Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Historian, author, and chairman of the National Theatre, best known as the youngest and only surviving child of Winston Churchill.
On the island
Eight records
Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Georg Solti
I love Beethoven's sixth symphony, the Pastoral Symphony. I've always loved the countryside. … my favourite movement that I'd love to hear today is the first one, which in fact is annotated as Awakening of Cheerful Feelings Upon Arrival in the Country.
Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring (from Cantata BWV 147)
This was really the first piece of classical music which caught my fancy. … Bach's Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring.
A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square
Anne Lenner with Carol Gibbons and the Savoy Hotel Orpheans
This song reminds me so much of London in the war … a moonlight night in blacked out London was one of the most beautiful and thrilling sights you can imagine the whole city drenched in moonlight and no light other light at all.
I've always been very fond of poetry, and I would miss poetry on my desert island if I didn't have some sort of anthology, and there's a very good record which is of best-loved verse, and from this record I would very much now like to hear Marvels to His Coy Mistress.
Leontyne Price with the National Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Charles Gerhardt
My father loved it, and knew it from start to finish, word for word. … I think I learnt it from him. He would half chant, half say it. And we'd all join in with the Glory Hallelujahs, of course.
Impromptu No. 2 in A-flat major, Op. 142, D. 935
It used to have the most wonderfully relaxing and soothing effect on him [Christopher], and I used to sort of feel him relaxing, and then presently quiet breathing, and I know he was gone to sleep.
Kiri Te Kanawa with the English Chamber Orchestra conducted by Barry Rose
I do remember particularly being struck by this really wonderful and thrilling piece of music and this lovely voice sailing out into St Paul's Cathedral.
Huddersfield Choral Society conducted by Owain Arwel Hughes
I would love to march about my island singing some of my favourites. And this one I've chosen is very special for me … we had it at our wedding.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:05Do questions go on coming in to you about your father?
Yes, it's very moving and also very interesting that I get many, many letters during the course of the year from people of all ages and from many different countries wanting to know various things about my father, Some of them sending me poems that he has evoked, some of them just wanting to say how much they've admired him. And um I find this Deeply moving.
Presenter asks
5:41And what characterised that childhood for you?
I was the Benjamin of the family. There was Diana, Randolph, and Sarah. … So I was actually brought up almost as an only child.
Presenter asks
14:03You eventually joined the ATS and frankly you must have been mixing with people you hadn't known existed before. What was that experience like?
Yes, I mean it was an amazing experience which I shall never, never regret. It was extraordinary. It was wonderful. Very interesting, very exciting, quite hard at times.
The keepsakes
The book
François-René de Chateaubriand
If I'm on the island long enough and finish it, it'll teach me so much French history of a period which was full of everything the Revolution, Napoleon, the Restoration... So I'll come out of my island, perhaps speaking rather grand, formal French, and will have mastered the subjunctive.
The luxury
a supply of fine Havana cigars in a humidor, and a box of matches
I love them. To me they breathe a philosophic atmosphere and postprandial thought and contentment.
Presenter asks
14:46How did it come about that you accompanied your father on his journeys abroad?
Well, after my father had his first illness, which wasn't very much uh talked about. Oh, I it wasn't very serious, but he had a little tiny heart attack when he was in America at one time. And the War Cabinet ordained, virtually ordained, that when he went on these journeys that either my mother or one of us should go with him.
Presenter asks
18:43How difficult was it for him [your father] to cope with such rejection [the 1945 election defeat]? You witnessed it obviously very closely.
Oh, yes, he minded very much. But both he and my mother were far too proud to show how much they minded, and I find that even now people say to me, Did your father really mind being defeated in nineteen forty five? But there are marvellous letters from my mother to myself … saying, you know, that we keep a smiling face and but it is quite hard, and your father feels it very much.
Presenter asks
27:14Has widowhood after forty years of obviously very happy marriage perhaps been one of the most difficult things you've had to cope with in your life?
Yes. But um I feel really how terribly lucky we were. It's not nothing to have had forty years of really great happiness, and we did a lot of things together. And we had five wonderful children. And so I really think that it would be churlish. To complain. But yes, I did. I do find it. I still find it difficult, actually.
“I didn't feel terribly deprived at the time, but I mean, you know, that was you didn't disturb his work at all, ever.”
“The whole city drenched in moonlight and no light other light at all.”
“He's splendid. It's going to be all right. We can work I can work with him.”
“I see you have a lot of fun with your children. I think I missed out on that.”
“I think it would be churlish to complain.”