Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Politician and economic spokesman for the Liberal Party, MP.
On the island
Eight records
Choir of King's College, Cambridge
Most people know it in a different version. But this is by Harold Dark, who was in fact organist at King's while I was there during the war, because Boris Ord was away in the Royal Air Force. And Doctor Dark is still alive, and I'd like to hear that conducted by David Wilcox, who was organ master there when I was there.
Fritz Wunderlich and Paul Meisen
I've thought about which bit of bark to take. But uh in the um Christmas Oratorio there is a marvellous tenor solo, which is a kind of duet with the flute, and somebody once described Bach as uh celestial mathematics, and I think the two, the flute and the tenor, working together here, show this only too clearly.
Symphony No. 1 in D major "Titan"
London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Georg Solti
This is really a recent discovery in some ways, um and it's a discovery because of the BBC Third programme, particularly in my car. And this is Marla. I've become a a Marla addict, I suppose you could say, and I would like to hear a bit from the Titan Symphony, the Symphony No. One.
Since we're talking about Cornwall, um there is a moment once a year in Cornwall, in my own constituency in North Cornwall, which I cherish very much. I always try to get there and I hope I shall be there this time on May the first, May Day, and that's in Padstow, where there's a great obios festival... it's the men who dance in the street and it's a it's a splendid festival and I'd like to hear the Padstow May song.
In Cornwall we have um a a poetic tradition, I think one can say, and we have in fact teaching in a local primary school in Launstone a man who is in my view the best English poet writing in the language today... and I'd like to hear the seasons in North Cornwall read by him.
I said just now that um this Easter I would be joining the New Key Choral Society and singing the tenor line in the Messiah, and that'll be a very enjoyable experience. I try to do that as often as possible at Easter, and therefore I would like to hear something from the Messiah.
Symphony No. 9 in D minor "Choral"Favourite
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Herbert von Karajan
Well, I would want to know that Western civilization was still alive and well. And I think the high point of Western civilization in music is Beethoven's Choral Symphony, and I'd probably play it to myself over and over and over again.
Well, Mozart. One would have to have Mozart with one. And I think the magic flute. And there is the marvellous duet between Papagena and Papagheno just after he's uh decided not after all to commit suicide, where they have a great reconciliation at the end, and I'd like to hear that.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:30Could you endure extended loneliness?
Yes, I suppose I could endure it for a while, that is to say, a few years but um I don't know that I could endure it for ever.
Presenter asks
0:47What would you be happiest to get away from?
Oh, the telephone, without any doubt at all.
Presenter asks
1:14How much rehearsal did you have to achieve that magnificent sound [at King's College Choir School]?
We practised twice a day. We had an early morning rehearsal first thing in the morning, in which the organ master or the organist used to come up and uh rehearse the boys alone, and then we had a um rehearsal in the afternoon for about an hour before the service, um, where we practised the music of the day.
Presenter asks
6:11Had you any idea then what you wanted to be apart from law?
The keepsakes
The book
A History of Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell
I think, in fact, one would want to spend the time thinking about the infinite and making one's soul, and really one would want a lot to think about.
The luxury
I think a piano. I've always threatened that when I finally retire from everything, I will again start to teach myself to play the piano, which I do very badly, and I would actually like to sit there and practise for hours on end.
No, absolutely none at all. I mean I had in fact been nursed along by my father who was a solicitor to the idea that I was going to be a barrister, but it was a it was a very sort of romantic childhood notion and frankly I didn't like the law and uh… So I really had no idea at all what I was going to be when I was at Cambridge.
Presenter asks
10:31Were you by now taking any active part in politics?
No, I wasn't. I suppose you could say that my economics at Cambridge had um stimulated an interest in the economic side of politics, but it wasn't until I got into the Royal Air Force that I really became politically motivated, and that was because um it coincided with Suez, and Suez was the great political watershed of my generation, and I remember being so angry and furious that I decided that it was time people like me did something.
Presenter asks
11:07How long did that loyalty [to the Labour Party] last?
Well, I was in the Labour Party, a very active member of the Labour Party, though not a candidate in any way, until about nineteen sixty.
Presenter asks
20:13How much practical skill do you have for the castaway? Would you look after yourself all right?
Yes, I think I could. Um my wife and children certainly think I could. They regard me as a kind of splendid do-it-yourselfer, and I have built a lot of things around the house and made the kitchen and all the units and things like that, and I usually spend uh a part of any weekend that I am at home, either here or in Cornwall, doing things like that. Yes, I think I could survive very well, actually.
“Suez was the great political watershed of my generation, and I remember being so angry and furious that I decided that it was time people like me did something.”
“I think I've made something of a political career out of always foretelling the worst in the British economy, and if you foretell the worst, it usually comes about in Britain, alas.”
“I think, in fact, one would want to spend the time thinking about the infinite and making one's soul, and really one would want a lot to think about.”