Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A pioneering barrister who became the first woman Director of Public Prosecutions, known for prosecuting the Queen's bedroom intruder and defending Winston Silc
On the island
Eight records
And I've chosen my records because they remind me of various episodes in my life, and on my own I think I'd think about them. And this really is the first episode where I became alive and alert to music, which was in my teens and when rock and roll and everything that went with it burst round us. And I had great difficulty in deciding what to choose, but it had to be the King. And of the King's records it seems to me that Blue Spade Shoes was the best.
the reason I've chosen this is for me it reflects Oxford, which was a very important time in my life too, when I was at the university, and a great new world, in a sense, opened up for me.
Toccata from Symphony for Organ No. 5
It's what we played at our wedding, it's what was played at our daughter's wedding, and for me, therefore, it reflects very much our family life.
E scherzo od è follia (quintet from Un ballo in maschera)Favourite
Placido Domingo, Jelena Obrazzova, Ruggiero Raimondi, Giovanni Fogiani, Edita Gruberova
And I've chosen the quintet in it, sung by Placido Domingo. I was lucky enough once to hear him sing this. And it's a very poignant quintet. He is the king, and it has been forecast that he in fact will be killed by the next person who comes to see him. It turns out to be his best friend. He doesn't believe it, and he doesn't believe the prophecy. But you hear his page singing over the top of this quintet in an extremely sad way because she realizes it will happen.
a very cheerful tune, which we often play in the car if we're going on holiday.
Waltz in A flat major, Op. 64 No. 3
It reminds me of my work, and I think I'm very lucky to enjoy the job that I do as much as I do.
Unto us a child is born (from Messiah)
Bavarian Radio Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Sir Colin Davis
I've chosen Unto Us a Child Is Born from Handel's Messiah. As I've said already, I draw an enormous amount of support from a very happy family life, and we have enormous family gatherings. We have a big family. I've married into a big family, so there are lots of us. And this, to me, reflects Christmas, which is perhaps one of the happiest of family gatherings.
Academy and Chorus of St. Martin in the Fields conducted by Sir Neville Marriner
One fine day we're all going to have to go, and I can imagine no better way to go than to Mozart's Requiem. And I've chosen from that the Die's Iré, the Day of Wroth.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:19What sort of things did people say to put you off becoming a barrister, and who said them?
Well, the classic one was women can't be barristers, and that was repeated in one form or another by a number of people. … By all sorts of different people, rather surprisingly, by dons who were interviewing me with a view to reading law, by a number of lawyers themselves. But I thought this couldn't be right, and so I persevered, and I'm very glad I did. … I think they were really rather lacking in reason. They were just the sort of knee-jerk reaction you sometimes get to someone who's breaking into a world which perhaps has not had many women in it.
Presenter asks
2:50Could you have achieved what you have without a very supportive husband?
Absolutely right. I've been very happily married for over thirty years now. Not only husband, but also family support, friends support uh very important to me throughout my life.
Presenter asks
15:04You were accused of being overzealous, staging dawn raids on companies and causing their share prices to plummet. Were those accusations fair?
Those were the accusations. As I say, I always pay a lot of attention to criticism, but in fact they were ill founded for quite different reasons. We acted extremely cautiously in so far as share prices were concerned, because the information which we had was very market sensitive and we had to handle it very, very carefully indeed.
The keepsakes
The book
Steven Runciman
I've always been enormously interested in that period of history, and if I hadn't been a lawyer I think I would have been, or liked to have tried to be, a historian.
The luxury
tennis court with practice wall, net, ball machine, unlimited balls, and rackets
Well, my relaxation is playing tennis, and I try to play a lot of tennis, but I don't play nearly enough. So I would like to have, please, a tennis court with a practice wall and a net, unlimited supply of balls, a ball machine, and lots of rackets. And I hope that I would come back fit and probably tanned and perhaps with a topspin backhand which I've never managed to achieve hitherto.
Presenter asks
23:04Your job at the Crown Prosecution Service is one of regaining the trust and respect of the public. Is that possible?
Yes, it's very important to do this, and I do think it's possible. It's one of the major tasks that I have set for myself and the service. One of the ways in which we started to do this is to be much more open about the sort of work we do, because I think when people understand what your role is and how you work, and what you can and what you can't do, then they understand how problems can arise. And that is one of the things which I've spent a lot of time on in the first seven months.
Presenter asks
28:32The uncorroborated confession is still permissible – a policeman can say a prisoner said something in the back of the car. Do you think that's fair?
As far as uncorroborated confessions are concerned, they obviously vary enormously from the sort of thing you've been describing to a long and detailed account of what happened. I think that we ought to approach this with great caution, but on the other hand, if you do have someone who does confess in detail and everyone is satisfied that that is a truthful confession, I'm not sure it would really do our system much good if we said, Well, actually, we can't prosecute that person.
“I think it's one of the things you have to live with until the numerical balance gets much better. It's irritating, though, isn't it? It is a bit irritating, yes.”
“I think fairness matters a great deal to me.”
“I think there's a lot more in life than just earning money. And the opportunity to become the director of the Serious Fraud Office was such a wonderful opportunity that it was well worth taking a drop in salary.”
“It is frustrating and I think it's absurd.”