Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Broadcaster and BBC chief news correspondent, known for reporting from Tiananmen Square, the Gulf War, and Bosnia.
On the island
Eight records
Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, second movement
Yehudi Menuhin, London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Landon Ronald
I did my university revision to this. It sort of calmed the nerves. It sounded lovely.
this is utter jealousy as well as delight to listen to her.
Estuans Interius from Carmina Burana
Thomas Allen, London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by André Previn
pure sentiment for the North East of England… I was just up the road in Sunderland.
London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent
It makes me think of this country, of which I'm very fond.
pure nostalgia for the desert… driving across it when we all went to war.
Duet from Act One of La Bohème
José Carreras, Barbara Hendricks, French National Orchestra, conducted by James Conlon
first taken to opera when I was about ten or eleven… totally fell in love with this.
I suppose it all started in Durham Cathedral, which I still love going back to.
Symphony No. 6 in E minor, first movementFavourite
Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, conducted by Sir Neville Marriner
the kind of music which evokes when I'm abroad… the lovely countryside and a way of life and values and people and this country.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:06Are you surprised to find yourself where you are, doing what you do? It wasn't exactly planned, was it?
Very surprised. Not at all planned. No, I left school, which had trained me, or had hoped that I would leave, in order to fill in a year or two learning a little bit of light cookery or perhaps some useful nursing before marrying a missionary and going out to minister to the Empire. And even when I left school, the Empire had somehow disappeared. So I had to knuckle down, go to university, where I read an extremely interesting but not terribly practical degree in Old Icelandic and Swedish, and come out and find a job. And in desperation, applied to the BBC and at the first interview, and I think it's still on a bit of paper somewhere round this building, was asked what are you prepared to do for the BBC? and apparently replied anything.
Presenter asks
3:26What would you say are your characteristics, negative as well as positive, that have got you to where you are?
I'm curious about just about anything. I really am. I found when I joined local radio that I could actually make programmes about dustbin lids. I did on one occasion. You had to in local radio. Have ideas, and I didn't feel I was creative. So I just used my eyes and my ears, looked at the world around me, and said, What can we do something interesting about? And off I went.
Presenter asks
The keepsakes
The luxury
A large Victorian bath with claw feet
because that is what I fantasize about most of the time. Um, when I'm working, and I'd have thought that if you are on this lovely island, I presume it's going to be lovely, please? And I will lie in the bath and I will think, This is civilization. This is all right. I will live with what I have round me. But I'd like my bath, please.
What are your memories of the Iranian Embassy siege?
There were a number of us who spent a lot of time crouched on a pavement. We'd no idea really what was going on, though we could guess at certain things. And when the actual moment came round, I, more than anything, I think, was filled with fear because I knew one of the people inside who was a PBC sound recordist. The moment being when the SAS was going to go in, yeah. Yeah, and I suppose the first thought I had was, My God, something's happened to him. And then pulling my brain together and saying, Oh, well, whatever, get on with it, get on with it. And I specifically remember that moment of thinking you set some things to one side for the moment. It's not a matter of not having the feelings, but you are there to do the job.
Presenter asks
14:37Why did you suddenly decide to find your real family after not knowing for some 45 years or more?
And she died as I went off to the Gulf War. And something you mentioned earlier, that I actually had to fill in the forms when I joined the army. And the army appears not to just have one single line for next of kin, but some enormous page. And I realized that my adopting father, who is by then very frail and a little confused and in a nursing home, that I didn't actually have any relatives. That was it. … So when I came back, what I did was I set about to a friend who was very kind and put me in touch with a counsellor. And this is the proper way to do it. And I would say to anyone who's thinking of it, you need someone who takes you through things, not to do things quickly. And over the months she talked to me and she made me face a few things, though there was nothing unhappy or deep down. … And over the months, she counselled me, and then she eventually made the first approaches. … I couldn't believe it when she came to me and she said, you know, Yes, of course. Your mother wants to see you. Most extraordinary moment. … And I met her. and I still can't really find words to describe it. It's the most amazing thing that ever happened to me. It's wonderful. … I cannot stop almost every morning thinking how lucky I am. It it it is an extraordinary thing to go through, but it's given me the most tremendous feeling of happiness. Absolutely. It's fantastic.
Presenter asks
28:52Have you taken a conscious decision to subjugate yourself to your career?
The absolute opposite. I've never felt it did. I do have a private life and. It determinedly, you know. takes up a large chunk of my existence and the job is there as a job. I think it's uh just purely a convention that people say, Oh, well, the job must rule. No. Not at all. I suppose they say that because you're not married and because you haven't had children, so it's easy for them to write that you've sacrificed motherhood and sacrificed yourself, to your job, to the BBC. Has Kate Adie sacrificed herself to the BBC? Absolute rubbish. You know, there are times when Kate Ady has wished to have a BBC for breakfast, you know, and spit the bits out. Absolutely not.
“I left school, which had trained me, or had hoped that I would leave, in order to fill in a year or two learning a little bit of light cookery or perhaps some useful nursing before marrying a missionary and going out to minister to the Empire.”
“I'm curious about just about anything. I really am. I found when I joined local radio that I could actually make programmes about dustbin lids.”
“I specifically remember that moment of thinking you set some things to one side for the moment. It's not a matter of not having the feelings, but you are there to do the job.”
“I cannot stop almost every morning thinking how lucky I am. It it it is an extraordinary thing to go through, but it's given me the most tremendous feeling of happiness. Absolutely. It's fantastic.”
“I look back on it and shiver, shiver I spent a horrendous night along with three other people… bracing myself and shaking with uncontrollable fear as the shells whistled over me.”