Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Nurseryman and seedsman, best known as a long-standing panelist on BBC's "Gardener's Question Time".
On the island
Eight records
Les Francs-Juges: OvertureFavourite
Sends a shiver down my spine.
Va, pensiero (Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves) from Nabucco
Rome Opera House Chorus and Orchestra
It was the time of Tito's visit to Rome, a state visit, you know. And of course, a lot of Italians were against this, the slave state and all this business. And once they started up in the opera, this slaves chorus, thousands of leaflets came showering down from the balcony.
I this is one of the few pieces I can play because it's it's quite simple or comparatively simple.
Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 'Choral' (1st movement)
I remember this particularly because I remember being on a holiday … one of these wine festival holidays on the Rhine … this was a floating stage on the Rhine at Koblenz and uh it was a bit of a [Choral].
Ah, this marvelous girl Elizabeth Schwarzkopf … The nuns' chorus. I think this is marvellous.
Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 55 'Eroica' (2nd movement: Marcia funebre)
It has this sort of spine-shivering appeal to me.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:50How much does music mean to you in life?
Oh, quite a lot. I I like music.
Presenter asks
4:18What part of the North Country do you come from?
I was born in Ashton-underline, under the Line of Hills and the Line of Pennines. … Only six miles away, six miles due east, away now at a place called Hollingwest, which is actually in Cheshire.
Presenter asks
6:03Do people shop sensibly for vegetables?
I should say today is a trend away from sensible shopping for vegetables. The … housewife of today, she's not as careful as she used to be. A lot of them, of course, are working and really, they want this immediate food, this instant food. And nearly always this is allied to mediocrity.
Presenter asks
10:23Do you ever get any questions that stump you [on Gardener's Question Time]?
Yes, occasionally. Of course there are some questions that that there are no or there cannot be an answer to, for instance, I remember one woman, she said, uh how was it when she planted a plum stone an apple came up? … you can't answer a question like this, there is no answer to it.
The keepsakes
The book
I would take a really superb dictionary, and I should want to sit down and write that book that I've always promised myself to do.
The luxury
I should very much miss my pipe. I hope I could grow some uh tobacco. I should certainly take a few pipes with me. And I think perhaps um a vat. So if there are any hops there I could grow some hops and brew some good ale instead of this wheat stuff we're having.
Presenter asks
12:51In a long career, what are the main changes you've seen in the [gardening] business?
Well of course um going back to the late thirties the accent then was all on vegetable growing … necessarily during the war, you know the Dig for Victory campaign … And then the moment that the the war was over … there was an absolute revolt against that. … it was all on flowers, you see, in the late 40s, early 50s, and even into the 60s. All flowers. … But since then, there is a turn back now, and I think this is a revolt … against this mediocrity in food.
Presenter asks
17:53Could you manage a good watertight hut on a desert island?
Well, I just have a go. I think it was yes. … The only thing they worry about, you know, and I think the human animal does too.
“I think I could manage all right. Um as long as there weren't too many snakes about and lions and tigers and things like that and the wasp vegetation.”
“I was sort of half kicked out, half heaved out, and half volition, shall we say. I wanted to start on my own. I wanted to run before I could walk, like most young people do.”
“I can't think why people eat frozen food, really, when they can get fresh, maybe at the same season. I mean, why, for instance, in I see people in mid-summer in June, July, buying frozen strawberries. Well, this is surely a nonsense, really.”
“I think it could be reasonably and without boasting say that we don't get a question at Florida because uh well there are three of us anyway but I think the great strength is Alan Gemmel the professor of biology uh and he can sort anything out uh you know if there's a question without an answer you can always find an answer. He works from like basic principles and he can work anything out.”
“Oh, I think a dictionary. I would take a really superb dictionary, and I should want to sit down and write that book that I've always promised myself to do. … I never got round to it. … Amongst my brewing and growing my tobacco.”