Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Former Royal Navy test pilot, the Fleet Air Arm's most decorated pilot, held record for most flight deck landings for over 65 years.
On the island
Eight records
Glenn Miller Orchestra (vocal: Ray Eberle)
explains meeting Glenn Miller and singing with the band
Band of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards
chosen to celebrate the Scottish independence referendum being over
StardustFavourite
Artie Shaw (featuring Billy Butterfield)
loves the clarinet and trumpet; favourite disc
Schubert (or Bach/Gounod — context unclear)
reminds him of his wife who sang solos in cathedrals
reminds him of an irresponsible stunt flying under the Forth Bridge
Glenn Miller Orchestra (vocal: Pat Friday)
his wife sang this with the revived Glenn Miller band
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:49Can you explain how your life's work involving so much potential danger has influenced your personality? How has it changed you?
I made a point of preparing myself very well indeed, because after all, you owe this to yourself, to your family, you don't want to lose their opinion, and you want to bring back results.
Presenter asks
2:52You must have experienced many times a sense of deep seated fear. How does one ride that fear and not let it control you?
I really never felt fear. In fact, I react almost the opposite. If things are really difficult, I go ice cold, my brain seems…
Presenter asks
5:27You've described flying as an obsession — 'something I had to do, otherwise my soul would never be at peace.' Tell me more about that.
Flying takes your life over, really. If you really get an aircraft that you bond with, then you feel that you're one piece, that's not you and the [airplane], that's just the two of you.
The keepsakes
The book
Reggie Turnill (BBC space correspondent)
I would like to take a book called The Moon Landings by Reggie Turnall, who was the BBC space correspondent, because in that book there are two people who had a great effect on my life, and I was very, very intrigued by them. One was Werner von Braun... Together with Neil Armstrong... Neil and I met... He was one of the finest human beings I've ever met.
The luxury
My luxury would be to take my twelve flight log books. I'd be on this little island of all by myself. I'd relive my life right through. And I think I'd enjoy every minute of it.
Presenter asks
21:45What are your memories of that extraordinary encounter [interrogating Hermann Goering]?
He was quite charismatic in many ways. He had a presence, no doubt about that. And he was very straightforward. And any questions I asked him, he didn't dither around. I asked him, 'How did you see the outcome of the Battle of Britain?' and he said a draw. … from what I've checked, seems perfectly true. It doesn't mean that there was a draw, but his argument at least he had a quite a valid reason for it.
Presenter asks
23:07What are your memories of [liberating] Belsen? What has predominantly stayed with you?
I've never seen such desecration of human beings. When we went in there were piles of bodies, I mean as high as the roof here. … The stench was utterly, utterly appalling. That lives with me to this day. … They were lost souls. They were dying and there was no way back. They had gone too far.
Presenter asks
27:45What do you make of modern combat where pilots sit in bunkers controlling drone strikes? You've looked into the eyes of the pilot you were up against.
I think I know how [a] mother feels about that … that she feels, God bless it, that my son won't be taken and killed. But, from my point of view, the young men that play these war games and electronic devices today will be the pilots of the future. I think we have just got to accept that this is the way things are going to go.
“I really never felt fear. In fact, I react almost the opposite. If things are really difficult, I go ice cold, my brain seems…”
“[Flying] takes your life over, really. If you really get an aircraft that you bond with, then you feel that you're one piece, that's not you and the [airplane], that's just the two of you.”
“I've never seen such desecration of human beings. … The stench was utterly, utterly appalling. That lives with me to this day.”
“It was like drug withdrawal, as I would imagine it. I was very edgy. … I must have been very difficult to live with for about a year after I gave up flying.”
“I would like a companion, but if that wasn't possible, I think I'd live in my memories, Kirsty.”
“[My luxury] would be to take my twelve flight log books. I'd be on this little island all by myself. I'd relive my life right through. And I think I'd enjoy every minute of it.”