Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Former Metropolitan Police Commissioner who restored public confidence in the force and led inquiries into Diana's death and football bungs.
On the island
Eight records
BBC Singers & BBC Symphony Chorus
Because it's shamelessly British.
Reach for the SkyFavourite
Central Band of the Royal Air Force
Oh, this is incredibly immersive. Um I remember being at school in the common room looking out over at Kent over the hills and listening to this song about flying. I mean it this is about Douglas Barder who was an incredible hero, a man with no legs, who fought his way through real difficulty to become one of the aces in the Second World War. And I think this tune really for me gives an indication of what flying's about. When I hear it, I look to the blue sky and I think of actually going up there and through the clouds and the blue sky and the the freedom of it all. Brilliant, brilliant music.
I thought what type of description would I have for describing policing, this extraordinary job people do, which takes extraordinary people to do it, and um I think this describes it nearly. It's good enough, I think, for me, hopefully for others.
It's something I used to play on holiday with my children and uh they used to hear it time after time. I think probably got a bit sick of it.
Steve Barton & Sarah Brightman
Little bit of romance. Exactly. And if one's on an island all by oneself, one's got to have a little bit of romance if there's a a bit of blue sea and the sky is blue and a few palm trees. Absolutely.
when I first went to prep school uh we used to start the term and end the term with Abide With Me, which was one of the favourite hymns I'm told of uh George the Sixth. And um I used to enjoy it more at the end of the term when I was going home, I have to say.
When the Saints Go Marching In
when I was at school I I we got together a combined cadet force band and we were the first combined cadet force band to play American kind of jazz, which was something that's held by us. And uh I got some still got five or six very firm friends from school and they said if you don't choose that song, then I'm afraid we're going to be very disappointed.
I'm a great follower of history. One of my great heroes in a strange way is Napoleon. I mean, he was a brilliant administrator of law, brilliant, brilliant military leader, make no mistake about that. And I think it shows the the frailties of human nature, that peop a man at the top of his ability, if you like, before he marched into Russia, could make such mistakes. It just shows you that no one should think they're too powerful.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:59How on earth do you start drawing up a response to what is essentially an unknown threat [after 9-11]?
Well, you have to remember, of course, that this city and country had been under attack for a very long period of time from IRA terrorism, so we were used to that. However, there's no doubt about it. I remember coming back, I was mid-Atlantic on 9-11, and then going straight to Cobra, and one of the members of the Cabinet saying the world would never be the same place again. I arrogantly thought he was wrong, because we dealt with terrorism. He was right, and I was wrong, and we had to rethink our response to terrorism.
Presenter asks
1:54Were there any discussions at that point [during COBRA meetings] that you felt that the threat might come from homegrown suicide bombers, or was it far too early to even contemplate that?
It was far too early to contemplate that. There was no feeling of homegrown terrorism. That came later when two individuals were found out in Israel. One had blown himself to bits and blown some Israelis to bits, and the other was found in the sea off Israel.
Presenter asks
2:48How did you feel when you heard about the attacks in London in July of last year? In fact, how did you hear about it?
The keepsakes
The luxury
A cellar of Pol Roger Champagne
A whole cellar I can mix the music, the book, the champagne, and look at the ocean and think of myself getting out of there.
Well, I was in my flat and um I heard uh on the news um that there'd been power surges. Well, I I knew that wasn't the case, and uh my first thought went to my daughter, who's a who's a barrister. So I rang up to find out whether she was okay, which she was... for me it was it was fifty percent I didn't want to be there and fifty percent I did... Dave Vanessa who's head of anti-terrorism, so David Vaness, um had mentally and physically geared ourselves up for this day and we'd been expecting it. Um so there was a certain kind of feeling, oh I wish I could have been there and uh but on the other hand you know immense responsibilities for those who are in charge and specifically for the Commissioner who's there at that time.
Presenter asks
5:31How did you handle [going off to boarding school when you were six and a half]?
Yes, I I think it was quite difficult. Initially I went to a school which I was taken away from after the first term because of some form of bullying, and then went to Taverstock Hall in Heathfield, which no longer exists, and had a far pleasanter existence there.
Presenter asks
19:27What sort of resistance did you meet then from within the RUC [during the Northern Ireland inquiry]?
Well, we worked I mean, we worked very closely. We wouldn't have got the results we did without having some very outstanding officers, one or two who died on the Chinook helicopter crash. These people wanted a job to be done. But take it from me, it was a very, very difficult and it's still not the easiest thing to be involved in.
Presenter asks
23:00What went so badly wrong with that investigation [into the murder of Damilola Taylor]?
Well, uh I think it's been documented, you know, big mistakes were made in the forensic laboratory. Um perhaps we could have done things a bit better. Um and for me, during my commission commissionership, the fact that we hadn't convicted the people for that terrible murder was was the main nightmare, I suppose, for me.
“In the first three weeks of my being on the beat on my own, I had to go around the corner and deal with a man who'd come out of a building after an explosion, who unfortunately subsequently died, who was burnt from head to foot. And you had to deal with that for three to four minutes before the ambulance arrived, and then go on and follow that up. And that's just an indication. And people actually, quite rightly sometimes, don't understand policing and the rawness of policing. Quite frankly, at the end of the day, it takes someone to be very tough to do policing. And it's my favourite phrase, it's not for the faint-hearted.”
“I think it wasn't until university that I had enough time to really spend with my children. I think that's one of my big regrets.”
“The Met must be representative of the people we please, and it was a major issue to get that ethnic minority up. We double the amount in our time.”
“The bottom line is that once I've started something, I will finish it, because that's what the job's all about, and that's what I'd like to do.”