Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A writer and former sprinter who ran for Great Britain.
On the island
Eight records
Help!Favourite
Well, I'd like to choose a record which for me is contemporary in the sense that the group who made this did it when I was a young man at Oxford, and it's The Beatles Help.
Bing Crosby and Louis Armstrong
My second record is again, I in this case, two geniuses in my opinion, singing a record which is virtually unknown. And why I like it particularly is because it shows the great talent of timing. It's Bing Crosby and Louis Armstrong, and you must listen to the words, Roy, very carefully, singing Brother Bill.
Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 'Choral'
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Herbert von Karajan
My next record is um Beethoven's Choral, conducted by Von Carrion. I particularly like this piece, because my wife sang in it at the Albert Hall under Sir Colin Davis, and therefore it would bring memories of my family, and she um does have a good voice, whereas I don't, and it would uh remind me of her as well.
Record number four is again one of the legendary artists. Again, showing that wonderful timing. It's Noel Coward telling his story of the wicked Mrs. Wentworth Brewster.
This one is Elton John. singing that very remarkable song, which is a tribute. To Marilyn MUNRO Candle in the wind
Much Ado About Nothing (Theme)
My next one is the theme from the National Theatre's Much Ado About Nothing, because I love the theatre, and this particular production with Robert Stevens and Maggie Smith is one that will last in everybody's memory who saw it, and it's the theme music from that, the Zepharelli production of Much Ado About Nothing.
Record number seven, because I'm only staying on your scrubby little island for the whole morning, and therefore I have chosen what can only be described as a pop record of today. This is the record that is storming the United States at the moment. I think it's a very funny record, and one should listen to the words carefully, because it applies to everybody alive. It's Mac Davis's, it's hard to be humble.
Choir of St John's College, Cambridge
My last record is Saint John's Choir School in Cambridge, singing. Many people, of course, have been on your programme and and talked all over the world of the King's College School. But in the truth is that the professionals tell me that Saint John's College are every bit as good.
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:12Were the plans for you to be a soldier?
No, my father was a soldier and my grandfather was a soldier, but I think that the the school had already turned from being a school that was based on the CCF and and at last believed in getting people to university.
Presenter asks
5:18Had you got financial resources to cover you until such time as you got into Parliament?
No, I hadn't. And the strange thing was, I decided that the way to get experience would be to fight a seat on the Greater London Council, which I did. And Harold Wilson was Prime Minister, and I stood against Sir William Fiske, the leader of the Labour Council, down in Romford. And I didn't really think I had a hope in hell. I thought I would gain some experience and get a bit of inside track knowledge on how you fight an election and what it's like to be really smashed into the dust. And of course, the Conservatives won the Greater London Council election that year, 82 to 18. And I suddenly found, aged 25, I was on the Greater London Council and I hadn't intended to be.
Presenter asks
11:52How much were you down the drain for [after the investment loss]?
Uh the worst statement that ever came through my letter box read minus four hundred and twenty seven thousand seven hundred and twenty seven pounds.
The keepsakes
The book
Fred Uhlman
I shall take a book that I consider as a masterpiece, and is only seventy pages long, which I can do quite comfortably while I'm listening to my one record, and that is called Reunion by Fred... This is Fred Ullmann the Painter. ... For me it was one of the great books I've ever read.
The luxury
a plasticine model of the presenter and a pin
I shall take a plasticine model of you. And one pin, and I shall go on sticking it in you to make sure that this is the last programme you ever do if I don't get off your awful island.
Presenter asks
14:07Can one reasonably expect to make that sort of money out of writing a first novel?
Oh, no, and of course I had absolutely no knowledge about writing. I had thought, when I wrote Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less, that if it made a couple of thousand pounds, I could put that couple of thousand pounds in the bank, and while it was there, I could then settle down to looking for a real job. And I had I had no idea. I assumed if you went away and spent six or seven weeks writing a hundred thousand words, it was bound to be published. So I went into the wilderness with absolutely no knowledge and probably a great advantage to have no knowledge, because most people who write books know that it's only one in a hundred that gets published, and only one in a hundred that hits the bestsellers' list.
Presenter asks
24:10What's your writing discipline?
It doesn't work words a day. I find that one writes what one wants to write. But from a time discipline, yes, I like to start work at seven in the morning and write until ten. It it works out about three thousand words a day, but it can be as low as two thousand and as high as three thousand five hundred. I've never been above three thousand five hundred. And then I like an hour's break until eleven. And then I like to correct it through once between eleven and say one. And then I like to take the early afternoon off. And then read it once more between six and eight in the evening. and then start again the next morning, and I find if I can keep that up for six weeks without a break, that is the discipline, because I'm terrified of stopping.
“I now have discovered in later life that there is no substitute for experience.”
“The major problem with being a Member of Parliament is that basically you're unemployable.”
“I think in many ways it was a terrific advantage to come out of the House of Commons and do something totally different without any insider's knowledge.”