Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Television presenter known for hosting Big Brother and other reality shows, and for completing a 500-mile triathlon for charity.
On the island
Eight records
Neil Hannon is the frontman. Guest said: "There's something about his phrasing and his musicality and the way he orchestrates a piece and the way that he can sing really searing love songs but use very comedic lyrics but make them sound terribly serious."
Overture from The Nutcracker Suite
Duke Ellington and His Orchestra
Tchaikovsky (composed), Ellington and Strayhorn (arranged)
Guest said: "It's an ode to my dad. And he introduced me to jazz … My dad in particular loves Duke Ellington."
Guest said: "It reminds me of my mum … This was the album from that time in our lives, and we danced to it together, me and my sister."
Guest said: "It was the track that used to play quite a lot at the Camden Palace … I was about 14."
Guest said: "This was the track that they would put on, and they could turn on every single light in the club, and everybody would have their hands in the air."
Guest said: "Every single track, every breath she takes is magic. … This is from Hounds of Love, which is my favourite Kate Bush album."
Guest said: "This one is in memory of my lovely sister and we played this at her funeral … It's a song that makes me actually feel really happy."
AngelFavourite
Guest said: "She's an artist that my husband introduced me to … This was our music … It was our sexy music."
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:30Is there any part of you that feels a little bit uncomfortable with revealing yourself? Because we all have the right to a private life.
The thing that I have to tread really carefully with, which often I just want to blur about, is my husband and my children. … I do run things by Matthew. If I'm going to talk about something, we went to marriage guidance counselling and I said, I think it would be amazing if I could talk about that. But how do you feel about it? If he'd said no, I would have not talked about it.
Presenter asks
5:12You've written of [your mother] that she was eclectic, naughty, impish, funny, irreverent, and captivating. Tell me more about her.
She was born to Pierre and Olga, and I think they were very loving people. But they were incapable of kind of loving her in a nurturing parental way, so they just threw money at the problem.
Presenter asks
5:39How did [your mother's] behaviour as a mum affect you? What do you remember from early on?
My first recollection would be that she just would forget me. … [After nearly drowning] I remember standing on the beach thinking, Shall I go and tell Mummy? and then thinking, Well, there's no point because she won't mother me. She always kind of came first, so her feelings and her worries and her life was always more important.
The keepsakes
The book
Tom Robbins
It's so out there, but it's so beautifully written and descriptive.
The luxury
a bath with bath foam and candles
I find true peace in my bath, and the children kind of know that when I'm in the bath, I'm out of bounds.
Presenter asks
6:39How much was explained to you about what was happening when your parents divorced?
I mean nothing actually. And I knew that my mum had gone somewhere and I didn't know why she hadn't come back and I didn't know why I was living with my granny and I felt a bit guilty because I loved my granny so much but I thought I've overstayed my welcome. … So it was very confusing.
Presenter asks
16:58By the late teens, what was the reality of your drug use?
I thought I had it all under control, but it was very much sort of white knuckling. … I got bad in my early twenties. … Taking drugs is like Russian roulette. … I'd really quite carefully stayed away from alcohol because I could see that my mother was an alcoholic. So I thought I was being quite good because I didn't really drink that much. So I'll just take a few drugs instead. … I did end up in a complete mess.
Presenter asks
21:43What possessed you to say yes [to the 500-mile triathlon]?
I've got such low sort of expectations of myself. And then actually, I do do it. And I think, God, I'm capable of so much more than I give myself credit for. So sometimes I think, oh, I don't think I can do this, but I'm going to say yes, because maybe I will do it and at the end it'll make me feel amazing.
“I loved Big Brother so much, and the idea of somebody else presenting it, it was like over my dead body.”
“I wanted to see her. … I guess only people that have experienced it … will know what I mean, but it was weird. I wanted to be with her.”
“My best friend Sarah said to me, you know, you're the topic of every dinner party I go to. What an absolute mess you are. … I can't talk to you anymore. … So I was like really angry, swore at her tons … and then left, and then just cried non-stop for about eight hours and thought, I've got to stop. I had nowhere to go except for to stop. So I did, and I went to a meeting that day, and that was it.”
“For the first time we could stop hoping that our mother could be anything other than what she is. And we could just live with, you know, her memory and remember her more fondly.”
“I'd almost never have a bath without her sat on the floor next to me talking.”
“It would be Angel, Sarah McLachlan, because it was the beginning of a new phase of my life with Matthew and ever since I met him I've looked forward and not backwards.”