Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A lawyer who rose from jobbing barrister to chairman of the Takeover Panel and later chairman of NatWest, known for high-profile cases.
On the island
Eight records
Keep Right On to the End of the Road
My first record reflects childhood. The Midlands, Stoke on Trent, when I was young, was a tough place, it was in the war, it was a hard life for people, and to hear coming over the radio Harry Lauder singing Keep Right On to the End of the Road was always a great tonic for all of us.
Choir of King's College, Cambridge
I would like something that reminded me of King's with its beautiful chapel what better than the carol that begins the annual Christmas Carol concert once in Royal David City.
Clarinet Concerto in A major, K. 622
Ernst Ottensamer, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sir Colin Davis
When I was studying for the bar I did a postal course because I couldn't afford to go to tutorial college. It was an exceptionally dreary course, and I kept myself sane by playing and playing over and over again Mozart's clarinet concerto.
Do You Hear the People Sing?Favourite
Original London Cast of Les Misérables
Record number four reflects the fact that every barrister has to be prepared to act for unpopular causes, to tilt against windmills and I love Do You Hear the People Sing from Les Miserables?
Next record is, if I may have a piece of poetry, because I love the spoken word, could I perhaps have Rudyard Kipling's The Road Through the Woods?
We like opera. My wife loves opera. We have a lovely recording of Aida. I think if you're on a desert island, perhaps the slave song where Aida is longing for home should be the song of expatriates everywhere. And please could it be sung by Rosa Poncell, who first recorded it seventy years ago.
Bailèro (from Chants d'Auvergne)
We have a small house in France, where we go and relax, and say something pleased to remind me of France, Kiritikanawa, singing one of the songs of the Auvergne.
In times of sorrow, which any family has, we've tended to bind ourselves together by a wonderfully emotional tape we have of Joseph Locke, the great Irish singer, and could I choose from that the one that's most special to us, which is I'll walk beside you.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:03Do you allow yourself to think about occupying the Woolsack [as Lord Chancellor]?
No, I don't. I love my present job. I love banking. As a barrister you never knew where your next case was coming from. I'm not seeking another case at the moment, and I certainly would have no idea at all where it would come from.
Presenter asks
2:27Were your parents ambitious for you?
Yes. My parents were remarkable. They had both left school at fourteen. My mother was an accountant's secretary. My father had been apprenticed to the old Standard Motor Company. They had built themselves up, and they were very proud to have done so, and they were very ambitious for their children.
Presenter asks
5:00Why could you stand up in court but not speak in the Cambridge Union?
I've never really understood why I could do standing up in court and why I couldn't speak in the Union. But what I found was, in Court I had a brief. In court I knew exactly what my role was. I also knew When my turn to speak came, so I didn't have to rely on brashness or interrupting to get my turn to be on my feet.
The keepsakes
The book
A. P. Wavell
a remarkable poetry book, compiled by Lord Wavell, in the Western Desert, in the war, from memory, and called Other Men's Flowers.
The luxury
a box of oil paints and a large supply of canvases
I've recently started to learn to paint, so please may I have a box of oil paints and a large supply of canvases, if they can count as just one item.
Presenter asks
21:49Why would a man at the peak of his profession decide to leave the bar and enter banking?
Probably nothing at the time. I'd been at the bar twenty five years or more. I'd seen a lot of cases. I was asked to take a part time job in the city as chairman of the takeover panel. I found it very interesting. Then one Monday morning turned up in my office the then chairman of Nat West. I wondered why he'd come, but To my great surprise he asked me if I was willing to succeed him. I had to think about that pretty carefully, and I asked them to think about that pretty carefully. But in the end the opportunity of a change of career into another area of life, banking, which I felt was thoroughly worth while, tempted me.
Presenter asks
27:19Do you think judges are becoming more political?
No, I don't. I think the stronger an executive becomes in a country where we don't have a written constitution, the more the separation of powers demands that the judiciary Monitor the conduct of the executive very carefully.
“I was intensely shy, except when I got with my close friends, and I did try once to uh act at Cambridge in a play that wasn't notably well attended by the audience. But I certainly watched these great gladiators in the Union, and didn't feel I had the self-possession uh to do the same and to talk, although I'd have liked to do so.”
“I believe witnesses are entitled to courtesy. And It was a quite genuine gesture. I'd questioned her softly. I'd not wish to reduce her to tears, because I think giving evidence is a very difficult business, and one thing I would deplore is when people ask questions which are unnecessarily offensive or asked in an unnecessarily offensive tone.”
“Barristers don't decide cases. They're cogs in the machinery of justice. They're absolutely vital because everyone's entitled to have their case put fearlessly, strongly and independently. But it means that you can't choose who you represent and nor should you be able to do so.”
“I don't feel as self-assured as people sometimes say I am, and I may say uh my wife, when she last read that, said, Well, if if you were that self-assured, why would I have to spend so much of my life boosting your self-confidence?”