Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A writer and silographer who is also programme chief of Rutland Weekend Television.
On the island
Eight records
Cello Concerto in C majorFavourite
Mstislav Rostropovich with the English Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Benjamin Britten
A friend of mine introduced this to me... many years ago, and I've always loved it, and it's very Sunday morning music. I feel we should always have good Sunday morning music.
Uh well I have a song called Carrie. Well that's a very good reason.
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Herbert von Karajan
I love Mozart and I... almost any piece of moat site is suitable for a desert island.
This is Rod Stewart, which is probably the only way you can really follow Mozart.
This is... Raikuda and uh it's an old stones number called It's All Over Now in a very Caribbean way.
George has a been a very good friend of mine and uh was around when this album was was made and he's... very... helpful to me... during a difficult time in my life and in fact my book is dedicated to him so... I'd like to choose one of his songs.
Nimrod (from Enigma Variations)
London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Colin Davis
The last record is Algar, something nice in English... This is the only English music and uh it makes a very good close to a desert island. Something to run the credits over really.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:43Have you ever experienced loneliness?
Not loneliness. Being solitary, yes.
Presenter asks
3:50What did you read [at Cambridge]?
I read English... I suppose I used to fill in forms and write down journalists, because everybody would pest you, and I could never think of what to be, and that seemed to satisfy them.
Presenter asks
4:13Apart from your studies, what did you do [at Cambridge]?
Oh, I spend most of my time in Cambridge writing and performing comedy... in a... celebrated club called Footlights Club.
Presenter asks
7:03How did you get on with [David Frost]?
As well as anyone could, really. Uh he was very good at bringing people in... Well, he gave us money... Which is probably the most encouraging thing if you are a writer.
The keepsakes
The luxury
it's an essential really, it would have to be a guitar. Mm, nice acoustic guitar. And plenty of spare strings.
Presenter asks
9:13How did [Monty Python's Flying Circus] evolve?
Well, we were working for Thames and uh they came to us and and offered us a a proper grown-up series, forty-five minutes every week, but... then they came back a week later and said, Well, yes, they'd still like this show that they'd asked us to do, but uh Huey Green was going to do another... Sirius, so he'll be he'd be using the studio for a year, so could we come back in a year? And in the meanwhile Graham Chaplin and John Cleese came over and said, We have this offer from the BBC. Why don't we all get together and do a silly show?
Presenter asks
9:58How did you get that title [Monty Python's Flying Circus]?
A lot of soul searching. Each script in the early days had a different title on. The first six shows had different titles, such as Bun, Wackit, Buzzard, Stubble and Boot, Owl, Stretching Time, A Horse, a Spoon, and a Basin... ultimately they kept calling it The Circus, so we just doctored up their contract title, The Circus, and made it a bit more interesting.
“I must have silence while I'm working, but uh I I like it round the rest of the day.”
“I think this is one of the the things we were going for basically, to sort of get away from the awful showbiz thing where you have to have your name up and your picture up at the opening of a show so people know who you are. I mean the object was to keep people slightly puzzled.”
“They don't like me in Rutland... Um I'm sad to say and uh they won't take my book in book shops and I'm banned in Rutland... I think they they think I don't take them seriously.”