Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Television writer and comedian, known for his work in TV comedy.
On the island
Eight records
A ten saxophonist. It's called The Bridge. Um Rollins was quite a big name in jazz about 1957-58 after Charlie Parker died. You sort of inherited Harka's throne sort of thing. And then he suddenly disappeared off the scene for about two years and nobody knew where he'd gone. He went away and studied uh I believe Eastern philosophy and worked with Ravishanko a lot. And after about two years he re-emerged with a new group and this was the first record he made with the group. It was a breakthrough at the time. I think it's still one of the most exciting jazz records I had.
Concerto in D minor for Oboe and Strings, Op. 9 No. 2Favourite
The second disc is um by Albinoni disc. It's a chaild in D-Man Oprah and it's by V2. Great chain of the world. That's just another thing. And uh it's not it's tranquil, it's a big command and it's another consideration you only does live and you might have to take him on your pot but you know, but Albinoni did.
I'd like to play a blues record here. This is pure blues and I think it's one of the best blues on record. It was made by Charlie Parker in 1948 and he was at the height of his powers. Great music. There's a marvellous little piano solo on it by John Lewis. It's a marvellous little miniature thing.
Symphonie Fantastique (closing passage)
Something for just for pure excitement, um the last part of uh The Symphony Fantastique by Berlin.
This is one of the ones that has sentimental associations. Um if I can't have my wife with me on the desert island, I can't have it. It's not the luxury I'm allowed to. Well in that case, um I would like this record because my wife and I happened to love it very much. It's a early holiday record and it's made when she was very young and life was good for her. And it's called God Bless the Child, which is one of our favourite songs too. So for my wife and myself, Billy Holiday is singing God Bless the Child.
Mammoth Gavioli fairground organ
Something for nostalgia and and because it makes me laugh. Um it's a mighty fairground organ. Mammoth Gavioli, I think it was made for black tower when they opened it. It's it's awful and it's lovely in its awful way. It's um the other reason too is that it's um a single tune of one of my favourite comedians, Will Hay.
Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting
This is uh Charlie Mingus. And the record is called Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting. It's a jazz collective improvisation and it approximates the feeling of a revivalist meeting, a gospel meeting. It's very exciting and it's sort of I'd like to have it around so I can listen to it a lot and find new things in it each time.
Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Française
Again, it has this sort of religious feeling, as did that prayer meeting in a different sort of way. It's um the last part of uh King David by Honegg is conducted by Honegg and it's played by the Orchestre Nationale de Valédie Fusion Française and it's very beautiful.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:55What was your plan for choosing your eight records for the island?
Well, originally I set up my favourite eight records, musically, and then I decided to think about it. being on a desert island and gradually I found that um it was my choice became sort of partly a m a musical choice. But also, partly, um well certain liquids have associations, connotations. And they put a lot of records for that reason too, that they have personal associations.
Presenter asks
5:32What happened when you stopped being the worst trumpet player in the world? What did you do?
I drifted into a fairground act, it was called Tejawano and Company, the builders from the rolling plains of North America. It was supposed to be Red Indian fake here. In fact, his name was Jack Taylor and he came from Peterborough. What did you do here? I was an authentic Red Indian assistant, as were the others, yeah, who were West Indians and Hawaiians. Yeah, we well, he was a fake here. I fired arrows into his stomach. We beat him with burning clubs, climbed barbed wire ladders, jumped on broken glass and went finale. He blew himself up in a great big cabinet while the band played land of open glory.
Presenter asks
10:12You met Barry Took at York Empire. Was this the beginning of your writing career?
The keepsakes
The book
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
It's a very beautiful book and it's a pretty good guide to living with yourself, which would be a useful thing to have if you were going to live by yourself.
The luxury
I would like to take a piano with me. I don't play the piano, but I think if I were stuck on a desert island for a long, long while... I would have to do something and I could learn to play the piano, which I haven't had the patience to do up to now.
No, we've started writing together, ooh, three or four years later. It was the beginning of our friendship, but we both went separate ways.
Presenter asks
15:20How do you see your career shaping?
Um, I think I'm beginning to see. I I I never quite knew at the time. I always sort of it seemed like a good idea as at at the time has always been the way I've worked. I can see a certain amount of performing because the offers are coming and I like it and it's a sort of cathartic thing, you know. You get it all out of your system, all the things when you when you're a writer you sweat and you watch other people doing it and you think, Swine is they're killing my script And you've nobody to blame when you're a performer, because you wrote it too. So I'm a lousy performing writer, but if it works, there's no satisfaction quite like that. It's your concept all the way through. Well, mine I'm barrier. Ours and then eventually mine in a bit.
Presenter asks
18:14How do you think you'd manage on this island, Marty? Could you look after yourself?
Uh No, I don't think I could. It all goes with the hand. I'm not good at home. I can cook a little. But not very well. But I'm vegetarian so cooking wouldn't be a problem. I could live on nuts and whatever it is that vegetarians live on on desert islands, you know.
Presenter asks
20:13Do you have a religious faith, Marty, that would help you on this island?
Um I don't have a religious faith in the sense that I I'm an atheist. I have a great deal of religious feeling, but it's directed towards life. Um whereas I consider that most religions are directed towards death. It's directed towards people and living, you know. That would help me a great deal, yes.
“I was actually described in one of the national papers as the worst trumpet player in the world.”
“There's something very positive about being the fairly worst drummet player, this is fine.”
“I fired arrows into his stomach. We beat him with burning clubs, climbed barbed wire ladders, jumped on broken glass and went finale. He blew himself up in a great big cabinet while the band played land of open glory.”
“I'm a lousy performing writer, but if it works, there's no satisfaction quite like that. It's your concept all the way through.”
“I don't have a religious faith in the sense that I I'm an atheist. I have a great deal of religious feeling, but it's directed towards life. Um whereas I consider that most religions are directed towards death. It's directed towards people and living, you know.”