David Broome

Speaker 10:00

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 one of our leading show jumpers. He's been world champion, three times European champion, twice an Olympic medallist. It's David Broome.

Presenter0:37

David, basic facts. You were born in Cardiff, right? That's right, yes. And your farm now in Monmouthshire.

David Broome0:42

Well, it used to be momentum they

Presenter0:45

I give it a part.

David Broome0:45

Yeah.

Presenter0:50

And we're casting you away on a desert island. Could you adjust yourself to loneliness?

Presenter0:55

Oh, it's a

David Broome0:55

I think so. Um I'm very happy to travel on my own and w w when I'm on on an aeroplane or in a train I don't want to talk to anybody else. And uh I I don't think that would be too much of a hardship. Do you play records a lot? Not a lot, no. But uh I I like the radio in the car or or the truck.

Presenter1:13

Well, you've sorted out the eight disks you're going to take with you to this island. What's the first one?

David Broome1:17

Well the first one is one that sort of gets me going a little bit and uh it's the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards Amazing Grace.

Presenter2:13

The pipes and drums and military band of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards Amazing Grace.

Presenter2:18

David, you're the son of a Showdown.

David Broome2:22

Well, my f my father's done a lot of things. I don't think he'd ever say his great claim to fame was as a shell jumper, but he he's definitely been the guardian light behind me and and the guiding light.

David Broome2:33

How old were you when he first lifted you into the saddle?

David Broome2:36

Well, they tell me I was uh two and a quarter.

David Broome2:39

Could you stay on?

David Broome2:43

He sort of adjusted the uh the pram straps or the high chair straps or whatever it was and fixed them round me on to the saddle. And uh people used to say to him, God, you're crazy. What happens if the pony ever fell over?

David Broome2:57

He used to say this is a Welsh bony, he never falls over, and he never did fall over. As I got older, he took away the two side straps.

David Broome3:05

Well and then the front and the back ones or whichever audit was I can't remember. And uh that's how I sort of progressed.

Presenter3:11

There's a story that when you were five or six you were breaking Welsh ponies for your father.

David Broome3:16

Oh yes, well that was part of my father's business, breaking in ponies, and I used to be the fall guy used to have to get on em for the first time, and everything was going all right until I was about five, and I got thrown a couple of times too many.

Presenter3:28

Hmm.

David Broome3:29

And I decided to pack it all in. I thought this is not on for me.

Presenter3:32

How did he get you started again?

David Broome3:33

Well, I packed it in for about eighteen months, and uh one day I was sort of out and about and I suddenly got this quietly got the urge again, I suppose, to have another ride, and I sort of mentioned it to my father, who incidentally hadn't pushed me at all in my quiet time, so to speak, and uh he bought me another pony and that started it all off again.

Presenter3:46

And my

Presenter3:51

How old were you when you started Showjumping?

David Broome3:54

I remember going to my first hunter trials when I was about nine and my one memory of that was that the following day the local sort of daily rag, South Wales Argus, showed a picture of a Mr Dee Broome riding coffee. But unfortunately the caption carried on to say that unfortunately on landing he departed from his pony. I've never been allowed to forget that yet.

Presenter4:14

Most of falling off by now. When does one begin to compete in adult events?

David Broome4:17

Well, y y you ride in the in the juniors until you're sixteen, then you progress to the bigger horses for seventeen onwards, really. What was the name of the first pony?

Presenter4:26

Neurodegene competition.

David Broome4:27

Coffee. That was only for about a year, but the best pony was a pony called Ballon Ladd, the grey pony. Ballin's the name of the farm, of course. That's right, yes. I believe Ballin Ladd is still with us. Oh yes, I saw him uh yesterday. He's I think thirty-five years old now, and he's looking a little bit old and gentlemanly, but uh he's looking very well and like I don't think any pony's ever had a better life. He's enjoying his retirement. Absolutely, it's been going on now for at least fifteen years, but in all fairness to the pony he thoroughly deserves it. He carried me when I was ten, I think, till I was sixteen, then my sister Elizabeth, then my other sister Mary, and in the end brother Fred. So he he carried uh carried all of us.

Presenter5:03

He deserves his quiet retirement, doesn't he?

David Broome5:05

Oh yes, I think the place falls down before it ever gets old.

David Broome5:08

Yeah. What's your second record?

David Broome5:10

Frank Sinatra Singing My Way because for a start my father's always done things his way and uh he's always gone a straight and narrow course whether it's been the the obvious way or or the unpopular way and I think all the great people I've met in my life have done it their way and I enjoy the tune as well.

Presenter5:32

I did all that.

Presenter5:36

And may I say

Presenter5:39

Not in a shy way.

Presenter5:43

Oh no.

Presenter5:45

Oh no, not me.

Presenter5:49

I did it.

Presenter5:50

Mm

Presenter5:54

Frank Sinatra

Presenter5:55

Well, David, as might be expected after your early training, you took to adult show jumping confidently and successfully. You were top prize money winner when you were still in your teens, I believe. Oh, yes, that was with a

David Broome6:08

Yeah.

David Broome6:08

A horse my father bought for me called Wildfire. That was in 1959. Quite right.

Presenter6:12

I did this or not.

David Broome6:14

When did you first represent Britain?

David Broome6:17

With Wi-Fi actually at the end of 1959 we went to Rotterdam and there was quite a funny story to our debut because we had to sail from Harriage which we still do but it was the old fashioned way but on the way we tried to get a sort of 11 foot three horse box under a ten foot three bridge and took the top off it. That was at three o'clock in the morning and you couldn't believe that the only damage we did was what the one horse cut his head and the other one broke his head collar.

David Broome6:44

And we got away with as easy as that. In actual fact, we went to Rotterdam the following day and uh I actually won my very first class.

David Broome6:53

Yeah.

Presenter6:53

Now, you were in the Rome Olympics the following year, nineteen sixty. You had rather bad luck there.

Presenter6:59

Yeah.

David Broome6:59

Well,

David Broome7:00

I rode probably the most fantastic horse I've ever ridden in my life, Sunsalve, and although I'd only been riding him for about six weeks, I was lucky enough

David Broome7:10

to win a bronze medal in the individual competition. But uh I think the thing everybody remembers about their own Olympics and horse jumping is concerned was on the final day in the team competition I was given a clear round over the public address system. They then changed it to four faults and said I was in the water.

David Broome7:29

And everybody believes that uh I was actually denied a gold medal from this, but in fact it didn't make any difference'cause our team was already eliminated. But I do remember riding that horse r round that course and it would be a memory I'd have for the rest of my life.

Presenter7:43

But

David Broome7:43

Yeah.

Presenter7:43

The next Olympics in Tokyo you you didn't do so well. What about uh Mexico?

David Broome7:48

Mexico is probably the most enjoyable games I ever went to because we had to do our sort of acclimatization period at least a fortnight before the game started and uh

David Broome7:58

I thoroughly enjoyed it, because we you know, you mix with everybody else. And I can remember at at the games actually getting up early in the morning with Harvey Smith, and he decided it was time we got fit.

David Broome8:09

And at seven o'clock every morning Har Harvey would have me out on uh on the practice running track, doing laps. Well, the one thing you don't do in your life is start running, no matter what your age is, uh, at sort of seven thousand feet. But we did stick at it, and in the end we were running about a mile before breakfast, and I've never done it before, and I've never done it since. He's a marvellous character, Harvey. I bet he's not doing it either. Not any more, I don't think.

Presenter8:30

And you got another bronze and and

David Broome8:32

So I was very lucky there again. I was riding a horse called Mr. Softie and uh I know I had a s couple of stupid fences down earlier on, but um came back with a good jump off, which we don't normally get in the Olympic Games and finished

Presenter8:45

That were the bronze.

Presenter8:46

And you were World Champion in nineteen seventy. How's that decided? Points over the whole season or is it at one particular meeting? No, it's

David Broome8:54

One meeting and they have three different types of competitions with varying number of points given to the different classes of importance. And at the end of the three competitions, the three the four people rather with the most points go into a final. And in the final,

Speaker 19:10

Uh

David Broome9:11

You ride first your own horse.

David Broome9:13

Then you ride the other three in turn.

David Broome9:16

That's a splendid idea. Horses that you've never ridden before, you don't really know much about. Oh no, but the but the the beauty of this thing is you actually ride absolutely top class horses because to have qualified at that level they have to be very good. But having said that,

David Broome9:29

There are still some horses better than others. And in this case, in nineteen seventy, I was very lucky because the horse I rode, although he was a fantastic horse, Beethoven, he was also very difficult, and the very fact that I managed to qualify him, I think, put the fear of God into the other three riders. So I actually started to find with a great advantage over the others.

Presenter9:47

Yeah.

Presenter9:49

And three times European champion, is that run in the same way as the World Championship? No, that's purely

David Broome9:54

on on three or four competitions at a meeting.

David Broome9:58

And they just add up the points at the end of the meeting and declare the one who's done the best.

Presenter10:02

We've talked about you having won all these events, but the horses obviously had something to do with it too. How would you apportion the the merit? What percentage?

Presenter10:12

of a win is due to the horse and and what to the rider, and how much does that vary?

David Broome10:18

I think i if I'm riding in a novice class, with a young horse,

David Broome10:22

Probably.

David Broome10:24

I can beat an amateur rider or or or a young rider. I can beat him with a horse that's nowhere near as good because I can sort of dominate the horse to that much more effect over the smaller fences. I think when I get into the Grand Prix in in Europe or anywhere and you you're up against the very best people in the world then I think it's the horses that decide the competition at the end of the day because I think all the jockeys are nearly as good. And I would say in the first case it'd be sixty percent for the rider, maybe forty percent for the horse, where at the Grand Prix stage it must be at least eighty percent the horse. It's only the very very good horses that win the absolute top classes.

David Broome11:02

Your third record, please. Well, this is where I go a little bit posh, I think. I would like to play a more serious type of record, and it's the um one of the some of the melodies from Strauss for the uh Berlin Philharmonic. Yes. And especially the

David Broome11:17

The Blue Danube Path.

Presenter12:14

Johann Strauss's Blue Danube Waltz, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Herbert von Caria.

Presenter12:20

Now if one may judge by what goes on on television and from the column inches in the press, show jumping is booming now. Oh yes, I think we

David Broome12:27

Yeah.

David Broome12:28

Over the last 20 years we've come right to the front as a spectator sport because I think we our sport goes so well on television. We're very lucky that way.

Presenter12:36

And of course it's an indoor and outdoor sport according to the season.

David Broome12:39

Absolutely. Um and I I I think the indoor sport, or the indoor season rather, is even more exciting than the outdoor one. It's m seems more concentrated somehow. Absolutely, and and I think the thing whole thing happens so much quicker. That's the beauty of it. You know, it's it's more concentrated and people can get closer to the participants really. How long is the season now?

David Broome13:01

Well

David Broome13:01

You could really say it's nearly twelve months, but I make it only ten. Because from Christmas after the Olympia show, apart from the one off thing which is the the Lancia finals, until March I have a complete rest. So there's a meeting every week? Oh yes, or at least one and and very often it could be ten or twenty. And you do the lot. Oh no no no. Um

David Broome13:22

My wife will tell you I do the lot, or she it appears to her that I do them all, but in fact I don't.

David Broome13:26

I try to be a little bit sort of selective, but I do finish up going to more than I ought to really.

Presenter13:32

Now

Presenter13:33

You began as an amateur.

Presenter13:35

Good show jumpers cost a lot of money. Oh, yes. And how much can one pay for a good jumper?

David Broome13:41

Oh, you could pay um up to up to eighty, ninety, hundred thousand pounds for a horse.

Presenter13:47

And how many horses must a successful jumper keep?

David Broome13:50

Well, if you're doing it really on the level that I'm doing it, you re you need at least six or eight. You know, I think you need that because with a twelve month or a a ten month schedule, y you you'd wear them out too quickly. You you'd you'd kill them off and they'd lose all their so little bit of umph and uh and go for the sport.

Presenter14:10

How many do you take? For example, you were going to Munich tomorrow. How many horses would you take?

David Broome14:14

I would take three. But I I would balance my team, because some are better than others, obviously. I'd try to take one top class horse, or maybe two, and another one for the speed competitions, or some something like that.

Presenter14:25

And then there's the cost of transportation. You have, what, a big horse box?

David Broome14:29

Oh yes. My horse box would travel six horses, with all the food stuff in and hay and corn and saddler and everything.

Presenter14:36

There's all that there's the petrol, hotel expenses.

David Broome14:38

Yes, sometimes we we actually stay in the in the horse box which all right twenty years ago we used to clean the thing out and put a fresh bale of straw down and or horse rug on top of that and all get in together sort of thing. Uh but nowadays life is a lot better. We've progressed and there's a a part of the lorry on the front which has got a cooker and a fridge and hot and cold water T V.

Presenter14:58

So you can still sleep in the horse box?

David Broome15:00

Oh yes, it it it's very adequate, but I wouldn't recommend it for weeks on end, you know, but um for the odd night over. How much of a team do you take? You take a

Presenter15:00

Oh yes.

Presenter15:08

Broom, obviously.

David Broome15:08

Yes, um I would take one groom and probably Harvey Smith or or or one of the other riders would come with me to to fill up the horse box. And uh if I drove it we'd probably stay maybe two nights en route.

Presenter15:14

I could

Speaker 115:15

Uh

David Broome15:21

You know, the horses didn't have too much travelling in one go.

Presenter15:25

Now how does the money come back? Is an amateur allowed to hang on to the money prizes?

David Broome15:29

Oh yes. Um it's it's always been a case of of winning the prize money, and the prize money being booked to the owners, which might look a bit odd, but that's the way it's always been done. How big can the prize money be?

David Broome15:40

Well, the biggest up to this year was about five thousand pounds, but um in in nineteen eighty one

David Broome15:47

Or this year rather than what it is. The Hicksair Derby is going to be eleven thousand pound.

David Broome15:51

And uh this is something way out of what one ever dreamed of years ago.

David Broome15:55

What's your fourth record, David?

David Broome15:57

Well

David Broome15:58

My fourth one is Elvis Presley singing Wooden Heart and I've chosen this one because

David Broome16:04

One of the shows I go to in the summer

David Broome16:06

is in Germany at Aachen. It's it's the main show in Aachen. And during their closing ceremony we all sort of parade round the ring, it's usually getting dark, and they play the tune of Wooden Heart and everybody takes their handkerchiefs out and waves them all their programmes or something. It's a very moving sight when you're in the middle and there's forty thousand people waving to the tune of uh Wooden Heart.

David Broome16:28

Mo Zeden, Woo Zeden, Zung Sh.

Presenter16:32

State a laying house.

Presenter16:34

Stet le Maus undo Mein Schat Sublime Steer.

Presenter16:43

Uziden, Uziden, Zung Stetleina.

Presenter16:49

Stay till I know's oom dog.

David Broome16:52

Two mine shots, blinds

Presenter16:57

Elvis Presley, Wooden Heart.

Presenter17:00

Seven or eight years ago you and about forty other top riders decided you were going to turn professional. Now you were already taking prize money, so so what's the advantage? What's the difference between being a an amateur rider and a professional rider?

David Broome17:13

Oh, this is quite complicated, I'm afraid. I think this happened in about 1973, where uh

David Broome17:20

Prince Philip, who is the president of the World Governing Body.

Presenter17:23

Hmm.

David Broome17:24

He decided that it was time we put our sport in order as far as amateurs and professionalism was concerned.

David Broome17:30

He made the rules up, and the British Federation followed them.

David Broome17:33

Unfortunately for everybody, the British were were the only nation that actually followed them to the word.

David Broome17:40

And so where we thought we were leading the world, we finished up completely on our own.

David Broome17:45

Which left a little bit of uh sourness between one way or another. But in all fairness, speaking on behalf of myself and probably Harvey as well.

David Broome17:54

There probably were moves at the time for both of us to turn professional anyway, so I have no regrets whatsoever about being a professional.

Presenter18:00

Except that it does keep you out of the Olympics, doesn't it?

David Broome18:03

Yes, well when you think that the Olympics happen once every four years and on that very day you're competing for your gold medal, it depends whether your horse is getting in a good mood and the fences are all right this and it's such a one off thing and such a chancy thing that uh

Presenter18:14

Such a

David Broome18:17

I I think necessity made me look for the money more than the honour and glory in this case.

Presenter18:22

And I suppose being a professional you can seek sponsorship openly and anything that's going to help you to really get to the top.

David Broome18:29

Absolutely. I think in this case I've been so fortunate in having the Harris Carpets as a sponsor because not only d do they understand my sport but you know that they get very interested as well in it and I'm not just sort of riding for a company but I'm riding for what I consider my company.

Presenter18:47

Mm-hmm.

David Broome18:47

And uh the backing I get, I couldn't really manage without it.

Presenter18:52

We got to record number five.

David Broome18:54

Ugh.

David Broome18:56

When I got married back in nineteen fifty six.

David Broome18:59

The one tune I had when my wife was walking down the aisle for me was uh Doctor Chivago with Lara's theme. I would very much like to hear that.

Presenter19:37

Lara's theme from the soundtrack of Doctor Jivaga.

Presenter19:40

Some people are asking if there's an element of cruelty in show jumping. We know that the jumps are difficult, the horse must be under a certain amount of strain. Do you think there's cruelty involved?

Presenter19:50

Yeah. Right.

David Broome19:50

Not at all.

David Broome19:52

I know the horses I have, they thoroughly enjoy it. And, you know, I've had horses that when I've left them at home because I'm taking other ones, they actually kick the door. They're that professional. They want to go to the shows. And it becomes their life. The good ones I'm talking about. Maybe if a horse doesn't like it, he can be ridden badly. And you can see him making a bit of a mess. And I would call that cruelty. Only because he's been badly ridden or he he couldn't jump the fences. But there is such a small element of that that it it would would be less than one percent.

Presenter20:21

A few weeks ago, there was some sort of international conference about the use of drugs in show jumping. There was one drug in particular, phenylbutazone, known as bute, which kept cropping up. What does that do?

David Broome20:33

Well beauty is a is a medication we've had for about 20 odd years. And what that does i i i I think that the easiest way to describe it is it's like an aspirin if you've got a headache. Now it has no more effect than that except that where it applies is if when a horse is getting old or or he's done a lot of work on on hard ground or whatever have you, he gets some wear and tear in his feet and he gets a little bit of ankle problem or what the common disease is navicula.

David Broome20:59

Where the bones start to sort of ossify and get rough in the joints. And what butazolidin does, it does more or less the same as what aspirin does for your headache.

David Broome21:07

And it in fact not only does it camouflage the pain for the horse, but it actually medicates it as well.

David Broome21:13

And this thing has only come up in the last two or three years because um

David Broome21:18

A few press people.

David Broome21:20

And it's not the everyday horsey correspondent, it's the sensational people, suddenly cottoned on that for want of a better expression, horses were getting drugs in their words. And whenever you talk about drugs, you hit the headlines. And these people have made tremendous copia out of this sort of thing. And so the world bodies has found themselves having to get involved with it. And I think what they've done at the now with it with the compromise of using some of the medications

David Broome21:46

Like like Bute, which actually in fact i in my opinion is very old-fashioned medication, there are far better ones and a lot more modern.

David Broome21:54

But the expenses you're involved with trying to prove your different cases that I think at the end of the day is not working to the advantage of the horse. In fact, all countries except two agreed to the use.

David Broome22:05

Oh yes, yes, but um there's been so much politics involved with it and and actually I've been involved right up up to my neck in it because I'm the president of the International Riders Club and actually we want to keep the advantages of modern science for the horse. But these people, for want of publicity or or or control, wanted wanted to cut everything out. They got frightened and sort of wanted to ban everything. Well we say well we we have to have the use of of modern science to to keep operating and uh

David Broome22:33

If you take horses like like Boomerang.

David Broome22:36

With Eddie Mackinsauce, for instance, I think in the last five years if he hadn't had but nobody would have seen him jump, and I think that would have been very sad.

David Broome22:43

Record number six. This reminds me of my uh

David Broome22:47

off where I'm born and uh I've met this fellow, I find him tremendous fun and uh I think when I'm on my desert island and I want a little bit of ch cheering up, I would play this. It's Hymns and Aries with Max Boyce.

Speaker 223:01

We were saving.

Speaker 223:21

Wales defeated England

Speaker 223:25

I'll s I'll say that again,'cause it's my favourite line.

Presenter23:30

Max Boy is telling some members of the Trioke Rugby Club what happened when some Welshmen went to Twickenham.

Presenter23:37

Tell me about the family farm.

Presenter23:39

How big is it?

David Broome23:40

Oh, we farm probably in at the end about 300, 350 acres altogether. Mixed farm is it? Oh yes. Um I thoroughly enjoy my farming. I always say it keeps me sane from show jumping.

Presenter23:45

Oh yeah.

David Broome23:52

I think I have to work harder at home than what I do at the shows, but it's so different. And I yeah, I really like get on a tractor and clean a cattle shed out or go mowing or haymaking or anything and I really do thoroughly enjoy it.

Presenter24:02

But there must be a lot of talk about show jumping, because your brother and your sisters have been in it, and your wife was a show jumper.

David Broome24:10

Well actually it's quite funny because a lot of my wife used to ride a little bit.

David Broome24:14

When we're at home we never talk about show jumping. It's only when I go to the rest of the Broome family that it it crops up because my sister's dedicated to it and uh well actually they're all part of what I consider my team. I'm very lucky that that my team happens to be my family as uh against somebody else who actually starts all on their own. Well there's a new member of the team. Y your son has started to ride. Oh yes, Master James. How old is Master James? Master James is two and a half and I had to laugh the other day. My wife was having a little ride in the indoor school.

David Broome24:45

And it

David Broome24:46

She came round the corner, she made a little bit of a mistake at one fence, and she came round the next time and jumped it well. And Master James said, That's better, mummy.

Presenter24:53

He's strapped in the saddle as you were with it with his pram straps.

David Broome24:56

He's

David Broome24:59

No, he he doesn't get the straps. He he manages on his own, thank goodness. For he enjoys it. He he rides for maybe ten minutes at a time and he says, Mum, we had enough and

David Broome25:07

Off he gets.

Presenter25:08

Oh, good for Master James. The succession is assured.

David Broome25:11

I'd like to think it was, but um

David Broome25:14

I I know that his mother won't force him into anything he doesn't want to do, and uh I would love to think that he would carry on.

David Broome25:21

Doing what I've done for the last twenty-five years.

Presenter25:23

You've just done a book about your twenty five years in show jumping.

David Broome25:27

Yes, um

David Broome25:29

I hope it'll be a success. There's a lot of, I think, quite interesting pictures in it and uh

David Broome25:34

I don't know whether there's a demand for that sort of thing, but I hope people think they got their money's worth anyway, for those who buy it.

Presenter25:40

A nice modest approach when the writer says, Well, the pictures are good anyway. Let's go on to record number seven.

Presenter25:47

It's

Presenter25:48

Harry Seacombe

David Broome25:49

Yeah.

David Broome25:50

When you walk alone, when in a down and out moment this would sort of give me the courage and the kick in the pants that I'd need to sort of pick myself up and walk over the hill.

Speaker 126:01

Walk on with hope in your heart.

Presenter26:29

Harry Seacombe singing You'll Never Walk Alone from Carousel.

Presenter26:34

No

Presenter26:35

You're a practical farmer. Do you think you could live off the land on a desert island?

David Broome26:39

Oh.

David Broome26:41

I'd have to get a bit more energetic than I am naturally, I think. When I was ten or eleven

David Broome26:46

I dug my father's garden in the village where we lived and I thoroughly enjoyed it, but then sort of one went show jumping and one lost it. But uh I think if I got back to the land in that line and I had a few seeds and they actually grew and I could see them growing.

Presenter26:59

Question of getting a different set of muscles working again.

David Broome27:01

Absolutely.

Presenter27:02

What would you live on until the crops ripen? Are you good at fishing?

David Broome27:07

I would be an enthusiastic Fisher as long as they that they were catching all the end of the line. I'm afraid I'd lose heart a bit if if things didn't really happen.

Presenter27:14

I don't know where you're going to get the line from. You have to go fishing with a wooden club or

David Broome27:16

Oh.

David Broome27:18

Yeah.

Presenter27:18

Yeah.

David Broome27:18

Uh I think I'd rather go hunting.

David Broome27:20

For the animal pit my wits against the animal.

Presenter27:22

Yes.

David Broome27:22

I'd find that more fun, I think. Would you try to escape?

David Broome27:26

I I certainly couldn't swim from the island.

Presenter27:28

Well sh

David Broome27:30

Yes, but uh I I I'm not sort of maritime at all and the water and either sort of the bathtub is about the nearest we ever sort of get really. You stay where you are. What's your last record?

Presenter27:41

Yeah.

David Broome27:41

But my last life record is is

David Broome27:43

A tune that I've s whistled for the last twenty years. And it it's one of those whenever I'm walking in the dark or or or or fairly happy and what have you, I always break it into this tune and

David Broome27:54

Believe me, nobody's ever believed the thing ever existed. And uh I must say I I was most grateful and it's really made my day the fact that your library has found it. It's uh Russ Hamilton singing We Will Make Love.

Speaker 228:08

Yeah.

Speaker 128:08

Takes it Please Of the sun in the sky I'll call for my girlie.

Speaker 128:15

We'll go walking by

Speaker 228:16

Uh

Speaker 128:17

I Uh

Speaker 228:18

To a place no one knows That how love goes Now we are alone

Speaker 228:26

We will make love.

Speaker 228:29

Oh yes.

Speaker 228:32

We will make love.

Presenter28:36

We Will Make Love, a nineteen fifty eight recording by Russ Hamilton.

Presenter28:41

If we could take only one disk of the eight, which would it be?

David Broome28:44

Oh, it would have to be uh Max Boyce.

Presenter28:46

Yes. And one luxury. Nothing of any practical use.

David Broome28:49

Now I think

David Broome28:51

Well, I think in in the long evenings I'd like to have a nice glass of wine. So an inexhaustible supply of wine, I think.

Presenter28:58

Red or white?

David Broome28:59

I'd like to have a m

Presenter29:00

Make sure if I could. Right. Oh, we'll get some sorted out for you. And one book apart from the Bible and Shakespeare.

David Broome29:07

Well

David Broome29:08

I would like to take an Alexander Cordell sort of The Rape of the Fair Country, but I think probably I'd read it very quickly and be through it. So probably I'd settle for Winston Churchill's speeches. So I'd enjoy that and probably find the time to read it, whereas if I wasn't on my desert island I never would read them.

Presenter29:22

Write the speeches of Winston Churchill. And thank you, David Broome, for letting us hear your Desert Island Disc.

David Broome29:28

I'm not sure if I can do it.

Presenter29:29

Goodbye, everyone.

Speaker 129:37

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

Speaker 230:28

Uh