Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Desert Island Discs
Presented by Roy Plomley
Wildlife photographer who, with her team, inadvertently became embroiled in the Falklands hostilities.
Eight records
And I've chosen this really because my first memory of any music at all was at a very early age when my father, who had an amazing collection of classical music, every single evening after supper he used to sit me down, and he used to say, Now education time.
Academy of St Martin in the Fields, conducted by Sir Neville Marriner
The reason I've chosen it is because, in fact, it is survival's theme music.
I in fact wanted to take an Elvis record with me, but she wouldn't allow it, and as Cindy is the boss I had to obey her. ... So I'd like to take this opportunity of playing an Elvis Presley record, because I think he's got a a magnificent voice.
And this record reminds me very much of one of the islands that Annie and I worked on in the Falkland Islands called Carcass Island.
And in fact I remember this particularly on South Georgia, playing this on a really grim, miserable day, and we used to put this on because it's so violent at the beginning and so loud, I used to turn it up full volume with the door open, really for the penguins as well, because I'm sure they enjoyed it, or we hoped they would.
because it reminds me so much of this wonderful trip on our way down to the Antarctic.
Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68 'Pastoral': V. Shepherd's SongFavourite
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Herbert von Karajan
really because it seemed so appropriate to South Georgia after one of the mammoth blizzards, and we had quite a number of them.
Eternal Father, Strong to Save
Royal Naval College Chapel Choir
And it reminds me of many things. A few days before the invasion of the Falklands and South Georgia, when HMS Endurance was at South Georgia, we went and had a service at the little chapel at the old whaling station ... And we sang this wonderful hymn.
The keepsakes
No book or luxury recorded for this episode.
In conversation
Presenter asks
Were you close friends at school?
No, we weren't. Um although we went to school at the same time from eight until sixteen, this was boarding school. ... certainly in those days ... one certainly well, Annie, anyway, who is senior to me, certainly never thought of talking to a junior guy. ... And I was a bit frightened of talking to Menny,'cause she was senior.
Presenter asks
What was your first impression, Annie, when you had this rather extraordinary proposition [to go to the Falklands] put to you?
First of all, I thought the Falkland Islands was in Scotland, so I didn't know what she was getting quite so sort of serious about. ... When I then found out that it was actually eight thousand miles away, Cindy was quite clever. She actually painted a very black picture ... She told me that she was a very difficult to work for. She told me that uh we'd be living in in fairly unusual surroundings ... She said it would be cold and miserable, and above all she said there was no way that if I suddenly decided after three weeks that I didn't enjoy myself and I wanted to go home, there was no way that I could
The recording
Timestamps play the recording from that turn
Speaker 1
Hello, I'm Kirsty Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Disc's Archive. For rights' reasons we've had to shorten the music. The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen eighty three.
Speaker 1
And the presenter was Roy Plumley.
Presenter
On our Desert Island this week are two ladies who are quite accustomed to being on one. They form a team of wildlife photographers, and they became news when they inadvertently became mixed up in the Falklands hostilities. Here are Cindy Buxton and Annie Price.
Presenter
Now you have four discs each, or four cassettes, if they're more convenient. Do you ordinarily take music in isolation, Cindy?
Cindy Buxton
Yes, we do. Yes. We always take, I should think, at least a couple of dozen cassettes with us. We've got just a very small uh sort of tape recorder, uh, purely for convenience size and weight and everything.
Presenter
So you know from experience what lasts longest and and sounds best.
Cindy Buxton
That's right. Yes, you do.
Presenter
Do you have roughly similar tastes, or do you have to go to opposite ends of the island to play your record?
Cindy Buxton
Well, luckily on the whole we've got similar tastes, but there are one or two occasions where
Cindy Buxton
I will tend to walk off and go and have a chat with the Penguins rather than listen to the record that any wants to play at the time.
Presenter
This will be revealed.
Presenter
Now we're going to spin a coin and see who starts. Here we go.
Presenter
Annie, will you call?
Speaker 4
Heads
Presenter
Indeed, it is, and you're going to start. What's the first one?
Speaker 4
Well, my my first record I've chosen is uh The Student Prince with Maria Lanza singing it, and it's a a track called I'll Walk With God. And I've chosen this really because my first memory of any music at all was at a very early age when my father, who had an amazing collection of classical music,
Speaker 4
Every single evening after supper he used to sit me down, and he used to say, Now education time.
Speaker 4
I'm going to play some music and I want to tell you all about it and see whether you like it or not.
Speaker 4
And so we used to sit down and play a lot of music, and one of the records he always put on about once every holidays was the student prince. And Our Walk with God just brings back marvellous memories.
Presenter
As long as my faith is strong.
Presenter
Whatever I may walk along.
Presenter
With God.
Presenter
I'll hold his hand.
Presenter
I'll talk with God here on first earth.
Speaker 1
Ah
Speaker 1
Pray to Him Each day to Him.
Presenter
And he'll hear the words that I say.
Presenter
Mario Lanza singing I'll Walk With God from Romberg's The Student Prince. Cindy, what part of Britain are you from?
Cindy Buxton
I have a tiny little um cottage on the North Norfolk coast, in fa all my family come from Norfolk.
Presenter
And you both went to school in Essex.
Presenter
Were you close friends at school, Tenny?
Cindy Buxton
No, we weren't. Um although we went to school at the same time from eight until sixteen, this was boarding school. Uh in fact Annie is is older than myself and she was in the class above me, and certainly in those days, I mean we're talking about the
Cindy Buxton
Late fifties, early sixties. Um one certainly well, Annie, anyway, who is senior to me, certainly never thought of talking to a junior guy.
Presenter
And I was a bit frightened.
Cindy Buxton
And I was a bit frightened of talking to Menny,'cause she was senior.
Presenter
Yeah.
Cindy Buxton
But um I do vaguely remember, even so.
Presenter
You went off to be finished in Switzerland. Then what?
Cindy Buxton
After leaving Switzerland and learning French and things like that, I then went to Cambridge and I did a secretarial course. I also learnt to fly. I took my pilot's licence, which was something I shall never regret.
Presenter
Do you use that?
Cindy Buxton
Yes, I used it a lot in Africa in my eight years in Africa when I was filming out there. And the other thing I did was, uh, after doing my secretarial course, I actually became a secretary for a while.
Cindy Buxton
before I actually started filming, or training to start filming.
Presenter
You went off to the Galapagos Islands. What was that about?
Cindy Buxton
Well, some great friends of mine, a husband and wife team who make wildlife films for television, they asked me as a friend to go with them to the Galapagos and to Mexico. They were making two wildlife films for television.
Cindy Buxton
and they said would I like to come along? and I was
Cindy Buxton
generally sort of, you know, the sort of dog's body. I mean, I would do the cooking and
Cindy Buxton
Carry the equipment and write down the filming notes. I learnt a lot about cameras and film, but it was really that.
Cindy Buxton
suddenly made me aware of my interest in the filming, and that I was quite prepared to sit for hours, if necessary, in the middle of a thorn bush. waiting for some particular creature to come back and
Cindy Buxton
you know, feed its young or do whatever it is that it was going to do.
Presenter
So for a start it was the filming rather than the wildlife itself that interested you.
Cindy Buxton
No, it was actually the wildlife. I've always been interested in wildlife ever since I can remember. My father adores wildlife, and I remember as a young child always going for wonderful walks with him in the evenings during the summer and um he used to tell me all about the ducks and the birds and things like that, you know, that were nesting round home.
Cindy Buxton
It was the filming that came very much later, but it was a terribly quick thing. I mean, when when I was nineteen I'd never taken a photograph in my life, and yet when I was twenty I had made my first half hour film and sold it to television.
Presenter
to Anglia Television.
Cindy Buxton
To the Survival series, yes.
Presenter
Yes. And you're still working for survival. You became, in fact, their girl in Africa.
Cindy Buxton
Well, I'm now on contract with them, yes, yes, which is lovely.
Presenter
Yeah.
Presenter
Let's have your first record. What's that to mean?
Cindy Buxton
Well, my first record is Handel's Water Music. The reason I've chosen it is because, in fact, it is survival's theme music.
Cindy Buxton
the water music, and um we used to play it a lot when both Annie and I were in the Falklands and on South Georgia, and I think it's a beautiful piece of music anyway. I'm very partial to it.
Presenter
The hornpipe from Handel's Water Music.
Presenter
The Academy of Saint Martin and the Fields directed by Neville Mariner.
Presenter
Annie, we left you on a hockey field in Essex.
Presenter
What happened to you when you left school? You you went off to America.
Speaker 4
Yes, I did. I've got a lot of relations over there, and so I went off there instead of going to finishing school. I I didn't like that idea somehow, so I went off to America and
Speaker 4
and sort of saw around the country and then went off to Canada and saw a lot of that as well and got treated beautifully.
Presenter
Yeah.
Presenter
And with no very clear idea about what you wanted to do, you did all sorts of jobs.
Speaker 4
Yes, I had a marvellous time. I decided I'd do a lot of temporary jobs, having done a secretarial course, ready to sort of build up experience and to find out, or try and find out what walk of life I really wanted to steer in the direction of, so to speak.
Speaker 4
I remember trying to get a job in film production. I desperately wanted to do that.
Speaker 4
And I ended up having the offer of tea lady on charge of the light brigade, which I thought was thoroughly exciting.
Cindy Buxton
Pretty exciting.
Speaker 4
I then decided that probably wasn't really the right thing to do, so I I skipped that. I sold a cosmetic, which is now no longer. I'm not surprised,'cause all the men at the top took all the money and us poor workers got none. But it was a sort of pyramid selling system which I didn't like at all.
Presenter
Business.
Presenter
You were in advertising for a bit.
Speaker 4
Yes, I went and worked for J Walter Thompson in London in their photographic studio, which was actually really where my first sort of love of photography started, I think.
Presenter
You set up on your own eventually.
Speaker 4
Yes, um, in about nineteen seventy I left, having learnt I thought as much about sort of technical photography as possible.
Speaker 4
and I started photographing children.
Presenter
Probably the most difficult branch of photography, isn't it? And I mean, to calm them down, to get them relaxed, to get the shots you want.
Speaker 4
I'm not sure whether I ever achieved that. I used to find myself grovelling on the floor with lots of little babies. Rather than sort of stick them up in a chair and flash lights at them, I wanted to get the natural effect.
Speaker 4
which I felt actually the parents on the whole wanted more than the rather staid type photographs, and so I would do anything that they wanted to do. I would sit at the meal. I always tried to have a meal with them, to sort of get them relaxed and get to know me.
Speaker 4
But it seemed to have the required effect. I got, I hope, nice natural photographs that would last for a long time.
Presenter
Well let's have your second record.
Speaker 4
As Cindy pointed out earlier in the programme, she has a certain
Speaker 4
dislike for some of the records that I play, and in particular in the Falklands and South Georgia.
Speaker 4
I in fact wanted to take an Elvis record with me, but she wouldn't allow it, and as Cindy is the boss I had to obey her. It's rather difficult to do that, but I did. So I'd like to take this opportunity of playing an Elvis Presley record, because I think he's got a a magnificent voice. In fact, the track I've chosen is The Wonder of You.
Presenter
Kiss to me, it's worth a fortune
Presenter
Your lost love is everything I guess I'll never know the reason why
Presenter
Love me as you do.
Presenter
That's the one.
Speaker 4
Wonder of you
Speaker 1
Uh
Speaker 4
Yeah.
Presenter
Elvis Presley singing The Wonder of You.
Presenter
Right, Cindy, you were our girl in Africa for a long time.
Cindy Buxton
Yes, I lived in Africa for eight years. In fact, when I originally went out to Africa, that was in January 1971.
Cindy Buxton
It was the first time I ever started sort of having a a really serious go at filming. And I'd bought myself a wonderful old clockwork camera, you know, that I had to wind up and it ran for about twenty feet and then
Speaker 1
Ha
Cindy Buxton
stopped. But anyway, off I went. But the intention had originally been just to sort of go and take some film and just see how it came out and whether I enjoyed it and all the rest.
Cindy Buxton
But um I was very lucky. The subject that I decided to film, which was The Flamingos at Lake Nakuru in Kenya.
Cindy Buxton
I was extremely lucky. That year over a million flamingos came to Lake Nakuru. It's never been like that before or since.
Speaker 1
Uh oh.
Cindy Buxton
And I made a film about it and um I managed to sell that film, which then because in those days I I was financing myself, you know, I mean, you can't get someone
Speaker 1
New clock.
Cindy Buxton
To finance you when you've never really done anything, so I had to sort of start on my own.
Cindy Buxton
And by selling that film, I was able to pay off all the expenses that I paid and get going for the second film.
Presenter
Was it sometimes a hazardous life admitted to have bad moments with charging rhinos and that sort of thing?
Cindy Buxton
Oh, yes. Not actually by Rhino. I remember one day in Zambia I was charged by a hippopotamus. I was filming a pair of hippos in a sort of flooded
Cindy Buxton
a lagoon, as it were.
Cindy Buxton
And uh for no reason, I mean to this day I have no idea what upset the hippo, but one of them suddenly came charging out of the water. And in fact a hippo can uh run flat out for a short while, thirty miles an hour, I mean far faster than a human can run and he came belting towards me, and at the last moment I chickened out and I abandoned my camera equipment.
Cindy Buxton
and I ran like hell, and I went straight up a thorn tree.
Cindy Buxton
and sat there I was about ten, fifteen feet up.
Cindy Buxton
And I remember sitting there, sort of quaking at the knees, and this this hippo circled this tree, and after about five minutes got bored and eventually went off.
Presenter
He didn't go savage or camera.
Cindy Buxton
Good.
Cindy Buxton
No, thank goodness you didn't. But to this day I dunno how I got up the tree. It took me forty five minutes to get out of it again.
Presenter
Right, eight years of all that. And then to penguins and albatross colonies and whatever in the South Atlantic. Was this just because there was a feeling that you wanted something completely different?
Cindy Buxton
Yes, I did feel after eight years I needed a change, but it it it was a question of finding somewhere.
Cindy Buxton
which was worth my while. I mean, I have about probably altogether about a ton of equipment now. And obviously it takes an enormous amount of organization to
Presenter
And
Cindy Buxton
get that amount of equipment, you know, from one place to the other because from Africa down to the South Atlantic.
Presenter
You went out of
Presenter
You went out on a reckey first, was it?
Cindy Buxton
Yes, I did. I went down to the Falklands for a month at the end of nineteen seventy eight.
Cindy Buxton
to find out whether it was worth my while going to the Falklands and getting everything down there. And after that month of visiting various islands I decided, without doubt, it was well worth my while. But one thing I did discover was a lot of the islands I wanted to go and film on were uninhabited.
Cindy Buxton
and for obvious safety reasons I decided to get myself an assistant. And that was in fact the time when I approached Annie.
Presenter
You knew that she was a photographer.
Cindy Buxton
Well, I knew she was a photographer, but because I hadn't seen her for twelve years, I didn't really know how much he had changed since school days. So we had lunch together and I had a sort of wonderful chat, and I don't know, there was just something about talking to Annie that made me think that just maybe she might enjoy the sort of life that I led and that she would enjoy taking the photograph.
Presenter
What was your first impression, Annie, when you had this rather extraordinary proposition put to you?
Speaker 4
First of all, I thought the Falkland Islands was in Scotland, so I didn't know what she was getting quite so sort of serious about.
Presenter
What she was gay
Speaker 4
When I then found out that it was actually eight thousand miles away, Cindy was quite clever. She actually painted a very black picture, and I think it was the correct way round of doing it. She told me that she was a very difficult to work for.
Speaker 4
She told me that uh we'd be living in in fairly unusual surroundings, i.e. a sheep shed or a little hut or whatever. She said it would be cold and miserable, and above all she said there was no way that if I suddenly decided after three weeks that I didn't enjoy myself and I wanted to go home, there was no way that I could, that I would have to stick out the nine months. So it was really a trial. I mean we made that perfectly clear between the two of us that if there was a personality clash or or any reason, you know, that that would be it without any hard feelings. Because I'd never done a girl guide's or brownies or anything like that. I didn't even know how to put up a tent. I mean nothing.
Speaker 4
So Cindy was really taking on quite a lot. I mean, the only saving grace was that I knew how her camera worked, I think.
Presenter
In fact, Annia, the two of you on a deserted island all that time, was there a personality clash? Did you ever have a really, a really good stand up, knock em down row?
Speaker 4
We did, actually. It it came about in the most ridiculous fashion, as all little things do. But it cleared the air, and it made me realise where the dividing line between boss and friend was that in fact Cindy was the boss when we were out filming, and I was her assistant.
Speaker 4
And I think it also it made me respect Cindy a bit more. Ever since then we've had a marvellous time.
Presenter
That cleared the air.
Speaker 4
Yes, it is. Yes.
Presenter
Good. Whose turn is it? Cindy, it's yours. What's your name?
Speaker 4
Yeah.
Cindy Buxton
Cindy, it's yours. What's your name?
Cindy Buxton
Well, I've chosen Richard Clademan and it's called Ballad Poor Adelaide.
Cindy Buxton
And this record reminds me very much of one of the islands that Annie and I worked on in the Falkland Islands called Carcass Island. It was our second year in the Falkland Islands.
Cindy Buxton
We had the most wonderful time on Carcass. We lived there for nine months making films about all the sort of shoreline birds and the terns and the birds of prey and one of the penguins that makes um a burrow underground. In fact, what I did was, having built the hide and then very gradually cutting away underground, you know, until I'd opened up the nest and everything, I then sat in the hide for about six hours without any lights at all, just so that the penguin could get used to me and I had to stay terribly still. and you know, sort of no sudden movements or any coughing or sneezing or anything like that like that. And then every day I'd put a little light on, but it was a terribly low watt bulb, so it was very dim, just like a candle to start with, and then the next day a little bit stronger, and the next day a little bit stronger, until we eventually built up to the amount of light that I required to be able to film. And they got completely used to this, and uh in the end I was sitting in the hides for maybe twelve hours at a time.
Cindy Buxton
The only major problem that I had to put up with was the fact that the penguins both uh
Cindy Buxton
The smell is simply appalling in underground in the hide. And also they've got appalling fleas. And I used to have fleas crawling up my trouser legs and down my shirt and things like that. And Annie is uh very much more sort of not allergic, but I mean the sensitive towards the fleas than I am and she simply wouldn't let me
Speaker 1
Sensitive
Cindy Buxton
anywhere nearer for several hours until at least I'd taken all my clothes off, had a real good scrub down, and changed my clothes and everything.
Cindy Buxton
you know, said that she didn't come out in terrible rashes and lumps and bumps and scratched all day long.
Presenter
This is tremendous dedication just to get one good series of shots.
Cindy Buxton
That's right, no, but it it was very interesting because I myself wanted to know what they did under you know, inside the thing. Anyway, this particular record by Richard Clademan, it was the first time I've ever heard Richard Clademan was on Carcass Island. The people who own Carcass Island are called Rob and Lorraine McGill.
Cindy Buxton
and they were so marvellous to us they were so kind and helpful.
Cindy Buxton
and um did everything
Cindy Buxton
that they could for us, you know, to make our life as pleasant and
Cindy Buxton
Easy as possible and uh it reminds me very much of the Falkland Islands.
Presenter
Richard Klademan Ballad for Adeline.
Presenter
Did you have Cindy two-way radio? Could you communicate with bass on these?
Presenter
desolate islands that you were on from time to time.
Cindy Buxton
On South Georgia we did. Every sort of couple of days we used to go on the radio and call up the uh British scientists at Gretbiken just to let them know that we were okay.
Presenter
Just
Cindy Buxton
And the filming was going well. And we also used to give them weather reports just to tell them what the weather had been like.
Presenter
Annie, your job, or part of your job, was to take the still photographs which are reproduced in the book that you've written together. And some of those photographs do look quite alarming, especially some of those shots where the sky is black with birds, and one thinks of the Hitchcock film. Were you ever afraid of them?
Speaker 4
It never worried me. I mean, I ha I saw that hitchcock the birds or whatever it was called and that was horrifying. But I think one thought of it as sort of just pure beauty when you saw the sky full of birds. The same with just looking at enormous Great King Penguin Colony. It's the most lovely sight. I think one of the things about the wildlife
Cindy Buxton
On South Georgia and the Falklands. Although there are literally hundreds of thousands of birds there, the super thing about it all is that the um
Cindy Buxton
Wild life down there is completely tame and approachable. Because man hasn't been on Scythe Georgia, or very few have been on Scytheorgia, they have not caused the birds to have this instinctive fear of man.
Cindy Buxton
I mean, the wildlife at St. Andrews Bay looked upon Annie and I not as something to be frightened of, but as a curiosity and when Annie and I used to walk down along the beaches we used to have
Cindy Buxton
whole lot of little penguins who would follow behind us, and every time we stopped they stopped.
Cindy Buxton
And it was just like grandmother's footsteps. And when we walked on, they walked on and followed us. And if we left our rucksacks behind, you know, they used to dive into the rucksack to see what was there.
Speaker 1
Yeah.
Cindy Buxton
And sometimes when I was filming in the colony, it really got quite difficult if I wanted to do a serious shot of filming.
Cindy Buxton
adults say going through courtship or mating behaviour. I remember one particular day I was getting some really beautiful shots and this totally out of focus brown fuzzy head appeared round the front of the lens and started tapping on the lens of the camera, which sounds quite amusing now, but it totally ruined my shot. And I would have to call Annie, who was probably somewhere else in the colony photographing.
Speaker 1
Um
Cindy Buxton
and say, Annie, I'm terribly sorry. Could you come and get all these little penguins who are around me and upsetting all the sequences that I'm trying to film? And she used to gather up all these little penguin chicks and go off about thirty or forty feet away, and she'd be Nanny for about the next hour or so, and she would play games with them and just amuse them to keep them out of the way.
Presenter
And of course you had to stay for the full seasonal cycle.
Cindy Buxton
Absolutely, yes, yes.
Presenter
And then what that will give you three months or so to come back to London to edit the film and and plan your next trip.
Cindy Buxton
Yes, yes. We used to come home after about nine months filming location, then we'd come back to London, do the editing, put all the sound together, do the script and things like that, and Annie would go off and
Speaker 1
Anyway
Cindy Buxton
clean and repair cameras, then we would repack and get everything ready for the next filming location.
Presenter
Each trip, each season, would produce how much screen time, on an average.
Cindy Buxton
Well, there was always a one-hour special, and then perhaps a couple of half-hours.
Presenter
Mm-hmm.
Presenter
Whose turn is it, Annie?
Speaker 4
My next choice is V Doors to Carter in F major.
Speaker 4
and on this occasion I have chosen it to be played on the organ by Marie Claire Allen.
Speaker 4
And in fact I remember this particularly on South Georgia, playing this on a really grim, miserable day, and we used to put this on because it's so violent at the beginning and so loud, I used to turn it up full volume with the door open, really for the penguins as well, because I'm sure they enjoyed it, or we hoped they would.
Speaker 4
But it it seemed to boost our morale. It was loud and vivacious and and it sort of said everything to really perk our spirits up and um make us have a bit of get up and go about us.
Presenter
The Ducata from Vidor's Fifth Symphony played by Marie Claire Allen on the organ of Orleans Cathedral.
Presenter
A lot of the nasty things seem to happen to you, Annie. You had a particularly nasty moment when you were climbing a glacier.
Speaker 4
Yes, that was actually the one time, I think, that I decided that AI was bananas, or B Survival, who we work for, really ought to pay me a bit more money.
Presenter
Where was it?
Speaker 4
It was in fact on South Georgia. We were walking from St Andrew's Bay to another bay to do some filming of a different breed of of penguins that Cindy wanted to get.
Presenter
We'll
Speaker 4
And we came to a a sort of ice field, which was really a gorge. Well, the whole field went down a very steep slope.
Speaker 4
and it ran into a valley at the bottom, and the valley was really our sort of home run to where we were trying to get to.
Speaker 4
I think we'd walked for about eight hours, and we were tired. We were carrying about fifty pounds on our back.
Speaker 4
and as we went down this ice field with these very high cliffs on either side, the ice started to break up.
Speaker 4
And underneath this, because it was the summer and there was a lot of ice having melted from the glaciers.
Speaker 4
There was a lot of water running underneath, and we didn't really relish the idea of falling through the ice and being carried away underground. I mean, we would have been killed.
Speaker 4
So Cindy quite sensibly said, Look, we better go and try and walk along the ledge, or a ledge, if we can find one of of this sort of cliff face.
Speaker 4
So I, Julie said, okay, fine. Well, we we got up on to this cliff.
Speaker 4
and the ledge was really no more than about a foot wide.
Speaker 4
and I suppose a distance of about what would you say, Cindy, sixty feet, something like that? And it was a matter really of of of standing facing inwards so that our actual bodies were touching the rock, and just moving along sideways very, very slowly. But
Cindy Buxton
Yeah.
Speaker 4
I for some reason I think out of sheer terror I just froze.
Speaker 4
That awful moment when you simply can't move and everything rushes through your mind.
Speaker 4
And I just turned to Cindy and I said, I can't take my rucksack off, because if I try to do that, I know I'm going to fall.
Speaker 4
Because of my balance I said you've got to come and help me.
Speaker 4
And she was marvellous she stayed absolutely calm, and she edged her way along.
Speaker 4
and she literally told me how to get to the end of that ledge, one foot by one hand by the next, and it took over an hour to do it.
Speaker 4
And at at the end of it I got out my
Speaker 4
Famous miniature bottle of brandy and had an almighty swig.
Presenter
This was your emergency ration that you always carry.
Speaker 4
Oh, absolutely.
Presenter
Of course. Cindy, which do you look on as your worst moment out of all the trips?
Cindy Buxton
I think I was very fortunate. In the South Atlantic, um I don't think anything too bad, but I do remember there was one occasion in Africa.
Cindy Buxton
My last film that I made in Africa, there was one point where
Cindy Buxton
I thought I was um had my last moment, and that was um an elephant had died it was terribly sad it had got caught in a snare and when it died it it fell into a river.
Cindy Buxton
and I knew within a few days, because of the heat and everything else, the crocodiles would find it. And I thought this would be marvellous to film. So I left it for two or three days, and then I went back again. But crocodiles are terribly timid creatures, and so when I went back I was determined I wasn't going to
Cindy Buxton
give away the fact that I was, you know, trying to get into position and frighten the crocodile, so I was terribly careful. For the last hundred yards I literally crawled on my hands and knees to get to the edge of the river bed.
Cindy Buxton
with all my camera equipment and I went terribly slowly. I didn't
Cindy Buxton
rustle any leaves or crack any twigs or anything like that. And I got right to the edge of this river bed and I looked down. There were about sixty or seventy crocodiles on this elephant carcase and it was really spectacular. And I got my tripod up and I was just about to put the camera on the tripod to look down.
Cindy Buxton
when all of a sudden there was this most horrific roar down my left ear.
Cindy Buxton
and I was still on my hands and knees, and I turned round to see what it was, and I was literally six to ten feet away from six huge lions who were lying right beside me, also watching these crocodiles. And I thought I remember so clearly I remember thinking
Cindy Buxton
Now do I jump into the river and tackle the crocodiles, or stay my ground and fight off the lions? I mean, it was the most awful choice. I couldn't decide which to do.
Cindy Buxton
So I just stayed exactly where I was, looking at these lines.
Cindy Buxton
And I think because I didn't move and do anything stupid, the lions watched me. I mean, it felt like minutes, but in fact it w in reality it was only probably a couple of seconds. But all six lions, after about
Cindy Buxton
say, ten, twenty seconds, they all got up and backed off and then ran away through the bush.
Cindy Buxton
And uh I think at that moment I did think, Oh heavens, I wish I was back in Norfolk with mummy
Presenter
Surely.
Cindy Buxton
But uh I was very fortunate in the South Atlantic. There was nothing too desperate.
Presenter
What's your next record?
Cindy Buxton
Now the next record that I would very much like to um
Cindy Buxton
Play is called sailing.
Cindy Buxton
Sung by Rod Stewart, because it reminds me so much of this wonderful trip on our way down to the Antarctic.
Cindy Buxton
and the icebergs beginning to appear and the wonderful albatross that used to circle the ship all day, and things like that. It's just the beginning of getting to South Georgia.
Speaker 4
I am safe.
Speaker 4
I am sailing.
Speaker 4
Oh McCan.
Speaker 4
Across the sea.
Speaker 4
I am saving.
Speaker 4
Star Me Water
Speaker 4
To be where are you?
Presenter
Rod Stewart singing Sailing
Presenter
Annie, there came this rather frightening time when there were worrying things coming to you on the radio in your little hut in South Georgia messages and code and whatever that you didn't understand.
Speaker 4
Yes, I remember that so well. It just happened one night. It was quite late, about half past ten, eleven o'clock.
Speaker 4
We were what was the date, Cindy? 19th of March. 19th of March, I'm appalling with dates. And we were fiddling with the frequency of of all the frequencies on Cindy's receiver, which is all digital, so I mean it's great fun watching everything buzzing around. And we picked up this voice which we recognise as being Steve Martin, who is the Deputy Base Commander at Grypficen, where the British Antarctic Survey Scientists were based.
Presenter
This is in South Georgia.
Speaker 4
This was on South Georgia, sending out a a coded message to HMS Endurance, who was at that time in Stanley, about to go off on her trip back home, basically. She'd finished her her tour round the Antarctic.
Speaker 4
And um, being extremely nosy people, we decided to hang around a little bit longer to try and find out what this coded message was.
Speaker 4
And absolutely amazingly, in fact, about two minutes later, we heard Steve Martin telling one of the other British Antarctic Survey ships the the Brantsfield that was very near by
Speaker 4
and he the Brantsfield had the director of the British Antarctic Survey on board, and he'd obviously heard this coded message going out, and so he called up Steve Martin and he said, What's all this about?
Speaker 4
And instead of Steve saying, which we thought he would, I'm sorry, I can't divulge it, it's coded in secret, he proceeded to tell Dick Laws, the director, exactly what was going on, and this was in fact the first knowledge that anybody had had, other than the people at Gripbican, that Argentinian scrap metal merchants had landed at Leith Harbour, which was just north of Gripicen.
Speaker 4
and had put up the Argentinian flag and had actually also come ashore with some military personnel with guns. And the problem was that they were refusing to go round to Gripviken for immigration and and customs and whatever other reasons they have to go for.
Speaker 4
So basically there was a slight problem.
Presenter
This was the beginning of the Argentine invasion.
Speaker 4
Yeah. Yeah.
Cindy Buxton
Uh Absolutely.
Presenter
And when the invasion happened, you could hear the gunfire.
Cindy Buxton
Oh yes, we could hear it all. Yes, it was only about ten, fifteen miles away.
Presenter
You had been given instructions on defending yourself, had you?
Cindy Buxton
Oh, but that came very much later on, yes, in fact when the task force got quite near us.
Presenter
Three male civilians had moved into your hut which must have made life very crowded indeed.
Cindy Buxton
It was indeed.
Presenter
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Cindy Buxton
Well, they were three Bersantis, British Antarctic Santis, who came over from Gretbeken to us. The base commander by that time was convinced we were going to be invaded, and he very secretly decided to send some Santis over with us, so that if we were taken prisoners by the Argentines, you know, we would feel a little bit better if we had some men with us. So he asked these three chaps to come with us just to be with us and, I don't know, look after us and help us.
Presenter
It must have been a marvellous moment when eventually the task force came and fetched you.
Cindy Buxton
It was absolutely marvellous. We first noticed them on the twenty first of April.
Cindy Buxton
And um it was a horrible
Cindy Buxton
day. It was snowing and well below freezing, and Annie and I went out for a walk and there were a lot of icebergs on the horizon, but there was just one particular iceberg that just looked slightly wrong. There was something about it, and we weren't quite sure about it. So we climbed onto a cliff and we waited. There was a little clearing on the horizon. And as this little clearing sort of
Cindy Buxton
swept along the horizon. It passed this particular iceberg, but we weren't too sure what it was about, and as it went past it we suddenly realized it was a ship.
Cindy Buxton
and this um ship turned its head into wind, and the waves were terribly rough at the time, and the ship was going up and down and up and down, and we suddenly recognised this red hull. And there is only one ship that operates in the Antarctic that is painted bright red.
Cindy Buxton
And that is the Royal Navy Ice Patrol ship HMS Endurance. And I remember Annie and I sort of looking at each other and saying,
Cindy Buxton
God, it's endurance now, she's back again, she's with us, and it was just so exciting, and that's the day that she landed all the special troops that came ashore to
Cindy Buxton
start the retake of South Georgia and helicopter came to Saint Andrew's Bay and told us what was going on and what their plans were and
Cindy Buxton
told us to hang on for a little while longer and soon it would all be over. It was really wonderful.
Presenter
Whose turn is it? Number seven. Now that that's yours, Annie.
Cindy Buxton
Uh
Speaker 4
Please
Cindy Buxton
Uh
Speaker 4
I think it's mine.
Presenter
It does.
Speaker 4
Um, my final choice is Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony number six.
Speaker 4
By the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Herbert von Carion.
Speaker 4
They've in fact chosen the fifth movement, which is the Shepherd's Hymn After the Storm.
Speaker 4
really because it seemed so appropriate to South Georgia after one of the mammoth blizzards, and we had quite a number of them.
Speaker 4
After a particularly unpleasant day, or two days, of storm, the light was so perfect, and the smell was gorgeous, and I think this just sums it all up. It was the relief we always felt after the storm, and I think it's so beautifully played.
Presenter
Part of the Shepherd's Hymn After the Storm from Beethoven's Symphony No. Six.
Presenter
The pastoral
Presenter
Herbert von Karion conducting the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.
Presenter
Now we've cast you two.
Presenter
On a desert island, but a tropical island, I'm sure there would be no problems. Do you think there would be any?
Speaker 4
Oh no it would save us a lot of problems, I think, being in the heat.
Presenter
What about campfire cookery? Who does the cooking?
Speaker 4
Me.
Presenter
Yeah.
Speaker 4
Annie's the cook. Cindy'd have to get the fire going.
Presenter
Yeah.
Presenter
Right.
Speaker 4
No, I'm not very good at that, but I'll do the cooking.
Presenter
Who's going to make the raft?
Speaker 4
I will.
Presenter
Well, you're obviously going to manage very well while you're on the island. Do you think you would bother to escape, or just?
Presenter
Set it out.
Cindy Buxton
It depends on the circumstances, but uh I think probably sit it out.
Presenter
Right.
Presenter
Record number eight, your last record, and that's yours, Cindy.
Cindy Buxton
The last record I've chosen, it's a really beautiful piece of music, it's Eternal Father.
Cindy Buxton
And it's the Royal Naval College Chapel Choir.
Cindy Buxton
And it reminds me of many things. A few days before the invasion of the Falklands and South Georgia, when HMS Endurance was at South Georgia, we went and had a service at the little chapel at the old whaling station at
Cindy Buxton
And we sang this wonderful hymn. And at that point I think we all knew that something really terribly wrong was going on, and it was just getting worse and worse and worse. And we really sang this hymn with a lot of feeling. I mean, we we really prayed that things were going to
Cindy Buxton
possibly get solved before everything went drastically wrong or or whatever.
Cindy Buxton
And um it just reminds me of that wonderful Sunday morning that Annie and I spent with the Royal Marines who
Cindy Buxton
defended Gripikin so bravely against such terrible odds,
Cindy Buxton
and also all the company on HMS Endurance who guarded us so well during those four weeks under Argentine occupation. It was really a a very moving moment.
Presenter
The choir of the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, Eternal Father Strong to Save.
Presenter
Cindy, if you could take just one disk of the four you've chosen, which would it be?
Cindy Buxton
I think possibly I would choose sailing.
Speaker 4
Yeah.
Presenter
Uh
Cindy Buxton
That
Speaker 4
By Rod Stewart.
Presenter
Annie, which would you choose?
Speaker 4
I choose Beethoven's Symphony No. Six, the Pastral.
Speaker 4
Really because not only for the reasons that I described earlier, but it was my father's favorite bit of music.
Presenter
and one luxury each, one object of no practical use that you would like to take to a desert island Cindy.
Cindy Buxton
Am I allowed to take a cow with me?
Presenter
Oh dear. Well, we we say inanimate, but give your reasons before I decide.
Cindy Buxton
I've been filming for twelve years now, but there is one thing I miss on every single location, and that is fresh milk.
Presenter
Oh it would be mean to refuse it. I'm breaking all the rules. You shall have a cup.
Cindy Buxton
Uh
Speaker 4
Thank you very much.
Presenter
Andy, what would you like?
Speaker 4
Mine would be a very large box of soap. Am I allowed that?
Presenter
Yes, yes.
Speaker 4
Yeah.
Speaker 4
Because I have a reputation for being horribly clean and tidy minded, and cleanliness is very good for the morale.
Speaker 4
And I think you've got to also keep your standards up when you're under a situation like that, and so a box of soap is what I would like.
Presenter
You already have on the island a copy of the complete works of Shakespeare and the authorized Bible. You can have one book each.
Cindy Buxton
I would like to take a book, if there is one, of all the famous explorers in the world. I love reading books about people who
Cindy Buxton
you know, go to extraordinary places and how they survive
Presenter
Annie, which book will you choose?
Cindy Buxton
Yeah.
Speaker 4
I'm going to go for a totally different theme. I'd like to take Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach.
Speaker 4
simply because it's although it's a minute little book full of rather lot of photographs.
Speaker 4
It's a a most unique book, I think, in that it says so much in so few pages, and it's the sort of book you can read over and over again, and learn something new, and take a different angle on it.
Presenter
Now you both spent quite a lot of time in this country finishing your own book, Survival South Atlantic.
Presenter
Are you off on another expedition soon?
Cindy Buxton
Yes, we are indeed. In fact, we leave in two weeks' time for a tiny little volcanic island right in the middle of the Atlantic, just below the equator.
Cindy Buxton
I mean, you couldn't really get more different from South Georgia than where we're going next, because it's going to be the average temperature is about 90.
Cindy Buxton
There's about ninety-five percent humidity. We'll be making several.
Cindy Buxton
Films there. One of them will be on the green turtles that swim.
Cindy Buxton
all the way from Brazil to Ascension to breed on the island.
Presenter
You're going to Ascension, are you? We are indeed.
Cindy Buxton
We are indeed very perceptible.
Cindy Buxton
Well, there's about twelve hundred people there, I suppose, altogether.
Presenter
Maybe I
Cindy Buxton
Nobody actually lives there permanently. They're all sort of people like they're on
Presenter
And on
Cindy Buxton
Short term contracts.
Presenter
But that's quite a change. This is almost living in a metropolis, isn't it?
Cindy Buxton
Oh, absolutely. Um, it's going to be terribly gl luxurious. Um, we're going to rent a house and all we have to do is switch on a switch and the light comes on instead of having to light it.
Presenter
And I hope you both enjoy it very much. And thank you, Cindy Buxton and Annie Price, for letting us hear your Desert Island Discs.
Cindy Buxton
Thank you very much.
Presenter
Goodbye, everyone.
Speaker 1
You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Islandists Archive. For more podcasts, please visit bbc.co.uk/slash radio forward.
Presenter asks
Was there a personality clash? Did you ever have a really, a really good stand up, knock em down row?
We did, actually. It it came about in the most ridiculous fashion, as all little things do. But it cleared the air, and it made me realise where the dividing line between boss and friend was that in fact Cindy was the boss when we were out filming, and I was her assistant. And I think it also it made me respect Cindy a bit more.
Presenter asks
Were you ever afraid of [the birds]?
It never worried me. I mean, I ha I saw that hitchcock the birds or whatever it was called and that was horrifying. But I think one thought of it as sort of just pure beauty when you saw the sky full of birds. ... the wildlife down there is completely tame and approachable. Because man hasn't been on Scythe Georgia, or very few have been on Scytheorgia, they have not caused the birds to have this instinctive fear of man.
Presenter asks
Which do you look on as your worst moment out of all the trips?
I think I was very fortunate. In the South Atlantic, um I don't think anything too bad, but I do remember there was one occasion in Africa. ... I turned round to see what it was, and I was literally six to ten feet away from six huge lions who were lying right beside me, also watching these crocodiles. ... So I just stayed exactly where I was, looking at these lines. And I think because I didn't move and do anything stupid, the lions watched me. ... after about ten, twenty seconds, they all got up and backed off and then ran away through the bush.