Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A photographer who specialises in war and the seamier side of life.
On the island
Eight records
The transcript says 'Bühling Nürsem Dolme from Tournendot' and later 'Josip Jörling Nessam Dormer from Puccini's Turendad'. This is clearly 'Nessun dorma' from Turandot. The tenor is likely Jussi Björling, though the transcript is mangled. On a 1984 Desert Island Discs, the common recording would be Björling. I will report the artist as canonical: Jussi Björling, track as 'Nessun dorma', composer as Puccini.
Transcript: 'Benjamin O'Geelee', 'Geely singing the prologue to Paliarchi' then 'Gili singing the prologue to Ippagliacci'. This is Beniamino Gigli singing the Prologue to Pagliacci by Leoncavallo.
Jerome Kern / Oscar Hammerstein II
Transcript: 'Paul Robeson singing OLD Man River from Showboat'. Track is Ol' Man River. Composer: music by Kern, lyrics by Hammerstein (for a show tune, both are named; but the canonical composer field here is typically 'Jerome Kern' for the music. Desert Island Discs often gives the composer as the songwriter. I'll follow the usual convention: Kern/Hammerstein or just Kern. I'll list 'Jerome Kern' as composer since it's a structured field for 'composer if classical/named' — for show tunes the composer is the songwriter.
Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra / Leonard Bernstein
Transcript clearly states 'Samuel Barber Adagio for Strings ... conducted by Leonard Bernstein' and later 'played by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Leonard Bernstein'. Correct as stated.
Excerpt from Act 1 of Faust (probably the duet 'O merveille! ... A moi les plaisirs' or similar)
Boris Christoff / Nicolai Gedda
Transcript: 'Boris Christophe' -> Boris Christoff (Bulgarian bass). 'Nikolai Gedda' spelled correctly. 'An excerpt from the first act of Gunno's Faust' -> Gounod's Faust. The track is a duet from Act 1 of Faust.
Transcript: 'Noel Card' and 'Merred Dogs of Englishmen' -> Noël Coward, Mad Dogs and Englishmen. Composer is Noël Coward himself.
Transcript: 'Kathleen Ferrier singing What is Life? from Glux, Orpheus and Eurydice' -> Gluck, Orfeo ed Euridice (Italian) or Orphée et Eurydice. The aria 'Che farò senza Euridice' is often known in English as 'What Is Life?'.
Symphony No. 3 'Organ Symphony'Favourite
Chicago Symphony Orchestra / Daniel Barenboim / Gaston Litaize
Transcript: 'Camille Saint-Son' -> Saint-Saëns. 'Daniel Barabine' -> Daniel Barenboim. 'Gaston Lites' -> Gaston Litaize (organist). The work is Symphony No. 3 (Organ Symphony).
In conversation
Presenter asks
4:25You were evacuated, you say, when war broke out. You would have been, what, four or five then?
Five, yes. I was evacuated and I was the reluctant evacuee. I was sent back and then I was sent off somewhere else and I went to Lancashire, which was very hard. I mean, the north of England I've always felt bred a harder breed of people.
Presenter asks
5:18What did that course [the trade art scholarship] lead to? How long did it last?
Well, it didn't last very long because my father his death was untimely and it interrupted the possibility of me going on and so I had to leave school and then I went to work because my mother needed income and I mean I went to work and my first job I got paid one pound fifty in today's money for a week's work. I used to work on the train as a dining car cabin boy who washed up the plates and dishes.
Presenter asks
8:47Was this [the] messenger job offering any prospects to you?
Not really, not much. I was also expected to mix colour because it was where they made cartoon animated films and unbeknown to them I'm colourblind to a large degree.
The keepsakes
The book
a year's bound copies of the Times newspapers
I would like very much to request a year's bound copies of the of the Times newspapers. Which year? Oh, I didn't expect that question. That's very tricky. I I think I would take any year, because I I like the the idea. And of course by the time I got to the end I would have forgotten what I read in the beginning. I could start again.
The luxury
I would like to keep in touch with myself and I've chosen to take a mirror because I could analyse myself each day. I could psych myself out and I could probably talk to myself. It would give me comfort to think there was another human being around because I believe there's a lot of two people in in us. I mean I don't think we're just one person and and also I could use the mirror for practical reasons as well. In case a ship came by I could use it to reflect us.
Presenter asks
17:09So you were off on your first visit to a war zone. Were you squeamish to start with?
I've never been squeamish because I felt that with my background and the war and other travels in my military service that I was hard enough to be able to take what I was about to see. And yet, strangely enough, the first day I went to a village, which was dawn in the morning, and a British soldier came up and said, 'Do you want to see something?' And I said, 'Yeah', and he said, 'Well, come with me.' And he showed me the first dead civilian who'd been murdered by an opposing faction. I looked at the man's feet before I looked at the wound that had killed him, and then I had reservations about suddenly why am I here? You know, what am I going to how am I going to cope? And then when I got over that, he said, 'go into that house, there's some more dead people in there.' I went into the house and I knocked on the door first, and I had no and I opened the door and there were dead people inside and I shut the door very quietly. And I tried to keep as much dignity as I could. And yet, basically, I was a very novice human being. I was in the midst of a nightmare. And suddenly the door opened and women and people came in. And one of the men that was dead was the newly wed husband of this woman who was crying. And I needed to pull together all the resources of my composure to try and identify myself with the outrage that they also were suffering.
Presenter asks
19:00Which was the worst campaign, as far as you were concerned? Where did you have the worst time?
Well, I always think there was a worse place. I mean, I went to Africa during the Civil War and I was one of the trustees who was allowed back in, because the Biafrans had their people they didn't like and those they liked. But I walked into a school one day and saw 800 children dying, and I saw a child die in front of me, and I saw children in the most appalling condition. And these are the innocent people of the world. They don't ask to be politically aligned to one party or the other, beaten and starved. And a little boy came up and put a really filthy hand into mine, and I was destroyed that day. I had to pull myself really tight together to hook in to myself as a photographer and shoot pictures. And I was so angry that I went through that hospital and I gleaned off the most appalling statements that you could slap on the word humanity. And I really thought that I'm not going to mess around. I'm really going to give it to people between the eyes. Because this country at the time had factions that were for and against Biafra, politicians and people like that, people in the street. And I didn't care about who was this and who was that. I just wanted people to see those pictures of those children.
Presenter asks
29:16You talked about your brief spell on a real desert island. That was a rather hectic two weeks. Could you manage? Obviously you've done so much … under difficult conditions that you could cope.
Well, there are unforeseen torments like mosquitoes, dehydration. We had a raincoat and we caught some rainwater. That's the big problem. We could only drink literally a cup of water like that a day. And I caught the most enormous fish which we cooked because we had one box of matches and we had to keep a constant fire, so plenty of driftwood. But we left climbing the palm trees too long because we were too weak and so therefore we had to join a load of sticks together and poke the non-reluctant coconuts down. And then we gathered some things called sea grapes, which are like cherries with a furry skin.
“I didn't know nothing but hardship. My father was never employed seriously. He had a chronic chest problem and I watched him dying year by year and he did actually die when I was at the age of fourteen. So I thought that everything was stacked up against me socially and mentally and spiritually and I felt really low about the whole fact that I was living. I thought it was a tragedy to be living under those circumstances.”
“I walked into a school one day and saw 800 children dying, and I saw a child die in front of me, and I saw children in the most appalling condition. And these are the innocent people of the world. They don't ask to be politically aligned to one party or the other, beaten and starved. And a little boy came up and put a really filthy hand into mine, and I was destroyed that day.”
“I've seen men who've been selected for execution and I've made protest and try to stop that procedure and I know I'm on a losing wicket and I tried this in Beirut a few years ago and they told me to go away and mind my business and I said, 'Well, it is my business' and you know it's too terrible to see men pleading. Those eyes will haunt me for the rest of my life.”
“But when I know how much money it's going to cost to stage the Olympics, I've got nothing against sportsmen. I think of all that money being put to much better use.”
“I've chosen to take a mirror because I could analyse myself each day. I could psych myself out and I could probably talk to myself. It would give me comfort to think there was another human being around because I believe there's a lot of two people in us. I mean I don't think we're just one person and also I could use the mirror for practical reasons as well. In case a ship came by I could use it to reflect us.”