Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
An Oscar-winning producer of British films, known for producing Chariots of Fire.
On the island
Eight records
Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61Favourite
Anne-Sophie Mutter, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Herbert von Karajan
Well I thought we'd kick off with something that is a perfect piece of music and it sums up uh everything I think music can be and should be.
Elvis Presley had a tremendous impact on my life ... I also, when sifting through the records, felt that I wanted some connection with God on my island, preferably a fairly singular connection.
almost overnight, from being an oddity for whom maybe there wasn't room in the advertising industry, I became synonymous with everything that was exciting, vigorous, and forward-looking. And my career did an amazing turnaround. So I owe the Beatles a very great deal.
I've got an incredible affection for Buddy Holly. ... there are a dozen songs that uh I'm immensely fond of, but this one sums up that particularly uh painful romantic period of my life.
the very first movie I ever went to was uh Pinocchio. ... And the song that opens Pinocchio is When You Wish Upon a Star, which to me wonderfully sums up my job as I see it, the world in which I'm allowed to live a lot of my life.
Clarinet Concerto in A major, K. 622
Jack Brymer, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham
I do believe that the most c civilizing human being that's ever inhabited this planet, probably, was Mozart. He's brought me more pleasure, more peace and contentment than than anybody else.
Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85
For me, the most significant and important piece of work done in this century by anyone in this country is Elgar's Cello Concerto. I think it's a legitimate masterpiece.
New York Philharmonic, conducted by Leonard Bernstein
I'd like a piece of music to play the world out and probably I'd be playing myself out as well. ... I think the conclusion of the Ninth Symphony is the most eloquent way in which the world could end.
In conversation
Presenter asks
3:24Did you go to the pictures a lot when you were young?
It it started late. Uh, first time I went to the cinema, I think I was seven or maybe even eight years old. But from the age of sort of eleven onwards, I became pretty obsessive. ... So in any given week, I had at least three films available to me.
Presenter asks
4:05Did you identify a bit with the movies because your father was a photographer?
Yes, I think to an extent, and it only came to me uh much later in life, the degree to which that was true, there was no such thing in our house as a photograph. There was a good photograph and a bad photograph and a well cropped photograph and a poorly cropped photograph. ... So there was a kind of qualitative factor built into everything that was visual.
Presenter asks
5:03When you left [school], did you immediately lay siege to Wardour Street?
No, I wanted to. I would have loved to have done, but uh Water Street was inaccessible to me for two reasons. Physically, the studios were in a part of London that I couldn't get to ... And secondly, it was a highly nepotistic industry, the film industry, and I didn't have that type of uh family clout.
The keepsakes
The book
The Wisden Anthology of Cricket
Benny Greene
I opted in the end for a fairly new set of books, in fact, The Wisden Anthology of Cricket, edited by Benny Greene. It's in four volumes and I think it would keep me going for a long time.
The luxury
a magnificent goose-down pillow
I figure I'd spend a lot of time sleeping. I like to sleep comfortably. I would take a magnificent goose-down pillow.
Presenter asks
8:06Why did you quit from advertising?
Well, there were two problems. ... I was in a situation where it was very clear that to move onwards I was going to have to handle cigarettes and cigarette advertising. And I've never smoked. I don't ... Approver smoking. I hate it, as a matter of fact. I didn't want to vlog cigarettes. And there was another interesting argument I got into, which was whether we had any right to interfere on the quality or design of our clients' products, or whether we should just sell what they gave us.
Presenter asks
26:08How do you set about raising a few million [pounds for a film]?
There is no one way. I mean I think all you can do is use your own basic instincts and character as your kind of reference point. ... Also coming out of advertising, it was the most extraordinary piece of luck ... Because the great thing about advertising and being a young man in advertising, you do learn reality. We do learn that really there's not a lot of point in sitting looking out of the window wishing. and that it's really about getting out on the street and and doing it.
“I saw Chariots of Fire without music, and I can tell you that it made an awful lot of difference.”
“I've always tried to tailor my dreams to some notion of someone else's reality. And as I see it, I have to offer a film that appears in some way, shape or form to be a bargain, either creative bargain or a financial bargain.”
“I get to do a job which most people would wish to do as a hobby. And if the price I have to pay is some wheeling and some dealing and some pain and disappointment, it seems to me a very fair price to pay.”