Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Wife of Prime Minister John Major and author of a biography of opera singer Joan Sutherland.
On the island
Eight records
Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters
it's one of a very few records that we had in the family at this time, and I I'm I'm pretty sure we were playing them on a wind up grammar phone. And I just remember that enjoying this particular piece. And I think to some extent perhaps I have been a bit fenced in, so maybe this is appropriate.
I think even as a little girl I must have enjoyed music, and I certainly enjoyed dancing. And at any opportunity, if there w there was music on the radio that could be danced to, I I tended to dance to it. And Slaughter on Tenth Avenue is actually another record that we had in our very small collection at home.
the first opera that I really got familiar with was Rigoletto … And I went to the library to borrow a recording, and it happened to be Sutherland. And I'm afraid I was hooked from from that day.
June Bronhill and Keith Michell
June Bronhill and Keith Mischel singing I Know Now from a musical called Robert and Elizabeth, which was the uh story of Elizabeth Barrett and um Robert Browning. Which was on for several years during the sixties, and which was wonderful.
Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18
apart from being just a sublime piece of music uh will remind me of Brief Encounter, which I think is a magnificent film, so I can run the movie in my mind as well.
I love Michael Ball's voice. I love the music of Andrew Lloyd Webber. And this is a particularly fine piece. And Don Black's lyrics.
Vesperae solennes de confessore, K. 339: Laudate Dominum
I actually heard for the first time on uh the Inspector Morse uh programmes, which John and I both like very much, and I just thought this was perfect for Elizabeth's wedding
Norma: Act II, FinaleFavourite
Joan Sutherland, John Alexander, and Richard Cross
partly because of the name, partly because it's a great work, and it's uh Sutherland's favourite. And the climax is just inexorable.
In conversation
Presenter asks
3:02Where do you think your resilience comes from?
I think it must have come from my mother. I mean, if if it can be said to have come from anywhere at all. My mother was left a widow at a very young age … and at one point was doing three jobs. And I think she was very, very self-reliant, very determined. And maybe some of that did rub off on me.
Presenter asks
6:08What happened to your father?
He died in a motorcycle accident in Belgium about six days after the war ended. which um was very sad. And my mother had lost a baby just uh six months earlier as well, and hadn't seen my father since the loss of the baby, and I think it was a deeply disturbing time.
Presenter asks
14:15Why did it take you ten years to write the biography of Joan Sutherland?
Well, not ten years to write it, ten years to research it. And it began as a catalogue, and I didn't actually get round to writing a book for some years into that ten. Um I just thought it would be um useful for the operatic archives to have a catalogue of performances that Sutherland had sung, and gradually it just developed into something rather more than a catalogue.
The keepsakes
The luxury
Presenter asks
16:40Were you aware that [your husband John Major] was deeply ambitious when you met him?
I'm sure I was not aware of it. I was impressed by the fact that he was um on Lambeth Council … I don't ever remember him articulating the fact that he wanted to be a Member of Parliament. Um and in a sense I mean, I must have dr drifted into the acknowledgment that this is where he was going.
Presenter asks
20:39Is it true that your first six months in Downing Street were really grim?
Because there was just no help for you, was there? There was no help and there was no support. And I'm sure that looking back on it, I didn't need to get quite so distressed about the mountain of of letters that I had to cope with … I cried quite a lot. Uh yeah. Quite a lot. I don't like to be out of control of of my own little environment. And it uh it felt a bit like that.
Presenter asks
30:02Do you miss being at the centre of power?
No. I don't miss it. … Uh no, I don't miss it at all. I mean to say I don't miss it, you know, maybe reinforces the image that I didn't enjoy it, but I mean it was just a wonderful, wonderful experience. and I don't regret a minute of it. But neither do I miss it. I miss the people.
“I think that no one has to really get on with it. I think there's no point in complaining when opportunities come your way.”
“I think there is such a thing as love at first sight and I've no doubt that's how it was for both of us.”
“It doesn't matter how you're feeling or what's gone wrong in the background, somehow you've got to get on and do what it is you you're committed to doing.”