Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A journalist and broadcaster with a familiar voice, known for vivid commentaries from many places in both peace and war.
On the island
Eight records
The Lord's my Shepherd (Crimond)
Metrical setting of the 23rd Psalm (Crimond)
Dearly Beloved / As Time Goes By
Medley of Dearly Beloved and As Time Goes By
Finale of Piano Concerto No. 2Favourite
Eileen Joyce (piano), Sir Lewis (conductor)
Finale of Piano Concerto No. 2
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:58Have you had any experience of solitude in your travels?
No, I don't think I have, not absolutely alone. In fact, I'm sure I haven't. … Well, I think I'd spend most of my night trying to get a bit of peace and quiet, and I think I should be delighted at first. I like getting away from it all. I like to walk and be in the country alone, but whether I'd welcome absolute solitude.
Presenter asks
1:23Do you consider yourself a musical person?
No, I don't really. I'm probably tone deaf and tune-deaf. I do like music. It says a tune in it. … I make bull-like noises, which I call singing, but from which my family run in all directions.
Presenter asks
2:17How did you set about choosing these eight records for the desert island?
Well, although either consciously or unconsciously, I'm sure I'd avoid certain music which would evoke memories that might prove, well, two point-only textile music that would bring to my memory moments of great happiness. It would be so much beyond recapture that the music would be unendurable.
The keepsakes
The book
Thomas Babington Macaulay
I love Macaulay's picturesque, great ruling phrases.
Presenter asks
What was your first ambition?
Curious how strong that ambition was, at school I remember as speech days I used to watch the reporters, with Henry to help me, sitting in the front taking notes, and I learnt shorthand in my spare time.
Presenter asks
10:22What do you remember about that broadcast from Alamein, the breakthrough?
I remember recording that dispatch because I was standing out in the desert with the tanks grinding past on both sides of me, looming up out of the fog of sand that they were throwing up, and I couldn't see them until they were practically on top of me, and now I was leaping from one side to the other, still talking, as I heard them coming, and I remember one of them cut the cable between me and my recording truck.
“I make bull-like noises, which I call singing, but from which my family run in all directions.”
“I remember savaging one four companies that came to me. With all the precocity of youth and inexperienced, I really tore them apart.”
“I remember recording that dispatch because I was standing out in the desert with the tanks grinding past on both sides of me, looming up out of the fog of sand that they were throwing up, and I couldn't see them until they were practically on top of me, and now I was leaping from one side to the other, still talking, as I heard them coming, and I remember one of them cut the cable between me and my recording truck.”
“I would be there, Groy, that I'd been playing this particular one long after I found that I couldn't bear the sound of the other seven.”