Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Entrepreneur, newspaper man, public servant: revitalized Queen Magazine, launched Radio Caroline, saved Evening Standard, MD of Express Newspapers.
On the island
Eight records
I really think it's the first record I remember. It it dates back to when I was eight and living in Scotland and my sister my stepsister who's extremely beautiful teenager and permanently in love had a wind up gramophone with two seventy eight speed records, night and day and begin the begin, which she used to play continuously. And when she was at my stepbrother Blair and I used to listen to them secretly, hoping some of the magic would rub off.
Siegfried's Funeral MarchFavourite
I really got involved in all this. This last autumn at Covent Garden when I saw the whole of the ring. It was the first time in my life. I was absolutely carried away by it. And this is a dramatic climax, as far as I'm concerned, of a whelming power.
My Very Good Friend the Milkman
I think I liked him so much because of his irreverent and magical touch.
Normandy Band and Buglers of the 3rd Battalion, Royal Green Jackets
It reminds me of a very silly story in Germany when we were stationed there. The Green Jackets we always pride ourselves on doing everything different from anyone else, and of course better … somebody forgot that when they planned General [Eisenhower]'s farewell parade … we set off at our normal speed, crashed into everyone in front, caused absolute chaos.
I've chosen the bit where Tosca realizes that she is the price that Scarpia, the chief of police, requires for saving the life of her lover.
You Are the Sunshine of My Life
I've chosen this song as a a tribute to Vivian Duffield, with whom I've lived for the but just over fifteen years, in fact, who I love very much and who has made me very happy indeed.
I thought it'd be rather appropriate to uh entirely appropriate in fact for the new job uh to choose the State to Homes of England.
George Hearn and Elizabeth Parrish
I chose this song because I really believe it. As has been recently reported, Vivian and I love giving parties. We actually enjoy ourselves a lot. … And this song has become our kind of signature tune.
In conversation
Presenter asks
3:56You had a very tragic start in life, didn't you? Because your mother died as a result of your birth. What happened?
Well, she got [septicaemia], I think, at the time I was born. And in those days, when [there] weren't the kind of drugs, penicillin, etcetera, around, [septicaemia] was very serious. The story is, which I never really heard directly, as you can imagine, was that they had to choose between saving my mother or myself, and since she was a very strong Catholic, they decided to save me, which of course I would now think was entirely a wrong decision.
Presenter asks
8:45Your mother's family were the Hultons, the press dynasty, and she left you the best part of a million pounds when she died. But she left you something else too – a series of letters. Can you tell me about those?
Yes, well they they were letters written a sort of diary, really, written from the moment she knew she was pregnant, and they were addressed to J, whom I shall never know.
Presenter asks
10:11After prep school you went off to Eton, where apparently you suffered because you were terribly pretty. What happened?
The keepsakes
The book
Lord Wavell
which is a brilliant anthology of poetry selected and annotated by the late Field Marshal Lord Wavell
The luxury
For me it is the most beautiful river in the world, beside which I could sit and never, never be bored.
Well Eton was and I suppose all the other public schools at that time, and [I] think it's less so now [were] rife with homosexuality. And I was a very small boy, and small boys were always prey to large boys. I hated all that.
Presenter asks
17:56You've got a reputation for being a bit of a bully. Is that fair?
Oh, yes. I just got [angry] and still do, desperate when things aren't right. I'm a mixture of I think I'm actually quite good [at] teaching people. At the same time [it] mixes with a sort of [a] terrible intolerance about people who and things that don't work. I think it's inherited. … [My] grandfather used to smash clocks that didn't work. … What's the point of having a clock? It's a very sort of grandfather thing to do.
Presenter asks
26:13Eight years ago you were appointed Rector of the Royal College of Art. According to which reports you read you were either a disaster or a godsend. What's your assessment of what you tried to achieve there?
Well … the place was in a terrible mess. So one really had a tremendously hard time to rebuild the structures and the self-confidence and get good people. … The Royal College … has now regained an excellence which is totally accepted internationally. … We've completely rebuilt it, put it in from seven awful buildings into one, two neighbouring buildings, re-equipped it.
Presenter asks
30:25You say you're looking forward to your sojourn on the desert island. Won't it be rather quiet for a man who enjoys parties, who likes people, who thrives on conflict?
Well, I I will find something. [I'm] very very practical. [I'm] very good with [hammers] and screwdrivers and all those kind of things. Love carpentry, do all those sort of things. And [I'm] sure there will be animals, I love animals, [I'm] just [extraordinarily] interested in what's what's around at all times.
“I've always longed to be old. I don't know why, and now I'm sixty, I really feel terribly well and very energetic.”
“[My father] felt that they had uh, uh in a way, with me, killed his wife. Forever afterwards I always believed, and he never denied, that when he saw me I was the murderer of my mother.”
“The [newspaper management] life … broke up my marriage, it broke up [the family], one was completely unlivable with, because you left every morning, came back at 11:30 at night, dead. … When I finally left Express newspapers, thank God I was fired by Lord Matthews a minute too soon, I made a speech to the staff and I ended up by saying I've, since I left, applied to rejoin the human race and been refused.”
“My early life has given me huge reserves. I'm just not frightened of anything.”