Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A captain of industry who left school with few qualifications, built a ball-bearing fortune, and as chairman of British Airways led the airline from debt throug
On the island
Eight records
Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16Favourite
John Ogdon with the New Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Paavo Berglund
the Walter Missy in the back of my mind, that if I could, that's what I'd do. That's the truthful answer.
It's romantic. It's about smugglers, it's about trade, it's about valuables, it's exciting.
Maurice André and Jane Parker-Smith
After pumping this organ for about an hour, he would finish on that. And that's how I remembered it very well.
Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves (from Nabucco)
Royal Opera House Chorus and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Robin Stapleton
I tell my friends that if e that if ever I am gathered and they can come and listen to it and snuffle out of the church listening to this.
I had some difficulty in in in tracing it, but I I'm because I just heard it and it didn't belong to an opera. And I think it's exciting.
when I heard it I thought that is a fascinating sad sad. Throat catching And uh it's a it's a melody or tune, whatever you like to call it. That one can't quite grasp. You half remember.
BBC Welsh Chorus and Symphony Orchestra
standing there and looking up, I can see the I can see the texture and the and and the colour, the mauvish tint to the raincoat that my mother had. ... And there were all these ladies with big busts and I thought um making jam and wearing big hats and So that seemed to me to be the power and might of the empire at that time from that height of four or five years old. And in addition to that, it makes me want to cry.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:13Is [being fearless and heedless of danger] a fair description of you?
Well, no, I don't think it's quite fair, because unless you're a bit frightened, I don't think that you you can do very much.
Presenter asks
3:05What about your own [money]? Are you a gambling man?
No. I'm not a gambling man. ... The problem with me with gambling is this. That if I win I don't think it's mine, and if I lose I feel sick for a fortnight.
Presenter asks
6:18Tell me about taking on British Airways about ten years ago... Where was the danger in that? What excited you about that?
Well, looking at it I had to make a a a a an assessment. as to whether or not it was doable. and I decided it was. ... And the reason for that was that I met so many of the people who in the company, in the middle of it. who really did know what was wrong. And when we had to take some twenty-three thousand people out of the system, they understood and it wasn't difficult.
The keepsakes
The book
Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
Ebenezer Cobham Brewer
That would occupy me. I would find all the memory that I wanted in there.
The luxury
Humidor full of cigars and matches
a humidor full of adequate supply of cigars... and some matches as well.
Presenter asks
Have you got to be ruthless, too [to be a successful captain of industry]?
Well, to be ruthless, if you look in the dictionary, you will see that ruthless is to be without compassion. And compassion is something that you may not be without. So Ruthus is a word that's used rather carelessly.
Presenter asks
22:51Has it been and is it still important to you to know important people?
Well, important people. Some people are not as important as one might think. But interesting people, people that have done something.
Presenter asks
30:56Why don't you like [people saying you came along with nothing and made an awful lot]?
I don't like that because I think that it's um trying to say that you're clever. And I'm not. I just go about my work in a determined sort of way.
“The risk is is is is exciting, but one doesn't go around taking uh um a lot of risks with other people. especially their money, that you have to look after very carefully.”
“Things have to belong to you.”
“you need to get up and go and do something because the rest of it is decay.”
“you know, if you're going to do something well, you have to love it a bit.”
“They come in to set you free and they finish up tying you down.”
“I'm proud of what I have achieved, and I spend most of my time thinking about the things that I should have achieved.”