Robin Cousins

Speaker 40:00

Hello, I'm Kirstie Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive. The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen eighty one, and the presenter was Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:27

Our castaway this week is a skater. British and European champion and gold medalist at the last Olympics, it's Robin Cousins. Robin, we're taking you right away from ice to warm water. Would you like the change? I would welcome it for a while, yes. I assume you live a fairly commonal life with other young skaters around. How well would you adapt to solitude?

Robin Cousins0:49

I don't know. I I quite like to find myself on my own occasionally, especially with music. I I travel with a lot of music, with my headphones and my stereo, so um every now and again it's nice to sort of break away from the regular routine and and just sit down and do nothing.

Presenter0:56

My head

Robin Cousins1:02

Music means a lot to you, obviously. Very much so. It's it's played a very important part in in my skating career and um like I say it it sort of takes me away from everything.

Presenter1:08

And uh

Presenter1:11

Have you any practical skill in music to play an instrument?

Robin Cousins1:14

No. I used to sing in the choir and I I played the recorder and did all the usual things when I was at school, but um nothing now, no.

Presenter1:21

Did you find it difficult to narrow your choice down to just eight reclas?

Robin Cousins1:25

Very difficult, because there's a lot of uh music that I enjoy. Trying to find eight that I would listen to constantly was was very difficult, which is probably why the choice is so varied. What's the first one?

Presenter1:35

Uh

Robin Cousins1:36

Well the first one I've chosen is from um a recent Broadway show called Ain't Misbehaving. The nineteen thirties and forties was an era that I particularly liked and this track from that show is um one of my favourites. What is it? It's called A Handful of Keys. Did you see the show? I did see the show and I enjoyed it very, very much. Do you see it in London or New York? Um I saw it in fact in Denver with the touring company in America.

Speaker 31:54

Um

Speaker 31:57

I like to tinkle on a no piano I like to play it in a subtle manner I get a lot of pleasure with those vanna keys underneath

Speaker 32:05

To sing a little tune that's mellow, I love to vocalise it's nothing sweller I love to have a supple melody just trickling off of my lips A handful of keys and a song to sing How couldn't you ask for more? The hand tickling the ivory singing jive I repeat what I've said before I love to tinkle on an opioid I love to play it in a settlement I know I'll always be the top one

Presenter2:28

Handful of keys from Aid Misbehaving

Presenter2:31

You're from the West Country, from Bristol, were you born there? Yes, I was.

Presenter2:36

Your father won distinction as a sportsman, didn't he?

Robin Cousins2:39

Yes, my father used to play for the Middle East amateur football team before the war.

Robin Cousins2:43

And um in fact the whole family is very much involved in sports. My brothers um also play and are very much involved in rugby and cricket.

Presenter2:51

As a small boy, you you didn't take much to football. You opted for dancing classes. What inspired you to that? Had had you been to the theatre a lot?

Robin Cousins2:58

I liked theatre and watching all types of shows on the television.

Robin Cousins3:01

Also at the same time I'd started doing sort of basic gymnastics and handstands cart wheels, and was more interested in movement with sort of my whole body rather than just swinging a leg or or chasing a ball.

Presenter3:12

So it was acrobatic dancing that interested you more than classical.

Robin Cousins3:13

So it was acrobat

Robin Cousins3:15

More than classical, which is why after, you know, two or three years at the ballet, I couldn't stand the bar work anymore. I just wanted to run around the floor and

Robin Cousins3:23

And like at that time just do basic gymnastics.

Presenter3:26

Well, let's move on to you at the age of eight. You were with the family on holiday in Bournemouth, and one afternoon you were wandering round the town with your mother. You take it from there.

Robin Cousins3:36

Well, it was um a hot day, a hot summer, believe it or not for this country, and um we were looking for somewhere to cool off and I spotted the uh advertisement for the ice show. And um we were looking and you know, I was saying, you know, Mummy, mummy, I want to go, I want to go and um mum had checked the time and obviously it was too late for a for a little boy to be out to see a show at night, but we did go in, it was somewhere nice and cool, so we wandered in and the next minute I knew I was uh hiring and renting a pair of skates and and toddling around the sides. I had never even seen ice skating before. I had watched maybe something on the television that I'd seen and I don't know why I decided I wanted to skate at that time. It was just something that looked like fun to do and um you know what seven, eight-year-old children are like, it's very difficult to say no.

Presenter4:20

That's my

Robin Cousins4:22

Was there a rink in Bristol? No, there wasn't at the time.

Presenter4:25

Yeah.

Robin Cousins4:26

We'll take it up.

Robin Cousins4:27

Well, I had been told then, while we were at Bournemouth, that there was going to be a rink built in Bristol.

Robin Cousins4:32

And um every month on the Saturday morning that my father took myself and my brothers to have our hair cuts, we would go past this building to see how far it had got and um two years later I was back down there.

Presenter4:44

So you were taking the children's class?

Robin Cousins4:47

I started taking children's classes and then I I went on from there and and had some classes for a Christmas present. And that Christmas present went on and on and on.

Presenter4:57

What was the first competitive event you took part in? I I presume there are children's events.

Robin Cousins5:01

Oh yes. I remember it quite well. I was um, I think the youngest competitor by about twenty years. It was just a a local club competition in Bristol, and I competed against two sort of very adult adults, at least to me then. And my first piece of music I ever skated to was in fact the theme from Thunderbirds, which is in fact what uh we chosen for our second piece.

Presenter5:53

Baddie Gray's theme from Thunderbirds Are Go.

Presenter5:57

How old were you when you competed in that first event?

Robin Cousins6:00

Oh, probably just about nine years old, I think.

Presenter6:03

Well, as you got older and older, skating was obviously taking up more and more time. How did they take to that at school?

Robin Cousins6:10

Very well, actually. I had gone from junior school to uh my senior school in um Bristol.

Robin Cousins6:17

And um

Robin Cousins6:19

at a comprehensive school. It was it was very difficult for me to at the beginning to try and fix everything. We were trying to skate on the weekends and skate before school and skate after school and even sometimes skate at lunchtimes between school if I had a a competition or if I needed to take a day off every now and again to to travel around the country to compete in in junior competitions. We were traveling between Southampton and and um

Presenter6:34

Two to drop.

Robin Cousins6:41

in Vanessa sometimes, so things started to move very rapidly for me and um I was uh very, very lucky with the headmaster I had and there came a time when we were needing sort of a little bit more than just an odd afternoon off. It was um once a week I was taking half a day to be able to go to London to take some extra to training. Very soon I was national junior champion and there was a good chance that I would be on the senior team within a year.

Presenter7:01

There.

Presenter7:07

Well, they must have begun to be rather proud of you. You were third in in the British Senior Championship while you were still at school.

Robin Cousins7:13

I was national junior champion at the at the time in nineteen seventy two, and that enabled me to compete in the senior championships for the first time. And all of a sudden I found myself on the rostrum, third place in the senior championships and also with a place in the European Championships in Cologne. And um all of a sudden we were having to discuss with with my masters and headmaster at school, was I gonna continue to skate and compete and represent my country or or should I stay and and take exams and

Robin Cousins7:40

take an academic career. Thanks to him, I competed in that first championship. I came fifteenth out of twenty four. I was the youngest competitor by four years and that was sort of my first really big, big event in in skating and I don't think I'll ever forget that one as much as I'll ever forget the Olympics.

Presenter7:57

So you will have school at what? Fifteen?

Robin Cousins7:59

I came back from the championships that year and talked about leaving school and we were we finished in the summer of that year, yes.

Presenter8:06

Confidentially, have you any O-levels?

Robin Cousins8:09

I don't

Presenter8:09

Yeah.

Presenter8:10

What will you burst out at school?

Robin Cousins8:13

I think if I had had stayed on and and gone I would have probably have gone into art and probably have gone and eventually into commercial art. I do a lot of drawing and a lot of um cartoon work and um I'm very interested in in seeing how things are advertised and uh especially billboards. So um I think it would have been nice. I I

Presenter8:20

Yes, you can do it.

Robin Cousins8:33

I'd like to keep up my drawing and that's something I do in my spare time.

Presenter8:36

So you took up a career in skating as soon as you left school. Now, this must have been an expensive business lessons, travelling, skates, clothes, all the rest of it.

Robin Cousins8:46

It really was. Um at that time my costumes were being made by my mother. We were going down to the markets and picking out materials and fabrics and doing very well at the time and I was very pleased with what my mum was able to do. I was then going to London, where I had a little bed sit in London. I was working in a department store, skating at the Queen's Ice Club in the morning from six on and off until lunch time, and then working all afternoon in a Whiteley's department store in London and then back home grabbing something to eat and then early to bed to be able to get up the next morning and uh I did that for two years.

Presenter9:18

You have to get up very early in order to get a clear ring, I suppose.

Robin Cousins9:21

Well, yes, in order to make use of the empty rink and um well obviously when there's too many public around it's very difficult to skate properly, as we needed to for competitions and and to run through the routines and the programmes and and to work under championship conditions.

Presenter9:21

What?

Presenter9:29

As we

Presenter9:36

Let's have your third record. What's that?

Robin Cousins9:38

My third choice is probably one of my favorite exhibition pieces of music that I skated to. I know for sure that it it is my parents, and I think it's probably because it was one of the first pieces of music that I use sort of nationally and internationally on the um skating scene, and that's Gladys Night's Help Me Make It Through the Night.

Speaker 49:54

Come and lay down by my side.

Speaker 410:04

Till the earth me

Speaker 410:06

Morning light

Speaker 410:12

All I'm taking is your time.

Speaker 410:20

Help me make it.

Speaker 410:22

Through the night

Presenter10:24

Help me make it through the night, Glad as night.

Presenter10:28

You began representing Britain abroad, making lots of trips abroad. Who were your teammates at that time?

Robin Cousins10:34

Well, my teammate was John Currie and then one other boy, Glyn Jones, who I was in fact training with alongside in Queen's Club. John was already training in America by then and um it was it was a tremendous experience for me to to be able to skate alongside him. He was um ranked fourth and fifth in the world and Europe at that time. I was somewhere down in ninth and tenth places.

Presenter10:56

He is much more experienced and and uh several years older than you.

Robin Cousins10:59

Yes, very much so. In fact, John started skating the year I was born and um it seems now very strange that um I should spend, well, the last four years more or less in exactly the same position as as John did his last four. He on the ice he was always so cool and so calm and and such a a perfectionist.

Presenter11:04

Yeah.

Speaker 411:15

Hmm.

Robin Cousins11:21

I was always rushing around, flashing around, bashing myself into the into the ice, trying to make things better and

Robin Cousins11:26

After a while, just watching John, I I began to calm down, and then

Robin Cousins11:30

Eventually, after nineteen seventy six, when John won the Olympics and he talked to Carlo, and and then Carlo in turn asked me to join them, it was it was sort of for me a chance to to hopefully do what John had done.

Presenter11:42

You have you've obviously followed in his example because you have a reputation of never getting up tight, you're always relaxed.

Robin Cousins11:49

I do get up tight. People don't see me getting nervous or or picking my fingers or or shaking. I just start to yawn and people think I'm gonna fall asleep before competition and that I was told is is a is a good way of letting the nerves out.

Presenter11:58

I was told

Presenter12:01

You're overreacting.

Robin Cousins12:02

It got to the point where um if I wasn't yawning I was uh a bit worried about how how well I would perform.

Presenter12:09

You began to have a certain amount of trouble with an ankle and a knee. These are obviously occupational hazards. Have you had more injuries than most skaters?

Robin Cousins12:17

Um, I think I've had my fair share. Hopefully I have no more to come. But, um well, I don't know. You can get knocked over crossing the road. I've had two cartilages removed. I've had um a broken finger, a broken toe, a torn ankle. Um So skating must sometimes have been a very painful thing for you to do. Yes, it's been very painful. There were times when my mother insisted I take up Tiddlywinks, but um it was just I don't know. Every time I I came back stronger than than I was before and I was determined that nothing was gonna get in my way of of a of a good career.

Presenter12:48

Tell me the set up of of the international competitions. There are three different sections, is that right?

Robin Cousins12:53

Yes, the competition is running in three parts. The breakdown of the uh percentages, we have two compulsory sections. One is the compulsory figures, which we do not see on the television, which is basically drawing tracing figure eights or drawing figures on the ice. The basics of skating are made up from these compulsory figures and this counts for for thirty percent of the total mark.

Robin Cousins13:18

The second section is the compulsory free skating section, which is made up of six compulsory elements that you have to do in any order. Um if you fail at one element, you cannot repeat it.

Speaker 413:25

Yeah.

Robin Cousins13:28

And the judges obviously will take that into consideration how well each element is done, if one is missed, how much of it is missed, and etcetera, etcetera. uh which makes up twenty percent of the the mark. And then the final free skating, which is what everyone sees on the television, is the rest of the fifty percent, and also then it literally is free skating.

Presenter13:48

Now for years you were blocked from being British champion by John Currie up there ahead of you, but each year you were slowly getting higher up in the list in the World Championships.

Presenter13:58

How did you do in in in the seventy six Olympics?

Robin Cousins14:01

Well in the 76 Olympics I did one of my best performances that I think I I have ever done. It was um a time when I had just come back from my cartilage operation. The British Championships of the December of seventy five was my first competition and I really wasn't worried how I did. It was just a question of making sure I got through the competition and knowing that my knee was okay. And I think I went through that whole season that year just thinking that I'm A maybe lucky to be skating again and I was just going to enjoy it. Very little nerves, although it was an Olympic Games. There was so much publicity and pressure on John, I felt very little. Um and it was it was a nice feeling. John had the most incredible year and it was so nice.

Robin Cousins14:41

being on the team with him. And um I had a good time. I came in ninth at the Olympic Games in Innsbruck and um in fact moved up a place at the World Championships in in Gothenburg.

Presenter14:51

Considering your knee, it was steady progress. You couldn't have much more.

Robin Cousins14:54

I was well, everybody said in a perfect position to uh start my road up the ladder to um nineteen eighty.

Robin Cousins15:03

Record number four, please, Robert.

Presenter15:04

Uh

Robin Cousins15:05

Well record number four is a piece of music that I heard many, many times in ice drinks all over the world, and it's in Fred Stravinsky's ballet The Firebird, and I think it was maybe three or four years having heard the piece of music before I even knew what it was.

Presenter16:14

The finale to Stravensky's Firebird Bally, the Columbia Symphony Orchestra conducted by the composer. Now you explain to us how contests are are conducted, how the competitions are made up. Will you explain the the scoring? Or on the box we've all seen those mysterious characters stamping about in snow boots and holding up boards with numbers on them. Who are they and where do they come from and how do they arrive at the numbers?

Robin Cousins16:38

Well, the judges are are

Robin Cousins16:41

First of all they are taken from various competing countries. The first five competitors from the previous year automatically have a judge the following year. A judge each. A judge each for each country. So if you have two Americans or two Russians or two English in the top five, you will only have one. And then they'll work down the ladder until they have five. And the following three are then drawn from the rest of the competing countries. The judges' marks the total marks do not derive the result of the competition. They are used to put the skaters in an order, first, second, third or fourth. So if like for instance a lot of the times you'll see marks some judges marking very high and very low, as long as those judges consistently mark high and low, then you will still have them first, second and third. And the result is obtained by the skater with the majority of first places or second places. And in the result of a tie you go until in fact two years ago the World Championships in Ottawa was in fact decided by s by third places because no one had a majority of firsts or seconds. And um in fact the American boy came out on top because he had more thirds than anybody else.

Presenter17:50

Now some jumps carry more marks, more points than yes others.

Robin Cousins17:53

Yes. The difference between single, double or triple jumps. Um the revolutions, the difficulty on on the content, which is why, you know, you might see someone falling but they were falling on a harder jump which they then will repeat and land. So someone who falls three times but also does three triple jumps might beat someone who doesn't fall at all but who doesn't try any triple jumps.

Presenter18:12

Now you have to fit all those required jumps into a program. That means really you've got to choreograph your performance.

Robin Cousins18:17

Oh, very much so. You know, it's not a question of going out and doing them, you know, whenever the whenever you feel like it with the music. The programmes are laid out and are set. For the free skating performers, there is a maximum time. For the men's it's five minutes and you're allowed ten seconds leeway either way. For the ladies it's it's four minutes. And um within those five minutes your choreography, layout of the programme and how much content you do is up to you. And you can do as little or as much as you like and you hope that what you do is is better than anybody else's.

Presenter18:41

And you can

Presenter18:46

Obviously you choose your own music. It it's an ordinary commercial tape, is it?

Robin Cousins18:49

Yes. In fact I even recorded and and cut my own music for the past three or four years. You cut it, you edit it, you can get some access in certain places. And yes, we we decided what type of programme we you know we wanted for the Olympic year. And then you you decide what pieces of music need to be fitted in in where so that you can get the best reaction from the audience as well as the judges and to be able to display your jumps and spins and your tricks to the best of your ability.

Presenter18:55

You cut it, you edit it so that you can get summaxes in certain places.

Presenter19:14

Hmm.

Robin Cousins19:17

Right, let's have

Presenter19:17

Yeah.

Robin Cousins19:17

Record number f

Presenter19:18

5.

Robin Cousins19:18

Well record number five is a track from an album called Barbara Streisand and Other Musical Instruments. This woman is has such a phenomenal voice and this particular piece of music is uh more or less being choreographed for herself and um literally a bunch of household appliances.

Speaker 419:35

World is a concerto, a song in which each singer has a b

Speaker 419:50

A classical concerto, a rhapsody that's ringing through my heart.

Presenter20:04

Barber Spreisand and some strange household appliances. The world is a concerto. So when John Curry retired from amateur skating, the British Championship fell into your lap. How did you learn in the European?

Robin Cousins20:17

Yeah.

Robin Cousins20:17

When in the European Championships of 1977 I got my first medal, which was a bronze medal in Helsinki.

Robin Cousins20:24

And there was a lot of pressure on me. People, I think a lot of public and uh had expected me to sort of jump straight into John's shoes and and be champion, and uh it was going to take a while and I, you know, was a little bit worried to begin with, but the uh nineteen seventy seven championships in Helsinki were were very good for me. And um it was there that I started to have trouble with my second cartilage and my left knee. And it was during the World Championships of that year in Tokyo that we had the big disaster and uh I came back, had the operation done on my cartilage, had that removed, and started afresh in um May of'7 in Denver with Carlo Fossi.

Speaker 420:45

And it

Presenter21:00

Now for seven years you'd been virtually a full time amateur skater. All those expenses, including Denver and anything else you needed. So having worked very hard for all those years you were gambling on doing well in the nineteen eighty Olympics to be able to go professional.

Robin Cousins21:16

Yes, it was it was a gamble that um well, not so much a gamble. I had got myself stuck on a road to a career that I would hope would take me to the Olympics. An ultimate goal for anybody is is to do well. And um I was very pleased with the with the rate of progress and the way people were talking about what I could do and what they thought I could do and what I couldn't do.

Robin Cousins21:36

Almost had me convinced that I that I could become an Olympic champion. And with Carlos' expert help, he sort of channelled it in the right direction. And with the help of a sponsor and also the Sports Aid Foundation, we were able to bring the money and to do whatever was necessary to take that road to the Olympic Games in 1980. And once the financial troubles were sort of taken out of the way, it was made it a lot easier for myself and for my family to sort of sit down, relax and take our time and build the necessary sort of ladder.

Presenter22:12

And before we talk about the Olympics themselves, let's have one more record. What next?

Robin Cousins22:16

Well this is probably one of my most favourite songs, it's Elton John's Sorry Seems to be the hardest word.

Speaker 422:21

What do I do?

Speaker 422:23

Make you want me.

Speaker 422:28

What do I gotta do to be hurt?

Speaker 422:36

What do I say when it's all over?

Speaker 422:43

Siren seems to be the hardest word.

Presenter22:49

Eldham John.

Presenter22:50

Say, Robin, Lake Placid and February this year, the Winter Olympics, are you superstitious?

Robin Cousins22:57

Yes and no. Um I would say yes because I won't walk under a ladder unless I absolutely have to. No because I skated in the thirteenth position and it seemed to do all right for me. There's various things. I I you know, do not have uh mascots or any particular colour I have to skate in or anything I have to wear. But on the other hand, I for some reason automatically always have put my right boot on or my right sock on first if I'm

Robin Cousins23:21

Doing anything now, not only just on the ice, but um my right boot and my right lace is always the first one to be done up though.

Presenter23:27

Now at the Olympics, had you skated against most of the competitors before somewhere or other?

Robin Cousins23:32

We had all been spending the last four years sort of competing together and against each other. And uh we basically knew who was doing what and had heard from various competitions, various sources, how people were doing and um all of a sudden we got to Lake Placid and uh

Robin Cousins23:49

There was a there was a tremendous lot of pressure and I'm I think I'm lucky inasmuch as between the European Championships and the Olympic Games I was in fact in Denver training and I didn't really see any of the the press reports and anything that was going on in England until I have actually came home when it was all over.

Robin Cousins24:03

and couldn't believe how the um

Robin Cousins24:06

press and publicity was building up towards the championships. It was amazing, but it was a it was a wonderful feeling while I was there to know that

Robin Cousins24:12

Although England was such a long low way away from Lake Placid, I was beginning to get the vibrations coming through.

Presenter24:19

Well the moment that those scorecards went up must have been a very big one when you saw you'd got that gold medal.

Robin Cousins24:25

Well, I had in fact to wait a while. I was the first of the final group to perform the final free skating. So I was the one setting the standard and I

Robin Cousins24:34

had to sit there and wait while everybody else performed. In fact, I went through into the training rink and watched um some of the other competitors I couldn't, you know, sit around and stand around in in the arena.

Robin Cousins24:45

And um it wasn't until someone said that it was all over that I said, Oh, you mean, you know, Charlie's finished skating She said, Oh, yeah, she's gone that I sort of walked back through

Robin Cousins24:54

And

Robin Cousins24:55

Saw the look on a couple of people's faces and and then suddenly realized that, you know, that was it I had won and it was

Presenter24:58

And he realized that

Robin Cousins25:01

I don't know, I still can't sort of conjure up or imagine how that feeling w will feel again.

Presenter25:07

And since then it's all happening. You've written a book skating for gold. You're starring in an international ice show. You've already done it.

Robin Cousins25:15

Things haven't stopped yet, no. Ev every time I sorta think I'm coming back down to earth, something else throws me up into the clouds again and it's it's it's abs amazing. This this whole year was gonna take me ten years to recover from.

Presenter25:27

What are your long-term plans? How does it feel to be a professional?

Robin Cousins25:30

I'm enjoying it immensely. I love the skating, I love the performing, and it's nice to think that um I'm giving other people pleasure doing what I enjoy.

Robin Cousins25:38

As for how long I'll be performing, I don't know. I think it depends on how long I feel I'm maintaining a standard that I sort of set myself. People are coming to see the Olympic champion, and I would only perform for as long as I think they're getting their money's worth.

Presenter25:47

And

Presenter25:50

Right.

Presenter25:51

You've got to record number seven.

Robin Cousins25:53

We spend a lot of time running around to discos and I spend a lot of time listening to music and um I think if you mention anyone or disco music, the first person that they come up against is Donna Summer. And this is Donna Summer from an earlier album and one of my favorites of hers which is Rumour Has It.

Presenter26:38

Donna Summer, rumour has it.

Presenter26:41

Now the practical side of desert island life.

Presenter26:44

You have never had time to be a Boy Scout, have you?

Robin Cousins26:46

Um, I was in the Cubs. I never got to the to the Scouts, but I did go to Cubs, yes.

Presenter26:48

Oh my god.

Presenter26:51

Ever camped out.

Robin Cousins26:52

Have camped out with school, yes, and have like got flooded out. And um

Presenter26:56

So you know what to look out for.

Robin Cousins26:57

Oh yes, yeah.

Presenter26:59

Could you manage could you look after yourself in in a rather tricky

Presenter27:03

Physical situation like a desert island.

Robin Cousins27:05

I would have a jolly good go. I've I mean, I've, you know, been able to look after myself in in many situations in many foreign countries.

Presenter27:12

Ever done any fishing, anything useful like that?

Robin Cousins27:15

Fishing, no.

Presenter27:16

Would it worry you, perhaps having to be a vegetarian?

Robin Cousins27:21

I don't know, I hadn't even thought about that.

Presenter27:24

Uh

Robin Cousins27:24

Yeah.

Presenter27:24

Would you try to escape by some means or other?

Robin Cousins27:27

Mmm, probably too far to swim. Are you good swimming? I enjoy swimming, yes, very much so. It's nice to sort of get out and see. Although the swimming and the skating don't really mix, it tends to make you too relaxed. It relaxes too many muscles. Although after a hard skate, relaxing in the bathtub is nice, but not quite the same.

Speaker 427:39

Uh

Presenter27:39

Uh Yeah.

Presenter27:47

All right, you sound fairly confident about it, so I we can leave that subject and get on to your last record.

Robin Cousins27:53

Well my last record is is a piece of music that I have skated to that um a lot of people have used and it's just to me one of the most beautiful pieces ever written. It in fact is the Carmen, but it's Carmen Ballet, um as played by the Bolshoi Ballet and the piece I've chosen is the Flower Song.

Presenter29:02

The flower song and a daggio from the Carmen Ballet, the strings and percussion of the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra. If you could take only one disc out of the H you playlist, which would it be?

Robin Cousins29:13

I think it would have to be the the Karman. It has so much um feeling and so much um energy in it that uh I probably could sit down and and conjure up all types of things just listening to it.

Presenter29:24

and one luxury to take with him.

Robin Cousins29:26

Well I had to to think hard about this one, but I think something that I came up with um was a a passion that I have for marzipan and um having spent the last uh couple of weeks in Germany where uh marzipan is in abundance in all types of shapes and sizes, um I think it would be nice to have a never-ending supply of marzipan.

Speaker 429:35

Right.

Presenter29:45

As much Marsie Pan as you like.

Robin Cousins29:49

I would need a toothbrush and a good supply of toothpaste, too, yes.

Presenter29:52

and one book apart from the Bible and Shakespeare which are already there.

Robin Cousins29:56

Well, I'm not I wasn't a great thick book reader. I always used like to read things that I could get out of the way in a day or two. But so many people had told me to read James Clavel's Shogun, and I eventually did on the journey back from Japan. And, um, absolutely fell in love with it. It was it was a wonderful experience and, um, sort of a book that I could hardly put down, and it's all about ancient Japan and

Robin Cousins30:21

when the Japanese thought they were the only people on the entire earth and in a in a saga which has anything and everything you in you would expect to have in a good novel and um well worth reading.

Presenter30:32

James Clavell's Shogun, and thank you, Robin Cousins, for letting us hear your Desert Island disc.

Robin Cousins30:37

Thank you very much. It's been very enjoyable. Goodbye, everyone.

Speaker 430:47

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive. For more podcasts, please visit bbc.co.uk/radio four.