Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
BBC radio broadcaster best known for his distinctive early morning voice.
On the island
Eight records
The Faithful HussarFavourite
Louis Armstrong and His All-Stars
I think I'd like them to bring back a lot of sort of happy memories. … I'd think at the moment of being shipwrecked, I'd like to sort of have a with-it one, you know.
Bath Festival Chamber Orchestra
When I came out of the army at the end of the war, I hadn't got any money … the only one I liked was this one, and it would always evoke very pleasant memories, because I played it the whole time, it was the only record I had.
Something that takes me back to those days in New York. I used to go and watch Fats while I played.
Kenneth Williams and Peter Reeves
Obviously on this island, one's got to laugh a bit from time to time, and I must have a record to make me do that.
Frederick Loewe (music)/Alan Jay Lerner (lyrics)
A lot of my friends, sort of um intellectual chaps, um always scoff at this show. I thought it was absolutely marvellous, a beautiful show, and Julie Andrews sends tingles up my spine when she sings I Could Have Danced All Night.
We've got to be with it a bit on this island, and um there's one little uh trio I like pretty much, the Supremes. And I like their first record best of all.
Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
Julius Katchan [likely Julius Katchen] with the London Philharmonic Orchestra
After the war, I was lucky enough to be invited to um Cot[t]on Garden [Covent Garden] for the opening. … They did a ballet on this theme. … it was such a marvellous night … seeing people again looking elegant and gay and the women looking beautiful and of course I think Covent Garden … is the most romantic place in the world.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:35What would you expect your eight chosen records to do for you on the island? Evoke the past, cheer you up, inspire you?
Well, I think I'd it'd be a mixture. I think I'd like them to bring back a lot of sort of happy memories. … I'd like one or two, or one anyway, to make me laugh.
Presenter asks
7:30You were awarded the MC and Bar and you were wounded a couple of times, I believe, in North Africa.
No, I was only wounded once really badly. The other time wasn't really serious.
Presenter asks
9:34When you were demobilised, what did you do?
Well, before I left Forces Broadcasting when I knew I was coming out, I went along to see John Davenport, who was in Cairo as the BBC representative, and I asked him if he'd give me some letters of introduction … And the first person I called on was a delightful man called Charles Max Muller, who's a head of OB's today and sound. And he gave me a job on the General Overseas Service because he was then head of um overseas.
The keepsakes
The book
Leo Tolstoy
Well, there's a book I've read three times, and I can go on reading it again because I never remember who's in it. War and Peace. And that would keep me going, because once I finished, I'll start again.
The luxury
Well, then, I'd like some very nice, very expensive, and a great deal of it. Scented soap.
Presenter asks
10:51Why do you think you were elected to the Today programme?
I can't imagine really because it's the one programme I wanted to do and when I heard it was coming on I thought this is absolutely a super idea. … And eventually I got a telegram when I was on holiday saying would you like to do today? And with only an occasional break, you've been doing it ever since. Yes, absolutely love it.
Presenter asks
14:07Looking back on six and a half years of Today, all those hundreds of celebrities and centenarians and eccentrics, whom do you remember?
That's a frightfully difficult thing because I never remember anybody except of course Ruth Drew who I'll always remember who's one of our contributors, a marvellous woman, and old Mrs. Nicholas who's dead. She died when she was 109. It was absolutely fascinating talking about her childhood.
“No, I'm absolutely useless, but oddly enough, I won a music prize. … I won a prize at my prep school simply because they wanted me to play the piano in a concert, and I practiced so hard. Matter of fact, what I was doing was making a noise to keep people impressed to show I was at the piano, and I made such a mess of it that they couldn't put me in the concert, so they thought they'd give me the prize.”
“I had to sort of send off invoices to the publicans and stick on the stamps. And I couldn't even stick those on properly, they used to come off. And a publican rang up, he sort of said, Barnes here, Eagle Clifton Row, got me a bill this morning. It was wrong and no stamp on it, because they got a bit fed up with this. And they they asked me to leave.”
“Yes, that was a a good idea by uh a press officer and an airline. He rang up and said, I heard you say this morning that you knew of a porpoise that jumped 16 feet, and that was a world record. Well, it's quite wrong. … And I needn't have gone at all. They could have put it in the post.”