt.

Freddie Flintoff28:12

I was trying to look hard and stir, but

Freddie Flintoff28:15

I'm not sure I was kidding anyone to go.

Presenter28:34

You gotta roll with it, you gotta take it time, you gotta say what you say. Don't let anybody get in your way, cause it's all too much for me to take.

Presenter28:48

That was Roll with Uticalasis. Um Freddie Flintoff, you and Rachel have three children, then, you're two two boys and a girl. Are they showing sporting skill, sporting prowess?

Freddie Flintoff28:58

You know, my my daughter, she's into performing, singing and dancing. Take her to her dance competitions and love watching, like, her dance and I've threatened to enter the over sixteens category a few times, but I'm just not cool enough. And then the boys they both play cricket.

Presenter29:13

Is it in the back garden? Are you sort of teaching them, you know, how best to

Freddie Flintoff29:17

Well, I I try and teach them, but they just don't listen to anything I say. It's like I've never held a cricket bat in my life before, I've never played. And then they go to the Cricket Club and they've got the coach and they hang on everything he says. And at one point I remember Corey, when he was about seven, he was batting. I said, Look, do us a favor, just just do this, just listen to me. You wouldn't

Freddie Flintoff29:38

And I had to say to him, I hate myself for doing it. I says, Look, mate, you know what? I used to play this game. I actually played for England a while ago. I do know what I'm on about. Never mind this book at the Greek club And he just looked at me, he didn't listen still. But I just want to do something they enjoy. I I was so lucky that I did something which I loved for a job, for fun, for a hobby. I just want them to find that and it can it can be anything, it can be singing, dancing

Freddie Flintoff30:04

Hopefully not football, cricket, whatever it may be.

Freddie Flintoff30:07

And yeah, I just wanted to just to commit to something.

Presenter30:11

Do you feel like somebody now who has found balance in your life? You know, as you've spoken a lot about up and downs, whether it be on the field or or off the field. Do you feel now that things are a bit more on a on a level?

Freddie Flintoff30:21

I'm more comfortable in my own skin now than I ever have been. It's been a job to get there.

Presenter30:26

And what about that thing that that professional sports people face, which is what am I going to do with the biggest part of my life, which is not that part of my life that's behind me? You know, you you're retired from professional sport and you're making a life in broadcasting, but d does it feel like a real solid thing? Does it feel like a career that goes on for decades?

Freddie Flintoff30:34

You know

Freddie Flintoff30:43

I hope so. But then again I I I'm not sure I do hope so. I I'm

Freddie Flintoff30:47

I I did the one thing I always wanted to do, and the worst thing that I can possibly do is judge what I do next against playing cricket, because that's the one thing I love. Enjoy that for what it was, but now you gotta move on.

Presenter31:00

One of the documentaries you made was called Alone in the Wild. You really roughed it. Was it was it Botswan?

Freddie Flintoff31:04

Botswana loved it.

Presenter31:04

Uh

Presenter31:06

Well, that's good, because I'm about to cast you away on to this island, and it's going to be rough, and you're going to be on your own. You presumably you'll cope well.

Freddie Flintoff31:12

I hope so, yeah. I I spent a week on my own in Box More Honor with no food or water and I filmed it myself and

Freddie Flintoff31:19

Everyone was talking about oh, you're gonna go on this journey and you're gonna learn a lot about yourself. And no, I I went to see some animals. I went looking for elephants and giraffes and things. It was it was amazing.

Presenter31:32

Let's have your eighth one, Freddie Flintoff.

Freddie Flintoff31:34

I love the Eagles. I've seen them live in Manchester. When Holly was born, she was born really quickly. She was five weeks early. And a few days later I was playing in a golf tournament in just outside Manchester. And Don Henley, he was the entertainment.

Freddie Flintoff31:48

And I saw him and he said, Hey, you're you're the guy in the newspaper just had a child, aren't you? I said, Oh, yeah, yeah, I am. And we started talking about it. And this is another chance I got to sing with someone. During the dinner, he called me on stage to sing Hotel California with it, which was absolutely amazing. But the song I've gone for is New Kid in Town. You know, there was a New Kid in Town, Holly was just born.

Speaker 132:12

There's talk on the street, it sounds so familiar

Speaker 132:21

Great expectations.

Speaker 132:23

Everybody's watching you.

Speaker 132:30

People you

Presenter32:32

Uh

Speaker 132:32

They all s

Presenter32:32

I

Speaker 132:39

Even your old friends treat you like you're something new.

Presenter32:47

That was The Eagles and New Kid in Town. Right, it's time for me to give you the books. Uh the complete works of Shakespeare and the Bible are yours to take to the island. You're smiling there. And what else will you take, Freddie?

Freddie Flintoff32:59

The book I'd take would be To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. It's a book I did for G C S E English at school and I actually loved it. I was probably in the minority in my class and I re must have read it six or seven times since leaving school.

Presenter33:14

Right, it's yours to take, and um what luxury that would make life on this island just a little bit more bearable.

Freddie Flintoff33:20

I don't need much to survive. I I know that. I I'm pretty confident I can get what I need. I would take a photo album of the family.

Presenter33:27

That's yours then. And finally, if you were to save one of these disks from the waves, which one would it be?

Freddie Flintoff33:32

Oh, that's easy. Elvis. When people say, Who would you like to have met? Who would you like to have gone for dinner with? Elvis every time. And that song, every time I hear it, no matter how many times I could play it one after another, after another, it makes me smile and think of good memories.

Presenter33:47

Right, it's yours. I'm going to say thank you, Andrew Flintoff, because I feel like that's where I met today. Thank you very much for letting us hear your desert island discs.

Freddie Flintoff33:51

Because I feel like that's my next

Freddie Flintoff33:54

Your desert time and discs.

Presenter34:37

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 4.