Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Director General of the National Trust, Europe's largest conservation charity, leading it through its 125th anniversary and the pandemic crisis.
On the island
Eight records
Tasmin Little with the BBC Symphony Orchestra
The sound of a lark rising is one of the most beautiful sounds you could ever imagine. And then, as it happens, the National Trust owns Raph Vaughan Williams' home in Leith Hill in Surrey. So this track is almost a collision of both the amazing built heritage that the Trust looks after, [and] the nature that is so important from a restorative point of view… And so this track reminds me of everything that I think is amazing about the Trust.
This was [my father's] favourite hymn and you know he imbued me with the value of hard work and being respectful of people around you. Everybody has a part to play and you have to respect that different people will come with different views and your job is to try to find a way of working with people, not again[st] them and I will always be grateful.
This track just makes me smile because at age, I don't know, it must have been about fifteen… I discovered the delights of [a] disco… [A] girl at school who was very glamorous… she had a birthday party at the local disco. And we spent at least two weeks getting prepared for this big night out and Blue Monday was playing and I will always remember because myself and my three other friends who I've remained friends with ever since, we danced the night away to this and this [will] always remind me of that first big night out.
She Moves Through the FairFavourite
The best bit that came out of [art] college was that I met my husband… [A] very good friend… sang this as I walked up the aisle to just one chord on a violin, and it was slightly spine chilling. It was just beautiful.
This track is one by U2. It was a concert by U2 where Bono brought John Hume and David Trimble on stage and there was this moment and it's an iconic moment where they raised their arms in recognition and celebration of the achievement of the Good Friday Agreement and what that's meant for our country. And for me, that was a really seminal moment where I really felt hope for Northern Ireland that we could move forward in a place where we could compromise and we could respect each other's cultures.
This was the anthem that the [Derry] London[derry] City of Culture bid used, and they played it on the night that they heard that they'd won. And it was such a moment. I watched it on television and I was just so pleased… apart from that, Snow Patrol, I absolutely adore. And that was the last concert that myself and my entire family went to… they're a success story for Northern Ireland.
We live in a what was a lock keeper's house… it's on a canal. And we can sit on the edge and watch kingfishers spin up and down. We've got a swan who has really become very tame and he comes up and pecks the door to be fed. It's just the most beautiful place, my happy place, and we play this when we want to relax.
I have three fabulous children… they're all in their twenties now, and they keep me young and challenge me all of the time, which is great. And they also introduce me to their own music. This track is very mainstream, I know, but it just reminds me of driving along with my daughter with this at full volume, the two of us singing at the top of our voices.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:59The pandemic has had a huge impact on the Trust. You said recently that the National Trust is an organisation that people turn to in times of trouble. Why is that?
Well, for lots of different reasons. People, when they're under stress, they return to the thing that they know that they can find comfort in. The day that we had to close our doors, that was the first time ever that the Trust had to close all of our properties. And millions of people find comfort in beautiful places, whether that's in the outdoors going for a walk, or whether that's a garden that they go to with their family, where they have that special relationship with the place and with the people that they visit with.
Presenter asks
10:57What do you think your parents' hopes were for your future?
Well, that's funny because at age 11, I have such a distinct memory of this. My headmaster at the time… said… that actually my mum should expect me to be a hairdresser because I was creative, but I was definitely more vocational was the term. And mum actually rather liked the idea of that because I could get a job three miles down the road in the local town and you know, marry and have children, and that would all be good. And that's what she wanted for me. And that was kind of the destiny for everyone… But that's what she imagined that I would be doing, and it was a matter of shock to both of them actually, that I went to art college because they were not impressed with that. I remember my dad saying so clearly, 'You're going to end up painting pictures on the pavements,' and he really had such an awful fear of that.
The keepsakes
The book
Allie Esiri
I would take that book away with me and I would read a poem every day until somebody came and rescued me.
Presenter asks
13:07You were a teenager during the height of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. What sort of understanding did you have of what was happening around you?
I think I must have been about twelve or thirteen before I realized this isn't actually normal. Not everybody else lives like this. Everywhere you went there would be roadblocks. If you would go into Belfast you were body checked. You were then searched again before you go into a shop. You know, bomb scares were really regular occurrence. I even managed to create one myself. I left my school bag at the bus stop and went up into the town… came back only to realize that my school bag was left, everybody else had gone. But they'd cordoned off the street and the army were all pointing their guns at my school bag. So… that sounds bizarre, but that was true and that's how life was.
Presenter asks
14:40How did going through the Troubles shape who you are, do you think?
I think that's exactly right. There was this sort of insidious sense of weight that was on Northern Ireland and actually to some degree is still there to this day. How it impacted me though, I think I probably am a more resilient person and probably someone who is really determined to find a way… If the Troubles did anything, it really made me feel determined that I could be both British and I am absolutely British, but I could also be proud of my Irish heritage and that I could find ways to bring those two things together.
Presenter asks
29:30The National Trust has been affected by the recent Black Lives Matter protests. You'd already commissioned a report into the colonial links of your properties and it shows that 93 have a substantial connection to slavery and to Britain's colonial past. What does that mean for their future?
What it means for their future is that we'll be able to tell the history in its fullest sense. We've known for a very long time, of course, that there have been all sorts of connections to slavery from many of our houses. One of the first questions people will ask is where did the wealth come from? Black Lives Matter did bring it more into focus and did, I guess, accelerate the issue. But this is something we've been working on for a long time… It's a matter of huge frustration for me, to be honest, that this thing about [blaming], it's shaming. It's none of that. It's about understanding and acknowledgement. And again, maybe it is something to do with my background, but I just think if you cannot get yourself to a place where you can acknowledge the past, how can you understand what the future is going to be like?
“How it impacted me though, I think I probably am a more resilient person and probably someone who is really determined to find a way… If the Troubles did anything, it really made me feel determined that I could be both British and I am absolutely British, but I could also be proud of my Irish heritage and that I could find ways to bring those two things together.”
“I had endless cups of tea and cups of coffee, and I endlessly walked around different arts groups and different community groups trying to understand what it was that they wanted from this, because they all had valid things that they wanted to bring to the party. And really, if you don't have a relationship, you can't expect people to understand what you're trying to achieve.”
“The custodian lifted, and I kid you not, lifted a pipe bomb that was left at the door of this house and took it down to the gate and then walked back up and rang the place and said you might want to come along and sort this.”
“We were met with this rather stern-looking lady in sort of sensible shoes looking at us, very sort of suspiciously telling us not to touch anything at all. And we were all terrified, of course, and we walked through the house with our arms clamped to our sides in case we would touch anything. But I was blown away by the art in it. And I remember coming away thinking, How could you ever have enough money to live in a house like that?”