Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A writer and producer best known for creating the sitcom "The Thick of It" and the comic character Alan Partridge.
On the island
Eight records
Partita No. 3 in E major, BWV 1006: III. Gavotte en rondeau
I always think of these violin sonatas and patitas as a person really, as a as a character. And uh the bit we're going to hear is actually a bit that we had at our wedding, so it'll remind me of that as well.
The Thieving Magpie (La gazza ladra): Overture
Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by David Parry
this is uh my mum's favourite piece of music, it's the overture to the thieving magpie by Rossini and um it would remind me of both my parents really mu we always had opera on in the background, it was always Verdi and Puccini.
Symphony No. 9: I. Andante comodo
London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Klaus Tennstedt
when I joined this library and started taking out records, we were only allowed on the ticket, especially if you were under 40. You could only take two discs out. But the great thing about Marla was his symphonies were so long that they were a double album in themselves. So it was sort of cheating. But I absolutely adored Marla.
Nunc Dimittis (Collegium Regale)
Roy Rashbrook, Collegiate Singers, Andrew Millinger, Richard Moorhouse
being at Oxford was the first time I encountered I suppose the Anglican church service and in particular even song which I'm very very fond of and I really like the music the church music of Herbert Howells and that would remind me I I suppose of my time at Oxford but also just because I'm very very fond of it as as a sound.
I sort of felt I had to have I had to have the sound of people laughing really on on this island. I know it back to front, but it still always makes me laugh.
I first got to know when I I first started going out with Rachel at university and she who's now my wife she was a Kate Bush fan and and I first got to know Kate Bush. So it would remind me of of of Rachel but but also um I I really you know I really enjoy it as a song as well.
Symphony No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 82: III. Allegro molto
Iceland Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Petri Sakari
Sebelius was one of those composers I came across where I suppose your conception... of classical music is of something being slightly um precious, slightly effete. And Sebelius' music was the first music that sort of told me actually it can be really rugged and earthy and uh fascinating.
Christus, der ist mein Leben, BWV 95: "Valet will ich dir geben"
Catherine Fuge, English Baroque Soloists, conducted by John Eliot Gardiner
I love his cantatas. It's the most beautiful music I've heard. And it's it's both simple and charming yet playful at the same time.
In conversation
Presenter asks
3:36You've said that [Alan Partridge] popped out fully formed. How did that happen?
It was when we were recording On the Our and On the Our was a news parody and I asked Steve Coogan if he could come up with a sports reporter. And he instantly came out with this voice and instantly everyone in the room knew who this character was. We knew what his aspirations were... Somebody said he's an Alan and someone else said yes, and a partridge. And so even the name seems to have burst out fully formed.
Presenter asks
8:37What did your mother think [of you going into comedy]?
Both my parents were assuming I would be like a doctor or a lawyer or I think even when I went into comedy, I think my mum eventually thought that eventually I would go onto panorama. I don't think she... ever dreamt that I would hang around in comedy for so long.
Presenter asks
11:33Did you have to manage without a lot quite often [growing up]?
being uh self employed, you know, there are ups and downs and I do remember when there were downs, you know, uh we we didn't regularly have a phone or a car or regularly go on holiday, but I didn't think that felt unusual.
The keepsakes
The book
The Collected Short Stories of H. G. Wells
H. G. Wells
I'd like to bring the collected short stories of HG Wells. They're fat I mean, I love uh Wells's fiction anime, but he's allowed to get away with a lot more in the short stories'cause he doesn't have to let it sustain for a whole novel. You know, with the sun beating down on me, my going me going off my head. I think the HG Wells will will help me along the way.
The luxury
Virtual sherry trifle with a pot of glacé cherries
I would like, and I would like you to make for me, because it doesn't exist, a virtual trifle. I love sherry trifle, but I know you're not allowed anything practical on this island. But if there was something that I could have which would give me the taste of a really good sherry trifle, but not the nutrition and the calorific value and all that sort of thing, so just give me the the experience of a really good sherry trifle. And a pot of glassy cherries.
Presenter asks
15:21Your father died just before you went [to Oxford]?
Just about about two months before I and and he uh very suddenly of a heart attack and he had talked a lot about buying a little car and tooting down the motorway and coming to visit me. So and I think you know because of his passion for education it was um it was something he was very uh pleased with and and it was just a shame that he never he never actually got to see me there.
Presenter asks
18:47Are you still a practising Roman Catholic?
No, I'm a sort of a lazy, lazy Catholic really... I was quite intensely religious as a boy... I've sort of settled on the notion that actually you never get to the bottom of all this and and that's part of the joy of it really. You you spend your whole life mulling it over, you never arrive at an answer.
“I just never want to hear him again, really. He's broken me.”
“I made the mistake of actually reading the Bible. Now, the Old Testament, God is a bit mad. That put me off a bit.”
“I can't imagine having to nail all my colours to the one mast. I'd be the world's worst person to be spun because I I couldn't cope with it.”