Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Former Deputy Prime Minister who acted as mediator between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown and famously punched a protester.
On the island
Eight records
Well, it's my wife, really. We both love jazz. But she had this green satin dress, and I took her out to her club on one of her early dates when we were courting. So I was impressed. Got her all the style. I've come home from sea, got a few Bob tickets at the club. Some waiters spilled a glass of red wine all down this dress, which ruined the dress. And Satin Doll, she loves jazz, she loves Ellington. And you know, we've got musician friends that when we walk in, they immediately break into satin doll and we dance.
Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb & Maurice Gibb
Oh, um I know it surprised some people. Bee Gee's Stayin' Alive. And why have you chosen this? Oh, it's exciting. I like the combination of music and dancing. And you know, Robin, who's not well at the moment, but um we wish him well. Uh he's fantastic and you know it just makes me want to dance.
I've chosen it because of the film Billiard Elliot. You know, here again is a clash of culture going on. A working class, this lad shouldn't be going to bally. Isn't he gay if he goes ballying? Well, you know, it was tremendous. And that young lad rebels against that working class culture that says you're not to do that. And in that toilet, he's kicking everywhere, dancing. And this magical music by the Jam plays. And it really does match with the fury of the boy and the clash of culture in a working class mining area.
Sweet Georgia BrownFavourite
Ben Bernie, Maceo Pinkard & Kenneth Casey
Oh, she's wonderful. You know this is a lady first time I saw her in a club in Hull. I was bowled over and loved her ever since. I used to follow her round the country to see what she was singing. She tragically died recently, but uh when I hear Marion, the lady in Nashesse, it's everything about warmth, about feeling, about blues, about jazz.
Exactly well done. It's not unusual. I associate with that. I had no education qualifications. There was a place called Ruskin College in Oxford. I shouldn't really have been there, but it's a Labour college. And to get in there, you lead a few strikes. It doesn't matter about the O and the A levels, as long as you've been in the industrial struggle. At that time, it was Tom Jones. It's not unusual. And I played it all the time, starting my education, trying to write the downwards, scrapping up the paper, and then it's not unusual.
Sarah Vaughan & Cannonball Adderley
My wife's influence and with me, when I was caught in and go in, she'd have Sarah Vaughan, Land of Hi Phi, singing this song Cherokee about an Indian, but Cannibal Adley, fantastic player, so the two of them come together, it's still a record that could make me cry.
I saw him in America and as a seaman, you could go and see all these great jazz artists playing above the bar. It became a coolness in jazz, and Miles Davis epitomized it more than anyone. He didn't like his audience, used to tick turn her back on them when I watched him in concert. But you know, on this one, on a green dolphin street, cool jazz couldn't be cooler.
Um well, such a jump to the Shirelles. Well, that takes me back to my seamen's days in the nineteen fifties when I was on a ship called a Mauritania cruising round the West Indies. Will you still love me tomorrow? And it brings back those memories of my sea days.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:57You never had the ambition to be a politician [given the heights to which you rose]?
My ambition was to be a trade union official in my own union, the National Union of Seamen, but I don't think they want to be anywhere near the leadership. So in a way I then chose a little bit of education. I went to Hull University. The MP retired and the union encouraged me to become a Member of Parliament.
Presenter asks
1:43Have you always felt something of an outsider, even when you've been at the heart of Westminster?
A bit. I think it's more to do with an inferiority complex. Nobody can understand that perhaps you've gone this far that you can have an inferiority complex, but all the attacks on me because of my grammar and a kind of background, aggressive style, it used to rough off a few feathers and … Whilst I never let it show, it was certainly deeply inside me I felt a bit of fear in it.
Presenter asks
2:17Do you think throughout your career you've sometimes been your own worst enemy?
Oh yeah, I don't think there's a doubt about that. I certainly made for more difficulties, but that's my personality. Uh if I do it, it's because I believe it and I think that's important and … I say it in a rather direct manner, which I think gets up the nose, but uh that's the way I'm being. … The ones at the top. I never realized I was gonna get anywhere near the top, but I've always fought fought the people who are the bosses, or indeed at a higher level
The keepsakes
The book
Smile Though Your Heart Is Breaking
Pauline Prescott
Well, thought of a dictionary at first to correct the grammar and the language, but what does it matter? No, the book to take is My Life, as expressed by my wife in her book called Smile Though Your Heart Was Breaking and, you know, Pictures of the Family. My wife, The Rocket of the Family. I'd love to take that and be reminded of it.
The luxury
I'd like to learn a piano. I always regret I've never played a bit of music. I'm one of those that's got all the background of all the instruments. So you might only play the bit, but I can live my life of music, the one that influences me and music still on the island would be part of my life.
Presenter asks
7:10Do you miss [power] terribly when you're not there anymore?
No, no. I've enjoyed those parts of my life. It's a great pri privilege for someone who never expected that kind of life. Uh but now I'm happy to do new things, so, you know, I'm still going to be active. I just can't stay at home.
Presenter asks
16:30Did you try yourself to be involved with your sons to be closer emotionally to them than than your father was to you?
I was a bit about the farther detached of it, I think, really. though not indifferent, but a kind of detach that comes from your background and culture, I think. I've got two brilliant sons. I'll quite frankly, uh I love them to death, but To my great regret, I cannot somehow Put my arms round my son's. I don't know where it comes from, but I very much regret that I've never had that as part. But I think that's part of British kind of culture I think and uh that was reflected a bit in me and I'm sad about that.
Presenter asks
19:22How did [failing the Eleven Plus] fire you?
Well, I felt um a failure. I failed it. My brother got the eleven plus and he got the bike from my father. And my sister she got a present for passing the eleven plus. Uh I'd gone to the secondary modern and uh you knew you'd failed. So it brought it home to me that that one test was deciding what you were going to do in your life. I felt angry about it.
“Whilst I never let it show, it was certainly deeply inside me I felt a bit of fear in it.”
“To my great regret, I cannot somehow Put my arms round my son's. I don't know where it comes from, but I very much regret that I've never had that as part.”
“I can't go and walk into a restaurant by myself and wouldn't. And then I walk on a stage and talk to thousands. I've got no problem with doing that. But in the private circumstances I'm just embarrassed.”
“I was more on the take than the giving”