Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A former UK Prime Minister and Conservative politician, known for his brief tenure in the 1960s and aristocratic background.
On the island
Eight records
My father was a great friend of Harry Lauder. He used to take me as a very small boy to hear him, and it was always enormously exciting. And of course our family roots very largely in the Clyde Valley. Marvellously beautiful river, you know, before Lanarkshire was industrialised, full of plum orchards. Marvellous place for a romance.
Well I think I think we'll follow up with uh a cricket one. That's the um Calypso, a great uh calypso written about Alec Betzer.
Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen (from The Magic Flute)
Maria Stader and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Well, my third uh record I think would be the um duet Pamina and uh Papagina in the magic flute singing about the virtues of marriage. And um I enjoyed it because I think it's a lovely thing and I think a duet well sung is glorious. But of course I've had all the luck too in this line.
What is Life? (Che farò senza Euridice from Orfeo ed Euridice)
Well I think my fourth record would be uh Kathleen uh Ferrier singing um What is Life and and really for uh for two reasons. I think that she has the loveliest contralto voice that I ever heard. And secondly, I think that on one's uh desert island one would have to give way uh periodically to nostalgia, if not um melancholy.
Well, it must be the antidote, I think, to the Catherine Fellier record, and this is the song from Salad Days, I Sit in the Sun and One by One, the song of the Eternal Optimist.
Water Music Suite No. 1 in F major: Air
Academy of St Martin in the Fields, conducted by Sir Neville Marriner
Yes, I think uh part of the water music from uh Hamble. I think this particular passage, um takes all the tension out of me whenever I hear it, and I can see myself gradually slipping away into sleep in a siesta every afternoon to these particular strains.
Choir of King's College, Cambridge
It brings back all the majesty and pageantry, which uh I saw at first hand in the coronation, because the queen was kind enough to ask me to carry one of the swords of state. And I can never hear this uh particular piece without uh recalling what was certainly the most solemn and colourful and patriotic pageant of my um Lifetime with all the people shouting for joy.
The Lord's My Shepherd (Crimond)Favourite
Glasgow Orpheus Choir, conducted by Sir Hugh Roberton
It translates me back to the hills and valleys of my border home. And um of course one have to contemplate that the years On the desert island might uh see one out. And for that one would need some spiritual preparation and comfort. And I always get it from this Beautiful, really, piece of poetry. Um with its haunting tune. And in particular, I think the last verse was, And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:41How important is music in your life?
Well, I don't think that I was ever educated in music. Um I have always enjoyed uh listening to music, but the music I enjoy has to have a tune, and I suppose that that is lowbrow. But um yes, I enjoy music.
Presenter asks
0:46Could you endure isolation on a desert island?
Well, I think so. I think a countryman is always happy when he's alone with nature. Uh and certainly a fisherman. You don't want other people around when you're wha uh when you're fishing.
Presenter asks
5:32When did you become involved in politics?
Well, when and uh our home at Douglas was surrounded by long term unemployment. It was almost unendurable. I mean the miners, steel workers, all out of work, many of the men, for ten consecutive years. Now I thought that something must be done about this, and I thought that the Conservative programme at the time uh mister Baldwin was Prime Minister … had a better chance of curing unemployment than the Socialist Programme did. And so, with great luck, a seat fell into my lap in 1931, right on our doorstep, which was called the South Lannark.
The keepsakes
The book
Bannerman
I think I would take a uh the most comprehensive bird book I could find, probably Bennamon, in the hope that my um island would be on a a migratory route.
The luxury
a pair of field glasses to widen my hor horizons and perhaps see the rescuer before he saw me.
Presenter asks
6:36What were your observations and impressions of Hitler [when you went to Munich]?
I thought he was the most boarish man, of course he was in a fiendish temper, a very bad temper. He'd wanted to get hold of the Sudetenland right away, and he'd been thwarted by uh by the Munich uh agreement, so he was sour and sullen. I think that h the historians will say that Chamberlain misjudged Hitler in the sense that he thought he was dealing with a reasonable, although highly unpleasant man.
Presenter asks
14:17How did you take to all the media work [on television]?
Oh, I hated television. I mean I can't tell you how much I disliked it. At least I don't mind the question and answer. That seems to me natural. But then, you see, ten more years ago, there used to be a horrible havoc where the Prime Minister was expected to make direct talks of about twenty minutes set pieces. And that I simply couldn't bear. It was unnatural. I don't talk to people like that. But there it was. It was my fault. I quite agree. I mean, I ought to have done it better.
Presenter asks
15:47Did you enjoy writing your book, The Way the Wind Blows?
Yes, I did. You see, I set out not knowing whether I could write a book at all. I've always liked the the King's English, always wondered if I could write it, and having started, I found that I thought I could. Now I l I think I enjoyed writing the um the bits about nature more than I enjoyed writing the bits about politics. Uh but on the whole, yes, it was an enjoyable experience.
“I think a countryman is always happy when he's alone with nature. Uh and certainly a fisherman. You don't want other people around when you're wha uh when you're fishing.”
“I thought [Hitler] was the most boarish man, of course he was in a fiendish temper, a very bad temper. He'd wanted to get hold of the Sudetenland right away, and he'd been thwarted by uh by the Munich uh agreement, so he was sour and sullen.”
“Oh, I hated television. I mean I can't tell you how much I disliked it. At least I don't mind the question and answer. That seems to me natural. But then, you see, ten more years ago, there used to be a horrible havoc where the Prime Minister was expected to make direct talks of about twenty minutes set pieces. And that I simply couldn't bear.”