Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Soldier and military historian, best known as a highly decorated commando officer in WWII.
On the island
Eight records
Meeting Call of Hoolock Gibbon
I thought I'd like a bit of company on this island, and I thought that if I could lure the local monkeys into coming down to meet me, I might build up sort of confidence and friendship with them. And so I thought I'd have the meeting call of uh Hulock Gibbon.
Les Huguenots (from the Queen's Birthday Parade/Trooping the Colour)Favourite
Bands of the Household Cavalry and the Massed Bands, Pipes, and Drums of the Brigade of Guards
Well, the second choice is that famous piece out of the Queen's Birthday Parade that they do on the Horse Guards Parade every year when the Huguenots comes into it. And this is a concession to my military career, and I think it's absolutely first rate.
Well I think this time we will have a bit of nostalgia. This is Lily Marlena, which was extremely popular with the soldiers in Free Commando in 1943. And I think that this husky voice of Miss Anderson will be very evocative to some of my old friends.
Water Music (Suite No. 1, excerpt)
English Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Raymond Leppard
Well, the next record is a bit of um Handel's water music, chosen merely because I like it, and not because it has any particular amphibious connection.
Die Zauberflöte: 'Papageno! Papagena!'
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Lisa Otto
Yes, well now we've got Die Zauberfloater with um Dietrich Fischer Dieska and Lisa Otto singing a duet which I very much like and uh if Lisa Otto can't be in person with me on the island she might as well come and sing to me.
Over the Hills and Far Away (from The Beggar's Opera)
Ah, now the Beggars' Opera. It's true that I know the Beggars' Opera practically from beginning to end, but um it'll sort of help me when I'm singing the whole thing through to myself and my monkeys.
What Is Life? (from Orfeo ed Euridice)
Well, what is Life indeed? But it's a beautiful song. I've only chosen this because I like it, and I adore the haunting notes of Kathleen Ferrer's voice.
Jean Martinon (conductor), Paris Orchestra
Ah Well, the last one is Ravel's Bolero. Quite different really to the other ones, but again this I think is a most marvellous um piece of music. It's tremendously vital.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:32How does the idea of being marooned on a desert island strike you?
It gives me nothing but pleasure. I should love to be on a desert island.
Presenter asks
0:51Do you come from a military family?
Well, on and off. You know, my great-great-grandfather was a Vice-Admiral R. In, and, you know, there have been sort of military people around in the family since about the eighteenth century, but it's never been consistent in in one regiment or anything like that.
Presenter asks
4:41You were in the raid on the Lofoten Islands – is it true some of the British forces sent telegrams to Hitler from a captured post office?
Yes, this was the post office in Stamsund, which was in fact captured by my troop. And my subaltern, Dick Wills, sent a telegram to Hitler saying, you know, you said that wherever the British turned up in Europe you'd hurl them into the sea, where are you? It was that sort of line.
Presenter asks
The keepsakes
The book
a great big book which is empty
Well, I think on the whole I shall have to have a great big book which is empty with a pencil sticking down the spine or something like that, and I will write down all that I think that I know. It's probably a bit tendentious, but it'll be fun doing it.
The luxury
a ton of treasure (doubloons and pieces of eight)
I thought about a ton of treasure. Mixed treasure. Yeah, sort of doubloons and pieces of eight and that sort of thing from around about 1642.
What happened to you when hostilities were over?
Oh, I went whistling back from brigadier to major in a few … years and then gradually creeped up again to … [brigadier].
Presenter asks
14:57Now, the Sealed Knot was a royalist secret society working for the return of the Stuarts – the Stuarts came back, so what are you working for now?
Well keep them there I suppose. It is in fact your private army. Well I suppose you could say that, yes. It's completely unpolitical, I hasten to add. But we've got about 3,000 members and it was formed in 1968 and it seems to have caught on and it seems to fulfil some, I don't know, atavistic feeling in our people. We stand for Old England, Roy. You reconstruct the sieges and battles of the Civil War period.
Presenter asks
19:17Will you try to escape from the island?
No, certainly not. Certainly not. I hope I should be very comfortable and happy on your island. And if people want to get me out of the island, they can come and rescue me. And I mentioned this question to my dear wife. And she said, 'Well, I'd come up near the island and have a look at you. And if I didn't care for what I saw, I'd go away again.' Bless her.
“I know that round about nineteen thirty four I got it into my thick head that there was going to be a war with Hitler.”
“I always think that … Had those extra hundred fifty thousand men been in Normandy or been in White Russia in that year, well, uh they might have made a hell of a lot of difference. As it was, they just hung about the uselessness of war.”
“I found that I learned a lot about tactics from it. And you'd never catch me, for example, being in a battle without having a reserve and that sort of thing, you know.”
“We stand for Old England, Roy.”
“And then the monkeys and I could put this in piles and we could play war games with it the Dutch against the Spaniards. It'd be great fun. And then if my wife did condescend to come and rescue me, we'd be enormously rich for the rest of our lives.”