Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Desert Island Discs
Presented by Michael Parkinson
Twice Wimbledon ladies' singles champion, six-time Olympic medalist, also England lacrosse international and All-England badminton champion.
Eight records
Orchestre de Paris, conducted by Jean Martinon
When the skaters were skating so beautifully and they they won the World Championship... Trovell and Dean, yes. And I thought that was very nice indeed, and I thought they were skated beautifully.
Well, I think one of my favourites is um Your Tiny Hand Is Frozen and I'm very glad to say we have a record Placido Domingo singing it.
I don't remember the title of this, but it's it comes in to Doctor Shivago's film, which I saw and enjoyed enormously, and I remember the tune as being most delightful.
A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square
This is one of my favourite songs, which I've always loved. A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square.
Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sir Charles Groves
Well, I always enjoy hearing Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance as played at the Royal Albert Hall.
The keepsakes
The book
Jack Higgins
Well, then I think I'd like a thriller. I think the Eagle has landed. is probably the one I would choose.
In conversation
Presenter asks
What part has music played in your life, and what is your earliest recollection of it?
Well, I think it was uh way back when I was about five. We had a governess then, my sister and I, and amongst other things that she tried to teach us, she also played the piano herself very beautifully. And I remember her playing various tunes to us, which we enjoyed... And that's, um, well, just the beginning of this century, isn't it? About nineteen hundred and one, two.
Presenter asks
Was it a typical Victorian household you were brought up in, and was your father a stern Victorian figure?
Yes, he was, I think. I would say he was, yes... we didn't see as much of him as we might have done because he was working very hard. And uh, you know, he came back in the evenings, and if he was back in time, we'd see him at bedtime and so on. But we didn't it was my mother we saw mostly of. She was with us a lot.
The recording
Timestamps play the recording from that turn
Speaker 2
Hello, I'm Kirstie Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive. For rights reasons we've had to shorten the music. The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen eighty seven, and the presenter was Michael Parkinson.
Presenter
Now, Castaway is a truly remarkable woman. She was born in the reign of Queen Victoria and in the 1920s established a list of sporting achievements that will never be surpassed. She twice won the Ladies' Single title at Wimbledon, won six Olympic medals at lawn tennis, including a gold at the doubles. She was selected for England at lacrosse and won the All-England Badminton Championships on four separate occasions. Today, at the age of 91, she observes the world with a wise yet youthful eye. She is Kitty Godfrey.
Presenter
Kitty, we're going to put you on this desert island with a collection of records. Now, what what part has music played in in your life, in this long life of yours? What's your earliest recollection of music?
Kitty Godfree
Well, I think it was uh way back when I was about five.
Kitty Godfree
We had a governess then, my sister and I, and amongst other things that she tried to teach us, she also played the piano herself very beautifully. And I remember her playing various tunes to us, which we enjoyed, very suitable for children to enjoy, and I remember that very well. And that's, um, well, just the beginning of this century, isn't it? About nineteen hundred and one, two.
Presenter
That's right.
Kitty Godfree
There's
Presenter
And what about'cause your father was in the music industry too, wasn't he?
Kitty Godfree
Yes, he was. He was very fond of music, and his method of guessing it was to have a piano player.
Kitty Godfree
Which were quite a lot of them, I think, in those very old days. I expect people know them now.
Presenter
Piano
Kitty Godfree
But you could pianoly, yes, and you could attach them to your piano, of which he had um several, and um play your favourite tune with your feet playing and your fingers, hands making the music sound as you want it to. And I must say it was very popular among our friends. They were always sort of coming and saying, Could we come and play for a little while and come in and start playing a tune that they liked.
Presenter
Let's have a first choice of record, Kitty. What what shall it be?
Kitty Godfree
Revels Belero, which I heard some little time ago.
Kitty Godfree
When the skaters were skating so beautifully and they they won the World Championship.
Presenter
Tobalundine
Kitty Godfree
Trovell and Dean, yes. And I thought that was very nice indeed, and I thought they were skated beautifully.
Presenter
Yeah.
Speaker 4
Uh
Speaker 2
But
Kitty Godfree
I'd like to hear it again.
Presenter
Ravel's Bolero played by the Paris Orchestra conducted by Jean Martinon.
Presenter
Kitty Godfrey, uh you must have seen that on television. Do you watch a lot of sport on television?
Kitty Godfree
Yes, I do. I I watch all that I can, and I enjoy it all, except a few that I don't really like. I mean, I don't understand them, that's why I don't like boxing.
Kitty Godfree
And uh there's another awful thing when they tie each other in knots and try and
Presenter
It's all in wrestling of me.
Kitty Godfree
That's what I mean. Wrestling, I really can't tell that. You watch rugby?
Kitty Godfree
You yes
Presenter
Do my l
Kitty Godfree
Oh, I love rugby. I haven't watched that on television only. I mean, I've been to the ground and seen it played over years. My husband was very keen on it. He was a a good rugby player.
Kitty Godfree
And we used to get tickets somehow, and we went and watched it there.
Presenter
Of course, that other memory, too, of Tobolandine skating must have reminded you, too, that you were, apart from all these other extraordinary uh sports that you were you excelled at, you were a very fine ice skater, weren't you?
Kitty Godfree
I wouldn't say a very fine ice skater. I skated from when I was very young, and if you do something pretty regularly when you're young, you get quite good at it. And my sister and I really skated a lot, and we enjoyed waltzing together. And I saw an old photograph the other day of us actually waltzing on the rink in Switzerland. So that was really rather fun to look at that again and say, oh, yes, of course, I remember doing that. That was nice.
Presenter
Another choice of record, Kitty Fees.
Kitty Godfree
Well, I think one of my favourites is um Your Tiny Hand Is Frozen and I'm very glad to say we have a record Placido Domingo singing it.
Speaker 4
Keep me watching.
Presenter
That was the voice of Placido Domingo, seeing your tiny hand is frozen.
Presenter
Kitty, let's go back to this this childhood of of of yours. You were born in Queen Victoria's reign. Did you ever see the old queen?
Kitty Godfree
Yeah.
Presenter
Yeah.
Kitty Godfree
Yeah.
Presenter
Yeah.
Kitty Godfree
Well, we went for walks in the park and of course the Queen drove in the park, I think, quite fairly often. I remember seeing her with Nanny, you know, and sister, and people sto other children stood, and she always smiled at the children and waved, and so we all reckoned that we'd really seen her. Well, we had as she trotted past, you see, as her carriage trotted past.
Presenter
And w was it a typical Victorian household you were brought up in? Was your father Vict a Victorian figure?
Kitty Godfree
Yes, he was, I think. I would say he was, yes.
Presenter
Was he stern?
Kitty Godfree
Yes, we didn't see as much of him as we might have done because he was working very hard.
Kitty Godfree
And uh, you know, he came back in the evenings, and if he was back in time, we'd see him at bedtime and so on. But we didn't it was my mother we saw mostly of. She was with us a lot.
Presenter
And what was she like?
Kitty Godfree
Well, looking back on her, I thought she was lovely to look at, very cheerful.
Kitty Godfree
Had many, many friends and um enjoyed life very much.
Presenter
So in fact it was a a kind of idyllic childhood, was it, for you and your sister?
Kitty Godfree
Very good time, yes,'cause we um we we were allowed to do so many things which many girls had not had an opportunity of doing up till then, and my father was
Presenter
Yeah.
Kitty Godfree
Very keen, he thought that there's no reason why girls shouldn't really do all the things that it was able to do, and so he gave us the opportunity of doing them. And luckily for us, we were quite good at sport always, and so we took to all these different activities and enjoyed them more because we had a chance to do them and because we were quite good at them.
Presenter
Yeah, I mean that that must have been very rare in the period we're talking about, that girls I mean, you're in in in fact almost fully emancipated, weren't you, in that sense?
Kitty Godfree
Well we were, really, yes.
Presenter
Yeah.
Presenter
Tell me about the the the trip that you made to to Berlin, because that strikes me also as being an example of your your father's
Kitty Godfree
Some others.
Presenter
Dedication to believe that the girl should be just like anybody else, really. Yes. What happened?
Kitty Godfree
Yeah.
Kitty Godfree
Well, we had we both rode bicycles by then, very well, because we'd done them all our lives. I was nine and my sister was ten. And he suddenly decided that he'd like to go on a holiday somewhere. He wanted to go to Berlin to see the factory there and to the people who he worked with. And so he suggested that we should ride there. And I think my mother also well, she was young and energetic and had ridden the bicycle. And so they agreed that they would go, and our governess came with us. So the five of us set off. We were then living near Kensington.
Kitty Godfree
And presumably, I don't remember the first bit, but presumably we got to Herridge.
Kitty Godfree
and we crossed to the Hook of Holland by boat.
Kitty Godfree
and from there we cycled all through Holland.
Kitty Godfree
And we did this in April, which of course is the most wonderful time to be in Holland, and all the bulbs were out, and it was even at that age, I mean, it was beautiful.
Kitty Godfree
We saw no motor cars at all the whole way. There weren't any motor cars. This is before they were invented sufficiently to be out on the roads.
Kitty Godfree
And um so we had many, many, of course, uh other bicycles to ride through and horses. But that was about all the traffic I can remember.
Kitty Godfree
And we rode all through Holland?
Kitty Godfree
We didn't have an energetic ride any day because we weren't in a hurry, this was a a holiday.
Kitty Godfree
And so the whole journey took us, um, about three weeks. And we stayed uh off in two places at weekends. Um my mother had an uncle who lived out there and we stayed there at a weekend.
Kitty Godfree
And uh we stayed in another very old town with a
Kitty Godfree
Beautiful.
Kitty Godfree
For a weekend. But apart from that, we spent a night somewhere en route, you know, a bed and breakfast kind of night.
Presenter
I remember it very clearly even now, all those years on.
Kitty Godfree
Oh, I remember a lot of it very clearly, yes.
Presenter
Let's have another choice of record, please, kitty.
Kitty Godfree
I don't remember the title of this, but it's it comes in to Doctor Shivago's film, which I saw and enjoyed enormously, and I remember the tune as being most delightful.
Presenter
That was Lara's theme from the soundtrack of Doctor Shibago.
Presenter
Kitty, this time when you were when you were growing up with your sister and you were allowed to indulge in all these sports, did you have any other ambition at all, uh uh for a career? I mean, was a career allowed in those days for a girl?
Kitty Godfree
I don't think so. I was at school for nearly six years.
Kitty Godfree
Up in Scotland at Saint Andrew's.
Kitty Godfree
And then, of course, we had holidays, and that is when we did a lot of these sports that we did. And when I left school,
Speaker 2
Manette
Kitty Godfree
Um the war broke out within a few weeks of when I left school and uh everybody of course got jobs and all the grown up girls and all the ladies, I mean, they all worked during that First World War.
Presenter
What do you do, Kitty?
Kitty Godfree
Well, I started at the pensions office. We had a friend who was i already in the pensions office, and not because of the war, because there was obviously always a pensions office but and she said, Well, I can give you both a job in the office because we're going to get, unfortunately, busier.
Kitty Godfree
And so we went there, both of us. And after about um, I think two years there, I met at a small tennis club in Kew,
Kitty Godfree
A gentleman who was the the manager of the
Kitty Godfree
Car depot at the
Kitty Godfree
Hammersmith Broadway for Ford motor cars. And he said, Would you like a job with us? It'd be more fun for you. And I said, Well, I would, yes. And he said, All right, we'll come round, you know, next week or the week after. And I said, Well, that's all very fine. But I said, I've never driven a car in my life. I can't drive. Oh, that doesn't matter. He said, We'll soon teach you to do that. Well, of course, I thought this was fantastic. But also, of course, a Ford was awfully easy to drive. I mean, looking back on it, it only had two gears and you did it with your feet. I mean, I d I don't know really if why it ever went, or but it was a very good little car. And we drove um
Kitty Godfree
A team of us, about ten, would take these new cars from this factory down to um a place where there was a steep hill.
Kitty Godfree
And uh they could be tested up the hill by the army testers, I imagine, because they were the people who were going to buy them.
Speaker 4
Uh
Kitty Godfree
And if they got up the hill without breaking down en route, then they were accepted and we delivered them to where they had to be delivered. And if they didn't get up the hill, I'm afraid they were refused and had to go back to the factory again and be repaired so that they could run. So that was fun. I did that for four years.
Presenter
Uh
Presenter
Let's have another choice of record.
Kitty Godfree
This is one of my favourite songs, which I've always loved. A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square.
Kitty Godfree
Certain night
Speaker 4
The night we met there was magic abroad in the air
Speaker 4
There were angels dining at the ritz and a nightingale sang.
Speaker 4
In Berkeley Square
Presenter
Frank Sinatra and the Nightingale sang in Barclay Square. Kitty Godfrey, it seems to me that there aren't many sports that you're not being proficient in. I mean you're a good skater, you played lacrosse at top level, badminton at topmost level national champion. I mean you played cricket too, didn't you? Yes. Lovely game.
Kitty Godfree
Lovely game tricks.
Presenter
Yeah.
Kitty Godfree
And well, the school played cricket, you see, and we were coached by people who knew how to play. But my first.
Presenter
Eyes
Kitty Godfree
efforts at cricket, which was did me a lot of good. My sister and I, we were having our holidays, Easter holidays, down near Henleigh on Thames, and the Henley
Kitty Godfree
Cricket Club had a a coach.
Kitty Godfree
And my father said to him,
Kitty Godfree
My two daughters are going um next term to play cricket at school, and they don't know anything about it. Would you coach them?
Kitty Godfree
And he looked a bit surprised.
Kitty Godfree
However, he said, Well, yes, all right. I'm not too busy. Let them come in the mornings at ele eleven o'clock, and I'll give them an hour.
Kitty Godfree
So we went there, you see, and had very excellent coaching. And then we went up to St. Andrew's and we played cricket, and we knew what we were trying to do. I mean, we really did know. And before I left the school I made a hundred and thirty six not out in a match.
Presenter
Thank you.
Kitty Godfree
So I really felt that he he taught me quite a lot.
Presenter
Oh, it is. But uh can I take it that tennis was always your favorite sport? Was that the game that you m enjoyed most of the time?
Kitty Godfree
Well, yes, I think it really was. Um
Presenter
When did you first start playing top class competitive tennis? How old would you be?
Kitty Godfree
Well, after the war.
Presenter
Off the wall
Kitty Godfree
Twenty-two.
Presenter
Hm. And was that the first Wimbledon you you appeared in at the age of twenty two? Yes.
Kitty Godfree
Yes, I did.
Presenter
Mm-hmm.
Kitty Godfree
Yes. Luckily we didn't have to qualify in those days.
Presenter
No. I was gonna say, I mean, how many competitors would there be in the women's section in those days?
Kitty Godfree
Well, I think they were talking about it. I believe there were about sixty five.
Presenter
Competitors.
Kitty Godfree
You guys
Kitty Godfree
Another eighties or something. I can't remember how many.
Presenter
And what was the standard of play like as compared to the modern game, do you think?
Kitty Godfree
Well, you see, there was um Suzanne Longland, who came, as everybody knows, from France, and she was um a a top player then, because I think she must have been practising during the war. She lived right down in the south of France.
Kitty Godfree
And uh her tennis, even now looking back on it, her tennis was quite superb.
Kitty Godfree
She never was beaten, really, by anybody. I mean, I was awfully lucky. I used to occasionally get a seven five set off her.
Kitty Godfree
I think really what happened in those days we played with the what are now known as the old fashioned rackets. They were wood rackets. I don't know much details about them, but they were in no way like the rackets they play with now.
Kitty Godfree
And um I have played you know, sort of gentle tennis with the new rackets and and it's much, much easier to play with. That's why they all hit so much harder. But for the days when we all had the old rackets, Suzanne played most beautiful tennis.
Presenter
When was the last time you played tennis, then? How long ago was it?
Kitty Godfree
Oh, I played this over m a year ago.
Presenter
When you were 90. Was it all right, you know?
Kitty Godfree
Just about ninety. Coming up to ninety, I think I was.
Presenter
Did you play well?
Kitty Godfree
Nekhu.
Presenter
It's from Iraqi.
Kitty Godfree
Package.
Presenter
Uh
Kitty Godfree
Well, I got the ball over the net because of the racket. But apart from that, no, of course I didn't play it.
Presenter
Kitty Gopi, let's have another choice of record, please.
Kitty Godfree
Chad it's a fa
Presenter
That was a theme tune from the film Charits of Fire by Bangelis. Of course, that's another reminder, too, of the of the nineteen twenty four Olympics in Paris. In fact, you competed in those Olympics, didn't you?
Kitty Godfree
Yes, I did.
Presenter
Hm. Did you did you know Abrahams and Bidel? They
Kitty Godfree
I knew Harold Abraham Jesse very well. He was a family friend and he was um he was great fun and he was very amusing and entertaining.
Kitty Godfree
I felt somehow that he
Kitty Godfree
didn't quite come out at his best in his running and jumping. He he won a gold medal at the long jump, I think I'm right in saying, and um broke his knee when he landed. So actually he wasn't able to do much more after that.
Presenter
What were the Olympics like in those days?
Kitty Godfree
Well, it was a tournament, you see, b a tennis tournament, just like any other tournament. And the people who got through and won their events, I mean, got the gold medal.
Kitty Godfree
And I won the gold medal for um the doubles, the latest doubles, and I played with an English lady who was a great athlete.
Kitty Godfree
And she was a very good tennis player, and she was one of the few.
Kitty Godfree
Overhead servers and volures of before the First World War. There weren't very many of them. Most of them served under arm and hit under arm.
Kitty Godfree
And we played several rounds. What was very pleasing for us is that we we did beat Suzanne Longlawn with her partner, who of course wasn't as good as she was.
Presenter
But you understand, of course, that that if you won five gold medals at an Olympics today, you'd be a national hero.
Presenter
I mean, you'd be given the freedom of London and and I mean it was obviously very different in those days, wasn't it?
Kitty Godfree
It couldn't be more different. All sport was different in those days. It was fun, all of it. And there was there was nothing to it. I mean, you got nothing. I mean, I say nothing. That isn't true. The gold medals and the other medals were marvellous, but I'm s referring in a way to financial gain. One's financial gain was very small in the tennis world, and I would imagine in all the old worlds in those days, uh compared with what it is now.
Presenter
Of course, in tennis, of course, you you you competed for what? What was the prize at Wimbledon? What was the prize when you won Wimbledon?
Kitty Godfree
Five guineas was a voucher. It was a voucher on Mappenham Webb, of course, which was a very nice shot to have a voucher on, but it didn't do very much for you.
Presenter
Let's have an another choice of record, please, kitty.
Kitty Godfree
The skate is vault.
Presenter
The skater's waltz played by the Monte Carlo Opera Orchestra conducted by Very Boskovsky.
Presenter
Kitty, let's now talk a little bit about what you were saying there about sport not being fun anymore. Do do you think that the people who play competitive sport today are missing out on something?
Kitty Godfree
I don't know the pins.
Kitty Godfree
really on what they were hoping to do when they started playing these sports. Talking of the tennis players, I would say that nearly everybody who plays now as a young person twelve, thirteen, fourteen, that sort of age
Kitty Godfree
The back of their minds and the people who um live with them and look after them are probably thinking, Well, he he or she, they look awfully good. I mean, they're very promising, aren't they? What about it? And they might be having to make up their minds sooner than they wanted to, whether they're going to earn their living as a champion.
Kitty Godfree
or whether they're going to earn their living in the normal way that most of us earned our living. And it's one of those things they've got to decide early on because you see they're all winning now at the age of seventeen, eighteen. So there isn't an awful lot of time to make up your mind to get to the top.
Presenter
And I suppose also the other problem involved in having that kind of youthful ambition is that if you don't make it, and you've dedicated all your young life to becoming that, that's a tragedy, isn't it?
Kitty Godfree
That's a tragedy.
Kitty Godfree
Well, it is in a way, isn't it? Unless you have got a second string that you could turn to.
Kitty Godfree
But um you see I think if they get very keen on tennis, they're they're very keen on it. I mean it is their life for the time being.
Presenter
Would you want to to come back into the modern game if you could live your life over again? Do you think you beat Wimbledon this year?
Kitty Godfree
It's an awfully difficult I have thought about that once or twice. I suppose I'm a a fairly normal sort of human being, and if I saw there was a chance
Kitty Godfree
Of becoming a millionaires in about five years of hard work, mind you, very hard work.
Speaker 2
Where you
Kitty Godfree
I would probably have said yes, but looking back now, I don't think I would have the determination to do it. I don't know.
Presenter
What about the the the trappings too that surround the players today, the uh younger players? I mean they have coaches.
Speaker 4
Yes.
Presenter
Yeah. They have physiotherapists, they have their own doctor. I mean, the entire entourage, trappings of fame and success.
Speaker 4
It's definitely not.
Kitty Godfree
Yes.
Presenter
Do you think that's a good thing?
Kitty Godfree
Well, um depends what you mean by good. I mean, I think it's good from the point of view of of winning,'cause look how they play now, the energy they put into it. And they play the girls sometimes for two and a half hours or more, and the men for over four hours. Well, you see, you've got to be awfully fit to be able to do that, and to go on doing it, because the person you're playing against is also doing it. They've also trained like anything, and done everything they've been told to do. You know, go to bed early, I imagine, and don't eat that because it's not good for you, and you must have a lot of that because it is good for you.
Kitty Godfree
And and gymnastics I expect to do?
Presenter
But I wonder how many of them will live to be ninety one.
Kitty Godfree
I wonder how many want?
Presenter
Let's have another choice of record, please, Kitty.
Kitty Godfree
Old Man River Paul Robeson
Speaker 4
Uh that old
Speaker 4
And River, he must know some
Speaker 4
But don't say nothing, he just keeps rolling, he keeps on rolling along.
Presenter
It's the wonderful voice of Paul Robeson singing Old Man Rhythm.
Presenter
Kitty Godfrey, d what kind of a of a life do you lead now at the age of ninety one? I mean, I'm got to say to you, and I'm not flattering you, I mean, you don't look ninety one at all. I mean, you look round yourself sixty five, Mark, or something like that. You do, and you're incredibly I mean
Kitty Godfree
Well my my greatest um
Kitty Godfree
Pleasure, I suppose, in a way, is riding my bicycle. And I use it nearly every day. Uh, I go down to the shops and then I do my little bits of shopping, and then I ride back again. And that is so much easier than trying to get a car down. I've got a little mini car, get a car down there, and then get rid of it. Uh, round East Sheen, where I live, you can't get rid of your car. It's very, very difficult. And the bicycle, of course, is very nice, and I've ridden a bicycle all my life. It's like second nature to me.
Presenter
Yes.
Presenter
And what and do and do you make plans for the future? I mean, do you plan holidays and that sort of thing?
Kitty Godfree
Oh, yes. Last summer I went on a Marvelous holiday with all my family and we went out into the south of France, you know, where it was nice nice and warm and we bathed and spent a lot of time there. And I have a little granddaughter called Sophie.
Kitty Godfree
who's uh she's three and a half now she was two and a half then and she almost taught herself to swim. See, if you get into warm water, you stay in a bit longer, don't you? And children really s especially boys, I think, can't stand the cold of of of England.
Presenter
When choke
Kitty Godfree
Although I never seemed to mind it, I liked it.
Presenter
When you look back on your life, I mean so many things have happened in that uh in that ninety-one years. I mean the development of the aeroplane, of of radio.
Speaker 4
Yeah.
Presenter
You've seen what, five monarchs and one abdication. What are the great memories that you have when you look back? I mean, what are the sort of the the really extraordinary occurrences?
Kitty Godfree
Well, I suppose that one of them was that enormous glass.
Presenter
The crystal palace.
Kitty Godfree
That's right, Christopher. I remember seeing it burned down. There was a terrific fire there, and uh we went over in a car and had a had a look at it. That was that's another thing I remember. Why didn't I remember that? I don't know. I remember skating at at the um Princess Skating Club in Knightsbridge.
Kitty Godfree
which was open to all the children in the mornings, and then the the grown-ups also had it in the afternoon, and we skated there every morning during our Christmas holidays.
Kitty Godfree
That's another thing I remember because it
Presenter
Dude.
Kitty Godfree
It went a long time ago.
Presenter
Let's have a final choice of record, could you please?
Kitty Godfree
Well, I always enjoy hearing Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance as played at the Royal Albert Hall.
Presenter
Elga's Pomp and Circumstance March No. one, played by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sir Charles Groves. Right, Kitty Gofrey, you're now on your desert island. You have to imagine that seven of your records have been washed away and you're left with just one. Which would you want to keep?
Kitty Godfree
I think the theme tune chariots of foul.
Kitty Godfree
Probably. I like them all, but it's difficult to choose, but that's the one I choose.
Presenter
And what about the book? Assume that you have on the island you have the Bible and you have the works of Shakespeare, one other book allowed.
Kitty Godfree
Well, then I think I'd like a thriller. I think the Eagle has landed.
Kitty Godfree
is probably the one I would choose.
Presenter
By Jack Higgins
Kitty Godfree
By Jack Higgins, yes.
Presenter
Now you're allowed also on this island one luxury object inanimate. What might that be?
Kitty Godfree
Oh, let's have the old bike.
Presenter
So you can get round the island.
Kitty Godfree
and hope that I can ride it round the island.
Presenter
Kitty Godfrey
Presenter
Thank you very much indeed.
Speaker 2
You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Islandists Archive.
Speaker 2
For more podcasts, please visit bbc.co.uk/slash radio for
Presenter asks
Tell me about the trip that you made to Berlin [as a child].
Well, we had we both rode bicycles by then, very well, because we'd done them all our lives. I was nine and my sister was ten. And [my father] suddenly decided that he'd like to go on a holiday somewhere. He wanted to go to Berlin to see the factory there... And so he suggested that we should ride there... we cycled all through Holland... And we did this in April... We saw no motor cars at all the whole way... the whole journey took us, um, about three weeks.
Presenter asks
What did you do [for work] during the First World War?
Well, I started at the pensions office... And after about um, I think two years there, I met... A gentleman who was the the manager of the Car depot... for Ford motor cars. And he said, Would you like a job with us?... I've never driven a car in my life. I can't drive. Oh, that doesn't matter. He said, We'll soon teach you to do that... A team of us, about ten, would take these new cars from this factory down to um a place where there was a steep hill. And uh they could be tested up the hill by the army testers... I did that for four years.
Presenter asks
What was the standard of play like [in tennis] as compared to the modern game?
Well, you see, there was um Suzanne Longland... and her tennis, even now looking back on it, her tennis was quite superb. She never was beaten, really, by anybody... I think really what happened in those days we played with the what are now known as the old fashioned rackets. They were wood rackets... and it's much, much easier to play with [the new rackets]. That's why they all hit so much harder.
Presenter asks
What kind of a life do you lead now at the age of ninety-one?
Well my my greatest um pleasure, I suppose, in a way, is riding my bicycle. And I use it nearly every day. Uh, I go down to the shops and then I do my little bits of shopping, and then I ride back again... and I've ridden a bicycle all my life. It's like second nature to me.
“All sport was different in those days. It was fun, all of it. And there was there was nothing to it. I mean, you got nothing. I mean, I say nothing. That isn't true. The gold medals and the other medals were marvellous, but I'm s referring in a way to financial gain.”
“I suppose I'm a a fairly normal sort of human being, and if I saw there was a chance Of becoming a millionaires in about five years of hard work, mind you, very hard work. I would probably have said yes, but looking back now, I don't think I would have the determination to do it.”
“I wonder how many of them will live to be ninety one.”