Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A politician, poet, and classical scholar who spent 37 years as an MP, known for controversial views on immigration and Northern Ireland.
On the island
Eight records
Entry of the Gods into Valhalla
from Das Rheingold; conductor Sir Georg Solti (transcript says 'Sir George Schulte' – corrected to Sir Georg Solti based on the real recording)
Siegmund's Spring Song (Winterstürme wichen dem Wonnemond)
James King (tenor), Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
from Die Walküre; conductor Sir Georg Solti (corrected as above)
Forging Song (Nothung! Nothung! Neidliches Schwert!)
Wolfgang Windgassen (tenor), Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
from Siegfried; conductor Sir Georg Solti (corrected as above)
Siegfried's Renunciation (the closing scene of Götterdämmerung)Favourite
Wolfgang Windgassen (tenor), Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
from Götterdämmerung; conductor Sir Georg Solti (transcript 'Goethe Demerung' corrected to Götterdämmerung)
Final movement (Shepherds' Thanksgiving – Allegretto)
from Symphony No. 6 in F major 'Pastoral'; conductor Carl Bohm (transcript 'Carl Birm' corrected to Carl Boehm?)
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus
from Symphony No. 9 in D minor; conductor Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt (transcript 'Hans Schmidt Isserstedt' corrected to Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt)
Prisoners' Chorus (O welche Lust)
from Fidelio; conductor Otto Klemperer
In Native Worth and Honour Clad
Francisco Araiza (tenor), Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
from The Creation; conductor Herbert von Karajan (transcript 'Herbert von Carrian' corrected)
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:21How do you view the idea of being cast away on a desert island? Do you view it with relish or dismay?
I think it's cruel of you to do this and probably leave me there for the few remaining years of my life.
Presenter asks
9:57What kind of young man were you at Cambridge? Were you studious, social, ambitious?
Absurdly studious. … I used to observe my contemporaries who were nearly as good as I was at Latin and Greek, and wonder how it was that they had so much else as well that I hadn't got … As an undergraduate I was a learning machine.
Presenter asks
13:12How much has music meant to you during the course of your life, and the Ring in particular?
Up to the war it was enormously important. … after the war I kept away from it. … because it moved you too much. I suppose I am a bit afraid of it.
The keepsakes
The book
Greek New Testament (also would take a Hebrew Old Testament)
— (scriptural, and mentioned as separate from the given Bible)
The luxury
I have an absolute passion not merely a passion for fish, but a passion for smoked fish. I could eat fish at every meal.
Presenter asks
You've said since that you would like to have been killed in the war. Why do you say that? Is that all to do with shame and guilt?
I think this is a sense commonly felt by those who served, but from whom life was not demanded in the war.
Presenter asks
18:27You never achieved very high office. Can you explain to yourself why a man of your intellect and standing never quite reached the height of office he might have expected?
Well, at that level office is a lottery … at any stage in my career there was a price that I was not prepared to pay for improving my chances in the lottery. … my disposition was, in the last resort, I suppose, to make my own rules.
Presenter asks
22:03Going back to your 1968 immigration speech: you were calling for immediate reduction in numbers of immigrants and for repatriation. That was official Conservative policy at the time – why were you sacked by Ted Heath for saying it?
Because he didn't like the fact that it had been heard. … He disliked the tone. It's significant that the word tone was used, and after all we're talking about a musician.
“I had ambitions in my teens to be a classical scholar, and I saw myself producing the definitive edition of Thucydides.”
“I assumed I would be killed in it. That was a natural assumption. After all, the average expectation of life of an infantry officer in November nineteen eighteen was three weeks, and as I was determined to be an infantry officer, I assumed that that was what would happen.”
“What was standing on the doorstep was, You will go into politics.”
“I always invite them to define the word [racist]. If you define it, I'll say yes or no. … If it turns upon colour, then I shall return a negative.”
“I do not believe that, for example, the Indians wish to see forty million Europeans moving into the Republic of India, into the Union of India.”
“people and particularly children react quite favourably to me. I get on well with children, and they evidently get on well with me.”