Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Desert Island Discs
Presented by Roy Plomley
Pioneering boxing commentator known for first live sports coverage from behind the Iron Curtain and via satellite.
Eight records
The keepsakes
The luxury
In conversation
Presenter asks
As a youngster, what did you want to be, Harry?
I really always wanted to be a journalist. In fact, I don't think I ever had in my mind any idea of doing anything else. I was good at English at school. I liked writing stories, essays. But perhaps an even greater factor was the fact that I didn't want to go into my father's business. He was a wholesale fish merchant in Billingsgate. And I always felt that my future really didn't lie in fish.
Presenter asks
So when you left school, how did you set about getting into journalism?
Well, I read an advertisement one day in a newspaper called The Greyhound Express … and there it said Editorial assistant required and I wrote off … and I went to the Greyhound Express and I got the job … I found myself one of a staff of two. Editing the Greyhound Express. And the other chap was the editor … R. M. Samuel … he taught me an awful lot of what I know today about journalism.
Presenter asks
How did broadcasting come into your life?
Well, like all young men, I had this great conceit, of course, that I could do things better than anybody else, and I … in the early days of television, in the late nineteen forties, I wrote off to the BBC and said, 'Look, I'm very interested in boxing, and I think I could be one of your boxing commentators.' … I got a reply from a chap called Michael Henderson … he said … 'Why don't you come and see me … and have an audition.' … I went to Mr. Henderson's office, and the first thing he said … 'we don't actually have any films of boxing, so we can't audition you on there.' He said, 'Would you like to have a go at soccer?' … So he handed me a big script … described the first half of a match at Craven Cottage between Fulham and Everton. … [T]hat's how I got into television.
The recording
Timestamps play the recording from that turn
Presenter
This download is the only extract the BBC has of this edition of Desert Island Discs. The presenter was Roy Plumley.
Harry Carpenter
Yeah.
Presenter
As a youngster, what did you want to be, Harry?
Presenter
I really always wanted to be a journalist. In fact, I don't think I ever had in my mind any idea of doing anything else. I was good at English at school. I liked writing stories, essays. But perhaps an even greater factor was the fact that I didn't want to go into my father's business. He was a wholesale fish merchant in Billingsgate. And I always felt that my future really didn't lie in fish. Well, it would have meant getting up very early in the morning to. Yes, all his life, my father. He's just retired, actually. For fifty odd years, he got up at three or four in the morning, and that was enough to put a young chap off for good.
Harry Carpenter
So when you left school, how did you set about getting into journalism?
Presenter
Well, I read an advertisement one day in a in a newspaper called The Greyhound Express, a daily paper devoted to greyhound racing, which came into our house, um and there it said Editorial assistant required and I wrote off
Presenter
And I went to the Greyhound Express and I got the job, and this was about nineteen forty one, the early days of the war, when
Presenter
Healthy chaps were being called up and sent away to war, and I found myself one of a staff of two.
Presenter
Editing the Greyhound Express. And the other chap was the editor, and a dear old boy he was called R. M. Samuel, whom people interested in motorcycling and speedway will know well of, because that was his great love. But in the war, he was the editor of the Greyhound Express, and I worked with him, and really Sammy taught me an awful lot of what I know today about journalism. How long did you stay with him? Well, I was there about two years, and then, of course, being wartime, one had to go in the services, and so I volunteered to go into the Royal Navy. What sort of job did they give you? Well, I was in wireless telegraphy. I was a Morse code operator. And to this day, I remain one of the few chaps in the world who really knows that there is such a thing as Russian Morse and Japanese Morse. And it, I assure you, Roy, it is quite different to British Morse. But nobody ever believes me.
Presenter
How did broadcasting come into your life?
Harry Carpenter
Uh
Presenter
Uh
Presenter
Well, like all young men, I had this great conceit, of course, that I could do things better than anybody else, and I uh in the early days of television, in the late nineteen forties, I wrote off to the B B C and said
Presenter
Look, I I'm very interested in boxing, and I think I could be one of your boxing commentators. And miraculously I got a reply from a chap called Michael Henderson, whom you no doubt know was then an outside broadcast producer, and he said in his letter, Why don't you come and see me at my office in Marraby Road?
Presenter
and have an audition. How do the B B C audition a sports comedy? How does this happen? Well, I can only say I hope they don't do it to day the way they did it with me, because I went to mister Henderson's office, and the first thing he said to me was,'I'm very sorry to have to tell you,' he said,'but we don't actually have any films of boxing, so we can't audition you on there.' He said,'Would you like to have a go at soccer?
Presenter
And I thought, well, having arrived at mister Henderson's office, the last thing I want to do now is to leave.
Harry Carpenter
And I thought
Presenter
So I said, yes, nothing I'd like to do more. Let's have an audition on soccer. So he handed me a big script and it uh described the first half of a match at Craven Cottage between Fulham and Everton. And he said, read that, he said, and then we'll show you a film of the second half and you start talking. And that's how I got into television. Now Harry, having done your first BBC job, did they come thick and fast?
Presenter
No, they didn't. At first I used to be the fill-in guy when other chaps couldn't do it. People like Peter Wilson used to do it in those days, Freddie Mills. Um and when they weren't available they used to call an H. Carpenter and I was very glad to get the job.
Harry Carpenter
Yeah.
Harry Carpenter
And you specialize in boxing.
Presenter
Yes, I did. For years and years I never did anything else on television except boxing.
Harry Carpenter
The drop key
Presenter
Oh, I do a lot of travelling. This is the nicest part of the job, really, Roy. Um I go almost everywhere in the world. I've seen most of the countries, I suppose, and uh travelling is really one of the great joys of the job. Yes, you did the first live sports
Harry Carpenter
Cometry from Behind the Iron Curtain, I believe.
Presenter
Yes, I did, in nineteen fifty seven. We'd never done a live sports uh commentary from behind the iron curtain, and uh I went to Prague in fifty seven for the European Amateur Boxing Championships, and that was uh a first which I'm quite proud of.
Harry Carpenter
Thank you.
Presenter
And also, um
Presenter
In the same way, I did the first ever live sports commentary via the satellite from the United States. I can't give you the exact date, but it was one of the Sunny Liston World Heavyweight Championship fights, and there again I was very pleased to be in at the start of that.
Harry Carpenter
You have an audience of millions of people for your boxing commentaries. You're probably doing as much as anyone to advertise the sport. A lot of people think it should be banned. What's your comment on that?
Presenter
I think morally it's a sport which is very difficult to defend. I've never made any pretence of the fact that I think it's a very dangerous sport, and certainly it needs every medical safeguard that you can muster, in order to make it acceptable.
Presenter
Um it's changed even in my time. In the last twenty years, boxing has become much more humane, and rightly so. I can remember fights uh in the late nineteen forties which wouldn't be countenanced today. Uh people wouldn't be allowed to go so far under such pain and injury.
Harry Carpenter
Stop them sooner.
Presenter
Oh yes, they do indeed. And this is it's right that they should do so, and it's right that you should take every possible safeguard to protect boxers, because it is a very dangerous sport, and if you don't do this, then people are going to knock it, and they're going to be right.
Presenter asks
[After your first BBC job,] did they come thick and fast?
No, they didn't. At first I used to be the fill-in guy when other chaps couldn't do it. People like Peter Wilson used to do it in those days, Freddie Mills. … when they weren't available they used to call an H. Carpenter and I was very glad to get the job.
Presenter asks
You have an audience of millions of people for your boxing commentaries. A lot of people think it should be banned. What's your comment on that?
I think morally it's a sport which is very difficult to defend. I've never made any pretence of the fact that I think it's a very dangerous sport, and certainly it needs every medical safeguard that you can muster, in order to make it acceptable. … [I]n the last twenty years, boxing has become much more humane, and rightly so. I can remember fights … in the late nineteen forties which wouldn't be countenanced today.
“I always felt that my future really didn't lie in fish. Well, it would have meant getting up very early in the morning to. Yes, all his life, my father. He's just retired, actually. For fifty odd years, he got up at three or four in the morning, and that was enough to put a young chap off for good.”
“To this day, I remain one of the few chaps in the world who really knows that there is such a thing as Russian Morse and Japanese Morse. And it, I assure you, Roy, it is quite different to British Morse. But nobody ever believes me.”
“Travelling is really one of the great joys of the job.”
“I've never made any pretence of the fact that I think it's a very dangerous sport, and certainly it needs every medical safeguard that you can muster, in order to make it acceptable.”