Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Cabinet Secretary under Margaret Thatcher, steering her government through GCHQ, the Ponting Affair, Westland, and Spycatcher.
On the island
Eight records
Kyrie Eleison (from Mass in B minor, BWV 232)
Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists, conducted by John Eliot Gardiner
I would like to start with the opening movement, the first Kyrie, where the tenors and I was a tenor in my day where the tenors come in and introduce the subject for the first time. It's a marvellous tune, which is a great long tune, which is like the beginning of the beginning of time.
Maggie Teyte, accompanied by Gerald Moore
I remember sitting on the staircase in the hall of the house we had in Oxford, and the music which they were rehearsing was Nell, a song by Gabriel Faure... And this introduced me to French music, which has remained a strong love ever since.
Agnus Dei (from Mass for Five Voices)
Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, directed by Simon Preston
Through all those years, the piece which to which we have returned most often is this Mass for Five Voices by William Bird, singing it one voice to a part. And I think that if you don't play the violin and I don't play the violin, that's as near as you get to the enjoyment of playing, say, a Mozart string quintet.
London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sir Adrian Boult
I would want to remind myself of that great man, but also because the music is so unutterably beautiful. And because it's Shakespearean, and as I look and think back, the alliance of Shakespeare and music has meant a lot to me.
The end of Act II (from Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg)
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Rudolf Kempe
The bit I think I should play most often if I had the records on the on the island would be the end of Act Two of Meistersinger, where there's been a kind of riot in the streets of Nirenberg in the evening and they've been beating each other up and then suddenly the night watchman's horn is heard and the crowd melts away and the streets are empty and the moon comes out.
Love Duet (Nanetta and Fenton, from Falstaff)
Mirella Freni and Alfredo Kraus, with the RCA Italiana Opera Orchestra conducted by Sir Georg Solti
The thing that I think I should listen to most often would be the love duet between Nanetta and Fenton. exquisitely beautiful and so full of tenderness coming from or a man who was then round about eighty years old. Absolutely miraculous.
Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 49 (Third movement: Scherzo)
I used to try and play, at any rate, the first two movements with my daughters, one of whom plays the violin and the other plays the cello. And there was a point when their curve of getting better was crossing with my curve of getting worse at the piano.
Finale of Act II (from Le nozze di Figaro)
BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Colin Davis
The bit that I think I should probably go back to most often is the finale of the second act. And I would like to have the recording conducted by Colin Davis, who is an almost exact contemporary and with whom I've made a lot of music...
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:02Would we be entirely wide of the mark in thinking that you are rather akin to Sir Humphrey in Yes Minister?
Well, I think if you're going to look for my parallel in that quarter, you have to look not at Sir Humphrey. But at Sir Arnold. Who was the cabinet secretary in the first series before it became Yes Prime Minister when it was still Yes Minister? And who retired just at the time when it changed from yes minister to yes prime minister.
Presenter asks
7:55Was it always your intention to wend your way to Whitehall?
Not at all. I came down from Christchurch in nineteen forty nine expecting to go into the Navy, but the fact that I'd had a mastoid operation ten years earlier disqualified me from national service. And so I had to take a much quicker decision, much earlier decision than I expected about what I was going to do. I wondered about an academic life, but I decided that that was not for me for various reasons.
Presenter asks
15:33How can you cope [with changing to serve Harold Wilson after Edward Heath] as a permanent secretary?
Well, it's very extraordinary, but that is your part of your professional equipment, this ability to to change to serve ministers of whatever political party. That was of course a a very extreme change. I went to Buckingham Palace with Mr. Heath when he went to resign and I returned from Buckingham Palace half an hour later with Mr. Wilson to ten Downing Street and went straight into serving him.
The keepsakes
The book
Jane Austen
I saw in a bookstore the other day a complete edition of the novels of Jane Austen. And I think if I'm allowed to get away with that, I will.
The luxury
Music manuscript paper, pencil, sharpener, and rubber
I used to try and write music, and I might have a bit of time in hand on the island. So I think I would like to take a good supply of music manuscript paper with a pencil and a sharpener and a rubber, so that if I did want to I could try and write some music.
Presenter asks
22:18Is [Margaret Thatcher] a good listener?
She's a very good listener when you're talking to her on her own, as we're talking now. She argues with determination and even fiercely... she likes to test your argument... But she listens, and having tested it and having argued perhaps quite fiercely, if you're on good ground and your arguments are serious and well based, she not only listens but will will follow accordingly.
Presenter asks
25:43You must have regretted saying [that you had been economical with the truth] ever since.
Well, I didn't I regretted it in the sense that I didn't need to say it. It I said it more or less en passant about a letter which I had sent to a publisher in nineteen eighty one... I was surprised when the phrase got as much publicity as it did. And of course it doesn't mean lying, and I would like that to be quite clear.
“musical activity and enjoyment is like eating and drinking and sleeping in in my life, I should be bereft without it.”
“You don't write down what they said, and you don't write down what they thought they said. You write down what they would have said if they'd thought what they were saying.”
“I don't think I can go halfway round the world to try and stop him publishing his memoirs and then go out and publish your own memoirs.”