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Castaway
1 appearance
Broadcaster renowned for BBC TV coverage of London 2012 Olympics and for her expertise in horse racing, having been a leading amateur flat jockey.
On the island
Eight records
Alice, my partner and I were in America on holiday and driving through South Carolina and there was a song that kept being played on the radio and it really made us laugh. And I think on my desert island I need something that's going to make me feel really happy 'cause I'm not great on my own. And this will cheer me up.
The New Adventures of Black Beauty (Theme)
The theme track of my childhood. As soon as you hear the opening chords of this, you will see what I see, which is a horse galloping across a massive open field, in my case at home on the Downs.
This takes me straight back to the early 80s. I love Alison Moyer's voice. I love her. And this was one of the first hits that she had as part of Yazoo.
My mum is absolutely mad for Neil Diamond. And I have really clear memories of mum driving, playing Neil Diamond, and my mum doesn't really like anything starry, but a couple of years ago I got invited to an audience with Neil Diamond, and we met him afterwards, and that was a … Anyway, Mum's favourite track that she played a lot was this, and it's called Beautiful Noise.
Underworld (feat. Dockhead Choir)
Well this takes us to the summer of 2012 and my favourite track of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. The lights had gone down in the stadium and the young runners came in to have their torches lit by their mentors and to light the cauldron and this was the beginning. There's so much hope in this and so much positivity and it's underworld and you'll hear lots of voices on here but it's Caliban's dream.
This is a song, again, um upbeat um track, as I'm thinking I'm going to do quite a lot of exercise on my island and I need to run around things. Um but also has quite a clear message about time and when for all of us, I think, you know, and anyone. Time is so precious and sometimes you just want it to slow down or in this instance you want the world to stop.
She's Got a WayFavourite
we played four tracks and one of them is the next one.
This is a song that I think is a beautiful version of a very, very well known hymn, and it when I listen to it it makes me think of all the ramblings programmes that I've done and all the places that I have walked. Around the United Kingdom, and I think it is just the most lovely version of I Vow to Thee, My Country.
In conversation
Presenter asks
4:55Given your success, surely your parents can't be disappointed now?
That's sort of hopelessly overachieving now, aren't I? Yes, it's embarrassing. … Oh, they c they're quite funny with me, my parents. Dad is m much better now at saying, you know, I'm really proud of what you're doing. But mum's very good at you know, she kind of she follows everything online. She knows everything I'm doing and everything I've said and It's extraordinary.
Presenter asks
5:54Tell me a little bit about your parents. What sort of characters are they both?
My father would have been the sort of all-round action man hero, did every kind of sport, had got to Cambridge with no A-levels and was taken on board because they thought he'd get a blue in rugby, which he did, and then started training racehorses because my mother's father died and women weren't allowed to hold the licence, uh training licence then, so my grandmother couldn't take over. So this young half American, gorgeous looking, took over the licence and he got on with my grandmother incredibly well. I mean she would have been 15 years older than him. … and my mother was ten years younger than him. And when mum was twenty he rang his mother to say, I'm getting married. And his mother said which one you marry. The mother or the daughter?
Presenter asks
13:38Under what circumstances did you shoplift?
The keepsakes
The book
unspecified
I would like to just for a very short space of time be a bird watcher and then I'd know what they are.
The luxury
Whenever I leave the house I take a Thermos mug of tea and I always say to Alice, Can you make me the tea? because her tea's better than my tea. I kind of feel like you walk out of home with a bit of home. So I want proper tea with proper milk and sugar in my thermos mug.
Because everybody was cursed here, and I got into the wrong gang. … I wanted to be one of the crowd. You don't want to stand out. Oh no, don't be an individual. Got to be just like everybody else. Wear ev what everyone else wears. Have your hair like everyone else. Pull your sleeves down over your hands like everybody else and make holes in the bottoms of your sleeves and flick your hair. And if they're all stealing, you'll steal too. The trouble is I got caught. The one good thing was I wasn't going to dog them in. So I was the only one that got suspended, and I was awfully proud of that.
Presenter asks
17:14How did you manage to keep your weight as a jockey?
I sweat it. It's horribly bad for you, and I'm not recommending this to anybody. … But everything was dependent on what the scales said. It didn't matter what I looked like, what did the scales say. And I'm heavy. I mean, I'm a heavy person. So for me to be anywhere near ten stone was a real struggle, whereas some girls are eight stone and they don't even have to think about it. But I'd keep my fluid intake down. I'd have a piece of melon at breakfast, or a sliced grapefruit. I'd ridden before breakfast, I'd ride again after breakfast. Then I'd go running in a sweatsuit, and then I'd come back and sit in the sauna. And Dad had this big set of scales and and he'd say to me every morning, What do you weigh? … Your dad would say that. Yeah, yeah, 'cause he you know, he's doing the entries and he needs to know, Can you ride at Tenstone Two next week?
Presenter asks
22:07You're going to the Winter Olympics in Sochi, which is under fire for anti-gay laws. As a gay woman presenter, do you go with a clear conscience?
Absolutely, because I think it's hugely important that I do go. I mean, you've only got one. Wh w what would be the sense of me not going? I would feel that we'd just caved in to to what Russia thinks and that would be silly. So I'm looking forward to the sports side of it, but I also think as a statement of intent, I absolutely should go. And I would love the BBC to be doing something on the state of affairs in Russia and finding out exactly how people, how families and how individuals are affected by it and shine a spotlight on it, because I'm not sure many people were that aware that Russia was so homophobic. … I will make a moral stand on things, but in this instance I think the right thing to do is to go.
Presenter asks
24:26You were diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2009. How did you deal with that diagnosis?
I pretended it wasn't happening. I was terrible. And actually Alice kept saying to me, What did the doctor say? what you know, and I couldn't remember, so she ended up having to come to every Consultation with me because I just couldn't remember, I couldn't take it in. And she and my mum actually talked a lot during that and and became very close because I was pretty hopeless. And I couldn't really take it in and and it was right at the same time when Toothgate happened at the Grand National. … I gave Alice my phone, which never stopped. … she's not able to say to them, Would you just leave her alone? She's being wheeled down to anesthetic. Because also, I didn't want to use that as an excuse or a kind of get out, so it wasn't great.
“Don't do that. He doesn't need to know that you know about racing. The audience know you know about racing. They want to know about him. Just ask him the questions.”
“Well she sort of said, Oh well, bad luck, keep trying. Essentially, you've had a girl, that's a bit disappointing.”
“I couldn't deal with everybody else's fear. I could deal with mine, but I couldn't look in somebody else's eyes.”
“Grandma, I need to talk to you. And she said, Yes, I think you do. And um I said, Have you seen the paper? She said, Yes, and I think it's disgusting. And I said, What, the invasion of my privacy or or my lifestyle choice? And she said, Both.”
“I just don't really find my own company that exciting. I'm just not really designed to be on my own.”