Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
First gentleman of the gramophone; started the practice of presenting gramophone record programmes on radio.
On the island
Eight records
as a sort of compliment to the rose named after me
Carnaval
just to sort of give an idea of the crowds, the lovely people moving about
Divertimento No. 15 in B-flat major, K. 287
another of my morning favorites, the ones that put me in the right mood
Leslie Holmes and Leslie Sironi
they have always been almost my prime amusing people
The Bronze Horse Overture
just to remind me of all the horsey things I've got mixed up in my life
When Everyone Else Has Passed You By
I think I shall be very glad to think that there's someone coming along to pick me up and take me home again
The keepsakes
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:24What is all this about a seventy-fifth birthday? I just don't believe it.
Well I seventy fifths is quite a different thing. It's nothing to do with grammar phones at all. It it's something that happens to people uh when their time comes.
Presenter asks
0:44You're going to be quite alone on this desert island. How do you like the idea?
I like the idea very much. I've always been attracted by islands, especially when they're lived on by my brother-in-law.
Presenter asks
4:12You were the very first to present gramophone records on the air in an individual way. How did all that start? What were you doing before that?
Yeah, I don't know. I used to write books and that sort of thing. I I gradually got mixed up in this. … a magazine that my brother-in-law was starting, the Grammophone, and uh of course it meant tremendous lot of work bu building that up into the size it's got to. And so uh there it was. I was working, working very hard and I suddenly came to the conclusion that the BBC were not having really the best new records that were coming out into my office. So I wrote to them about it, and uh Rex Palmer asked me to go along. He put me under Craig Miller. who uh looked after me tremendously well. And I started regular.
The book
Not recorded.
The luxury
a fountain pen I can write with easily. I don't write at all well. I want lots of ink with it. ... I just want to write things to put'em in a bottle and send'em off. See who gets them.
Presenter asks
4:59You topped the bill at the Palladium playing the gramophone. That's a unique achievement, isn't it?
I think that's a unique, unique thing for almost anybody to do. I I remember once saying that I was the only person I knew who'd who'd ever been top of the bill in the palladium for one week, who'd never been asked to play or perform on any stage again.
Presenter asks
6:00You'll have to do a certain amount of work on this desert island. How do you think you're going to manage? Will you be able to look after yourself?
Oh, I don't know. I've always looked after myself somehow, but I like very much to have someone to look after me, I must say.
Presenter asks
8:55Every castaway is allowed to take one luxury article. What have you chosen?
Well, I've I've chosen something which is very seldom to be found in my flat, and that is a fountain pen I can write with easily. I don't write at all well. I want lots of ink with it.
“I like the idea very much. I've always been attracted by islands, especially when they're lived on by my brother-in-law.”
“I used to write books and that sort of thing. I I gradually got mixed up in this.”
“I think that's a unique, unique thing for almost anybody to do. I I remember once saying that I was the only person I knew who'd who'd ever been top of the bill in the palladium for one week, who'd never been asked to play or perform on any stage again.”
“I've got the old traditional feeling about them, that they're dangerous at both ends and rather uncomfortable in the middle.”
“I just want to write things to put'em in a bottle and send'em off. See who gets them.”