Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
BBC television presenter and anchor of Sports Night, Grandstand, Nationwide, and Breakfast Time.
On the island
Eight records
It's a Beatles record because I was a kind of late son of the Beatles, really. And it reminds me of the time when I was starting in this business in Newcastle.
Well, my wife and I are both exceedingly fond of France, and we go there when we can. ... It's Songs of the Auvert. A lovely, lovely song about a rejected shepherdess.
Well, the next one would remind me, and as I said, they're all tremendous memory records, of perhaps the best time of my life, and professionally speaking ... when we launched Breakfast Time, it was a time of particularly acidic pleasure.
Sinatra, of course, it has to be, because uh he's he's lived through all our lives and this is a a rather soft, nice thing. It sort of spans a lifetime, which I suppose I'd spend a good deal of time looking back on my lifetime.
Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68 'Pastoral'
Well, I've got to have a big symphony. A big, noisy, long record, and uh Beethoven's pastoral, and if you can find me the bit with the French horns.
This is quite different from the last one. It's a very depressing record, this, but I think a super piece of pop music. And there's a big argument in our house as to whether I came upon it before my my sons did.
Violin Concerto in B minor, Op. 61Favourite
Well now then we're up to uh the Algar Violin Concerto. I don't know quite uh how popular this is or how often it's been chosen. The cello concerto of course is the great one, but this is a superb piece of music.
But we did get some tickets some time ago for this amazing show Les Miserats. And I've rarely experienced such a terrific night of entertainment. ... And this is a delightful song from Les Miserable.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:55Would your perceived unflappable, in-charge character make you good on a desert island?
Well, I don't think it would. I've got a very long fuse. And when the roof starts falling in, I quite enjoy that. ... Whether it would see me out on a desert island, I'm not quite certain, because practically, I'm not very good. ... give me a hammer and I will destroy the house. And I still don't know how to change a plug
Presenter asks
3:15What was your childhood like, and were you an ambitious child?
Not really. I can't ever remember saying to myself, that's what I want to be, because life was full of such joy. ... my father, eventually after the war, got a little shed and he did the upholstery ... And my mum made the loose covers and curtains. ... But they were very happy days indeed.
Presenter asks
9:41Why did you want to get up at three in the morning to launch breakfast television?
Well, for the seventies I had done both nationwide and grandstand and Olympic Games and and major output from the BBC television sports department. ... But I began to feel myself really play acting when it came to, you know, November the 3rd. ... So I was looking for something else to do anyway
The keepsakes
The book
E. W. Swanton
Do you know the Barclays world of cricket? I do indeed. Very thick, big book. I know, it's wonderful. And I would reminisce over that… that will bring me back a lot of pleasure.
The luxury
if you could fix me up with a kind of series of prescriptions so that as the eyes went, I could switch to another set of contact lenses. Those would be an enormous luxury, because without them I'll be lost completely.
Presenter asks
11:02Why were you so certain [Breakfast Time] was your programme?
Because it was very much a presenters' programme. ... I'm a presenter, and the format as devised by Ron Neal ... enable me to flex my muscles and ad lib and contribute and steer and do all the things you said at the beginning about holding a programme together.
Presenter asks
20:22Was there any kind of adverse reaction within the BBC about a man from sport taking over current affairs?
Well, there was some. ... I'm certain that there were reports that one rather ferocious lady said, Why do we need this crud from the sports department? You know, what the hell does he know about current affairs? As if people who are interested in sport are not interested in life. It's a curious kind of thing.
Presenter asks
24:45What would be your advice to someone starting out wanting to get into television?
Well, assuming they can get a hearing ... Once you've got your fingers on the wall, then the best thing that anybody can say of you after some years is that you are professional. ... It means basically turning up on time, sober, well prepared, and doing the best job you can
“I've got a very long fuse. And when the roof starts falling in, I quite enjoy that.”
“There's something about working in the night which really wells people together.”
“I sit and watch a television programme and I see a guy. He's articulate, he's intelligent, he's always done his homework, he's asking the right questions, but he doesn't come through the glass. Now, the thing is, he never will come through the glass.”
“a live programme it's rather like feeling in the slips you know every second there's an opportunity whistling past your front to be to be lost or taken”