Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
News broadcaster and face of Channel 4 News for 21 years, known for his distinctive ties and passionate reporting.
On the island
Eight records
Bach Collegium Stuttgart, conducted by Helmuth Rilling
I don't think you could possibly survive on a desert island without Bach. And so as I'm also a coral fiend as well, um St John Passion.
Well this is Eric Clapton and Leila. It's a coincidence that my own eldest daughter is Leila, anyway she's spelt differently and she was informed by a Persian Leila rather than a Clapton Leila. But when I was at university this was the absolute heyday of the greatest of British rock of all time.
Wells Cathedral Choir, conducted by Malcolm Archer
Well, this is a pretty apt moment to bring in Herbert Howells, who incidentally taught my mother composition at the Royal College of Music. But that's not really why I'm choosing. I'm choosing it because it is emblematic of my life at Winchester Cathedral. Aged eight, I won a choral scholarship to Winchester Cathedral, and this was one of the pieces I used to sing.
The 12 Cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic and Julia Zenko
This is something which, despite the fact that I'd done voluntary service overseas in Africa and absolutely fallen in love with Africa, I thought Africa was utopia until I got to Central and Latin America. And I think this piece of music kind of expresses everything that you are bombarded by in Latin America. It's romance, it's life, it's vitality, it's poverty, it's grief. It's just this amazing piece of music.
Well, very much in mind of of A Love of Africa, I think Orchestra Berbab, Uru Horas uh pretty well sums up the beat. ... that amazing nocturnal atmosphere where there's no electric light, but there are paraffin lamps burning and people dancing and a kind of vibrant community life.
Well, my next piece of music is very filmic, it has to be said. And one of the sort of lurking desires of any television journalist is that he's really liked to set his reports to music. And Pat Matheny and his band write particularly filmic music. And this piece, The Truth Will Always Be, is something I used of migrant South African workers setting off at three in the morning for the three-hour trip to work, for the nine-hour day and the three hours coming back.
Well this is um Mara Carlyle, who is a a remarkable singer of the now. And what's also remarkable is that she has been a staff member at the New Horizon Youth Centre, which is the day center where I worked after I was sent down from university and where I'm still chair to this day. I had no idea that we had in our midst the most amazingly accomplished singer. And she's a lovely person and a friend, but just spellbinding in this.
Kyrie (from Petite messe solennelle)Favourite
Michel Piquemal Vocal Ensemble, conducted by Michel Piquemal
My final piece is an absolute beauty. It's it's completely irreverent, uh mass by Rossini, which has got syncopation and a real uplift. And again, it's something when I'm on my way to report. On come the headphones, up comes the curier from Rossini's Piti MS Solinelle.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:57Even after so many years in the job, do you think you still have quite a sharp sense of injustice?
I'm afraid I think I do, and and it's it's often the villain of the piece. It's a it's a difficult thing to keep sorted.
Presenter asks
1:33What about being objective and neutral? Do you think they are the same thing?
No, I don't think any human being is neutral. I think it's impossible to be neutral about anything. But I think you can attempt to be objective and you can attempt to be balanced. But I think one of the things you have to accept is that you can look at something and you will take a view on it, and that is the natural human condition, and I suffer from it.
Presenter asks
3:03When you were in El Salvador, you found your name on a death list. Didn't make you want to get the first plane home?
No, um because m it was a bit of a badge of honour to have your name on a death list. You felt you'd really arrived. You know, the thing is you used to put a you used to put the wardrobe against the door, so that you would at least hear the clang when the gunman came for you in the night. And one night there was a tremendous banging about, and I shouted from my dormant condition, Get out, get out! And then within a few moments, somebody was going down the corridor saying, Earthquake! Earthquake! We were all out like bullets. But that's all it was.
The keepsakes
The book
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
Doris Kearns Goodwin
it is the most uplifting book that I've read in the last two decades. I mean absolutely sensational book about a period of utterly troubled American history in which a truly wonderful man prevailed by doing deals with people who hated him, people who were his rivals, and bringing them to love him, to work with him, and to resolve America's crisis.
The luxury
Once you're trying to paint a picture, particularly if you paint landscapes, you get completely lost in it. Nothing else matters.
Presenter asks
9:27Was your father a stern figure?
I I suppose these days you would say he was, yes. Not without humanity, but he was a a pretty daunting figure. He was extremely tall, six foot seven, and pretty big with it. Very large shoes, so fourteen, fifteen, which of course strike a child more than they would strike an adult because you're nearer them.
Presenter asks
21:04What took you to Uganda [on your gap year]?
What really took me to Uganda was trying to impress my father. I wanted to tell my father that I really was, you know, a bit of an achiever. It was a massive experience because here was this conservative boy who'd never met ethnic minorities really, had never really lived other than in the countryside of Sussex. I was suddenly 250 miles from Kampala on the banks of the Nile. You had to cycle 15 miles to get the mail. I was grievously homesick, and if I'd had email or a mobile phone, I would have said, Mum, come and get me.
“No, I don't think any human being is neutral. I think it's impossible to be neutral about anything. But I think you can attempt to be objective and you can attempt to be balanced.”
“I cry on location. That does happen, you know, and it's a good thing it happens. Because if it doesn't, you bottle it up and you come back bonkers.”
“I am not good with my own company. Um, I'll miss people dreadfully. But I'm perfectly good at surviving. Yes. No, I could build a shack. I I can do anything. I'm extremely, you know, hands on.”