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Castaway
1 appearance
Cricket commentator and former player; known for his long tenure on BBC Radio 3's Test Match Special.
On the island
Eight records
Eton College Musical Society and Orchestra
I was five years at Eaton. They were probably in some ways the happiest of my life. Power Without Responsibility. I absolutely adored it, and I feel I could almost go back there tomorrow.
If You're Anxious for to Shine
John Reed with the New Symphony Orchestra of London
I've loved all my life. I was taken to see the first one I ever saw, The Pirates of Penzance, by my mother and father at the Theatre Royal in Norwich when I was still at Sunningdale. And this, I love the Patter songs from Gilbert and Sullivan.
Noël Coward with His Majesty's Theatre Orchestra
Noel Card, who's always been a tremendous favourite of mine. I first heard Noel Card on record when I was very young. I think again my father probably enjoyed him very much. I love the stately homes of England. I think on my desert island it'll remind me of so much.
Maurice Chevalier with the MGM Studio Orchestra
It very much reminds me of the excitement of the sixties, and also of the fact that I saw Murray Chevalier in person at his last performance in England at the time of the twist, and the old boy of eighty something was twisting better than anyone.
Test Match Special: The Leg Over Giggle and The StreakerFavourite
Brian Johnston, Jonathan Agnew and John Arlott
Brian Johnston and John Arlott, really, not together. John Arlott heralded the first ever streaker at Lords, which was in the Test match in 1975... But first of all, I would love to listen to, and on Desdau, these bring back so many memories, to the famous giggle, Johnners and Aggers at the Oval in 1991, when Botham was out.
Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra with the MGM Studio Orchestra
High Society, is the film that I think I've seen more than any other and the the the song from it which I absolutely love is Well Did You Ever when both Bing and Frank were w w w were very well oiled and um it's it's it's glorious.
Who Do You Think You Are Kidding, Mr. Hitler?
Jimmy Perry and Derek Taverner
Dad's Army theme tune Who do you think you're kidding, mister Hitler? This kills two birds in one stone. I love Dad's Army, and of course Bud sung by Bud Flanagan, and I was very much brought up on the Crazy Gang at the Victoria Palace
Victor Borger, who I think was tremendous fun, the Dane, who had this way with words and and and this way with punctuation.
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:46What do you bring to the wireless commentary?
Well, I get, I know, this is the awful thing. It's rather still stuck on me that. When I did my first trial for BBC, this was about 1968... Henry Riddle... said, you've got to try and make the listeners feel they're there. You've got to try and paint the picture for them... and that is my excuse for mentioning buses and everything else. And I stick to it.
Presenter asks
6:43What happened in your accident in 1957?
I bicycled up... talking over my shoulder to a very friend of mine... looking backwards and I wasn't looking and then I went straight over the road and into a bus... I believe my skull was cracked all the way round, except for an inch at the back... I had to have a lot of plastic surgery done too... and of course what I really suffered from... my reflexes had gone. I mean I couldn't signal from eye to feet. I couldn't move my legs. And I never played cricket as well again.
Presenter asks
10:18What are your memories of your father?
My father was a yes, he was a a formidable chap. He stood six foot six inches tall... I think I was frightened of him. Certainly, and I think it was the age, you see, when I was young and had all my meals in the nursery with Nanny... My papa did one thing he did for me. He read to me. He had a wonderful voice.
The keepsakes
The book
P. G. Wodehouse
My book would have to be P.G. Wodehouse. The one I would take, actually, is A Pelican at Blandings, which I think the Blandings Castle saga is more fun than Jeeves.
The luxury
A photograph album filled with photographs of family and friends
what I want to do is take a photograph album and I want to take 40 or 50 mug shots of all people who've been close to me in my life in terms of cricket. ... so I could flick through the pages and each one, each photograph would bring tremendous memories of people I've loved.
Presenter asks
16:35Did you feel inferior when you didn't achieve the academic success expected by your family?
I did. I think I had an enormous inferiority complex... I didn't really come to terms with it, and I sort of thought life would go on, you know, in the same way that it had. I don't think I ever really, at that stage of my life, rationalized my actions.
Presenter asks
28:14How much of your on-air personality is you, and how much is a professional persona?
I don't think any of its professional persona I've never really consciously said anything or developed a manner or anything of luck anything of that sort. It has just simply been me. And unless one gets desperate feedback... I just I just bang on, you know.
“I've always believed you've got to live in the present. There's no point in looking at the past, you can do nothing about it. And you can't do much about the future either.”
“I was lucky, obviously, to live. But so where I was really lucky was not to end up as a cabbage.”
“I suppose I don't much care for coming second in a way. And it seems to me that if you do anything, it's worth doing well, isn't it?”
“I love laughing and I think it's terribly important. I think we all feel better when we laugh.”