Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
2 appearances
British Prime Minister and Conservative leader from 1990, known for his humble origins and vision of a classless society.
On the island
Eight records
Beautiful piece of music, very haunting, lovely clarinet introduction, and I have spent years listening to my daughter graduate from the recorder to the clarinet and playing in the room next door. I'll be able to remember that as well.
The best holiday Norma and I ever had was at a chantry in the West Country. And the chantry was empty, and we had taken one long playing record with us, and it was June Bronhill singing sacred songs, and amongst it was the Holy City, and I can hear it echoing now as we lay out on the lawn in this large empty chantry.
I remember turning on the radio as I lay there in plaster up to my thigh for month after month, and this was the record that always seemed to be playing at that time.
Mad scene from Lucia di LammermoorFavourite
And as she began to sing it, I nodded off. And how our relationship survived that, I'm never sure.
But to sit four feet away and see him playing is to see genius at work.
Test Match Special commentary: England v Australia, 14 August 1948, Bradman's last innings
The greatest way I have to relax is watching cricket. And I'd like a piece of commentary... John Arlott commentating on the Test match, England against Australia, in 1948, Bradman's last innings.
Pomp and Circumstance March No.1 in D major, Op.39
It's a lovely piece of music.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:13You entered the House of Commons just as Mrs Thatcher was becoming Prime Minister in 1979. What would you have said if anyone had told you then that you were going to succeed her?
I'd have thought it was a pretty unlikely prospect, and I guess most other people would have made the same judgment.
Presenter asks
2:09Will you be happy to sit on a desert island away from it all, or will you be determined to escape?
Only for a short time. The idea of staying there for a brief while I would very much enjoy. But because I was trapped there, I would want to get away. I would have to try and escape, and I'm sure I would.
Presenter asks
9:14What happened when your family suddenly lost everything?
My father, who was then in his seventies, had entered into some injudicious business venture or another. ... he was left with a large debt of some sort, and being my father, he met the debt in full, and that meant selling our home in Worcester Park and moving away.
The keepsakes
The book
Anthony Trollope
It's a beautifully written book, and I think in Lilydale there is the favourite heroine my favourite heroine in all fiction.
The luxury
Full-size replica of the Oval Cricket Ground
Oh, it's a big island, and it'll be lovely. The sun will shine, the grass will grow, the pitch will be beautiful, and I will be able to bowl on it, or bat on it, with the bowling machine that lives in the Ken Barrington Centre to my heart's content.
Presenter asks
11:08What effect did your family's fall into poverty have upon you as a young adolescent?
made me feel pretty strongly that I didn't want other people to live in the same circumstances. I think it did harden some attitudes in me that otherwise wouldn't have been there.
Presenter asks
16:04How difficult is it for you to preside over increasing unemployment, given your own experiences of hardship?
You can live with it only for one reason. And that is because you are in a position to put into place the policies that you think will recreate jobs... Providing you believe you can do that, then I think you can live with the difficulties.
Presenter asks
19:29Your transformation from the wrong to the right side of the track was quite calculated, wasn't it?
Yes, it was. I don't shrink from admitting that. Yes, it was. I wanted to get into Parliament. ... I had to build up my curriculum vita in another way, with work within the party, with experience in other ways. And I needed a qualification.
“He was a very colourful character, the best one on one raconteur I have ever heard, bar none.”
“made me feel pretty strongly that I didn't want other people to live in the same circumstances.”
“Many of the things I've done have been impulsive. The most important and worthwhile piece of impulsion was, as you say, Norma.”
“What I'd really like to take with me is a full size replica of the Oval Cricket Ground.”