Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Broadcaster best known for presenting the radio programme 'Your Hundred Best Tunes'.
On the island
Eight records
Violin Concerto in B minor, Op. 61: II. Andante
It touches me enormously
Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14: II. Un bal
Colin Davis / London Symphony Orchestra
there are so many changes of mood and atmosphere that one would get a great deal of food for thought
The Surrey with the Fringe on Top
It was a great theatrical memory
Sir Malcolm Sargent / Royal Choral Society / Philharmonia Orchestra
It was the very first record I played in the series
Irmgard Seefried, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Apart from the wonderful arias and so many of them, it has some beautiful instrumental music too
Choir of King's College, Cambridge
When I think of the quiet nights perhaps on a desert island, perhaps the the gently lapping of the waves, and so on, and to hear this music that really does come from heaven, is the most perfect thing I can imagine.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:40With what degree of dread would you face a desert island existence?
A great deal of dread. I um while I like to be alone sometimes, the idea of loneliness for an indefinite period, and probably for a very long time, fills me with dread.
Presenter asks
1:19Are you anything of a musician yourself?
Well, I I'm not a trained musician. Uh I I I'd not studied music beyond the fact that I played the violin for a time. Um I struggled with that, scraped away. Um but I suppose what little knowledge I've acquired is through listening to music.
Presenter asks
4:49Why did you become an actor? What inspired you?
I don't know. Really, uh thinking back, and I've thought about it many times I I loved the theatre. I went I started going to theatre, I think, seriously, when I was about thirteen. I even went so far as to play truant from school to go to Matinees, and sit up in the gallery. … One day I decided that I'd like to be I liked to go into the theatre, I'd like to be an actor.
Presenter asks
The keepsakes
The book
The Oxford Book of English Verse
Arthur Quiller-Couch (editor)
one of my vanities is to read out loud to myself. And here is an opportunity to... learn by heart so many of the things in this book... it'd be marvelous.
The luxury
A set of very small tools for making very small furniture
I would like to make something with my hands. I'd like to use timber. So I'd like a set of tools so I could indulge myself to that extent.
When did you start broadcasting?
Um About thirty six or seven, I can't remember. About thirty seven. … That was when America entered the war, 1941. The BBC did a special programme, it was written by Louis McNeese. … It was a most unnerving, unnerving experience. … How I got through it I don't know, but I did.
Presenter asks
15:54Your critics say you sound as if you take music rather seriously and are inclined to announce items rather solemnly. What do you say to that?
Some people do say that. I don't think I am solemn. … I think I'm influenced mostly by my listeners' letters. And they refer to the programme perhaps in more solemn terms than I sound. … Some refer to it as a benediction. … They say it comes as a benediction and it's a it's it's an hour of repose … They come from church, or they've settled down for the evening quietly by the fire. Some even write and say that they turn the lights out and sit there by the fire glow, and it's it's a wonderful hour of serenity, and so on. … I don't think the sound solemn.
“the idea of loneliness for an indefinite period, and probably for a very long time, fills me with dread”
“I even went so far as to play truant from school to go to Matinees, and sit up in the gallery”
“How I got through it I don't know, but I did”
“When I think of the quiet nights perhaps on a desert island, perhaps the the gently lapping of the waves, and so on, and to hear this music that really does come from heaven, is the most perfect thing I can imagine”