Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
2 appearances
A footballer who won the 1966 World Cup, played over 600 games for Leeds United, and managed the Republic of Ireland to two World Cups.
On the island
Eight records
September SongFavourite
I think it's a poignant song because it it it's virtually every person's life when you listen to it through.
I actually met Roger Miller in Vancouver. I went to see him in concert and I went to the back of the stage and said, Could I meet Roger Moore? And the guy said, Yes, go through, knock on that door. I went through, knocked on the door. The guy came to the door, Roger Miller, and he said, Yes. I said, I'm from England. I would uh I'm going home in the morning. I would like to meet you. And I went in, had a beer with him, stayed half an hour or so, had a great chat, and he was a very charming, nice man.
I met the Dubliners years ago when I used to coach in Vancouver many, many years ago and I got introduced to them. They were on on tour out there. And they've become all become friends of mine since, and typically Irish and what the Irish are about. You know, good music, good fun, and enjoy yourself.
I would have played [Lady in Red] 'cause that's my favourite one, but it's been played all the time on radio, so I thought, Well, let's let's go for his Don't Pay the Ferryman, because that's also one of his best songs.
We've all been in this sort of situation. And it's a song that we used to sing on the bus when we went to games with the team and with the Irish.
It's not a song I know very well of Christie's. Or I didn't think when I heard the the title. Then when I heard the song, I've been singing it for longy years. And uh it's a good song and it's it's one of Christie's best.
I did a bit of this in my time. I've wandered all over the place. And if anybody's followed a Wandering Star, it's been me.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:30Were you destined for [mining]?
I think almost every kid who's born in a mining area, unless there is something else for him, is destined for to be a miner. I worked down the pit for about six months. Actually qualified to be go down and work there.
Presenter asks
1:14At that age [fifteen and a half] do you go in as a player or do you have to work on the ground stuff?
Yes, you're going as a player. That's the prime … But usually you've got other jobs to do. Such as well when I was on the ground staff we had uh sweep the terraces, keep the place tidy. Paint the toilets out during the summer. Pick the weeds off the field. Thousands of menial tasks.
Presenter asks
3:30How many league games have you played in your career?
towards the end of last season. A lot of football.
Presenter asks
3:30How many times have you played for England?
The keepsakes
The book
Encyclopedia of how to survive in the wild
The book I wanted really was was the one on survival. I would like uh encyclopedia of how to survive in the wild and uh just to help me along with what I already know.
The luxury
I have to have a fishing rod. I mean I expect to get some hooks with it. I mean, I can sit all day on the rocks, catchin' nothin'. And just looking around and relaxing and enjoying it and with the expectancy that I might get something. Of course on a desert island I would have to catch something, so a fishing rod would also be a necessity.
Thirty six they tell me I never did count them. But um thirty-six people tell me and they're they're probably right.
Presenter asks
6:25What's gone wrong with football? Why has it become such a violent game?
I don't believe it has become a violent game. I think um the press and the television cover more the violence than they do the football nowadays, and they give it more publicity than it ever did before.
Presenter asks
8:00What's going to happen when you wind down? What do you want to do? Do you want to manage?
I probably will want to. I don't think I would ever like to be a manager in the sense of of running a club for handling the the the pay checks and worrying about finance and painting the stands and all this business. No, I wanna handle players, I wanna handle a team. … I'll will probably be a manager. Mainly because I've been in the game so long I know nothing else.
Presenter asks
5:21What are your memories of that childhood home [in Ashington], and describe the house to me.
Well, the house was we didn't have a bathroom. We had a kitchen. … The house was always clean and spotless. I always remember my mother was a very good housekeeper and she would always have the house clean and tidy and uh our curtains were were her main thing in her life.
Presenter asks
5:51Did you and your brothers all share a bedroom and a bed?
Yes. … we all shared a bed. I mean, we had a bedroom upstairs, which was me mum and father's, and then we had the big bedroom next door, which we had a double bed in, and Bobby, Gordon, Tommy, and myself used to all sleep in it together in the winter. Not always in the summer, 'cause it was a single bed, but in the winter it was very cold. Who slept in the middle was what you always used to fight over, because that was the warmest spot.
Presenter asks
6:22As the oldest, did you have to look after the others?
Oh yeah, very much so. Bobby particularly. I mean, Bobby was I think there's about eighteen two and a two years and eight months between me and our kid. … I had to take him, traps him round, look after him during the day, make sure that he was okay, and uh I didn't like it. … I like the sea, I like the countryside, I like to go bird nesting, I like to go picking blackberries, I like to go mushroom and I like to go pick taties. And Bobby didn't.
Presenter asks
7:14How much did it stick in your craw [that Bobby was courted by glamorous clubs]?
Not at all. I liked playing football, but it wasn't a be-all and end-all of my life.
Presenter asks
24:39Can you describe what that meant to you as an individual [to be made an honorary Irish citizen]?
In England we don't do that. You you've got to win something. If we'd have won the World Cup, I would have expected it. But when you don't win it, when you get sort of get to the last eight of the World Cup, which for a country the size of Ireland was amazing. … At no real idea how it would build up, but it didn't happen immediately. It it happened over a period of years … And the expectancy of the Irish never changed. They weren't interested that we're not going to win the World Cup. They never even dreamt that w that was a possibility.
Presenter asks
30:18Has [the rift between Bobby and your mother] damaged your relationship with him as well?
Oh, I think so. … I wouldn't ignore him. I walk in and I have ignored him on the odd occasion, but uh I I regret that. That's silly. That's silly. Life's too short to argue about things like that. … He's still our kid, and he's still my brother, and uh I'm sure one of these days we'll … either have a good fight or we'll have a good argument over it.
“I've been very happy at Leeds. On a whole, yes, it's the only club I've ever wanted to play for.”
“This was probably the two happiest years in my life, in fact. … I made more friends. Saw more of the south of England anyway than I'd ever thought I would.”
“It was quite a thrill at the time. It was something I never thought would happen to me to actually play with him at Wembley for England, especially at Wembley.”
“I play me I play better when I'm nervous. Unfortunately I find I've played a game so long that I tend and certain games to play him very flat. So that I've got to really gee myself to give a performance.”
“I like the phone in Germany, they eat better than anywhere I've ever been. And uh I like a night out after a game and you can always find somewhere to go in Germany.”
“I want to do the thing that I'm there being paid for, which is to impart whatever knowledge I've I've gained in football, whatever training methods, whatever ideas I've got.”
“I was tough and you know, I liked the fight. I now watch referees refereed today and think to myself, uh maybe I wouldn't have played now.”
“I was brought up in a in a in an area where nobody was very rich and if you wanted anything you had to work for it, and I've always worked for things.”
“I don't like the word adulation. I like to think of the Irish as friends of mine.”
“I once wrote a letter and applied [to manage England], and never got a reply. And I I can never understand that. It made me feel a little bit bitter about the way I was thought of in English football.”