Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Known for having one of the best known voices in Britain.
On the island
Eight records
Third movement from Brahms' Symphony No. 3
Sir John Barbirolli conducting the Hallé Orchestra
I once played in an opera called The Waltz King, and I played the part of Brahms. ... And it never occurred to me that one could sing this melody, but you can.
In questa reggia from Turandot
I think if I'm not being impolite to other people. I think she is the greatest of the big singers, this fine sustained singing, which physically must be frightfully difficult. And I always play this record thinking she'll never get to the top note, but of course she always does.
Étude in A-flat major, Op. 25, No. 1Favourite
Mentally, now I have joined the staff in 1935. ... and this is what she was playing, and it has always for me ever since made an atmosphere of peace, summer, warmth, evening. Oh, Nostalda, if you like.
I've been married very happily for eighteen years, and this is the tune to which, if I may put it this way, a certain amount of my courting was done. A great deal of dancing was done, and I still sing. It's one of the most beautiful songs of its kind.
Bess, You Is My Woman from Porgy and Bess
I've always adored, if that's the right term, the music of Mr. Gershwin. It does something to me. ... I've just heard the record, I realize, of course, that I have the same love for Gershwin's music as I have for Puccini's, a chap who can really write a tune.
I've always thought that folk music is best sung unaccompanied. And of all the folk tunes I know, this one 'She Moved Through the Fair' is my favorite. And when it comes to a recording, give me every time Mr. Kenneth McKellar.
I mentioned before, how much I enjoyed meeting people in the dance band world. And one of the people I've always liked and whose signature tune I still like and play whenever I can, Joe Loss in the Mood.
Falstaff (excerpt: Falstaff asleep behind the arras)
I cannot go to any island, Roy, without some music of Elgar. And I've thought a lot about this. and I'd settled for part of Falstaff. If you recollect, you will find in the score there is a part marked Falstaff fast asleep behind the arras. He is Jack Falstaff, page to the Duke of Norfolk. He's dreaming about his youth.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:36How well could you face continued loneliness?
I think quite easily, because I never in fact lonely. I like to look at things, examine them, and if it's dark, I can always hear music. No, I'm never lonely. What would you be happiest you got away from? Noise. All was noise. I hate the noise of London's traffic. I hate little tiny noises like dripping taps in hotel bedrooms. And I try and set those to music and it never works.
Presenter asks
1:24Did you have any plan in selecting your eight for the Desert Island?
Autobiographical, I suppose, in a way, but at the same time, I wanted to play pieces I really like. Oh, if I may misquote Cecil Rhodes: So much to play, so little time.
Presenter asks
5:07As a boy, what did you want to be?
Well, I left Sidmouth when I was one year old. Lived in Bedford for 22 and during that time I wanted to be an engineer. And in fact, I was apprenticed to a firm of marine engineers and spent five years at it. Went to night school, failed on a trick, different subjects, each of three years, and then turned my hobby, which was singing, into a profession and gave up engineering.
The keepsakes
The book
Eric Partridge
I should like to take a dictionary. I've got several, but the one I think I would like most of all is Eric Partridge's compilation called A Dictionary of Origins, because there you have, when once you've learnt how to use the book, and that takes about six months, let me tell you There you got the nucleus, as it were, of any number of books. I'm sure you do the same. You turn up a word, and the moment you've seen that word you'll see half a dozen others, and off you go. So I want the chair to sit in.
Presenter asks
14:01Hasn't this continued inhibition [from maintaining impartiality] been a great strain?
Not been quite so inhibited as you might think when you read things like Today in Parliament, where you are both the opposition and the government, and you are quoting each. It becomes frankfully exciting, you know. I believe you were in the habit of putting the cut-out switch down and making comments occasionally. Not very often, and I don't think I should ever do it again. You are thinking of the fast car, are you? Yes, yes, well, that was quite a morning. We'd had this bank robber chap escaping in a fast car And so I when I put the cough key down, not knowing it wasn't working, said And really expect them to go away in a slower. But it went out all over the country and I must say I think it did sound broadcasting a power of good, publicity-wise.
Presenter asks
15:09What else do you remember as having gone wrong?
Well, I have read the early morning news in my pajamas more than once. That speaks for itself.
Presenter asks
21:52Now if you could only have one of these eight records, which would it be?
I think the peace and quiet and the lighted room, the chopper, you know.
“No, I'm never lonely.”
“turned my hobby, which was singing, into a profession and gave up engineering.”
“ten pounds between three weeks' work for the film company or one year's work for the BBC, and you'll know which one I took.”
“Vorspieler Erster Klasse, which I think is extremely nice. ... fond of the arts.”