Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Historian and writer whose name is given to Parkinson's Law.
On the island
Eight records
Well, I've taken them in a sort of autobiographical order, and so my mind goes back in my early days to various rounds, catches, or canons, and goes to the earliest of them all, which is that old and delightful song, Summer is ye comin' in.
Fill Every Glass (from The Beggar's Opera)
And looking back on it, I think the moment when all these interests seemed to coalesce was in the appearance of The Beggars' Opera.
Oh, uh it has to be a sea chanty, obviously. And the one that I would choose is one called Spanish Ladies.
And for me, the mood of the nineteen thirties. Is represented by Ginger Rogers and Freda Starr. And thinking over the different pieces of music. The one that has remained with me Is one called This hut of mine
The Agincourt Song (from Henry V)
True. But the war itself was symbolized for me in a musical sense. By the production of the motion picture of Henry the Fifth. It had even the Agincourt song in it, the wording of which runs Our King went forth to Normandy.
The Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II (Excerpt)Favourite
And of course, as I did that, my mind went back inevitably to that memorable scene of her coronation years before in Westminster Abbey.
And uh I don't know why, but this is uh uh a sort of haunting tune which remains at the back of my mind and serves to pander to my more frivolous side.
I Remember It Well (from Gigi)
Maurice Chevalier and Hermione Gingold
And to illustrate this theme, I would like to play. That wonderful record from the motion picture Gigi in which Maurice Chevalier sings a duet with Hermione Gingold.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:44You are a man of many interests. Is music one of them?
Yes and no? I was brought up in a very artistic household … My father was a painter. … My mother was a pianist and the daughter of a professional musician. … And uh close by was Yorkminster … so I I had a Musical background to that extent.
Presenter asks
1:34Do you play discs?
I don't play discs. I am too busy writing books, which is my trade, and I've never thought of a way of playing discs to any profit. Uh so I write books instead.
Presenter asks
5:09Why [are you fascinated by naval history]?
I saw something of naval warfare in World War One. As a boy, I had holidays on the Yorkshire coast and was very familiar with the sound of gunfire from the various actions protecting convoys and from uh armed trawlers being engaged with submarines and limping back into port afterwards. And I seem to have been infected then.
Presenter asks
5:47There is no course in naval history [at Cambridge], is there?
The keepsakes
The book
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Edward Gibbon
It runs to about six volumes. Yes. There is a lot of it, and he happened to be a very good historian.
The luxury
Oh, no, indeed. British historians all realize that the part played in British history by the Navy has been negligible. And I could do nothing at the university in which I was really interested. I took s courses in history, in economic history, actually, graduated, and then went back to naval history at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, where I was employed.
Presenter asks
13:52Can you in a few words summarize [Parkinson's Law]?
The law is a a law of nature, of course. I didn't invent it, I discovered it. The law is that work expands to fill the time available for its completion.
Presenter asks
14:59What was Parkinson's Second Law?
Oh this is one very relevant to the present age. I sometimes wish that our ministers might read it. This is that expenditure rises to meet income.
“The law is that work expands to fill the time available for its completion.”
“This is that expenditure rises to meet income.”
“the past on which one looks back in a nostalgic way is usually imaginary. What we remember isn't really what happened. It is what we like to think happened.”