Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Twice Wimbledon ladies' singles champion, six-time Olympic medalist, also England lacrosse international and All-England badminton champion.
On the island
Eight records
Orchestre de Paris, conducted by Jean Martinon
When the skaters were skating so beautifully and they they won the World Championship... Trovell and Dean, yes. And I thought that was very nice indeed, and I thought they were skated beautifully.
Well, I think one of my favourites is um Your Tiny Hand Is Frozen and I'm very glad to say we have a record Placido Domingo singing it.
I don't remember the title of this, but it's it comes in to Doctor Shivago's film, which I saw and enjoyed enormously, and I remember the tune as being most delightful.
A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square
This is one of my favourite songs, which I've always loved. A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square.
Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sir Charles Groves
Well, I always enjoy hearing Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance as played at the Royal Albert Hall.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:00What part has music played in your life, and what is your earliest recollection of it?
Well, I think it was uh way back when I was about five. We had a governess then, my sister and I, and amongst other things that she tried to teach us, she also played the piano herself very beautifully. And I remember her playing various tunes to us, which we enjoyed... And that's, um, well, just the beginning of this century, isn't it? About nineteen hundred and one, two.
Presenter asks
6:46Was it a typical Victorian household you were brought up in, and was your father a stern Victorian figure?
Yes, he was, I think. I would say he was, yes... we didn't see as much of him as we might have done because he was working very hard. And uh, you know, he came back in the evenings, and if he was back in time, we'd see him at bedtime and so on. But we didn't it was my mother we saw mostly of. She was with us a lot.
Presenter asks
8:11Tell me about the trip that you made to Berlin [as a child].
Well, we had we both rode bicycles by then, very well, because we'd done them all our lives. I was nine and my sister was ten. And [my father] suddenly decided that he'd like to go on a holiday somewhere. He wanted to go to Berlin to see the factory there... And so he suggested that we should ride there... we cycled all through Holland... And we did this in April... We saw no motor cars at all the whole way... the whole journey took us, um, about three weeks.
The keepsakes
The book
Jack Higgins
Well, then I think I'd like a thriller. I think the Eagle has landed. is probably the one I would choose.
Presenter asks
11:51What did you do [for work] during the First World War?
Well, I started at the pensions office... And after about um, I think two years there, I met... A gentleman who was the the manager of the Car depot... for Ford motor cars. And he said, Would you like a job with us?... I've never driven a car in my life. I can't drive. Oh, that doesn't matter. He said, We'll soon teach you to do that... A team of us, about ten, would take these new cars from this factory down to um a place where there was a steep hill. And uh they could be tested up the hill by the army testers... I did that for four years.
Presenter asks
16:16What was the standard of play like [in tennis] as compared to the modern game?
Well, you see, there was um Suzanne Longland... and her tennis, even now looking back on it, her tennis was quite superb. She never was beaten, really, by anybody... I think really what happened in those days we played with the what are now known as the old fashioned rackets. They were wood rackets... and it's much, much easier to play with [the new rackets]. That's why they all hit so much harder.
Presenter asks
25:27What kind of a life do you lead now at the age of ninety-one?
Well my my greatest um pleasure, I suppose, in a way, is riding my bicycle. And I use it nearly every day. Uh, I go down to the shops and then I do my little bits of shopping, and then I ride back again... and I've ridden a bicycle all my life. It's like second nature to me.
“All sport was different in those days. It was fun, all of it. And there was there was nothing to it. I mean, you got nothing. I mean, I say nothing. That isn't true. The gold medals and the other medals were marvellous, but I'm s referring in a way to financial gain.”
“I suppose I'm a a fairly normal sort of human being, and if I saw there was a chance Of becoming a millionaires in about five years of hard work, mind you, very hard work. I would probably have said yes, but looking back now, I don't think I would have the determination to do it.”
“I wonder how many of them will live to be ninety one.”