Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A writer and broadcaster who is the most experienced and respected radio critic, known for over half a century of incisive reviews.
On the island
Eight records
I like a dance. Now I'm past the age when I can dance in public.
I would love to hear the signature tune of a show that ushered me into a magic world, the world of Paul Temple and Steve.
This record represents for me the portal between Bop and all of the music that's come after. It was recorded in 1949. And it's still as original as the sun rising.
When I got to America I listened constantly to the radio and discovered what was happening was the black music was coming through and hearing Ray Charles was just another flame lit in my heart.
Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 77
Lydia Mordkovitch (violin) with the Scottish National Orchestra
I've chosen now violin concerto number one. I think he finished it in 48. And he didn't hear it publicly performed for five years because it was a ban on the public performance in Russia of all music that wasn't overtly patriotic.
Anne Sofie von Otter with the NDR Sinfonieorchester
Kurt Weill (music), Ogden Nash (lyrics)
It's from an opera called One Touch of Venus by Kurt Weill, with lyrics by Ogden Nash... this song, Speak Low, is the best love song in the world, I think.
Under Milk Wood (original radio production excerpt read by Richard Burton)
When people talk about revolutions in broadcasting, that was one... I have to take onto Milkwood.
Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major, Op. 15 (third movement)Favourite
Stephen Hough (piano) with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
I would like this record for the pure joy of the encounter with great minds.
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:03What does radio mean to you personally?
I've been listening to the radio pretty much for eight decades. I mean, I was brought up with the radio, born in 1935. We were all ushered out of the room when war was declared. So my mind is conditioned to listening, but also to having radio as part of the calendar of my life.
Presenter asks
2:45What's the point of reviewing? What do you want to achieve with your reviews?
I want to have a conversation in a metaphorical sense with the people who listen to the programme and with the people who made it, because I think there is this extraordinary, unique interaction between the production of a programme in radio and the people it speaks to. It's much closer than television, and radio is very personal because what goes in your ear goes straight into your imagination somehow.
Presenter asks
5:32How many people were in the household when you were a little girl?
My first memory is of living in Eight Norwyn Road in Liverpool Eleven. And in the front bedroom, there was me. My brother Billy, my mum and my dad. In the back bedroom, there was Grandma, Auntie Nancy, Auntie Doreen, and Auntie Pearl. And in the small bedroom, there was Uncle Harold, who was an apprentice tradesman, an object of great admiration in the family, and Uncle Bud, who was a long-distance lorry driver. I'm at ten so far. There you are. That's not counting passing people who would sleep on the sofa and whatnot. So this house had elastic walls.
The keepsakes
The book
Jenny Uglow
I've decided that what I would need on this island is escape to another world, if only in my mind.
Presenter asks
9:19Your mum told you you'd been born lucky?
Absolutely right. She instilled this into me. I had red dots on the soles of my feet, and we all had one bath a week in the olden days. And as she dried my feet, she'd lift up my foot and show me, see those dots, you're lucky, you're born lucky. And she would tell me that all the time.
Presenter asks
30:49What does it feel like to be headhunted at the age of 82?
Um more thrilling than marriage. It's very nice to be head hunted.
Presenter asks
30:58What was the biggest surprise to you about what has happened in the radio landscape over the years?
The continued flourishing of it, the continuing fact that people love it, rely on it when it's snowing they don't turn on the television when there's a teacher's strike they turn on the radio when you feel miserable in the middle of the night... It's a joy.
“I was more akin to gypsies, tramps, and thieves, but we were very intellectual with it. We read, there were always books in the house. I was brought up to be a lady in capital letters. I did not want to be a lady.”
“I was brought up to be clever. I was brought up to be lucky. And I was brought up not knowing everything, but having the confidence to go and try and learn it.”
“My mother's philosophy, having seen the bailiffs take the furniture out with my dad, she was firmly of the opinion that mental training was portable capital.”
“He'd have killed me. I mean, I'm not joking. He'd have killed me. I wouldn't be sitting here.”
“My mistake was not taking the boys. I did run away with them, the two younger boys, for a couple of weeks, but he got his court order and got them back. The two younger boys were kept in suspension for a long time. So that was difficult.”
“I remember thinking it's my money. It's my bloody flowers, I'll do what I like. And the iron entered my soul, and from that day on, lovers yes, but partners no.”