Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
An inventor best known for creating the bagless vacuum cleaner.
On the island
Eight records
Erbarme dich, mein Gott (from St Matthew Passion)
I always wondered why they selected that particular speed was a Kathleen Ferrier record. And um I suppose it was the first woman I heard singing and I thought all women sang like this and in a way I wish they did.
Bassoon Concerto in B-flat major, K. 191 (Rondo)
Gwydion Brooke, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham
I had to play it in in in grade eight and I played it appallingly badly, so it's lovely to hear it played properly.
I'm the child of the sixties. And Bob Bob Dylan I mean he he looked extraordinary in the sixties. He had this uh great long black curly hair, and was quite insolent, yet a poet. Um and th there's a wonderful line in in The Simple Twist of Fate, which is he felt the heat of the night hit him like a friend.
Warum ist das Licht gegeben dem Mühseligen?
The Bath Camerata Singing Brahms, and the my wife sings with the Bath Camerotta, and they're an amateur choir, but anything but amateur. They're extremely professional and beautiful, and I would love to have this record with me on the desert island.
Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26 (Adagio)
Maxim Vengerov, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, conducted by Kurt Masur
I've chosen it because well of course it's extraordinarily beautiful, but also I think the most erotic piece of music I've ever heard.
Blessed Are They That Fear the Lord
this is rather an interesting again vocal, but it's a counter tenor and a tenor and trebles, and the trebles have this rather cheeky and haunting question throughout the song, Where is he, but where is he?
Slow DownFavourite
my son Sam's band. He formed a band um two, three years ago called Wax On, Wax Off, and this is one of the gentler numbers.
The Beatitudes (arranged to Albinoni's Adagio)
Choir of New College, Oxford, conducted by Edward Higginbottom
My final record, I bought in a French supermarket and the thought was just simply beautiful and it's by Albinone and it's called The Beatitudes.
In conversation
Presenter asks
3:20When was the moment, often called the Eureka moment, when you thought, I know what the world hasn't got and what it would like to have?
It was a moment I I was in my ball barrow factory welding um a huge metal cyclone that we were putting into the factory to replace a kind of giant vacuum cleaner. And uh the the difference between the two was that the Giant vacuum cleaner we had before had a bag, or something like a bag, that was constantly clogging. And I discovered about industrial cyclones that collected dust by centrifugal force without clogging. And as I was welding this thing, I thought, well, why on earth aren't these things in miniature used in vacuum cleaners? So I raced home, ripped the bag off my upright cleaner, and made a sort of blue peter contraption made of cardboard and sellotape and swim poetry. It could even have been a cereal packet. I won't say which brand, and then a bit of swimming pool haze, and started pushing it around the room, and it worked.
Presenter asks
7:14Your father was very ill when you were small, and eventually he died when you were nine. What effect did that have on you?
Well, I I think it affected me hugely. It it certainly made me feel very different and alone. It shouldn't have, because my mother was a wonderful mother and father substitute and very capable and quite domineering in a way. But I think seeing him die and being without him really for the last three years of his life affected me hugely.
The keepsakes
The book
Olives: The Life and Lore of a Noble Fruit
Mort Rosenblum
I chose instead a really beautiful book called Olives: The Life and Lure of a Noble Fruit by Mort Rosenblum. And it's a most extraordinary adventure around the Mediterranean, visiting people who grew olives. And it was a most stunningly interesting book about a a tree and a fruit and oil that I love.
The luxury
Presenter asks
15:24What was the lesson you learned [when the ball barrow company was sold out from under you]?
Well the lesson I l w was to in fact to have control. And I it's a very difficult thing to do that because if you're raising money inevitably you have to give away bits of the business. But I determined from that moment onwards never to do that w at all costs and whatever happened. It's better not to get into the venture if you're not going to have full control.
Presenter asks
23:06How close did you come to bankruptcy during that time [before launching the vacuum cleaner]?
Well, very close, on on several occasions. And qu I think on at least three occasions I knew that unless I negotiated and signed that deal, that particular deal, I would be bankrupt. And I owed over a million pounds to Lloyd's Bank at one point.
Presenter asks
25:29You are obviously somebody who is deeply, deeply determined. Where did that come from?
I th I think probably from long distance running. Uh I started doing long distance running when I was about ten or eleven and got really keen on it when I was about fourteen or fifteen. And learnt from that that you you only win races by going through the pain barrier and realizing that other people are also going through the pain barrier. So if at the very moment that you're feeling the worst you accelerate, you'll demoralize the others.
“an obsession is romantic, I think. And I've been lucky enough to have been creating things. And creating is romantic, rewarding, emotional.”
“I love engineering and love machinery, and I see tremendous beauty in machinery. And I think things that work well start to look good as well.”
“It's better not to get into the venture if you're not going to have full control.”
“I think probably from long distance running. ... learnt from that that you you only win races by going through the pain barrier and realizing that other people are also going through the pain barrier. So if at the very moment that you're feeling the worst you accelerate, you'll demoralize the others.”